Read the July 7 meeting.

We're gonna get ready to start the meeting. If we can get everyone seated.

Madam City Clerk, array to start a talk.

If everyone could please take their seat so we can get the meeting started.

Juan, can you hear me? Yes, Mr. Mayor, I can hear your word live on the air. Got it.

So, Madam Clerk, I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting's order. And if we can please start by doing a roll call, please.

Council Member Becerra? Here. Council Member Mendoza? Present. Council Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Here.

Council Member Sarmiento? Here. Council Member Solorio?

Here.

Mayor Potem-Viegas?

Here.

Mayor Pulido?

Here.

So we have a quorum.

Now, do we have anything to report out of closed session?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor, we had two closed session items this evening. I'd just like to announce there's no reportable action, but Council Member Sarmiento did recuse himself with respect to the litigation matter.

Thank you for that. I now am going to continue with the regular meeting, so why don't we start by attending and do the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag. of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Do we have our police chaplain there?

If we could please bow our heads.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you today giving you honor, glory, and praise. Lord, you are the source of all that is good, and we are grateful for all the blessings you've bestowed upon us. We thank you for our wonderful city of Santa Ana, our honorable mayor, city council, chief of police, courageous police officers, and staff. Lord, we thank you for our freedom and the opportunity to unite and gather together this day. We ask for your hand of blessings to be upon tonight's meeting and proceedings. We thank you for your grace, unending love and wisdom.

And we ask that you would guide and direct tonight's meeting and that it be of sound wisdom, that it be productive with integrity, accountability and with respect towards one another. Thank you, Lord, for helping us to accomplish our work and our goals this day. City of Santa Ana, I'd like to leave you with a scripture. found in the book of Numbers, chapter 6, verses 24 through 26. It says, May the Lord bless you and keep you and protect you. May he sustain you and guard you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you with favor

and be gracious to you, surrounding you with his love and kindness. May the Lord lift his face and countenance upon you with divine approval and give you peace and a tranquil heart and life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you very much for that, Chaplain. Now I want to call on, I believe it must be the clerk, or I believe Congressman Correa is there. We're going to have a ceremonial oath of office for our freshly minted councilwoman, Nelina Mendoza, which is going to take the ceremonial oath of office. so let me turn things over to the clerk and uh i'll just listen

if i can ask excuse me congressman lucreira to please come to the front here on the podium and council member mendoza

Please repeat, Akemi, Nelida. I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States

and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, And that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States

and the Constitution of the State of California. And that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Congratulations.

Thank you, Congress.

Thank you.

Thank you.

many things and we have a budget of probably $1.25, but we have strong and very wealthy in peace, and we counted the payment and we died, and the residents of Sama and I spoke, and I would like to thank my family for all their support. This is especially significant for me because this is the third time that congressman korea has sworn me into office so i think we're doing something right aren't we yeah yes and i would like to thank my fellow

uh council members with their support as well and the staff here have been tremendous in welcoming me and i look forward to many years of progress and we would like to like Santa Ana. I am here because I am a community. The city of Santa Ana has been my home for many, many years. And I promise that we are going to make Santa Ana even better. We're going to bring the quality of life to an even higher degree. So I thank all my constituents out there for voting for me. Thank you for your support. I appreciate your vote of confidence and I am here to serve you. You have a voice on City Park.

This is my little sister, Alicia. Thank you. I just want to make her reaction.

May I say a few words? Absolutely. Counsel, if I may address the body for a couple of seconds. Just wanted to congratulate Nellie again for a great accomplishment.

Like she mentioned, she walked the district. She has walked the city many, many times. And when you do that, you really get to learn the heart of the community, the needs of the community, how wonderful Santa Ana is. And Santa Ana really is a great city. You have immigrants living alongside the greatest generation. those went off and fought World War II and came back and built this country. We work together. We make beautiful things happen in San Diego. And I know a man that appreciates

that and wouldn't miss the opportunity to also ask that today we have an item that you'll be voting on. And let me say that the first bill that I introduced as a Congress member was to create a defense fund for immigrants. And that is because I value, I appreciate the value of immigrants to our society, to our city, to our nation. And at the same time, I also believe, strongly believe in the value of due process, which means you have an attorney to represent you and view your rights and obligations in this country.

And I know today you'll be voting on a similar legal defense fund, and I would ask the council here today to please vote to implement it in its full funding as it is written today because again given what we're going through right now in this country given all those bright dreamers that are out there working hard given all our immigrant families that are working hard to enrich our society we want to make sure at the very least that they have to process thank you very much Felicidades, congratulations to all of you. Con permiso.

Now, Madam Clerk, I'm going to take something out of order. I understand we have at least 100 speakers that want to speak on the budget. So what I want to do is I want to go straight to that item right now and then ask you to allow speakers to speak up to two minutes per speaker. And if we have more than 100, we have more. If we have less than 100, we have less. but let's accommodate the folks that are there wanting to speak.

So at this point, I will bypass the consent calendar and other businesses, and let's go straight to the budget, and let's hear from those that are there wanting to speak, please. So I'll turn it over to you, Madam Clerk.

Mr. Mayor, just a point of order.

This is Council Member Sarmiento.

Do we know why we're going or why the chair has decided to go from three minutes to two minutes? Is there an excessive number or a high volume of speakers, Madam Clerk?

Currently, that number is still increasing as we're sitting here, but currently we have a total of 10 speakers that have been submitted so far.

Look, given that it's 10, Mr. Mayor, I'd like you to reconsider giving them their full three minutes.

I was told it was 100 speakers.

Mayor, hold on one second. We're trying to fix our audio. We can barely hear you.

You might have gotten an extra zero.

Instead of 10.

Mayor?

Yes.

Okay, much better. Yeah, so currently we only have 10 speakers that submitted cards.

is your counterpart there uh daisy she called me and told me there was a hundred people outside that want to speak um i just would like to find out is it 10 or is it 100 i'm happy to give them

three minutes if it's left they're not you know uh mayor you are correct it says that they did send me a notice saying that they have over 75 people ready to speak they're just trying to log them into the system that's what it is because i only see 10 it looks like that's all they were able to compute but they have over 75 speakers mr mayor yes so if i understand the agenda the way

Phil BacerraItem —

it's configured today correctly we have public comments that's going to take all of the items so it's not that we're asking for comments just on the budget we have no public hearing items today is that correct Madam City Manager so I mean I just want to be clear that we're taking the public comments how we decide to take the items on the agenda after public comment obviously is up to you but I just want to clarify that public comments for anybody that's coming up that's taken the time to attend and speak they can comment on any of the items on

the agenda at this point um mr mayor well if i can clarify something yes mayor go down uh madam clerk do we have someone that needs to be sworn in today a couple of members maybe we can oh we do not i've

been scheduling it virtually with them.

I just want to clarify that. Go ahead, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

No, well, look, whatever the pleasure of the council is, we want to go three minutes. I'm fine with that. I just want to give people an opportunity to speak. And I understand that, you know, from staff that they want to speak about the budget. So why don't we just take it at three minutes and let people begin to come up and let's see where we end up. Let's, let's go ahead and get started.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

And before I let anyone speak, I just wanted to report out all the emails that we received. It was generally over 300 emails we received, and I'm just going to break it down for you so that our council members know what the comments were. For 19E, the general plan update, we had a total of six. Three of them were Santa Ana residents. Three were non-Santa Ana residents requesting a collect community input and incorporate into the general plan, increase their advance notice, and then have multilingual outreach and visit the communities.

23A, residential street repair. In support of that, we had two, and they did not disclose whether or not they were Santa Ana residents. 25B, youth training provider agreements. There was one in support, did not disclose whether they were Santa Ana residents. 25E, workforce training provider agreements. There was support from one and did not disclose residency. 25G, POA, MOU, the comments were from Santa Ana residents, general comments, and then there were two that didn't disclose residency, and then the POA president provided a comment.

55a food vending trucks there were two Santa Ana residents that were in support and one in opposition 55b there was one in opposition for electronic candidate statements 65b there was one Santa Ana residents in opposition and one in support and one was a preserve from OC 65c charter amendment there were four total comments, three were Santa Ana residents and they were just general comments about the Charter Amendment. 65D, second reading of the budget. We had 148.

They did not disclose whether or not they were Santa Ana residents. One was an online petition. There was four total who were saying no to defunding the police Department. There were 22 residents in support of two redirect funds from PD to community social services, four non Santa Ana residents and five didn't disclose their residency. Investing more in the arts, we had a total of three Santa Ana residents, one letter from SAUSD, one non Santa Ana resident and one didn't disclose their residency and one online petition. A support to keep the

deportation fund at 200,000 18 Santa Ana residents three non Santa Ana residents 161 didn't disclose the residency and one was from Senator Tom Umberg. Well opposition to the deportation defense fund one resident who didn't own non Santa Ana resident asked to reduce ADU permit fees that was one Santa Ana resident comment on jail funding for non santa anna residents cypress street fire station funding one santa anna resident 85a the mask executive order there were three residents in opposition and two

in support santa anna resident and one didn't disclose their santa anna residency 85b hand sanitizer order one santa anna resident and then one didn't disclose the residency 85c street racing one was in support as a Santa Ana resident and then we have several non-agenda comments enforcement of fireworks three Santa Ana residents six Santa Ana resident in opposition to getting rid of phone public comments one non Santa Ana resident and two didn't disclose the residency eight Santa Ana residents comments on public comment changes they just had general comments

One didn't disclose their residency for open playgrounds. Another for reopening schools. Help residents to pay water bill. That was one who didn't disclose their residency. Two Santa Ana residents for parking issues. Five Santa Ana Unified School District staff members spoke on free Wi-Fi for USD students. One Santa Ana resident requested for the city cleanup. and one Santa Ana resident tinting on car windows and that is all the comments that we received by email and then if we could have the back start providing

their public comment for those that are ready to come in and we will give them the three minutes

Madame Clerk while we're waiting can you explain to everybody that's listening and those of us here what the process is and just very high level and so what we're asking all of

the residents to do is to check in at the table and we're making sure that they are having their six feet safe distancing we're providing masks we have hand sanitizers outside we're also disinfecting anything like the pens if they use that and then we do have staff outside with the plexiglass who will be timing the resident outside we're communicating with each other how many residents are checking in by a Google Doc so it's a live information and they are able to see the council members and the council

members will also be able to view the resident through a camera and there's a microphone out there that is touchless and we should be able to hear them

Thank you.

Okay, speak for the record. If you could please go ahead and speak for the record. Your name. You have three minutes.

Hi, good evening. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Chloe Rios and I am a Latina. I'm an immigrant. I'm a transgender woman and I am the director of Alianza Trans Latinx. And today I'm here to introduce to you the first transgender organization being led by a trans woman of color. and the reason I'm standing here is because, I'm sure you know it's needless to say, the discrimination in every realm of our life that we face in areas such as employment, housing, healthcare, and education.

And we are also one of the communities with the highest rates of HIV infections and there's still a lot of stigma and lack of sexual health programs in Orange County.

I want to invite you to have a conversation with us at Alianza Translatinx to collaborate with us in creating programming for the trans community of Orange County. And I want you to commit to ensuring that the transgender community in Orange County is protected and it's being served to the fullest. I am giving this letter so that you all can receive it. I know that I'm not there to hand it out. And I hope that we can receive your support. The LGBTQ+, and specifically the trans community being one of the most vulnerable communities,

deserves to be the center of attention. I know we are in pressing times right now, but we are a community that we are vulnerable, and we need all the help and resources that we can get. So I hope that we can get your support and we can get your attention. Thank you so much.

Do I just have to lean in?

Okay. Never done this before.

We can hear you. You may speak.

Esteemed council people, I don't know how to address you. This is my first time doing this. I'll keep it short. Unlike the people out there, I do actually support an increase in the police budget. seeing as we've had so much violence and nonsense going on in other cities I do not believe that it is a wise thing to simply have us defund the police I'm more in agreement with simply retraining methods and if that takes a little bit more money or an effort to retrain or anything I'm more than happy to chip in a little bit even if it means a slight tax increase but you know

to simply give in to, and I'll be frank, Marxist demands of the people outside. You know, that's not the America that I know. We respect law enforcement, and I believe that, you know, you need law in order to have a just society, and I don't believe their demands outside or capitulating to anything will help us be a better America, Orange County, or Santa Ana.

Is my time off? No. Okay. Other than that, thank you for hearing me out. And hopefully the rest of this meeting isn't too hectic. And I guess that's pretty much my two cents. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you much.

Thank you.

My name is Monica Mouet, and I have lived in Santa Ana my whole life. James Baldwin said, there are so many ways of being despicable, it quite makes one's head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people's pain. I am here today because I believe that, yes, it is possible for all of us to work together to end the years of pain inflicted on the people by the Santa Ana Police Department. We all have a role to play, don't we? I know what role the SAPD has played throughout the years, one that terrorizes its citizens, one that dismantles the safety and well-being of the public.

Public safety, the very concept you vow to uphold with your budget increase. SAPD has ranked the ninth deadliest police department in the state of California.

SAPD has ranked the ninth deadliest police department in the state of California. 0% of the complaints involving the use of police discrimination, the use of force, and alleged crimes committed by the police ruled in favor of civilians. Santa Ana City Council, what role do you have to play as this colossal pain spreads with no end in sight? You are proposing to increase 73% of the public safety budget to go into SAPD. That means even more government-sponsored use of chokeholds, tasers, batons, shootings. And no, Councilman Solorio, the use of body cans does not cancel out the horror that these police practices inflict.

This budget increase shows me that most of you are more fearful of ruffling feathers than you are concerned with the safety of your community. How much longer are you going to let your legacies as leaders be dictated by some extra cash the police throw into your campaigns? The time has come, not only to defund and disarm the police, but to take steps in reckoning with the bleeding, the lives lost by police violence, the ever-growing and ever-expanding pain. And I hope you realize that this is not the pain of the other. These victims of police brutality are the people you swore to serve. With this increase, you are not

serving the people, let alone protecting them. At this point, you are either with us or you're in the way. Thank you.

Good evening, San Francisco Council.

My name is Noah Juliano and I'm a resident of Santa Ana, California, born and raised. I am submitting a public comment on Agenda 65D in support of the renewal of the Deportation Defund Fund at its current level of $20,000 to continue providing protection to the people of Santa Ana. Immigration Defenders Law Center needs to stay, not be cut in half, by $100,000. I would also like to comment in opposition to any increase to the 2020 police budget. Santa Ana Police Department's 2019-20 fiscal year budget received over $131 million.

91% of their total operating budget from Santa Ana City's general fund, sourced from yoursantaanawebsite.org. And we have been decrying to defend the police, defend the police, defend the police for three months. And you want to add more to the police department? statistically nine of the last 13 to three shootings in Santa Ana did not attempt less lethal force taxes before resulting to the deadly gun on their hip those 13 shootings took place from 2016 to 2018 that's way too many officers have been encouraged to fetishize a firearm as an extension of their own

body for far too long that is just too many deaths at the hands of people that sworn in to protect us brown bodies are real it is a shirt and a blue shirt and a badge it is not a blue life brown bodies don't get to take their malign skin off to safely go home to their family after their shift is over behind anaheim santa anna is the most vastly populated city and most severely affected by covid19 in orange county instead of giving millions of more dollars to the police department you should reallocate your taxpayer dollars towards health care education

distributing free masks fundamental health care service providers and victim survivor advocates implementing non-armed officers for non-violent 911 calls

buying anti-racist books to place into our k-8 buying anti-racist books to place through our through our k-8 classes to plant positive seeds early on aiding food banks and soup kitchens getting nurses and social workers workers in schools and after school daycare centers funded buying foreclosed motels or condos in downtown Santa Ana to convert into housing for the homeless, or literally anything other than more rubber bullets and tear gas to be used against tax-paying citizens during a global respiratory pandemic. Please reconsider fighting violence with more violence. $131 million? Really? Please zoom out and see the big picture.

Black, brown, Latinx, trans, disabled, queer, incarcerated, immigrant, impoverished lives matter. All black and brown lives matter. Choose love and defend the police today. Thank you for your time. Truly. Thank you. Thank you. Can you go? Of course.

Good afternoon. This is 465D. I've lived in Santa Ana my whole entire life. Growing up, I thought it was normal to have gang unit in my neighborhood. I thought that having policemen arrest people in my neighborhood was normal. A couple years ago, the police came knocking on my door. This trauma of being scared of the fear had lived through my memories every single day. The memory of having police threatening people, threatening me, threatening people in my community. You live with that memory every day. I really doubt that some of you probably have an experience like that or have ever faced that sense of fear.

Unfortunately, my school did not have the resources to help me. They didn't help me with my trauma. They had social workers who wouldn't help me but threatened to visit my house. If you fund more money to the Santa Ana Police Department, I hope you know that this will impact our youth. These youth come from families of immigrants. So if you're not putting the money in good resources, it's not going to have a positive impact in Santa Ana. Overall, I hope that you do the right thing for Santa Ana. Do it for the people that have been fighting through oppression.

And I ask you to give each person that's out there, my brothers and sisters, the opportunity to speak and to give them their experiences, so hopefully that could change your mind. Thank you.

My name is Elena Riola, and I want you to understand that the conversations we're going to have with you today are taking more out of us than of you because these are experiences. So the way that you vote is either an invalidation towards our experience or a validation, and that would be defunding the police. Philbo Sarah on June 12, 2020 you repeatedly brought up the question of cost and what these significant changes in our budget will cost. But this shouldn't be a question because SMPD takes up almost more than half of the municipal budget. David Pinalosa you said that we need to maintain a clean democracy.

The people that you're sitting next to today are not maintaining this clean democracy by getting funded by the POA over and over again through the campaign Mayor Bolido and Jose Solorio. Juan Villegas, you said that when it came to Measure X, City Council took the initiative to educate the public, and when you need that support from the public, you seek it. But when the public needs support from you, we are disregarded, we are told, we are uneducated, we are ignored, we are not taken seriously, and we're treated as we're radical.

You run under platforms of transparency that weren't you transparent enough to tell us the truth, that you need the police to continue to arrest as many of us as they can, and jail us in order to continue to use jails as a source of revenue because of our seemingly infinite budget deficit. You continue to turn to emergency strategies and the budget is where bad policies get made. My name is Yelena Riola and I emailed you in June. Please go back and read my email. Nelida Mendoza, you're the only one who I got a response from.

And you told me that it would be a long and arduous path to make the changes that us, the youth, are asking for. And I'm telling you that it's not. It starts today by voting no on the approval of this budget. If you really hear me, if you really hear us, the way you vote on this budget will show if you do. If you vote yes to approve this budget, you are accessories to violence, to murder. You are accessories towards our community members being ridiculed and disrespected. You are the reason why families are broken due to the deportation because you decreased the legal defense to fund.

You are the reason people choose to turn to crime because no one told them there were routes in life that they could take other than being part of drug violence and crime and stealing. The reason people turn to drug abuse is because of underlying mental illnesses. My mom is a drug addict. I have been in the foster system. Instead of taking my mom to get help for her drug addiction, she was thrown in jail and my family got separated.

Okay? And we're no longer together. There are children entering the juvenile system, and I'm asking you to please fund the Pico Defense Fund, fund the arts, because talent can only come to complete fruition and turn into a career by practice. And there's so many talented people in Senate Anna that don't get to practice. Fund housing section 8 because I'm about to get evicted because my landlord wants to raise a rent in the middle of a pandemic. And if it weren't for me going to school, my grandma would have never known that this was illegal and I had to deal with it.

Please defund the police because when I came back, there was a panhandler out of the freeway coming out of John Wayne. and my Uber driver gave her money because he said that he doesn't give money to drug addicts and alcoholics and I told him, well, who's going to help them? We need to help them. Please listen. Thank you.

Here?

My name is Stephanie Salgado and I come here today asking to not pass this 65D annual budget for the city of Santa Ana. Funding the police is only going to make the matters worse. I've come from a family of immigrants, parents of immigrants, and I've known how much the struggle is to keep us and help us get a better life and raise here. Sorry, I'm nervous. But funding just isn't the right thing to do. Instead of funding the police, we should fund other manners that would actually help within the community. I actually worked for the city for a while, and when I needed them to come at a parks and rec center, they took hours.

For what? I don't know. We needed them there. They finally came, did absolutely nothing. We had to call multiple times until they finally took the person who was causing harm away. What is that? honestly I'm here to plead so we could actually move forward and progress not just as a community but as a whole state because this isn't just a problem that happens here but everywhere this is just a bigger movement than we've come to know and I think that's all I have to say is just to vote no for your people if you're really for your people of this community

Hello, my name is Mauro Travis. I'm a business owner. I'm 20 years old. I'm here to stand on behalf to speak on a study that Resilience OC made in 2015. According to Resilience OC Investing Youth, the city of Santa Ana has invested $1,242 arresting me while they only invest $142 in my positive youth development. That's a huge impact towards suppressing me instead of investing in me and I know that the police department has done a lot of good things to catch pedophiles, child molesters and I endorse that but we also need more help on the streets that is less violent, that is helping our kids, that are suffering from

mental health issues. In my community we deal with CTSB and we need help with therapists, we need more help, we need more resources and I'm just here asking for you for your help and make sure that all this money goes for the right things. Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Sal, Gary Bay, Jr. I've been living in Santa Ana since I was three years old. I came from Michoacan. And I've seen a lot of changes because our governor, actually the city council, is not doing what they're supposed to do. Why? I'm concerned. we got one of the highest sales tax in the US at 925 that it was increased with that increased money they haven't done anything to our city what's going to happen? Polito and the city council agreed on that back two years ago

and it's impossible that they keep doing that so what do we have with leaders that they're not concerned about the city I love my city, and we need to have more response immediately on calls that we need the forces, and we don't have that. I'm not excited. I'm just concerned about a city. I came in 1970 here to a beautiful Santa Ana, and I see the changes started back on the year 2000. Polito first became a city council, and that's the first Spanish speaker, absolutely Spanish speaker that came in the city council after Bono and I know a lot of these people they've been in the city

but the city's going down I mean I'm not against anybody but I'm concerned people's got to love their city if you don't love their city get out of my city and go someplace else you know we got people protesting because we're hurt what's going to happen here we don't have to give the violence about it but we can place motions as an attorney we can do or whatever you can i've been there i'm not against bolito i'm i'm against the system that we're going through now to reverse the sales tax 925 925 it's going to be impossible because the city the city uh mayor and the city council

doesn't want to make the loss for a city and look at the streets we worked in mexico I've been naturalized in 76 United States accept me as a good person I got my problems but you know what I became a better person and I respect everybody Mr. Pulido you're not even in the race anymore as a supervisor because people know who you are I'm not against him I'm against the situation that we live in we got to get better I love St. Hannah thank you

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Lizzie Lyles. I live at 1629 West Pine Street in Santa Ana. A few of you city council members remember me. I've been here before. The new ones, you have not heard this speech. I am here because of fireworks. I came here the first time saying, let's get rid of fireworks. In the area where I live and in Santa Ana, the fireworks were so bad that it was like a war zone. a war zone

we talk about the safe and sound fireworks it was not safe and sound not where I live I live in an area where I've lived there since 1971 I have neighbors who are sick we're old and we are not safe and sound we need to do something about fireworks here in Santa Ana

I am going to keep coming. I'm going to keep calling. I'm going to be the worst thorn in your sides. I've called your office. I'm going to make appointments. We are going to talk about this. I am sick of it. I should not have to be in my house and not being able to sleep at night until 12.30, 1 o'clock and don't know what time I'm going to sleep because fireworks are so loud and so noisy starting from last Wednesday up until the 4th of July until up until now that they are so loud.

We need to do something.

We need to do something. I call each one of your offices, and you're going to hear from me again. Thank you so very much.

Hi, my name is Frida Lopez. I am 15 years old, born and raised in Santa Ana. I will be speaking on two subjects today. Carlos Rojas. He was moved for exposing the cops that ate the edibles and the corruption that was going on by Miguel Pulido. He has been dedicated since day one. To conclude, he was moved. See, that's the problem. You guys hide what's going on in SAPD. When someone with a power speaks up, they want us to be silenced. Also, I've been watched and followed by a guy in my apartment. And I can tell you for a fact, I've called the cops 13 times. And nothing has been done until this day. Is that what we want?

wait till something worse happens and they still want a race when they can't even do their job

and how how hypocrite of their part is that i have many more stories to tell but i have a short amount of time to explain my stories and experiences i just want the rosa to be safe thank you

First and foremost, I would like to express my disgust with the council's decision to not allow residents to call in with their opinions and comments about today's meeting agenda. With your decision, you have told the residents in Santa Ana that you do not care about them or their health, because we have had to risk our damn lives to come out here today and be heard. We will not be silenced, and your stunt to silence us will not persevere. Secondly, if any council person votes today for the police budget increase, you will again have told the residents of this city how little you care for them.

That money needs to go into our community is not a corrupt and disgustingly racist department. You say the reason for investing in SAPD is for the safety of residents, but that's bullshit. If you cared about the safety of residents, you would take a systematic approach and invest in affordable housing, education, youth programs, scholarships, ending homelessness, etc. Why give an already racist, power-hungry, authoritative, corrupt system more money when our residents are struggling to survive? Not only are residents struggling to survive, but then to be re-victimized, profiles, and even killed by police officers is beyond inhumane.

Today you have the power to invest in the safety and prosperity of our community. Listen to us. We the residents of Santa Ana do not approve more of our tax dollars going towards the SAPD. If you choose to ignore us, trust me that I will make it my mission from today until each of your next terms to educate my neighbors and my fellow residents about your choices and vote you out of council. Do not forget that you are all public servants and you are here to work for us, not the other way around. So here I am telling you to do right by Santa Ana and defund the SAPD to start

funding our communities. Your decision today will show us where your values and morals lie, and if you have the capacity to listen to the people you serve and do right by them. We are watching you and we never forget. Third, I would like to remind all the council members that voted yes to the SAPD budget last time that the statement of a few bad apples is bullshit. We were out here marching peacefully while cops came ready for a riot, and one sheriff up on the roof taunted us and yelled, go Trump. These are the people you are deciding to fund. And don't you dare say it's for the safety of our communities

because no one in this line behind me feels safe in the presence of a police officer. So if you have any empathy or dignity, listen to us and defund the SAPD. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, can we remind the public that we can't have any profanity because this is being broadcast inside, you know, on Chapter 3, and there's a lot of families watching, there's little ones, and we need to keep it clean. So thank you, everyone. If you could voice your opinion, but no profanity, please. Thank you.

you may proceed with your comment

Council members, I am here today to urge you not to defund the police, but to abolish the whole system. We are not calling for any more reforms. We need a whole new system. And let me tell you how it's going to be done. We need to invest in our youth. We need to protect our immigrant families. We need to prioritize workers, worker cooperatives, and small businesses, invest in the Santa Ana Public Library, in art, educational and recreational programs, and in all other city agencies and staff that provide vital services to Santa Ana residents other than police.

We also need you to protect immigrants and we need you to be with us to lower income renters. Also, housing opportunities. Prioritize mental health and vulnerable communities. Preserve public lands for community benefits. And also, and lastly, we need transparency. And when it feels like you're being attacked, like many of you do, this is the kind of this is a kind of rhetoric that we're seeing and let me read you one of my favorite quotes and this is regarding accountability accountability feels like an attack when you're not ready to acknowledge how your

behavior harms others so please remember that thank you

good evening council members good evening Julio Jose Solorio everyone I want to first of all express my anger at all of you for trying to suppress the community for doing making us come here in person we should have had the opportunity to do this over the phone like we had last time and especially the fact that we have such a high number of covid cases here in the city it's unacceptable what you guys are doing. And then lastly, you guys didn't answer the emails, the phone calls. Pulido, I called you on Saturday and you told me to text you. Like you didn't care.

That's how you answered me. You said, oh, what is this? Text me. You don't care about your city. If you did, you would listen to us. Last time we told you we wanted to defund the police. The previous person said abolish the police. And I totally agree with her because we need to start over. What we're doing now, we're hurting our citizens. You're hurting our citizens. You're not listening to any of us. Defund the police, fund mental health services, fund public housing, fund schools. You put your money where you prioritize things where you put your money, right? So put money into the education system, into the youth, into mental

health services, listen to your people. Stop ignoring us. Take accountability. You're supposed to represent us. It's unacceptable. Pulido especially. Pulido honestly, do a better fucking job. Thank you for your time.

My name is Jackie Cordova. I'm a mother of Santa Ana. This is for the Akashic Record. I just want the folks at home to know what this looks like. We are out in the lobby saying our public comments because our city council is afraid of us. I'm behind glass right now and our city council is not really paying attention to all the youth that showed up. We were at the old Orange County Courthouse. The youth had a meeting. I didn't see any of you there. We marched on the police department. The police came out in force. We were afraid of our police.

We're still afraid of our police when they come out in riot gear, when we have something to say to them. The police are not effective. They don't get our money's worth. We need to invest in youth. We've been talking about this for years. We want you to know that the youth are very intelligent. They know what you're doing. They know how corrupt you are. They called out all of you, including mostly Jose Solorio, who doesn't listen, who we know is in bed with the police. Hello. Yeah, we all know. We know. They called it all out. So all of these kids, they're on to you. So just to let you know, this is for the Akashic Record. Thank you.

I'm Anthony Hernandez, and I'm here just to speak my truth about what I see with the police. I've been in California living here my entire life, living in Santa Ana, born and raised. And I've seen so many police, so many people that are scared of the police. That people are more comfortable with their drug dealers around than being next to a police because of how scared they are.

It's not right. Everything that you guys are doing about the police is not right and it should be defunded.

I'm sorry.

Where I live here in Santa Ana, people are way more comfortable living without the police here. People are way comfortable living just as if the police never existed. We need to defund this police and make it better so that everyone can be more comfortable about it. Because whatever you guys are doing in there, whatever you guys are looking at, it's not working. and it should be fixed. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Monta Garcia and I just want you guys to go ahead and take a hard look at all the people that are outside waiting that have been protesting in the sun. We're putting ourselves out there. We're making our voices be heard. We're putting our families aside. Some of our families don't even appreciate what we're doing. some of our families, they're scared of what we're doing, and it's because of the Santa Ana Police Department. 20 years ago, I lost my father to the police, and my mom had to raise four children all alone, living every day in fear that her children were going to be harmed by the Santa Ana Police Department.

Lately, you have all shown her that her fear and this entire community's fear doesn't matter, that your police matters more than our youth does. I have three younger siblings and every day I am in fear of them going outside riding on their bicycles Because I'm afraid that the police gonna do something to them that some kind of car police car is gonna just run them over No one is gonna do anything Investing in them is an opportunity to invest in Santa Ana because they are the future Make all the right decisions my mom and my family and all these other families don't deserve to live in fear

We deserve to live in peace. Child services were no help either. You guys need to figure out where to put your money. All these things like housing as well. I was homeless for a while and my family didn't have anywhere to go because no one wanted to help us. We didn't have food to eat because nobody wanted to help us because my mom made too much money. Although all she does is clean houses. She doesn't make more than $15,000 a year. And so who does all that responsibility go on to? Me. and that disrupts my education. And I want you to know that this is all because you guys are putting your money into the wrong places. Thank you.

The citizens of Santa Ana stand in solidarity with the lives destroyed in the hands of the violent powers that are perceived by the masses to protect its citizens. Today we stand in solidarity and we're taking action in our own community by urging our elected officials to adjust the upcoming fiscal year's budget. The increased funding of police departments speaks volumes of the perspective our leaders hold of our community here in Santa Ana. A criminalized city in dire need of restoration only brings us to look back at you, our leaders, and the negligence of our needs. We've been funding the police of our people with

little to no reparations for the source of the symptoms resulting from the symptoms of inequity. Our dollars are upholding your negligence and the attributions of the victims of your system to criminality. Allocate the funds into restorative resources for the entire community. We urge for better living conditions and housing development and assistance for the residents in our city. We urge for community-oriented and informed programs that intervene in the events of crisis. We urge for the funds to be directed towards individuals who know and understand the people such as counselors, educators, and health practitioners.

We urge for the bridges of opportunity to be built through family, youth, and children empowerment programs. We urge for the establishment and sustainment of individuals in the political sector to address the classism, the racism, the ableism, the ageism, and other systemic prejudices. Provide the information to your people about the policing enacted in our city and end the immunity of theirs along the way for the community's people to govern justice for their own. All in all, we urge our leaders to appreciate the diversity and begin to design the future within our community that builds equitable access to opportunities for all

so they could embrace the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Defunding the police means ending the state-sanctioned war against the most vulnerable in our communities. Thank you.

My name is Jana Westover. I am a foster mom here in Santa Ana down by South Main. I'm here for the support of the youth that are just really upset and frustrated with the money that is happening where it's being directed in the city. Defending the police and reallocating that money towards organizations here all throughout Santa Ana could benefit the youth who are in such crisis and dire need. You guys really need to stop and talk and listen to these youth. I'm here listening to them and backing them and hearing their frustrations and talking and listening to the stories of homeless youth. Breaks my heart.

As a foster mom, I talked with a homeless youth I met yesterday asking for money. And once I started talking with him and learning about his story, I asked him what brought him, how he ended up homeless in Santa Ana because he was from Brea. and when his mom they got in a car accident and his mom died at UCI and they split his him and his brothers up he has a brother in Orangewood right now 14 years old he hasn't seen and he was 17 at the time and now he's 18 and I don't know where he slipped through the cracks but now he's on the streets of

Santa Ana and this isn't right this is awful I mean somewhere there needed to be someone to come in and help him with services for him and his older brother who is still in his mid-20s. And now they're part of our community and there's no one outreaching for them. So I want you guys to listen to all these stories today, especially of the homeless youth and their parents that were living in cars. And know that that money that you're sending to the police, it's not helping anyone. It's not helping the youth. It's not helping them get out of their situation and helping their families. So take heed in their words. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Janine Stallings. I'm a resident of Santa Ana in the South Main area. I want to speak on 65C regarding the proposed updates to the city charter to be voted on by the residents of Santa Ana. I'm in favor of limiting campaign contributions by the police association and labor unions. I'm in favor of language that makes it clear that this provision applies to any organization that the police association or labor unions can donate to and therefore potentially finance campaigns indirectly.

The language should go further and address financing of, quote, other committees formed to support or oppose candidates within the city of Santa Ana, as discussed in the proposed city charter amendment section required disclosures 1206.01. Regarding 65D, I wanna talk about ways we can invest in actual public safety instead of police and criminalization. We should be addressing the root causes of crime, poverty, lack of access to resources,

not investing in youth, and social and financial inequity. Therefore, we should invest heavily in services that lift families out of generational poverty and address a lack of access to opportunities, including services around education. I hear the youth asking for better school guidance counselors, better access to mental health counseling, better access to programs that meet them where they are, better trauma counseling. Let's listen and help the youth leaders.

We should invest in programs that speak to the unique needs of the residents of Santa Ana, including immigration-related services. Please consider defunding the police in order to allow for investment in these other urgent public safety issues. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right on. Can you state the name for the director?

Hello, counsel. My name is Layla Bush. I am an almost 17-year-old foster youth. Those two before me were my foster moms. I am in favor of defunding the police and not just defunding the police, but reallocating that money to mental health services and reallocating certain duties that the police have to different associations. For an example, my story, I was admitted into Chalk Hospital for the second

time for a suicidal attempt last October. I ended up going to Orangewood after that, and that's when I became a foster youth. The police came and they wanted to take me to Orangewood in handcuffs. It was the chalk nurses, doctors, therapists, child behavioralists that advocated for me to go in an ambulance instead, slightly better. And all they told me was that that was protocol. That should not be protocol.

I believe that there should be some other way in transporting foster youth. That would have been a very bad experience for me to go straight from a mental hospital to a children's home in a cop car and in handcuffs. So when I say defund the police and reallocate money, I also mean reallocate duties. Someone else should be doing that, not police officers. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jordan?

I cut. Right? Okay. So, according to Santa Ana's general fund summary table, Human Resources proposed a budget for 2019 to 2020 was almost $900,000, and jail operations was almost $19 million. According to Orange County Sheriff's Department, the prisoner population is 1,800 compared to Santa Ana's population of 330,000. We should spend more money on human resources for the residents who are struggling with poverty than the prison population. Your money is fueling the culture of racism and abuse inside the prison system.

We need to reallocate those funds to what really matters, resources that will help the youth, the city, and our poverty-stricken community. Thank you.

I come here today a resident of Santa Ana of nine years. I attended Martin Luther King Elementary School for two years. Unfortunately, the main memories I have are of moving from low-budget bungalows into a cram library because we would come to school with our classrooms completely vandalized, Windows broken in, profanities graffitied along the walls. I then attended, later attended Segerstrom High School. My class of 17 was the lowest performing class on record. Why? It was a fundamental school. It was obvious we were struggling and no action was taken. Not to mention in recent years,

has convicted a staff member to be a sexual predator. Who is going to pay attention to our kids? Wanting better for our kids? Our foster care systems? Are we doomed to become LAPD? Absolutely. Five million dollars towards police? It's ridiculous. Our youth cried for help, and now we're here to fight for it. Are you going to listen? Give money to the places it belongs, to the people, to the youth, and to the future.

Of course. Hello, my name is Samuel Paramore. Hi, everyone there. I'm here speaking on 65D on the fact that you guys are trying to put nine more million into the thing. And what I have to say on that to all you guys sitting there is that the world is changing. Everyone's waking up. Everywhere from L.A. to New York and everywhere in between is realizing pretty much how horrible everyone in the police system is from each level. And they're realizing how connected all the city councils, including you, very much you, are connected intrinsically to it.

And I'm not going to try to speak to any of your good nature because I think many of you guys have deleted your good nature. a long time ago. I think many of you guys know that the police aren't here to protect us, and you're okay with that because they protect your interests. You don't want to put money into mental health and stuff. You want to put money into gentrification. You want to put money into police that help support gentrification. You want the police around so when eviction rates come around, when eviction comes around, they will be doing it by the buttload, and they will get away

with it because the police are there to support it. And so, you know, you guys may not vote to get the police budget raised or not raised. But, you know, either you're going to save yourself, and I mean save yourself because people are learning and learning fast. People who would have supported you before are now realizing, realizing how corrupt the police are on every level because there's so many videos out there, including of the SAPD themselves. And if you want to save yourself on saving us, you will not put nine more million into it, and you will move that money into other functions of the city that need it.

Otherwise, this aesthetic of protection that you have around you, of these majestic palaces of authority that you hold, they will come crumbling down in one way or another. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Tony Navarro. a long-time resident of Santa Ana, lifelong resident of Santa Ana. As our city council, it's your job to represent us. It's your job to vote in your community's best interest. And when you have hundreds of your constituents calling you and attempting to talk to you, attempting to tell you what our best interests are, you have found ways to cut us off, cut our time off, not allow us to make over-the-phone comments during a very bad pandemic where Santa Ana has the worst numbers, maybe because we do not invest in our health and in our constituents.

The city budget as it stands might reflect what you think of this city, but I do not share your vision. If you truly cared about the well-being of your city, you would realize that continuing to throw away money into the police department does not solve our problems. We are not criminals. We are not criminals based on our economic class or our skin tone. We are people. We are diverse and we need education, we need outreach, and we do not need more over-policing of our communities and criminalization of our youth. The money you're using comes from our hard-working families, families who need that money for rent, education, and food.

It is not meant for you to serve yourself. If you want to keep your community safe, protect the undocumented community, do not cut their defense fund. Protect our youth and allocate funds towards education and programs and the bookmobile. Protect our city and make sure you pass the executive order for face masks. The youth will no longer allow for you to continue the way that you are. We are here, we are watching, and we will hold you accountable. Show the community that you see them as more than criminals. We have talent, we are beautiful, and we are worth investing in.

my name is carla navarro and i lived in san anna my whole life two weeks ago you voted to increase the police fund despite hearing the voice of your public you voted to fund the police who keep hurting us we don't need them we need investment in mental health services we need investment in our schools investment in our community period enough is enough city council members you need to listen to our needs and stop trying to silence us you are here to serve us not your wallets we are listening we are watching and we are ready to vote you out we demand that you stop supporting

the system that criminalizes our black and brown youth stop criminalizing immigration because this budget takes resources away from immigrant families and puts them into the pockets of those enforcing criminalization of the community defund the police abolish ICE Black Lives Matter thank you for your time

my name is Victor Cabrera and I believe we should defund the police I grew up in Garden Grove my entire life up until when i turned 20. once i turned 20 i moved into santa anna and right away i noticed the dramatic difference of the amount of police i can see on the street than compared to any other city i've been to if i were to drive south down bristol i guarantee you you can see a cop every two minutes down every other street and if i were to go a little bit more down 10 minutes and get to costa mesa i would barely even see one why why is our city treated so differently

compared to all these other ones i don't feel safe with all these cops here i feel criminalized because they're watching us all the time if i see one every other street how are they protecting us i just want to leave you guys a question why should we fund the police more when there's already so many on the streets thank you hello council people i am a citizen of santa yana and I'm here to defend the police. It's my tax money and I'm not liking what I see. I am tired of working and seeing where my money is going and seeing the people that are in my family suffering.

And I know that the money that's going up is higher than it was last year and there's no reason for that. There's more violence going on because there's more cops on the street. And I know that the reason they're there is because they're being told to look for certain out people. Those people that look so many like my family members who don't do anything. And like many other people as well.

What honestly I find the craziest is the training time. The training time to be a cop is so much less to be a nail technician, a hair salon, even dye hair or anything simple as that. And you guys called up these cops like, oh, they have such high stress jobs. Then why are they not getting their training? They should be getting that. there's no reason for them to get more money if they can't even do their job right I have I was mentored by a cop okay and I love her and she's great but just because one there's one good cop doesn't mean everyone the whole system's okay just because there's when there's

a few bad cops they influence people you can't tell me when you go to work your co-workers don't influence you so what are they doing taking that home they take that mentality to their household they they eventually educate others the way they think and it's not okay there's no reason to be giving them more money imagine if our community instead put that money somewhere else with schooling parks a better street cleaning the streets wouldn't that be better for us and you guys as well? And for the council people, people are learning now. We're in quarantine. We're

learning more now. You think that we don't know what's going on or we're not going to do anything, but your names are literally here. I see your plaques. And on top of that, I also found out recently because I'm in, I was in criminal justice and now I'm going paralegal. What about with I found out cops have no obligation to protect the citizens and we're the people giving the money. Whatever the reason they have a salary.

Many people want this change and like look at the line that's outside. We will get what we want and we're going to be coming down here every single day if we have to and be calling your lines because I know you stopped us from calling the lines today. We're going to get our way and we're going to be here voting for that. Have a good day. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yep.

Hi, my name is Lucia Gonzalez and I oppose the current budget. I attended a high school where we had more cops than nurses and mental health professionals put together. Where students were sent to detention, suspended, and expelled for act-it-out, but were never taught how to process depression or anxiety our city has lost about 12 million dollars so far due to the coronavirus pandemic why is it easier for us to take money away from an immigrant defense fund and add nine million dollars to a police department that already makes up 42 percent of our budget

where does that money go where does that energy go when we ask for homeless shelters and for other humane responses to homelessness that don't involve pushing people out into a river when we ask for a rent freeze while members of our community are out of work when we ask for health care programming Our budgets are moral documents. They show what your priorities are. You already give the police department almost half of our budget. This budget makes us criminal first and Saip Tanero second. You call us your neighbors when you need our votes, so prove it with yours.

What's more important to you, your community or the police union's campaign contributions? Thank you.

Thanks, Dan. Thank you very much.

Lenny, four months my life has been in danger.

Four months I've sought the help of Lady Justice and for four months she has been blind to my cry for the sake of my community and the people i chose to obey the law and set an example to those who resort to crime and violence first my attacker is a newer breed of evil a cyber-based attacker Even his name, D-E-A-U-T-H, is evil in the computer world.

Defunding the police is not what I care for. Take all the money you want, have it all, but do your job. I've gone to the police station several times and have been denied. I've asked several officers on the street, can you help me? And they've driven off, not caring about anything. I've gone back and forth to your police station and asked one of the reception ladies. I said, somebody's going to die, either him or me. Can I get help right now? She said no.

I've been waiting patiently to get the help my case number is two zero one three one one nine I've been waiting four months to get some help because I fight against Ryan Chase Dave Leon the people that own the properties downstairs that evicted me through my business and all my items through the curb into the dumpster with no warning no 30-day notice they just threw me out in fear of this person's cyber attacks they have emails of this person

impersonating police fearful they do not wish to get involved but they have already gotten involved by evicting me without a 30-day notice this is all I have left on me right now. I am asking if I can get help right now. Is there anybody here that can help me?

Anybody? Can anybody help me? Because there will be a life lost after I leave here. can y'all do anything

can you not hear me stand up you're a human being and I'm asking you because this is it this is the last place four months I've been out on the street and he's taking all my business my reputation even friends do not believe me

no y'all time is up

It's not easy. So I just like to short and simple with you guys. I'm very disappointed in the way that you guys have handled all this. The fact that you guys want to increase $9 million to the police budget sickens me. There are homeless people right now suffering. Have nowhere to go right now during this virus and you guys have done nothing to help them. They have mental illness and just simple necessities that they need. And you guys just push it off like it's nothing. Just keep it quiet. And yet, you guys are proud to say that you're from this city and all this. And all that.

I'm just very disgusted with everything that you guys have done.

my name is fredy brez 21 years old i grew up in san and california my whole life and i just want to say how deeply i'm disappointed i am and this whole police department and having treated all the citizens of the ninth most violent department in the nation that doesn't bother you do you not Do you not feel ashamed that that's going on in your own city? You should have pride. This city has one of the oldest cities in OC. It's the heart of the OC. And this is going on. This breaks my heart. When I grew up, I grew up looking up to police officers. I used to want to be a cop. I was 10 years old. It breaks my heart.

It breaks my heart to see police officers act like this, condone themselves like that. That's not right. You know, you still have a chance to make this right. Be fun to police. People are waking up. People are seeing the atrocities, the corruption, all these awful things that are going on in our nation. You still have a chance to make this right. Not for nothing. You know, have a little grace, a little light in your heart. I'm pleading with you. I'm not even asking. I'm pleading, begging, more or less begging, you know. 144 million went to the police department last year. Do they really need all that money? Answer me then.

No, like, that's not right. Have you taken a walk down the street, seen homeless people, see drug addicts, see people, families that go hungry every night? You can't spare a couple million to some food programs or maybe, you know, to some mental institutions. That's just not right. You know, you guys need to step it up. You guys need to open your eyes, and I pray. You know, I'm begging that you guys change this, change everything that's been going on. And not just you guys, but to any police officers out there that are listening. You know, with any little grace, good in your heart, treat the people with respect.

Not everyone deserves this type of treatment. And that's all I have to say. Have a good day. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Yassin. I grew up in San Ana, born and raised my entire life, and just wanted to come here and speak about everything going on. I want to say we should defund the police. All the money should be going away to honestly any other reparations that can be made to any other department, from the youth department, making sure all the kids are doing rights education to the health system, to the mental institutions. Every day, just as everyone else is saying, they see cops going down the street. How does everyone feel safe when every time everyone feels watched all the time?

I can't even go down the street without a cop looking at me kind of fun just because I have a certain type of skin, other than that just because of the way I might have walked, I just shouldn't matter. I should be able to walk down the street and feel safe and just think, all right, I'm in my neighborhood. I can go down and just get a burger or something. But other than that, we have violence going on. Everyone is seeing in front of their own eyes. The kids are waking up. The adults are seeing everything. The youth are seeing everything too. Everything is online now. Nothing is changing. It's all getting filmed now.

And you guys are just being exposed about everything too. And if you guys vote to keep funding the police all this money, it's just not going to end up right. There's going to be turmoil in the streets, and everyone is just going to turn against each other. This is not what we should stand for. The police should not stand for this at all. They're seeing everything going on. They're trying to condone their actions and their violence as well. They think they feel safe, but yeah, they're funding them with their plastic helmets and their guns as well to point at us who are trying to peacefully protest and just speak our mind.

We're the ones who get hit with batons, pepper spray in the eyes, maced up. They throw fireworks at us, tear gas at us. They bring the National Guard on us. Try to raise M4s at us and we're just trying to peacefully speak our mind. That's not right at all. We don't bring arms against you guys. But you guys brought the arms against us. You guys should really rethink about everything going on. Where the funding should go. Think about the people. We should all feel safe in our own city. Other people or citizens are on the Santa Fe Police Department as well. And how do they do to their own people? They're just like us too.

Just really rethink where the money is going. That's all I have to say.

It's quite a shame, honestly. We're the ninth most violent department in the United States, but we're also the county seat of Orange County. How is it? Does that not embarrass you guys? It does not embarrass you how violent these peace officers, if I may call them, are to us? They're the ones that are causing all this havoc. They're the ones that is, it's pretty sad. And I don't know how much more I can say about defunding the police or at least abolishing it, you know, because they're not the ones causing peace. They're the ones that are causing havoc. They're the ones that are causing violence and hatred, all that.

So just fix this. You guys have the power to fix this. You have awoken a generation that is pissed, and you guys are not going to like this. So we just commend you to abolish the police, these peace officers, and just let's make this a safer city.

My name is Fran. I just wanted to ask why there even is a proposal for, you know, increasing the police budget because they aren't doing what they're supposed to do.

when I see a police officer I don't think that I'm safe I think the opposite when I see a police officer

following my car even if I'm not doing anything wrong I get scared

the question should be why am I scared if they're here to protect and serve the people why am I I'm scared when I see them on the street. They're the real thugs. They're the real gangs. They don't do anything but criminalize people of color, especially black people. And I don't think that they should have any more money towards them because all they know how to do is abuse their power. All they know how to do is criminalize poor people also. and all they do is gain money from arresting people, people that have done nothing wrong,

people who have been selling marijuana just because now it's legal, so now a lot of white people are trying to sell it legally. But all those black people that are in jail for years that have been selling marijuana are still in jail. Why are political prisoners in jail? why are you gelling people because they're speaking out it shouldn't be like that if we're an actual free country we should be able to speak out for our people and speak out for the problems for our people I don't think

that I say and I don't think increasing the SAPD budget will do anything to protect people. It will do, all it will do, we will criminalize more people, put us in jail, and make the community more dangerous, ironically, because they do not protect and serve me. They do not protect and serve my family. They do not protect and serve my friends.

So all I'm saying is that I want to abolish the police because they don't do anything. and that's it. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Abel Dela Cruz and I'm a member of the Civil Rights Organization by any means necessary. And first I want to address how bullshit it is that you guys have prevented phone call comments especially in the middle of a global health pandemic. I think that you guys are utilizing the pandemic to silence the voices of your own damn constituents and preventing us from coming in here because you know we are vulnerable to the disease. Santa Ana has the highest amount of the coronavirus in Orange County and you are utilizing that to shut us up and to prevent us from coming here and confronting you.

Now, the second thing I want to say is that this budget is in support of a white supremacist movement in America. You are funding a police force that systematically targets and kills brown and black people. And by giving that force more money, while at the same time taking money away from an immigration defense fund, you are opening up the door for more deportations and more police violence in Santa Ana. Now there are two movements in the United States, the white supremacist movement and the movement of the people out here that are coming here to confront you today. The Black Lives Matter movement and the movement for real equality.

You can choose to support us by rejecting this budget, which we do. We fully reject this budget and create a new budget that includes a complete defunding of the police, a complete abolishment of the police and actual protections for immigrants in Santa Ana and actual care for the COVID-19 pandemic. This kind of budget is doing Donald Trump's dirty work in Orange County. You are allowing for the increased violence against minority communities by police and by ICE. And for that, I think you should be condemned and all of you should resign from office right now.

You have a choice. You either listen to us or we will keep on coming back, banging on the walls and windows of this building and keep on fighting in the streets and shutting down this city until we reach every single one of our demands. The choice is yours, but we are not giving up.

My name is Soledad. I was born in Santana and raised in Anaheim.

Santana Police Department has walked hand in hand with the Anaheim Police Department. You guys are equally as corrupt. You guys are the ninth most violent police department in the country. And Anaheim is the eighth. Or vice versa. Either way, you guys are both corrupt. I stand here firmly believing that you need to defund the police and re-allocate that money into community services, including youth programs that do not serve the police, that do not serve the police like PAL.

We need community programs that keep our kids off the streets like after school programs. We need a high school to college pipeline, not a high school to prison pipeline. Like you guys, it's very systemic. You guys at this point realize this. Your city hall is closed, yet you refuse to answer our calls. Ring! Ring! I am the cause you do not take. I am here.

You know what you're doing. Your time is up.

Make the right choice. If we know justice, you will know peace. But until then, we will be here and we will vote. And all of you will face justice, will face, you will all pay for what you've done to this city. And you too, there, Gabriel, and you too.

Hello, my name is Emily Leard and I am a citizen of Orange County. The job of the police department is to protect and serve. Yet the officers are eating pot in pawn shops, beating up people because of their turn signals, and leaving people in burning hot cars. If you think that giving them more money for more officers, for more weapons, for higher salaries will help your community, you are wrong. When police are using their badges for excuses to commit crimes, when they are getting away with beating people up, when they can illegally break into someone's house and get away with killing Brianna who is just laying on the couch,

they are not protecting us and not serving us. They are serving themselves, and yet they are being protected. Stop funding the people your citizens are afraid of. Fund immigrants. Fund education. Fund minorities. Fund the mentally ill. Fund the homeless. Fund anything that will actually help your community. In Orange County, Santa Ana has the highest taxes, yet you have the highest homeless population, you have the most violent police officers, you are clearly doing something wrong. This is a democracy. You are supposed to listen to what your citizens have to say, not ignore us.

Dozens of people have spoken before me and dozens are going to speak after. You need to listen to them, you need to listen to us, you need to listen to me. We need you to raise the funding for our community and not the police. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Sir? Go ahead.

Okay. Good afternoon, City Council. My name is Jonathan Ryan Hernandez. I am a lifelong resident of the City of Santa Ana, and I'm from Ward 5, I'm proud of it. I'm here today to ask you directly to oppose this ordinance.

In adopting this ordinance, you are directly harming your residents that you were elected to protect and serve. You are upholding a system of white supremacy by voting in favor of increasing and allocating monies to a budget and to a service that has systemically harmed and displaced our families dating back to the 1960s. And you're doing it at the expense of taking away protections from our most vulnerable members of our community, our migrant community. This decision is not only inherently racist, it is irresponsible, and it is unjust.

The system of why we have one in ten kids that graduates college wasn't created accidentally. We have invested in this system historically dating back to the 1960s and 70s. I remember a time where I grew up in this city where Santa Ana's mission was to have education first. We moved away from that and we put profit first and we changed to downtown Orange County. And as a result, one in ten kids graduates college. What happens to those other nine kids? We have these kids fall through the cracks because of irresponsible decisions like this.

We have kids that are dying beside underfunded community centers like the community center in my barrio, El Salvador Park Community Center, where we had a young man get gunned down a couple of months ago. My friend Anthony Aceves got killed May 23rd at the Theo Lacey facility where the police and the sheriffs knowingly knew that he had a mental illness, that he was schizophrenic. What they failed to understand was that that young man also went through the juvenile system where they tested medication on young people like himself.

What I'm talking about is that we have systemically created a system that is not only displacing us, that is murdering us, and that is putting our community second. this isn't a matter of right and wrong. This is about doing your job and doing it without a pat on the back. People have a right to thrive and to live in this community and to not have it come at the expense of your political interests. I ask that you oppose this decision and that you stand with your residents in this community. People are dying out here. Let's get this together and let's do what's right. Thank you.

Thank you.

the population of Santana, this resource helps families to not be deportated and to separate more families. All of them have been able to pay their taxes, and it's unjust that this budget should be supported by the police and for pensioners of them, which is not correct. All of the immigrants and residents have been able to pay 9.25% to pay for Santana, California. which also goes for pensioners of the police. It is something bad, when now more than ever, they should support everyone and should give more funds.

I would say the double of the budget, instead of taking the half of the defense of the legal fund. And sorry, no all the police are bad, but the community doesn't trust more in their uniform, because they abuse their power and kill them. I'm sure not all the police are bad. to conclude briefly, Mr. Tulio and Mr. Solorio, you are grateful for that you put there and the majority of immigrants that you attack your community. You are a clear example of traicion to your culture and to your people and are traitors to your parents, because they

were also immigrants. They are hypocrites with the community and false. What a shame to and let them say that they support the community, when the reality is the other. You are sitting there, thanks to them. And they will be the same, those who are going to take their cargo. A you move your interest. A me, as my people and my community, I am going to help my family. Thank you.

Hello, good evening. My name is Mercedes. Today I want to talk to you about everything that is happening and that is absurd for your proposal. that in fact it's being destined all the funds and legal defense. And I want you to eliminate that. Only 46% of the population in Santa Ana is receiving these resources and this help for the families reported and to not separate the families anymore. Everybody had helped in the economy and to the city, and they're paying taxes.

and it is not fair that this proposal is going to support the police and their pensions, and I think it's not correct. Everybody in the immigrant community is in residence. We pay 9.25% of taxes in Santa Ana, which also is going to for police pensions. This is how it goes dirty, and it's not right, and now we need to abolish that. I think that the double of the proposal needs to go half to the defense of funds for legal assistance. And please excuse me, not all police are bad.

But not all the community trusts in your uniforms and you're abusing your powers and you're killing. And I state not all of them. To conclude, Mr. Pulido and Solori, you are here thanks to the people that voted for you, and the majority of children are migrants. And you are attacking them. You're attacking your community. You are a very good example of treasure to your culture, your people, your traitors, to your parents.

because they were also migrants. Please don't be so hypocrite with the community and be so false. You should be ashamed of yourself to be supporting this reality. You are here. You are sitting there thanks to them. It's them who are going to take your places. Them who are going to move your interests to my community, to my people. compassion to help my community. Thank you.

Members of the Santa Ana City Council, according to the Vera Institute of Justice over a hundred and fifty three thousand immigrants reside in the city of Santa Ana. This 46% of the population also pays the highest sales tax in Orange County of 9.25%. Unfortunately, immigrants are the least supported by this city new budget. It's unfair and abusive to the vulnerable immigrant community to be charged more for something as basic as food purchases at the market and then receive meager crumbs for their contribution if

153,000 immigrants spend an average of $100 a month on food and at the 1.5 percent tax rate increase together they're contributing over two hundred and thirty thousand dollars in tax revenue a month and well over 2.5 million a year just for buying food in the city. To me, just to allocate less than $200,000 to the Legal Defense Fund is a betrayal to 102,000 non-citizens at risk of deportation. The immigrant community of Santa Ana should

receive at least $2 million in support through the Legal Defense Fund, not a cent less because the immigrant community buys more than just food every month. Any less is a slap on the face of the immigrant community. I am a resident of the city and I am outraged at the Legal Defense Fund has been cut off 50% when immigrants contribute much more economically to the city budget through sales taxes and other taxes. I feel that five of these council members

value more the money of the police union, which is the largest campaign spender during the city elections, than the 46% immigrant population in the city. Money paid on pensions doesn't make our city safer. It only worsens the budget into more fiscal crisis. The immigrant community of the city of Santa Ana feels betrayed by this kind of budget and also feels backstabbed by the city council members that appear at community gatherings in hypocritical smiles, posing themselves as defenders of the immigrant communities

that pay for their salaries, but at the crucial moment, they self-serve their own political agendas. We are not your joke. And even though immigrants cannot vote, be sure that the children of immigrants will vote on the next election and will not vote for jokers that laugh behind their backs. Council members, please don't make your last names look bad by voting to keep the budget as is because if you do, you will only prove right the popular saying in our community which is that, quote, the worst enemy of a Hispanic is another Hispanic

If any member of this council considers themselves as a descendant of immigrants make sure you don't bite the hat that feeds you or it will surely bite you back Thank you.

Hello, my name is Ana Gonzalez and as a Santanera who has been resided in Santa Adam for all of her life, I have been able to see how our community has been a victim to how you as city council members are handling our city budget without prioritizing our needs. We are here to demand that you invest in resources we actually need, not the Santa Ana Police Department. When my friends in other countries found out that schools in my community had police literally in them, that's when I realized that the system you built is really messed up. I realize now that you need to bring counselors to these schools, not police officers.

Cops in our schools make us feel like criminals when we are simply walking on campus. I should have learned about what college was earlier on, not ninth grade. Solorio, Villegas, and Hilda, we are here for a reason. We are tired. We are tired. I am tired. I am here physically because I want you to invest in youth, which is stated on your vision statement on today's basic city council meeting information form, likely sitting in front of you. Invest in our education and homeless population and family unity. Stop giving these cops a gun in a short span of six months.

This year's city budget plan should reflect upon what our city is demanding, which is to defund the police. If other cities can pull through, so can you. Stop turning a blind eye to what is being not only shown here today, but nationwide. I am here to fight for the next generation of kids that are coming into our district. like my two-year-old brother. They don't deserve a system like this. Last year, Santa Ana spent $131.6 million on SAPD, $45.6 million on the fire department, and $3.3 million on community development. This is outrageous and ridiculous.

Defunding the police means refunding social services. Know that when the time comes, we will be watching out to see who deserves our vote into our city council for the following year. Thank you.

My name is Lindsay. Santa Ana Police Department was ranked the ninth deadliest police department out of 100 police departments in California. SAPD used more force than 85% of departments, used more deadly force than 70% of departments, and police shootings where police didn't attempt non-lethal force before shooting was 69%. Why is it that 62% of homicide victims unsolved were Latinx? Could my family members be next? citizens of Santa Ana are desperate for police reform not police raises the people should absolutely have a say whether or not the police department

gets a raise because after all they work for us they serve us they are there to serve and protect each and every single last resident who why are they so selected with who they serve are Latinos and black people exempt from public safety whose public safety are we really prioritizing here because I like so many others feel unsafe around the police. If $9 million is going straight to SAPD, why not? Psychological tests, therapy for trauma, they go through biased tests. Those $9 million could easily go to rehab facilities, mental health facilities, therapy for kids, working

through trauma, school programs, after school programs, public housing. If you prioritize police over all of those community necessities, then we are not going anywhere anytime soon. We will be here. We are begging you to please redistribute those funds to the most vulnerable in our local society. Please reconsider the impact you have. All of us are asking for the exact same thing. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Trina Nguyen, and I'm here to talk about the funding just like everyone else. And I noticed just while that girl was talking, you guys decided to walk around and talk while we're talking, aren't you? Like, these are your jobs. You're supposed to be standing there, sitting, listening to us instead of bickering to the next person next to you. But besides that fact, the funding with the police department needs to go to more educational purposes. There are kids in special education programs who are literally taught to stretch. Why the fuck? I'm sorry. Why

was I taught to stretch? Like, that's pretty ridiculous. Why is it that in special education programs, the special ed kids are given hand-me-downs, hand-me-downs from the AP classes from the regular classes. Why is it that special education programs, how come those students, how come the special education program costs more money than regular ed, which I completely understand, but it's the fact that we're giving coaches as our teachers. I was given a head coach and an assistant coach. What are they going to teach me, to throw a ball? Like, that makes no sense. Thank you.

Hi. First off, I'd like to pray and hope everyone is staying healthy out there, especially in Santa Ana. During hard times like these, we need to remind ourselves to stand strong together and take care of one another. I was born and raised here in Santa Ana. As a first generation here raised by refugees of Cambodia on default is already a struggle, as my family didn't understand the ropes or the importance of the educational system, or American society as they've just survived a genocide. We need to defund the police and invest in our community. We need to invest in our education.

When I was in elementary, leading to intermediate school, programs that meant so much to me growing up, like science, field trips, art and music programs, were suddenly budgeted or cut. Extracurricular activities are just as important as any other subject, as they can help a child express, explore, mold and help learn more about themselves as they are growing. As a college student now transferring to university, it took me nine years, but I survived community college and it was a struggle mentally and financially. Living in Santa Ana where housing is exponentially increasing every year, I had to work two jobs

just to support myself and I worked so much that I didn't qualify for financial aid or Pell Grants to help with my educational expenses. We need to defund the police and invest in our community, housing and educational system where everyone has a chance to succeed and live comfortably. Not everyone has a quiet office space to focus on studying without any distractions or a laptop or even Wi-Fi in their household. We need more resources readily available, more libraries open with access to resources and available for longer hours.

We need resources where we can easily have access to free counseling and tutoring or simply a safe place to study at. We need to defund the police and allocate the funds to invest in our community to help us thrive because we are the future. Thank you.

Good evening. It's hard for me to see you. I hope you're looking here and listening. As public servants, you forget you can fool some of the people some of the time. You can't fool all the people all the time. You're in the hot seat this evening, but what will you do with your power tonight, next week? What are you going to do with it before November? What will your legacy be? Will it make your grandchildren proud?

Have you reached the ambitions your grandparents had for you?

Have you thought of the ambitions of the boys and girls of your city?

One library, leaving kids without computers, without Wi-Fi, without affordable recreation, could that be killing their ambition? By being reckless with $9 million, you are building your reputation. You're cushioning the bed that you will lie on. The people are talking. Listen! Because the revolution is being televised.

Hi, my name is Jane Smith.

Sarmiento, Villegas, Solorio, Mendoza, Bacera, Peñalosa, Pulido. I do not know what words to say to move you. I don't know if those words exist, but I would be remiss not to try to conjure those words as a fellow citizen of Orange County. I will only remind you that this is your opportunity to be more than a footnote in the history of the city's corruption and deferment of justice.

You can be the change the residents of Santa Ana wish to see, the change that black, indigenous, and people of color residents

have been demanding and been deprived of for centuries. Let us not forget that you work for these residents. It is as easy as a vote to defund the police.

Hi there, my name is Steve Gallegos. I wanted to say hello to those of you who I've introduced myself to. Villegas, Melida Mendoza, Filabacerra, and Solorio. You guys can finally see my face. Hello. I want to let you guys know that this is really too little time to give your constituents because if I divide all the agenda items, basically I have seven seconds to speak on any of the items. And per the Brown Act, we really are supposed to be given more time. At any rate, 55A, I vote yes on allowing the vehicles, vending vehicles on property. 65A, pilot park host 7 days for one person might be too much and I think a thorough background

is required because we don't want any kind of pedophiles or anyone kind of watching our children 65C for the charter changes, I want to thank Phil Bacerra and David Peñalosa for really putting a lot of hard work into this, I think Solorio was there as well definitely I think there should be term limits for the city council and the mayor I think 8 years is enough for city council. Six years is enough for the mayor. If he hasn't already been on the council, it doesn't make sense to double dip that way. There should be a lifetime ban. Also for the city budget, obviously, as we know, there's been too much of an imbalance. Just to read

you a quote from Sarmiento, he said, there is an inherent balance in the way we funded services here in the city. And that's not to speak any less of one department any better than the other. But when there is such a high, heavy, disproportionate investment in one department to the expense at or at the expense of other departments. We have to ask ourselves, is it fundamentally fair? We understand how important public safety is. Nobody diminishes that. I think, though, we also have to value other civic responsibilities we have as a municipal government. I really resonate with those words because it is very, very true. And, you know,

we're just creating an environment with more police and we're creating an environment where we are creating more criminals rather than better human beings. So it's just kind of like planting an apple seed and expecting a banana to grow. If you keep on planting the same kind of seed and you give it the same kind of atmosphere, it's only ever going to give you one kind of fruit. So if we change the environment and we change what kind of seed we are planting into our city, obviously we're going to get what we want. So thank you so much.

Hi, my name is Maria G and I'm here to vote against the budget. So the reason I'm here is because I want to, so there's more programs for the kids, the budget to be used more on that. Because the youth, they are our future leaders. us we're getting older we're on our way out we need to leave leaders here and right now there's no leaders that's how I feel I've been a resident for the last 35 years I'm a property owner and

business owner and I consider myself I live in a beautiful city in Santa Ana why I question myself why Irvine and other cities like Irvine listen to their citizens and Santa Ana doesn't.

We need to start doing a little bit of that, a little bit more. That's the difference that we have here. When they speak their voices are heard. Santa Ana City Council and Mayor, you need to learn from them. So take pride in your city. It seems like you take no pride in your city. You're just here. But I think based on that, I also believe on 65C that there should be turn limits. I think when someone stays too long, it just opens the door for more corruption.

And I think for the mayor, I think there should be only six years. For city councils, four years, because if the president of the United States can only take two terms, I don't see why here they should make a lifetime career. I think it's enough of career politicians. You need to start listening to the citizens here. A lot of these people, like myself, I came from work, I'm tired, like some of you guys here, and I appreciate that. But a lot of these kids that sometimes people don't want to listen to, they are our future.

You have kids, they're voicing themselves for their kids, themselves, their kids, their siblings, even their parents. And one other thing, I'm so embarrassed that last time when people were calling Hispanic people, they shut them all down. They didn't want to listen to the Spanish-speaking people. And I think that's a shame. Coming from a Hispanic background, I think that was like a slap on the face, and that shouldn't happen. Thank you.

All right, my name is Cesar and I'm here to speak to all of you today because you are all simply nothing more but sellouts to the police department. That's what you are. So all I have to say really is trash number one, trash number two, trash number three, trash number four, trash number five, Trash number six because you called our people animals And trash number seven As well, when the people are speaking to you, you don't listen Instead you decided by a majority vote To fund the police even more Change is coming And we will get rid of you Just so you know that We're done with your lies, your corruption Of power

The city's going bankrupt And instead you decide to fund the police even more Police that are sitting, they're right here. They're right here, literally. And we the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. You are those perverts. Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education. Fund education. Fund the youth. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Maria. I have lived and been raised in Santa Ana, yet today is my first time speaking here in front of you because I decided enough was enough. As a woman of color, I shouldn't fear for my life when walking past a police car. I shouldn't be afraid to call the police when in danger for fear of being marginalized as the criminal instead of the victim because of the color of my skin. It brings me great shame to know that the Santa Ana Police Department is the ninth in California. Knowing this, you still choose to reward them with 42% of those city's budget. You should be punishing them. You should be defunding them.

The police shouldn't be the one kicking out homeless people out of the parks when they have nowhere else to go. Women suffering domestic violence shouldn't be going to the police department only to be told to go home. Schools shouldn't be having police on campus eyeing the students as a potential danger. You should have people who actually want to do their jobs and actually invest in the community. You should have homeless shelters being placed. You should have domestic violence shelters and counseling and educational programs at schools to promote graduation rates. I ask you to invest in the community, families,

the people outside these doors, to invest in me. Santa Ana has a great potential to thrive and be a community of change. So I please ask you to be a part of that change. Don't stand against it. Defund the police.

Hello, Juan Gonzales, Santa Ana resident. As a master's student of public health and city planning at UC Berkeley, I understand the rights that our city's communities are entitled to in order to ensure a thriving and healthy future. Equitable access to parks where folks can engage in physical activity, access to the powerful written word that lies in the stacks of a library, and access to economic opportunity in the forms of supported small businesses and affordable high-quality housing. As such, I again call on U.S. City Council members to oppose the proposed 2021 general fund expenditure

so that SAPD will not receive the lion's share of the city's revenues, with the diverted funds going to other truly essential departments, such as Parks and Rec, Community Development, and the Library. In the context of not only the COVID pandemic, but also the significant financial deficit the city is expecting as a result, it is imperative now more than ever to invest in resources that will set the groundwork for a more healthy and financially stable Santana. Investments in the social fabric of our city, especially in youth, are ones that will yield immense returns.

As an example, the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs found that high-quality early childhood programs can yield a $4 to $9 return per $1 invested. On the other hand, Santana has ranked in the lowest 25% of the most populated U.S. cities with regards to return on investment of taxpayer dollars spent on police protection. The math is simple. Putting policing first means putting our city's overall stability in jeopardy. We cannot expect a marginalizing institution to solve the issues of the marginalized. The Santana community and the people within it are where the bulk of our city's budget should be directed.

All eyes are on this council and will remain on this council to decide this city's future. From Hamilton the musical, remember from here on in history has its eyes on you. And with regards to 22A, I'll read something from the CDC website. Allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are. Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread. Please vote against the homeless encampment removal services contract,

as that could be potentially dangerous in terms of COVID spread across the city, both for the unhouse population and for the general population as well. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Luis Tonani. I'm here to urge this council to prioritize the budget to better housing solutions, better education better public health programs better outreach programs to find out what the public needs dar y recibir i was raised on that value we have to reach out to our public to our neighbors to our friends and families to see what they need and i think especially outreach in my community is necessary i come from a neighborhood that really needs it board two um we i just don't

see enough outreach coming out to us and and the people that live on my block they they're out there working tonight not by choice but because that's what the choice that they have that's what's available to them and i need to see more of an effort

more of an effort to see improvement in our lives and funding police means funding punishment. I don't want that. I want something better for my block. We've been here before to talk about this very issue and I urge that this council do the right thing to reallocate the the systems that will rebuild where it's necessary. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Sylvia Hernandez. I live on the east side of Santa Ana. Our concern, my neighbors, my family members, my friends, we all are concerned about the decisions you were making in the last months that affected us as a community. While the current pandemic is showing the real need of investing more money in the community, with your decisions, apparently you are not considering the current precarious situation and the difficulties that this will create in the future. We currently have sufficient police force

to accommodate to the safety needs, but our lack of affordable housing has become a more pressing matter as of right now. If we can't pay the rent, we might end up in the street. And then what? The police will come and arrest us for being homeless, as we are seeing on these days in the past years. Is that the way that you see our futures? We don't. We would like to have better future and prevent the need and guarantee wellness for all Sanana residents.

We're more decent jobs, affordable housing, and programs to work with the community.

more money in the community. With their decisions, apparently they are not considering the situation precarious and the difficulties that this will bring in the future. Actualmente, we have already sufficient force policial, sufficient to satisfy our needs of security. But more security will bring that a living accessible that has become a more important and urgent. We have many homeless homes in the street. And if we can't pay the rent, we can't pay the rent. That's what we're worried about. We've talked a lot about now that we haven't had salary and work.

And then, what? The police will come to arrest for not having a house, for not being in the park, for not being in the street. Is this how you see our future? Is this how you see our future? would be better to prevent this need and guarantee the well-being of all residents of Santana with more jobs and accessible homes. Good evening.

Thank you.

Justicia a las vidas negras. Exijo justicia a la economía mediante políticas directas que permita acabar con la pobreza de los residentes trabajadores de aquí de Santana. Exijo justicia porque lo que ustedes están haciendo es un ultraje. Ustedes los concejales, administradores de finanzas y agencias policiales nos hacen a la comunidad por medio de contratos sin la supervisión y consentimiento de nosotros los residentes de Santana. We are the ones who pay taxes and those taxes pay their salaries.

And despite our salaries are of low income, even though we are willing to pay the price.

Moral and etically speaking, I'm talking about $0.30 for each dollar, which is only $0.30 for the community. I heard a consejero say that no one can reduce the funding for police officers because there is a contract. What is more important a contract that the lives that are in the hands of police? What is more important and more valuable a contract that families, families without homes,

families, sick, families, families, families, perdiendo a sus seres amados por el COVID-19 y porque no hay suficientes recursos para la salud? ¿Acaso es más valioso un contrato que la vida del ser humano?

La decisión correcta está en sus manos ahora de ustedes como concejales y administradores de nuestros recursos. Y la decisión correcta para mí y para la mayoría de la comunidad, sino es que toda la comunidad, es que se retiren los fondos a los policías y se reinvierta en la comunidad ya hemos mandado presupuesto ya nos mandado ideas de cómo se puede reflejar mejor la inversión para la comunidad gracias y también quisiera agregar que se me hace que ustedes están mostrando lo que es la discriminación ustedes están dentro y nosotros estamos fuera esa discriminación gracias

Hello, good evening. My name is Luz Maria Martinez. I'm a Sanana resident. I'm here to demand social justice and economic justice. I demand justice to the life of blacks. I demand justice to economic life by politics, direct politics, that allows us address poverty and residents and workers in Santa Ana.

I demand that it's outrage that council members, administrators, finance, police agencies are attacking the community through these contracts, seeing the supervision, without supervision, consentment of ours, of the residents of Santa Ana.

Morally and ethically, we're speaking, why is it outrageous that 70 cents of every dollar are directed to agencies, to police agencies, and only 30 cents to the needs of the residents? I listened to a city council member saying that we cannot reduce the funds destined to police because there is a contract.

It is more important a contract than the life of the residents, families, and it's really sad that the tears of the loss of their families, of their homes due to COVID-19 and the lack of medical resources. The list is very, very infinite. But I want to say today only with this situation because these families can be helped if you, as council members, take the right decision. I also like to mention that this is discrimination.

You are inside, we are outside, and that's discriminatory. Thank you.

Good evening. I take my mask off. I'm Alberta Christie. I'm Chair of the Historic Resource Commission. I'm here to speak on item number 65B, the recommendations that the Historic Resource Commission is presented to the City Council. First of all, I'd like to thank Executive Director Mintai and staff working along with our attorney Lisa Struth and our City Manager Christine Ridge and helping us formulate these recommendations to you. We came together in October of last year the Commission did under work a work study

because of the fact that we found out that we were lacking in authority and so many areas in preserving, which is the first part of the duties of this commission, of our historic buildings, sites, and sensitive areas. And that what we need to do is to come up with recommendations to more or less give us that authority or change ordinance in order to enhance our protection of these historic treasures that are here in Santa Ana.

The first of all that's on your agenda for recommendation is to authorize staff to develop policies for establishing neighborhoods that will be identified as historically sensitive areas. We've identified nine neighborhoods for this designation and for the protection of not only of their home structures but the characteristics of that particular neighborhood. Approve a heightened administrative review process for buildings within a historically sensitive area. This is what we're doing as far as establishing, recommending establishment

of the new planning section for historic preservation section with the planning division. Authorize staff to prepare amendments to the Senate and a municipal code that would allow historic resource commission the ability to impose condition of approval on historic application and increase the frequency of our meetings. And four, authorize staff to compete a comprehensive update on single family, multi-family, and historic structures chapters in the citywide design guidelines.

And five, authorize staff to prepare a citywide tree preservation and protection ordinance. There's nothing in there to protect on public and private properties the significance of these historic trees. So we do hope that you will approve these recommendations and strengthen the Historic Resource Commission's ability to preserve our historic treasures. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

this year 2020. Two San Antonio PD officers racially profiled me and violated me of my Fourth Amendment right. At approximately 1 a.m. they trespassed into my home, detained, and searched me without any probable cause. They yelled at me, come here, as they jumped into my front lawn and told me to put my hands behind my back. I complied and had the entire encounter recorded, as they found nothing on me other than wearing black attire as I am today. Tell me, Am I a threat right now? No, they refused to give me their badge numbers and fled immediately so I could not get their license paid.

This type of harassment is unacceptable and unlawful. I am aware that I am only one victim who experiences this, but many victims such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Ahmaud Arbery, and Andres Guardado have lost their lives due to extremities of these unlawful, unjust, and racist behaviors. Call it how it is. Thus, I demand that you all do your job as public representatives and help protect us by investing in our youth and community with resources instead of utilizing it to criminalize, incarcerate, and kill us. If not, then best believe I will do everything in my power

as well as everybody that's out there to vote you all out. Thank you.

good evening members of the council my name is carlos perea i'm a board president for the orange county justice fund and just earlier today i sent you an email to all of you with a letter signed by more than 25 organizations telling you to restore the full funding for the serious deportation the first defense program i'm also hearing support for the calls to the phone police and it is important to note that residents of the city young people have called in the past two three council meetings telling you to stop funding the police department at the current level

and secondly you have a lot of people today that have showed up despite the pandemic and even in this like like circumstances and we have to speak to you in a camera fall away from you to tell you that you have to do the right thing. So I'm not sure if all this, if people call on you to finally do the moral right thing to do, it's not going to convince you. I don't know what it is. I don't know what political interests you're responding to. I don't know who you have to please, but it's not definitely the rest of Santa Ana because you're not prioritizing them. Also, it is incredible, incredibly at the service

to the community and mostly immigrant community in the city that you're considering slashing the funds for the deportation defense program. This is a program that is crucial, that is needed for Santa Ana residents facing deportation and detention. So again, calling you to completely fund the program and to not allocate additional money for the police department. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Hector, and I'm a resident here of Santana. I'm a young person of this city. We're here today to tell you we have had enough. We have had enough of this political corruption. We have had enough of the police killing us in the streets every single day. And I wish, I wish that I was up closer so that you can all look at me in the eyes and tell me that this is okay. It's upsetting to look through these glass windows, through this camera to see the majority of you looking down. Not even looking at us, not even paying us that simple respect.

That's, I can't even put into words how angry, how upset I am at this moment. the youth that you heard speak here today are youth of your city.

They're the youth of this city. They're the future of this city. And what you have to understand that come November, if you're up for re-election and you decide to approve this budget, you're out. It's plain and simple.

Council Member Mendoza, you just started. You're out real quick if you decide to vote yes. And that's the reality. because young people of this city are tired. And Councilmember Sarmiento and Councilmember Peñalosa, thank you for voting no. But today, I ask that both of you do more than just say no. Convince the people to both of your sides to disapprove this budget, a budget that does not represent the needs of our community, a budget that for years has not represented the young people of this city.

the mayor has been in office for longer than I've been alive. Do you all understand that? Longer than I have been alive. I have not seen this city move towards change since he's been in office and since a lot of you have been sitting up in the dais. So I ask that you do your responsibility, you do your due diligence as people who work for us, as people who work for the youth, as people that should report to us and ask us, hey, what do you need? what should this budget look like? We shouldn't have to be coming to you. You should be coming to us. And you shouldn't be voting for a budget that is not reflective of what we need.

You all need to understand that if we're ever going to get anywhere in this city. People outside of this city and even in Santa Ana continuously criminalize our youth. Let's stop that narrative today. Let's move on a path to change. You all have the power to do that. And if you don't do that today, then your outcome this November or when it's your seat is up for re-election.

Hi everyone, my name is David Carvajal. I'm a lifetime resident of Santana and a community health worker here in santana i wanted to take a moment to acknowledge those that could not be here to engage civically in their community because they're either immunocompromised and could not be here and because the city of santana decided that folks could not engage virtually even though as covid19 infections continue to rise in santana i also want to remind you like other folks have mentioned several times tonight that SAPD is the eighth most murderous police

department in the country and in such an important political moment around the nation it is important that we listen to those demanding we invest in our community and not in models of suppression incarceration and criminalization. As a tenant's rights advocate I want to lift the reality that our community is about to face a tsunami of evictions as a result of unemployment due to the pandemic. The city of Santana has the power to alleviate the anxiety and hardship of community and invest in an eviction defense fund to protect our communities from the violence of evictions.

We need a rental assistance fund that is accessible. Legal Aid Society is an organization that does not provide services to undocumented people. This is not accessible. We also need a a rental assistance fund that meets the needs of Santana tenants. $500,000 helped 30 families in Santana. The city of Anaheim was able to invest over $5 million in a rental assistance fund. All of you can do better for tenants in Santana. We need to reenact our rent freeze. It makes absolutely no sense that rents are being allowed to rise in the middle of a pandemic when thousands of community members continue to be unemployed.

community members are being sent home and won't be able to pay the rent all of you you none of you could protect the eviction moratorium it ends on july 28th that's not even the end of the month we need to protect our community and we need to stop funding a murderous police department a police department that is not for our people that never has been for our people and we need to defund sapd

provide supportive commentary on behalf of the Korea Town Immigrant Workers Alliance. The Korea Town Immigrant Workers Alliance is supporting all the points that have been put forth by the Santa Ana community. Things like funding the Immigrant Legal Defense Fund one more time. It's really a shame that we have to come and argue about funding the Immigrant Legal Defense Fund, which is one of the primary things that was led by Santa Ana residents. I was part of that group. and yet we still have to come and argue the validity, the humanity of investing money where it's most needed.

I think I've spent about seven years coming to council in different capacities and the story keeps repeating itself. That means that there's a crisis in leadership in the city and if there's a crisis in leadership, you need to listen to those that are stepping up in real leadership and that is us and that is the young people who are outside who are also going to come testify and repeat that you need to fall on the right side of justice. I understand that you need to fund the police department, but you can fund them a little less because there has been an amount of huge population that I'm included in my parents

who are working right now in buildings in Irvine and cannot come testify. We have to show up just so you can know that we are being really impacted. So it is not about making statements. Your vote will make a difference in our lives. And that is why I'm here to plead to you that you reconsider approving this budget and that you wait a little longer and actually take the time to listen to the community and really understand what it means to fund youth. What does it mean to invest in youth? And if that means taking away a lot of money from the police department, that's what that means.

It doesn't mean that we're against this or that, but it really means that you're prioritizing the money where it's most needed. And defund the police, there's a reason why people are saying this in the city of Santa Ana. We're not just saying it just because it's the sexy thing to do. It's actually the necessary thing to do. Thank you very much for your time, and I hope that you really reflect on your decision and that you don't approve a budget that does not include the community demands. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Bumaro Bumado Vicente. I am a resident of Santa Ana Ward 4 and I'm also a community organizer in Santa Ana. I'm here to call on you to defund the Santa Ana Police Department and invest in the Santa Ana People's Budget Platform. This includes funding mental health services providers who are working with low-income marginalized immigrant communities. We need to look into alternative responses to police instead of them responding to mental health incidents. This will save lives and money from the city. From 2016 to 2019, our city has

spent over over 11 million dollars on paid bodily injury and legal fees. I believe that these fees should be paid by the officers who committed harm, not by the city. You act as if defunding the police is impossible and unjust, but you have been cutting and robbing the city's finances of police for years. This shouldn't be surprising when the majority of you all receive thousands of pay-for-play money by the POA to keep your seats and empty promises. We're in a racial justice, health, and budget crisis. Your own projections anticipate the city will be running a deficit

a deficit of $20 million next year, growing up to a $35 million annual deficit in just two years. All of this coming right after we passed Measure X to fix a decade of budget shortfalls. This mask can't be blamed on COVID or shutdowns. It's a matter of misplaced priorities and principles. Lastly, I think it's unfair that the mayor and some council members are not here in person when there are vulnerable elders that have been waiting outside for hours to make public comment when people like the mayor have the privilege to be in the comfort of your home what a shame do your job and listen to the community defund sapd thank you

Good evening. My name is Jessie Lopez. First, I'd like to express how disappointed I am in the decision to force an Anna residents to physically show up today to express their concerns about their hometown. You know, from what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing, not everybody's here, so I'm not sure why the expectation has been put on us to show up.

I'm here to also speak on item 19E and 65D.

I read in the staff report for 19E that additional outreach will take place to address issues like environmental justice. There is a wide lack of distrust in the city's ability to do outreach that will be multilingual and accessible. I expect the city, in good faith, to reach out to the following organizations in a timely manner. Rise Up Willowick, Orange County Environmental Justice, Thrive Santa Ana, Equity for All, Madison Park Neighborhood Association, and Jovenes Cultivando Cambio. Our community members have been fighting for equitable outcomes for a very long time.

Our community members have been protecting and enhancing our community assets. In order to create a sustainable city that promotes education and prosperity, our organizations need to be informed about the upcoming meetings in a timely manner. Those who are closest to the problem are closest to the solution, and we have been providing solutions for a very long time now. Please make it a priority to be responsible in your outreach. I am also here in support of the renewal of the Deportation Defense Fund to continue providing protections for our families in need. Thank you.

good evening my name is Selena Gallegos and I want to start by voting yes on 55a to allow food vendor vehicles to serve on private property and city parking lots. As a member of this community since like I was born that food vendors have always been a very big part of our community so we need to let that pass. And as for 55B to have the elections held on November 3rd of 2020 this year I vote yes because we need to have this election fresh this year and not wait until next year so that you know you guys

in hopes that people are going to forget about all the things they're advocating for today and I vote no on 65A we need more park rangers I don't think we need someone living at Thornton Park you guys also need to present more information on that there's not very much information on that We need more insight. As far as 65C, I vote yes. We do need to have term limits on the chambers because how is it possible that a mayor has been in his position since far before I was even born? and I think three terms of two years is sufficient that six years if you are

elected for all three terms and for 65D I vote yes for you guys to revise it and also to revoke the vote and increasing the SAPD budget we can use that money other places to restore like restoring our parks such as Salvador Park Jerome Park and Madison Park and for 85A I want to thank Councilmember David Penaloza for enforcing masks you know to help the community so that we're safer and I wanted to tell Phil Bracera I'm from your ward and I would appreciate it

if you spoke up for your community because when you're up for re-election if you don't start speaking up for us more than we're not gonna re-elect you And as for Juan Villegas in Ward 5, believe me, I know a lot of people in that community, and you haven't been doing much for them. Just take a look at Salvador Park and in what condition it's in. You need to start doing better. And as for everyone, thank you. And please, please, please do better. And Mayor Pulido needs to be here. if he cannot be present completely, then he needs to, you know, recant his position because we need someone who's going to be present.

Sure. Hi, my name is Katie Newman. I'm a resident of Ward 4 in Thornton Park. I'm also one of Councilmember Becerra's residents and I too would love to have you advocate more for our voices and I'd love to hear from you. I have yet to hear from you in response to any of the comments I've made thus far. I do thank Councilmember Mendoza for responding both on the phone and by email. I appreciate that you've been willing to actually have a dialogue. and in terms of the vote on the budget tonight all right so thank you to councilmember Sanmiento

and councilmember Penalosa for voting no we hope that you will do that again tonight and and we hope that you will convince some of the other council members sitting next to you to do the same we're all here everyone that's spoken thus far we're concerned about public safety that that's that's what we want we're not we're not asking you to defund public safety we're asking you to create it to remodel it um on june 23rd at in front of the board of supervisors meeting it was a similar crowd like this activated young people out to voice and engage civically

which i hope that u.s council members are proud of this is this has been so beautiful to see us engaged like this and you should be proud and you should be listening and in front of that meeting as I was waiting to speak with other community members some a good amount from Santana there were counter protesters walking in flashing signals of white pride in their hand gestures and some of those same people later put their hands on peaceful protesters in front of a line of the Santa Ana PD. I didn't see Santa Ana PD intervene

or separate counter-protesters and probe Black Lives Matter protesters. There was nothing done. I asked them if they knew what that symbol was. The sergeant or the commander that was there said that he didn't know that that was a white power sign. So that leads me to believe that there's either a problem with training or that there was a decision to not create more safety. So volunteers ended up enforcing safety out there that day. So in creating public safety, like everyone else that spoke in here today, I urge you to please look at the funding again.

We need to fund the programs that work, our community, our libraries, recreation, education, mental health services. And please, please, please continue the deportation defense funds. we don't need you to cut that we need you to fund it please thank you for your time thank you

julio rana ward 4 resident i came to this country as a kid and have been a benefactor of a good education system that was once in santa yana and hearing all these people talk about I mean I've never seen so many people turn up right and I'm going to give you a personal anecdote on how like you guys are so into this police budget and and we're you know we're you guys do preach about keeping our community safe I work as an agent I'm a landlord in the city I own a hundred year old home and I recently had

to deal with the down payment assistance program in Santa Ana right everybody can agree that The investing in our community and homeownership creates safer communities. However, I had never met anyone that had gone to the program. So somebody reached out to me to help her out. And she had gone through the entire process of counseling and going through the pre-approval process. But the level of arrogance, the level of incompetence that I experienced with the city officials, anybody that's in charge of this program, was outrageous. first of all it was surprising she actually went through and she could go for it and get it but once

we were in contract to get this property we never nobody ever returned our calls everybody was always backing like they were just trying to save their asses their butts and it's so hard you guys preach about community development and having safe communities but I don't know where this money goes to i've never met anyone that's gotten a down payment assistance program right so just to hear the level of like like how people you know people are so concerned and if you guys are really concerned about your community i would urge you to restructure the program and really make it more

available increase the program because people want these type of programs and it's good for the community so i mean i won't give you all the stats and so many people that showed up today It was amazing. All this woman wanted was to give her little girl an extra bedroom and the city officials that were in charge of this program treat her like crap and pretty much dismissed her. So it's unbelievable that this happened to her. That's all I gotta say. Thank you.

Hi, City Council. My name is Roberto with Resilience Orange County, but I'm also here as a community member from Santana. I live on the West End. I think it's despicable. I sent in comments earlier too through e-comments about the city's lack of inclusion and attack on democracy to include city voices and city perspectives during a pandemic. You know, I'm totally down to come and make public comment in person, but there are countless folks with disabilities and that are immunocompromised that cannot make public comment in person. So I ask that you institute phone in public comments, you know, now.

What does liberation look like? universal representation, eviction defense fund, community lands in community hands, worker cooperatives, investing in youth, a world without police. The community has vision, but we're trapped in policy, politics, thoughts and prayers, pay for play, and it's hurting us slowly. to be ruled unconstitutionally, to be ruled out of existence, to be silenced with intentions to destroy both you and I.

Our lives are bound together, each of us contributing to our own communal survival. Mutual aid, community defense is what we need, not cops, no budgets for SAPD. Can you hear it? The helicopters flying above us in Santana. If you see something, say something. Calling us against each other, mirrors of policing in our community, community self-policing, and there's a federal grant for that. We need to be reminded that this council continuously silences Santana youth.

Your actions ignite white supremacists, gentrifiers, the police, and those who take violence into their own hands, labeling and restructuring the laws for themselves, self-defense, stand your ground, police bill of rights to kill. We must put a stop to white supremacists, white fear, white violence, white tears, from the fruit that is orange and sweet. rotten seeds citrus husks oily essence full of hay and sham dirt that is full of lead

city violence, negligence from here in Santana to Flint in Michigan lead in our blood dripping down this skin that is brown drip, drip, drip best tasting water too good to be true inside this blue cup of city violence never tasted so good and yet I've never been so thirsty for justice. Let's cut that police budget, take away our dirty jail, abolish ICE and prisons and the police. But to say I'm not scared for this upcoming election would be a lie. Why? Cheating laws, dark money, bought votes, cop-loving, gun-bearing, surveillance-loving crooks can potentially take hold of our city. Or have they already?

But to say that I'm not inspired by the youth outside is a lie too. They see through you. They are engaged. They are ready to vote in November as you begin to vote tonight on the city budget. Listen to them. Listen to their demands. Take action. Heed their call. Defund SAPD.

ACAD. All cops are bastards. Good afternoon, City Council. This is my fourth year advocating for the defunding of the police budget. And this is my fourth year being here as a young person. I'm here to continue to ask City Council members to listen to community members and young people. They all are asking to cut SAPD budget. No reform. Defund the police. Abolish them. Do you not hear them? Do you not listen to us? They march. They want to be heard. Hear us, not kill us.

Remember that we voted you in and we can vote you out. All these young people are here watching you and ready to vote. SAPD is the most, eighth most militarized department in California. How disgusting is that? What do you have to say to the officers that shot rubber bullets, that criminalized residents, that laugh on our faces and smirk when we call them racist, murderers, pigs? They smile and laugh because they know we are right. They know that they are the racist people, that they are white conservatives, that they're under a white conservative system that only benefits them and white people.

Nelida, you are my rep. You are currently serving in that goddamn seat. Do your fucking job. You talked with community members recently and you listened to them and now you want to act neutral? You want to meet them halfway? You want to still give funding to the police department? You siding with them? You're siding with the POA. You're siding with them. Listen to us. Hear us. See us. See us when we're crying. Listen to us when we're asking you to defund the police. Phil Becerra, we legit gave you. We emailed you.

Santa Ana People's Budget Platform. And you're still asking, how do we defund, how do we increase, how do we pay young people's programs? Easy answer. Defund the police. That's your job. Do your goddamn job. Remember, young people voted you in, young people are ready to vote you out. ACAB, all power backers.

I'm Angel. I'm a youth in Santana. First of all, I just want to say, Phil Becerra, you got me too'd. Yeah, you got me too'd. You shouldn't even be here. We don't want you here. Yeah, we don't want you here. Second of all, yeah, you're not supposed to be here. You got me too'd. And if you're going to vote to increase the police budget, you're trash. You're trash at doing your job. Whoever's going to vote to increase the police budget, you're trash at doing your job. You're failing at doing your job. You're failing at serving the future, the community, the people that live here.

And I just want to mention to the cops sitting here and not social distancing, I just want to ask, is COVID not a thing anymore? Right here, they're all sitting next to each other. Is COVID not a thing anymore? Is that what we're paying them to do? To not follow social distancing guidelines and sit there? I'm just asking, is that what we're paying them to do? Is that where our taxes are going? Is that where the money that should be going to the youth is going? Is that what we want? Is that the money that the youth deserve going? That's a disgrace. You're trash. You're not even my rep, but you're still trash. You're a disgrace.

I just want to say that the youth aren't getting enough money for programs that they need and they deserve. And when you ask Phil Becerra, where are we going to get that money? I think, you know, I don't know if you're doing your job or, you know, you're just there sitting. Maybe you could use your ears and listen to the people that called and think. What were they saying? Defund the police. Come on, dude, do your job. You're literally an embarrassment. You're embarrassing yourself. You're trash. We need more money to fund youth programs to get them the counselors they deserve. Defund school police, defund SAPD. Thank you.

Hello City Council members and Santana community watching and listening at home. My name is Jesus Santana. I am a community organizer with Resilience Orange County and also supporting residents from the Sullivan and Action Group. Today I am here to implore that you listen to the demands and priorities of our community. You run for office to represent us, the people of Santana. Now for your friends at the POA. You ask for public input on these decisions, but you cancel our opportunity to voice our concerns via telephone? How absurd is that? We are here risking our lives because you choose to be naive.

All of you know very well that Santana has the most coronavirus cases in Orange County. But despite that, the youth and community members are here risking their lives because we care about the way the city funds our programs and services. We know what we want, and guess what? None of these funds go toward the police department. We want you to listen to the People's Platform by investing more in universal representation, the Immigration Defense Fund, rental relief for our low-income community, and an attendant defense fund for those who are in danger of losing their homes. We want affordable and accessible housing now.

Thank you, and I hope you listen to our demands.

Hello, my name is Parker. And I just want to ask, how expensive is that helicopter fuel that you use every night when you go out and disturbing protesters? How about that flashy riot gear that you get all the time? You have to be an emo with a set on the ground to not realize the priority you put in the city is mediocre. Your ignorance is what it's like to be a Santaneros in Saunders. It's a shame to see the injustice occur in peaceful protests. How long does it take to be a police officer? Six months to a year? That's ridiculous. How can anybody be prepared for that type of job with that time gap?

Are you brain dead?

Defund the police and reform it. Make broader requirements and make the police go through different training. We don't need this violence going on in our city. And the homelessness going on in our city is very disturbing. I can't go walking down the street without seeing a homeless person on the street laying down. Some of them are naked. Some of them are in really bad condition. Especially during this time of pandemic. How can you be so ignorant to not see all the distress on the street? There's so many homeless people out there. They can't get a social security number, a card. They can't get an ID.

How are they supposed to get jobs? How are they supposed to get better? There's no programs for them. There's nothing for them to live off of. They're just on the street because you turn your backs on them. You're not funding the right things. You're just funding money-hungry programs that don't need to exist. They don't need to be here. Especially since all the cities around us are criminalizing our youth. Thinking that we're all bad here. Thinking that, oh, this is a big bad scenario, right? It's not true. There's a lot of talented people out here. I've seen so many talented people out here.

But it's also a sad truth that there's so many homeless that's around. And there's so much brutality. And so much injustice. Thank you.

My name is Laura Perez and I'm a proud resident of Santa Ana. I am here today to ask for city council members to shift their votes in the new city budget that will be giving millions of dollars that were promised to our youth through Measure X to a police department that has proven to not be effective in their field of work. Invest in the community that lives here, not the parties that walk away with hefty paychecks at the expense of criminalizing our community members. Invest in our youth programs that will allow our future leaders to thrive in higher education

only to return back to Santa Ana and fill those seats that have been bought for you through special interests. My husband and I showed up today to support our youth after one of our own community members made a call out for support from adults in our community. Hector, I am so proud of your efforts today. To make a call out in the middle of a global pandemic and to hold our police department and local government accountable is amazing. I am confident and hopeful that our city is in great hands because of natural leaders like yourself. Keep fighting this fight. You're not alone.

As long as I'm alive and residing in this city, we all call home. To our youth outside, at home, and for those many generations that are still to come, don't be afraid to hold your city representatives accountable. Call them out if you see them in public. Call out David Peñalosa when he calls you animals. Call out the mayor when his face is buried in his cell phone. Call out Villegas when he lies to your face and fails the war that he represents. especially right now that his zip code in that ward has the highest cases of COVID-19.

Call them out especially when they sell their souls to developers and the POA. Call out our city manager who makes almost half a million dollars

at the expense of our community, lives in South Canning, and mandates city curfews to oppress our youth when they are trying to get the word out for black lives, for brown lives, for indigenous lives, for immigrant lives. Don't give up the fight. And for every single council member that either hasn't blocked me on Facebook or sees me and looks the other way, I hope that once district elections come that our youth registers to vote and signs up their families to have their voices be heard. Thank you.

Mayor, that was the last speaker.

Thank you, Madam City Clerk. I want to bring it back to the City Council. Madam City Manager, Would you like to make a presentation of any thoughts you may have, and then we'll bring it to council for consideration?

Mr. Mayor, can I just, before the city manager takes the floor and addresses that, I just had a question on the process.

Go ahead. Go ahead.

I know that first we wanted to make an in-person public comment section available because we were having some technical difficulties. And at the last few meetings, there was a delay in people speaking and being heard and some people were cut off. So this was an option that was presented to try to cure that problem, to have people come in and speak in person in the vestibule in the lobby that was here. And then we had a surge, as you know, where Santa Ana was considered one of the hot spots in the county along with West Anaheim.

And then we had the governor's recent executive order basically stating that he is recommending that we don't have folks gather. So, you know, my concern is, and I'm disappointed, that we didn't have an option available for people to phone in. I know that it has some flaws. I know that it has some defects. I think we should be able to cure those, but I'm more concerned about maybe compromising our state funding because the governor was clear in his directives to all local governments that we have to make a good faith effort to make sure this virus doesn't continue to spread.

And to the extent that we have folks that are disabled or have compromised immune systems and can't come, we're basically limiting their ability to address us and their opportunity to be heard. so I know we received some letters from the ACLU and others calling that out so I'm just concerned I know that you know I you know spoke to the city clerk I think late last week when we saw the governor's order come through I think it came through on Thursday but you know look we have to be able to figure this out this is this pandemic isn't going away anytime soon I want to

you know call on our it director to make sure that at least from my point of view we have to figure this out because this this isn't something that's ending at the next meeting if we can't figure it out let's find some help i think this is a covert related um you know cost that we could recover um so you know we just have to somehow understand that people have to be able to participate remotely for various reasons public health reasons accessibility reasons but i just think that we have to make both of these options available this just isn't acceptable because this is the quintessential Town Hall and when we

prevent people from addressing us especially because we're we're discussing a topic as pervasive as important as the city budget look I'm just I just think that we're a better organization than that we're the county seat we're a large city we should have resources at the ready to make sure that we can handle this volume of calls. So I just asked the city manager, you know, the city attorney and the city clerk and the IT director to please work together as a team. I'm sure that all of us don't want to prevent anybody from being able to address this. Some of the things we're listening

to are not easy to hear. That doesn't matter. This is their chamber. This isn't ours. This is, you know, the people's house. So, look, that's all I wanted to say. You know, I just don't know how we can't figure it out yet. This has been with us for a few months. This is going to be with us for an indefinite period of time. So I just wanted to mention that, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a quick comment.

Yes, go ahead, Mayor Pro Town.

I just want to thank our city clerk for doing the best she could on this and the IT director and everyone else on staff, there is no solution to this. And I understand that when we had the phone calls coming in, that wasn't working out very well, too, and it was something, but there was still many, many complaints coming in that people weren't getting through. You know, it's not the clerk's fault. It's not the staff's fault. They're really, really trying hard. Yes, the governor's orders came in at the last minute. And you know what? People have limitations. They're trying to figure this out, and it's still not perfect.

we're going to continue to work on it but i just want to thank the clerk for her good work and diligence and trying to make this you know as best as possible for everyone and i appreciate everyone

David PenalozaItem —

that came down here today to speak mr mayor this is councilman penelosa if i can go ahead go ahead go ahead thank you sir i just wanted to say that i also um agree with councilmember sabmiento um i think the we're right there is no solution to this pandemic currently that we see but the solution that we could do right now as a body is just have options available for the public to address us that is the the concern and that is you know it's i'm not as as as polished as but it's irresponsible and it's uh we're doing a disservice to our community by not allowing

David PenalozaItem —

phone-in comments um we should have multiple options available for them to address us because this is their chamber, and we are public servants and work for them. So I don't know if – I know it's not perfect. I know there's a lag in the system, and that's why we were getting missed calls. But, I mean, that's a perfect solution to me is, you know, as soon as a city clerk announces, you know, lines are now open for public comment. If you wish to speak, press 9 or whatever it is. Let's wait two minutes, three minutes. for callers to start trickling in because there is a lag in the system.

David PenalozaItem —

And that would give enough time for the speakers to start popping up on the clerk's screen on this end. So I don't know, Madam City Attorney, if that's something that I don't want to 85 an item for the next city council meeting because that just puts it out another month. But is there like, because there's a pandemic and there's an emergency, I forget the term you used, but can we call an emergency 85 item now to address public comment at this council meeting?

David PenalozaItem —

Madam City Attorney. I know at the last council meeting we did an emergency executive order for what it was for, but it wasn't on the agenda and we were able to do it. but it just required a majority how can we do something like that in regards to

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

public comment so the Brown Act would allow the City Council to add an emergency item or urgency item to the agenda and when you can satisfy two conditions one did the issue come up after the posting of the agenda and is there a need to take immediate action in terms of anything about public comment I would look to the city manager to accept any of your feedback to maybe offer suggestions um i don't i this is an urgent issue in terms of the public whether you need to take immediate action now i believe that your city manager may be able to address some of those issues

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

with the feedback that you provide her so it would require a super majority vote of the council to add an item to the agenda and it would be you would have to make those individual findings

David PenalozaItem —

okay i i just personally don't like how this has been carried out you know we we announced to the public on thursday that we weren't going to allow phoning comments anymore only in person but we also mentioned that we were going to have outdoor seating available for the people to watch the meeting so i told you know the platforms i use that we were going to have seating available for them and then yesterday at like 5 30 p.m there's an exo saying that there will be no seating and emails encouraged i mean we we shouldn't be i know none of us have dealt with the pandemic but it's

David PenalozaItem —

important that we really address the the fact that the public needs to be able to address us i know uh to to all to kudos to to the clerk's office and the city manager's office we are one the few cities in the county that has even allowed live comments this entire time i know cities like anaheim only do email and that's it so so and cities like like irvine as well only do email we are always going above and beyond to accommodate but you know we should be the leader we should be uh uh someone that the county could other cities in the county could look at and say you know what, Santa Ana's doing it, why can't other cities?

David PenalozaItem —

So during a pandemic and a public health crisis, we should be able to allow multiple options of public comment. Those are my two cents.

Mayor Pulido, this is Council Member Mendoza.

Okay, Member Mendoza, please go ahead.

I understand that we cannot make everyone happy. However, the process that we used tonight was to protect the public. We're not separating them. We're not trying to disrupt their comments. This was merely to protect them, and that is why they were in the lobby. I know that it would be much more convenient for the public to call in. However, there has been a disadvantage because some of these public comments have been from people from out of state, maybe even out of the country as far away as London and Australia. So that's not fair to our public.

Our residents deserve the truth. Our residents deserve for the public to state their true names and not impersonate city staff. So by being here, I think in person, it really puts the speaker, I'll notice that we need to have your name because we're going to have you on video. The other thing is that, and I agree it would be more convenient for the public to call in. However, they were complaining about that last time that they had to wait on hold for four and five hours and that some of those calls were dropped.

So then here again, we cannot please them either. Today, I found it much more convenient for the public. they only waited a few minutes in line for their turn to speak, and we were done much faster than the last time when we had so many people on the telephone. So we are here to accommodate the public, but please be truthful. Please be professional. Please do not use foul language. Please be professional. We are listening to you. We are your voices here on the dais. So please extend the same courtesy to us. Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. Why don't we just all continue to think about this and maybe we can come up with something. I will tell you this. In Riverside, they recently had a nine-hour meeting. And not that we should be deterred by that. But in Austin, Texas, they have meetings the last two days. and I don't think they're getting any real business done. So we have to seek a balance between listening to all that want to speak and doing the business of the people. There's a lot of business that has to get done.

So for right now, what I'd like to do is ask the city manager, please to present any thoughts she may have as it relates to the budget and the discussions that she's been having with council members. And then let's bring it back to council, please, and see where we can go from there. Madam City Manager.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. The item that you pulled up is the budget, adopting the citywide budget. It's item 65D. The item before you is actually the second reading of the ordinance to adopt the citywide budget, which totals $670 million for the fiscal year which started July 1st and concludes on June 30th, 2021. The ordinance was first successfully introduced at the June 16th Council meeting, and as permitted by our charter, the Council does have the opportunity to make non-substantive changes to the budget in line with the discussions on June 16th. Any changes you direct will be incorporated in the final budget document.

To facilitate the discussion, we have a brief presentation of additional requested information and potential changes for your consideration based upon the discussion at the introduction. Our finance director will present these items along with one slide presented by our fire chief, and then I will finish the presentation with a proposed spending plan for our additional CARES money that we will be receiving. So with that, I'll turn it over to Catherine.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Council. We'd like to move on to the requested information segment of this presentation. There's some additional information here for the fire program. During the last meeting and the meeting prior to that, we heard quite a few public comments about the large increase for the police department. I do believe that some of the callers were combining the police department increase with the fire program increase. And so I just wanted to offer some clarity here.

This is a breakdown of the fire program increase, which includes the Orange County Fire Authority, 4.5% increase of 1.9 million, and increases for ambulance and EMS billing. So we have a full breakdown here of the $3.8 million increase. With that, we would like to go ahead and allow Chief Henry to present some fire call statistics.

Good evening. There were some questions that came up on calls of service, and I wanted to address that, Ms. Solario, on some of that. So we have a PowerPoint slide here that breaks down our service in the department here and within the city. So as you can see, the majority of our calls for service are for medical aid calls, people calling us for car accidents, heart attacks. You asked a question about how many are the paramedics are needed versus as the non-paramedics. As you can see, the majority of our medical service calls, which roughly are about 90% of our calls for service, result in the paramedics being summoned and

treating the patients about 83%. I think it's important to understand that out of our entire agency, the big hook and ladder trucks, we have about 22 of those across the 24 cities that we serve in the Unincorporated, two of those ladder trucks are the busiest in the entire county or in this city. I also want to point out that Santa Ana has 40% of the top busiest units that serve, again, in the county. And the reason why I want to bring that up is so that you understand that last year we had 35,210 emergency responses in this city.

And so I just thought that was important that you look at that in totality of the 120,000 calls that the Orange County Fire Authority processes every year. And so I think that's important to understand what some of the monies that are going there. There are other types of calls there that are structure fires, dumpster fires, hazardous materials calls, all those different things like that. And I'm available to meet with any of you if you have another time when you'd like to sit down. And I know some of you have ridden with me. And so you know the population that we serve and the types of calls that we go on.

And so I'm available for any questions now or later if you have any.

David PenalozaItem —

Mayor, if I may, this is Council Member Pinalosa.

Go ahead. Go ahead, Council Member.

David PenalozaItem —

I just wanted to thank you, Chief Henry, for this information. I just wanted to make it clear as well that there's no doubt in my mind that the Orange County Fire Authority is servicing our city, especially after this past weekend. I know Saturday was very busy for both our police department and the fire department, and very thankful for all the service that you guys did over this weekend. But just for future, my only issue was that we didn't address the increase at all. so you have members of the public bundling it up to the police department all under one

David PenalozaItem —

and we should be transparent about where all these increases are going to the detail to every dollar I mean it is what it is but thank you so much for this thank you for all the hard work

absolutely and I can tell you that we've been at conversations and we will ensure that we present what Ms. Downs just covered just a little bit ago All right, thank you.

Okay, so the next segment of this presentation is budget options for your consideration. As discussed previously, the city council can make non-substantive changes to the budget tonight and still have the option to adopt it. So we heard some requests for CDBG funding for both rental assistance and mental health assistance. We do expect to carry over $800,000 of CDBG money for rental assistance unspent during the current fiscal year, carrying it over to our upcoming fiscal year.

But for the mental health assistance, community development agency staff was able to identify an additional $60,000 of CDBG money that can be programmed for mental health assistance. And so if the city council directs us to program that money tonight, then we would recommend these three, our staff recommends these three different organizations receive allocations of $20,000 each.

Do we have any feedback from city council for this option?

I would like to see that option.

David PenalozaItem —

May I? uh speak yes go ahead uh thank you mr mayor um i just had a question for uh the city manager and i guess catherine not sure exactly how the um it's kind of hard to just talk about this one without looking at the other pages that are still to follow so um should are we going to be stopping after every slide and ask for thoughts or are we going to wait till the end well we have we have

just a few questions in these slides for you and I think it's probably best to go ahead and stop and take the feedback. I actually would recommend you move

through everything so they see the totality of it and then they can give us the feedback on which options. Okay that sounds good too. Okay thank you.

Alright so moving on to the next recommendation or option for the City Council to consider. Again this was based on City Council member requests. We've identified two programs in the police department budget that do not need to be administered by law enforcement. And so we identified animal services and the crossing guard contract. Animal services includes the $2.7 million county contract, as well as a half a million dollars of internal costs for both equipment, supplies, and three full-time staff.

And then the crossing guard contract is just a contract, no staff, and that is a little over $800,000. We would have the animal services program moved to the planning and building agency, and we would have the crossing guard contract moved to the public works agency. So again, these are two programs identified that do not necessarily need to be administered by law enforcement. So if the City Council would make that decision to move those two programs out of the police department, I have a reconciliation for you here.

So our original proposed police department budget was $140.7 million. I'm sure that some people might remember that number. We were recently able to obtain labor concessions from the Police Officers Association, totaling $2.3 million, which is on a separate agenda item on tonight's agenda. So our updated amount in the budget ordinance to adopt for the police department is $138.4 million.

Now, if City Council makes these decisions to move these programs out to the other departments, that would decrease the police budget down to $134.4 million. If we compare that to the 19-20 budget, you'll see that that's a net increase of 2.2%.

We do have some other program operations for consideration. Now, these ones would not impact the adoption of the budget tonight. But these budget options would provide us with direction for carryovers that we would bring back to the City Council for approval in September. So the first is cannabis tax set aside for youth. Now, cannabis tax is a general fund revenue that's been set aside for youth services. Our 2021 proposed budget includes $3.4 million for a youth allocation from this cannabis tax set-aside.

We also have an allocation for the current fiscal year that we just wrapped up, fiscal year 1920. Due to the Youth Commission review process and COVID-19, as much as $3.6 million of the 1920 allocation is unspent and available for carryover. So the question for the City Council tonight becomes whether or not we should use some of that, a portion of that available set aside from 1920 to carry over to 2021, our new fiscal year,

and partially use it for the Youth Commission to conduct a request for proposals process for the spending of that money. So that is one idea that we have for that. We also have an artist grant program we heard from the public and some city council members on. Our prior general fund set aside for the strategic plan included $65,000 for arts master plan programs. Now, this is exclusive of the staffing component. This is the non-staffing piece of the budget.

and $100,000 for art events in public spaces. So our proposed general fund budget does not currently have the availability to continue funding these programs, but we've heard loud and clear that they are important to quite a few people in the community. So the question before you tonight is, if we are able to identify fiscal year 1920 general fund dollars that are available for carryover to 2021 should we at least partially restore the Arts Master Plan programs for fiscal year 2021.

So again, these two decisions would not affect your adoption of the budget tonight if you choose to do so, but it would be helpful for us to get this additional budget direction from the City Council. In addition to that, we have some revenue enhancements for consideration. We are always looking for ways to ensure that we can continue to provide public service. And again, these revenue enhancements would not impact your adoption of the budget tonight. But again, it just provides us with direction for placing matters before the council at a future date.

First is the option for naming rights revenue. So some cities have done this. Naming rights of landmark amenities have the potential to generate revenue for the city, but the best practice is to develop a formal process to both protect the city and maximize the benefit. So we would seek direction from the council as to whether or not we should proceed with developing this formal process to bring back to you at a later date. The other revenue option that we have is for digital billboard revenue. The Planning Commission recently conducted a work study session regarding an update to the billboard ordinance.

And this update could allow for digital billboards. There has been six areas identified on some of our local freeways. And the next steps would include public review of proposed ordinance, conducting outreach and public hearings. Although we don't have a specific question for the City Council tonight, this would be a perfect time to provide initial feedback so that we know we have some guidance for the way forward.

So with that, I think that I would like to turn this over to the City Manager to touch on the proposed CARES Act spending plan. Now this would be for the 28.6 million that the state has allocated to us out of these Federal CARES Act dollars.

Thank you, Catherine. So we have been officially notified of the approval of an allocation of federal CARES money directly to our city with the state of California's adoption of their budget. I know this was a result of our mayor who did work tirelessly with other mayors to make this allocation a reality. So for that, thank you, mayor. The money is desperately needed. We are anticipating the receipt of approximately $28.6 million. These dollars can only be spent on COVID-19 related expenditures allowed per the U.S. Department of Treasury guidelines.

We have already filled out the needed certification to receive the funds, and upon receipt, we want to quickly put those dollars to work. The timing is critical, as our community has some of the hardest hit areas due to this pandemic. We have reviewed the guidelines. we've received input from several of you and based upon our demographics, our number of positive COVID-19 cases, the challenges faced by our residents with paying bills, getting quality healthcare and complying with recommended isolation, we have drafted this proposed spending plan. Our proposed contract with UCI will focus on serology testing and

modeling to better predict the propensity for a surge in areas of our city, while also assisting us with healthcare guidance. Sanitization would cover high risk areas such as bus shelter, park amenities, crosswalk buttons, etc. And we already have identified a partner to make this happen. We are proposing a very large amount of funding to go to help the residents severely impacted by the virus in the form of rental assistance, bill assistance, contact tracing, testing, and isolation solutions. We have heard from the local community clinics the need for more funding to carry out their increased need of services.

We have an amount dedicated for outreach and education. We really believe this is critical to slow the spread in our community. And there's additional assistance proposed for businesses that have now suffered again with the retraction of the economy. We also would like to assemble compliance ambassadors that we can spread throughout our community that would distribute masks, ensure businesses are in full compliance with the state guidelines, and protect employees and customers both. And then lastly, we do have an amount proposed that would reimburse us for all the unanticipated expenses that continue as a result of this pandemic.

I look forward to your input on this proposed spending plan and any further changes you would like us to make. What we would plan to do is once we have receipt of the money, we will return to you for appropriation of it and start deploying the funds out to help the community. That concludes the presentation, and I know Catherine and myself are both available for any questions or any direction that you may have.

Phil BacerraItem —

Mr. Mayor?

Yeah, Councilor Bacera, and then I've got a comment. Go ahead, please.

Phil BacerraItem —

I just have some questions. So can we go back to slide 11, please, the canvas tax set aside for youth?

Phil BacerraItem —

so i guess my first question and it's like deja vu because i feel like we've had this discussion already so first of all what youth commission review process are we talking about because i think last time we had this conversation it's not codified anywhere i don't believe there's a resolution on file somewhere that this council adopted that said this money can't be spent until it's been reviewed by the youth commission i believe it's probably been kind of more of a cursory direction while we do value the input from our youth there we keep talking about like

Phil BacerraItem —

as if it's a conditional use permit process it's somewhere codified in the muni code so can you just clarify for me is there some sort of codified process no council member it was a recommendation

when you made the allocation for one-third of the cannabis money to get input from the youth commission which the parks and rec department did and they have a large number of programs that they are in process working on, but there is some excess money above that, and there was a recommendation or direction received on the June 16th meeting that maybe some of those monies that's not already programmed could be used with the Youth Commission's assistance once again to deploy requests for proposals and seek additional services to the youth in the community. So that's why this item is before you.

Phil BacerraItem —

So the Youth Commission is going to manage an RFP? It's kind of like a life learning lesson for them.

Staff would be assisting them greatly.

Phil BacerraItem —

I'm relieved at that. The other issue, so where did this extra money come from? Because it sounded like from what I believe our Parks and Rec director told us, that money's been programmed. So, again, it feels like deja vu that now we've got the money, then it was programmed, now we're back to we have the money?

Well, the set aside for 1920, the first thing that happened was the Youth Commission met to make some recommendations for the spending of that money. So none of the 1920 money got spent for a while because of that Youth Commission process. Then after that, the Parks and Recreation Department was gearing up to start the programs that were recommended by the youth for spending that money this year. But then COVID hit, and so the programs were not able to get off the ground.

And so as an alternative, the Parks and Recreation Department considered that this 3.6 million could also, as an option, be diverted to put in synthetic turf at the soccer complex. So that is something that they were thinking of proposing, and then there's this concept of, as an alternative to that, is to allow the Youth Commission to have an additional hand in this process by having a request for proposal process.

Phil BacerraItem —

Well, if I could, could I have Lisa come up? I just help me reconcile the difference here, because I feel like I walked away from that last meeting feeling like we, you know, you had worked with the youth and yes, COVID was an impact. And yes, we couldn't convene a conventional youth commission meeting. But it sounded like you and your staff had worked with them to try to get input. But you guys, I remember seeing the memo that said you had programmed the money. In fact, I think at one point, was it December? the council had to receive and file of a litany of items that you and your staff had put together

Phil BacerraItem —

that you were moving forward on so is this money that we're talking about here on this slide are these dollars that are above and beyond what you presented to us

um yeah so december 17 2019 there was a um recommendation for um items to be spent on the um

on the cannabis funding and for 2021, we also added some items. And I sent an email out to the – a memo out to the council actually yesterday to update everyone. So everything on that list equates to about $6.4 million because we were proposing to have the synthetic turf at the Dan Young Soccer Complex instead of 21-22 we were going to move it to 2021. So yes everything in the

Phil BacerraItem —

everything in the memo is correct. So then this money here I guess if we were to push back the synthetic turf at the Dan Young soccer field then we would now have this money available for the Youth Commission to have an RFP exercise. Yes. Okay so but but again just to clarify this money for all intents and purposes have has been programmed but now we're starting to think about maybe holding off on resurfacing the

field over at danielle um no sir that that was not the intent even with what lisa has programmed which is a substantial amount of youth programs there still is an excess between what we anticipate available for 2021 over what she has programmed i believe you mentioned yours totals did you say 6.4 and we're anticipating available funding closer to seven million dollars okay i i'll just

Phil BacerraItem —

say i mean i'm happy to hear this i mean it's great news that we're having more funds uh come in for our youth but at the same time i kind of left the last meeting feeling like we got to a certain place we were comfortable with staff and their work with the youth commission to come up with a list of items that this was programmed for um so i i mean my my thought would be you know if Lisa wants to reach back out to the Youth Commission, but I mean to put out an RFP I feel like just doing an RFP alone costs money and we've got staff that can professionally assess it and in

Phil BacerraItem —

collaboration with our our Youth Commission can determine what we need I think you know our staff's doing a fantastic job of providing these services So I hope that we're not, you know going down the same rabbit hole We did a couple weeks ago where we're starting to farm out our own city dollars. So thank you Lisa That's the only question I have right now. Mr. Mayor

Mr. Mayor, this is... Thank you.

David PenalozaItem —

This is Council Member Peñaloso.

Go ahead. I've got a comment. Go ahead.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, sir. So I guess I'll start from the beginning of these slides.

David PenalozaItem —

Again, thanks to the Fire Department for that detailed breakdown. In regards to page 7 of the CDBG funding request, I wanted to... And this is why I wanted to go through the entire presentation before I start asking questions, because it's kind of related to to a couple of the other pages so um the

David PenalozaItem —

sixty thousand dollars of available cdbg money for program for mental health assistance i i'm no health expert but i know that the health care is very expensive so what can we possibly do with sixty thousand dollars in regards to mental health i mean is that something that's already been because i know the county is a is a is a county health agency for the for the cities and and they have a lot of money for mental health that oftentimes as we've seen with the county of orange they sit on for years and years and don't even know they have it um so when we're looking at

David PenalozaItem —

things like completely cutting the our artist cramp program which is about a hundred thousand dollars or 160 000 a 100 grand actually and looking at we're appropriating cdbg money for mental health assistance which is great 60 grand 800 000 for rental assistance um is is there a way that we could because all these things are great and i want to fund them all but something like the artist grant program you know is an economic drive for the city and is used to to bring in

David PenalozaItem —

revenue to activate all the often dead space that we see in downtown uh you know art activation programs murals things that bring in revenue and bring in people to our city and and um so and that's why i wanted to go through the whole thing because i wanted to ask if we could if we're able to use cdbg money for the arts grants i know they were previously funded through the general fund I know that I even mentioned to the city manager earlier today that I wouldn't mind giving up my discretionary council member funds of $10,000.

David PenalozaItem —

I'm not speaking for anybody else, but mine personally, in order to provide at least one or two grants for artists in our city. Are these things that could be done, Madam City Manager, versus, you know, shaving maybe since we're already doing $3 million from the state CARES Act, money for rental assistance if we could take some of that or take some of the mental health assistance because i don't see us being able to but i could see that sixty thousand dollars being spent on a consultant for mental health services and then saying coming back next year and saying

David PenalozaItem —

hey the consultant we paid sixty thousand dollars for has these recommendations they're going to cost us half a million if we want to provide the services so and and that's i don't see that funding anything really so um can we go more into detail with that i'm sure so on the i'll have her put

slide seven back up um you're absolutely right i mean we're not in the core business of providing mental health services but we do have some programs that can certainly brighten the mental health of the youth in the city so with that 60 000 we do know it's eligible to spend those cdbg dollars on the the three areas that we recommended on the slide so that is what staff is recommending the sixty thousand go to that's not to say that we can't find additional money for the artist grants so typically from about 2017 the city had spent between 65 and seventy thousand dollars on those grants and it wasn't included in this

year's budget but on the the previous slide we are indicating that we are going to turn over every rock and try to locate the money so that we can partially if not fully restore that 65 to 70 thousand dollars I would have to I'm not sure if I don't want to put staff on the spot to know if an arts grant program probably structured in a certain way may be eligible to CDBG if there would have to be some qualification set up for the artist that could receive it

because cdbg is intended to serve just disadvantaged individuals and programs well and i know that a

David PenalozaItem —

lot of the the local artist groups in the city are disadvantaged artists and you know they're there and they help a lot as an economic drive for the cities which makes sense but i just wouldn't want to see it you know uh be a thing where it's like oh we're gonna come back six months from now to see if if funding is available for it um and just have them out in limbo for six months because it is a a big economic drive for the city in our downtown certainly sir if you if you wanted to

with this you could you could program the 60 000 for the mental health assistance and if we're unable to locate at least 70 000 for the artist grant you can direct us to use part of that 800 000 carryover to make up the difference for the artist grants and we'll just structure it in a way that is compliant with CDBG guidelines?

David PenalozaItem —

Okay, because I mean, all these things, art especially, economic drive and mental health. I know that when, you know, I'm not much of an artist, but when I do feel that my mind's ready to explode, I like doing improv and going to Michael's and buying a canvas and art because it's therapeutic and all these things, you know, serve the same purpose and it could serve other areas as well. So thank you for that. I would be supportive of going that direction. Other things that I had questions about was just the potential police budget realignment.

David PenalozaItem —

I personally am supportive of seeing these move into the appropriate departments. I've always asked myself why the crossing guard contract isn't under public works and why the animal service isn't, I thought that would be under public works as well, but it works under planning and building agency. One thing, if we go down this route, one thing that I would like to see with this change is the app. I know currently the city app, when people come across carcasses on our highways and streets, it's a sad thing. I hate seeing that, but we oftentimes do.

David PenalozaItem —

I get them emailed. I get them get Facebook tagged on them. You know, it's not the best thing to wake up to. And but I used to tell residents, go on the app, you know, submit it. Instead of sending the picture to me, submit it to a staff member that could make sure he gets picked up. But when you select that option on the app, it prompts you to call. And oftentimes they get a voicemail most of the time. So there's nobody to answer. and then they got to wait for the call back. Meanwhile, this poor cat or dog is laying there on the street. So if we were to go down this route,

David PenalozaItem —

I want to make sure that that change where we could submit actual cases. I want to say cases, not for little bodies. This is turning to a morbid conversation, but I want to make sure that you could do that through the app and it can go to the appropriate department without having our residents have to call. you know it's it's traumatic for anybody to come across that and the easiest way that we could make it for them the better so those are my recommendations for that finally um police

David PenalozaItem —

budget realignment i'm you know happy with the concessions that the poa was able to come up with

David PenalozaItem —

and last thing was the revenue enhancements. I'm also supportive about naming rights for ideas of revenue. Aside from the, you know, I see the water tower and the Santa Ana Zoo and the Eddie Westfield is pictured on there. But I want to make sure we look at everything. We look at our parks. We look at the soccer fields. You know, we have a lot of soccer fields. they get heavily used all year long um that could also be an economic drive for naming rights uh i want to make sure that if we go down this route the revenue generated from these naming

David PenalozaItem —

rights of these places don't go into the general fund or i would like to see them earmarked to stay in that you know park or to stay in the zoo i know the zoo is also needs a lot of funding or whichever area we're using to generate the revenue that it goes back to that same department most likely parks and rec or public works also supportive of the digital billboard revenue idea that's something that we should explore don't leave any stone unchurned and uh this mask is

David PenalozaItem —

it's like running up a hill um the uh cares act i also i want to thank the mayor because i know that he had a lot to do mayor polito with um securing this money so i just want to make sure that it's secured it's it's ours i know for the last three months we've been talking about oh we might we might we're waiting for the governor to sign his another governor signed his budget i believe so I just want to thank the mayor I secretly listened into one of the calls months ago I'm not sure if I was allowed to but somebody let me and it was just nice to see you know the

David PenalozaItem —

mayor really fight for our city and and with the other mayors in the state so thank you for that and those are my comments thank you thank you thank you and thank you for those

uh recognitions uh council member we worked very hard and many times it's uh very difficult to keep everybody in the loop because things move quickly and you get a call and you have to jump and you have to advocate and i have and things uh have worked out uh for the better as it relates to that that's for sure um something i want to ask is that we bring some of these things back because staff is throwing a lot at us and i just don't want them to kind of sort of say well we've got directions so off we go uh because just as one example these 28 million dollars

i've been giving it a lot of a lot of thought over the last several months and this is uh what i consider a preliminary um effort by staff to say here's what you could do um i'd like to probably form a small ad hoc and keep and spend a lot more time because my concern is that we need to make sure at the end of the day that we really fight the pandemic and not that we meet all the boxes check everything off the 28 million is gone and we're sitting here towards the end of the year with a bigger problem than we have now to me it's clear that the county's not going to come in and

save us we have to save ourselves and this money needs to be used uh you know very very very wisely uh so that at the end of the day we do get our city back and and have this um under control so you know and and this comment that i'm making applies to you know to things in general meaning I think we're talking about a lot of different things. Staff can come back. They can give us this. They can give us that. I just make sure we do it in an orderly manner. So with that I know Council Member Solario

I believe you requested to speak sir. Let me turn things over to you.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. First real quickly on the areas where staff wanted some feedback. CDBG I think that makes all the sense in the world and I know Christine we had talked about you know rolling extra money in for rental assistance So that's fantastic the mental health money for the nonprofits makes a lot of sense the police budget realignment Thumbs up makes sense. I know we've discussed that before moving Animal service to the planning and building agency and the crossing guard to public works that takes out four million dollars to other departments without compromising public

safety and so that is something I could support the the the POA labor concessions obviously will accept that for other considerations on the youth cannabis stuff I do want to thank you know our budget director for Christine for doing the meeting with me where we went literally you know dollar for dollar what's there what's not and it's largely as what we had thought right which this last fiscal year because of covid really none of the four million dollars got spent maybe 500 000 or less from this past year and then we have this year's allotment so it's close to uh close to seven million dollars

and the idea is just to get it out the door we started this program council member viegas and i almost four years ago right and we literally have to have we have yet to put out one dollar of actual service to the youth from this youth fund so that's why I'm very anxious just to get it out the door we already have you know essentially half in the budget and then the other half that will figure out how to how to get spent as well but that's a good amount to be spent the Youth Commission again the direction from the very beginning was to get input from the youth not that they got to approve it and there's many ways of doing that I'm

fine with staff doing that and doing an RFP if needed but again not a requirement you know there are ways to do it responsibly that the memo of how the money was quote-unquote or could be earmarked if you read that document again you'll see that it's a three-year plan and for the for the first year with the exception of like the bookmobile and the youth soccer field most of it was for the future and even the youth soccer field that's we're not able to build that in six months same thing with the vehicle the vehicle the bookmobile techmobile is going to arrive next

may right which in government time really that means next summer it'll be out and about and meanwhile the community they're hungry for tech access they're hungry for good programming they're hungry for a lot of things and including maybe like for the legal defense fund our youth are directly impacted by deportations and related issues so I would be completely fine taking an extra hundred thousand or so from this youth fund or through this RFP process that we might be done and then one final thing when we reviewed those ideas from from Parks and Rec a lot of those items got

reviewed by the commission and they got voted down uh one example and i could go one by one but one example on the soccer field that's proposed and i love soccer i the fourth soccer field that's at the dang young soccer complex is because i and mr mayor and others put that in when i was there the first time but this proposal to rehab one of the dirt fields into a all-weather turf field with lights that field is in fact by council policy is an adult soccer field you know the history of the dan young soccer complex was that years ago when there were all these adult soccer players and

lily king and all these other smaller parks the city council decided to kick them off all our regular parks and to instead do a dan young soccer complex for adults we years later added the youth soccer field just because the youth wanted something cool as well and the adults were willing to give up some of that space so even here i'm for using some of this because they do share with the youth but i think there too you know it would be nice to as a courtesy check in with the adult soccer groups because they place they pay extra surcharges and other things and again

the council policy really is that that feels is for adults but the adults agree to share so i think it is reasonable to uh to program that but we don't need to spend three million dollars this year for that because we can't build it that quickly the arts grant program 100,000 makes a lot of sense there too I think out of the youth commission fund or the youth fund if there's more money that the staff would like to roll in or through this RFP process I think that would be fantastic on on the cares thing I think it's a very good start you know 20 million is a lot of money but let's

spend it wisely I do think that as a specific category or by isolating within the categories we should take a special focus on seniors right food health care nursing facilities testing contact tracing they're left alone many of them they need check-ins I think there's a lot we could do there by category or just weaving it in throughout the program maybe mr. mayor we even create an ad for that just to help staff just so we can smart smartly use it because if not we'll be with the county where it's sitting there forever I agree I alluded

to that during my comment okay okay excellent excellent for that and revenue enhancement because there's again a lot of a lot of ground that we're covering here yeah and it's got to be given really good thought it's got to be brought back to council on the specific recommendations speaking of the revenue yeah

thank you that's okay but i agree uh speaking of the revenue portions i think those are all sounding good ideas we had explored the naming rights things in the past it's a little easier said than done uh the dollars are hard to get but we should re-explore that regarding billboards i'm generally supportive of the concept not necessarily the number or the place but i also also think we should look at if we are going to do some on the freeway where we trade out some of the uglier ones and you know in neighborhoods uh and swap those out with uh you know billboards on the freeway so

that it cleans up uh our our neighborhoods uh big picture wise uh for the community and my colleagues and the staff uh i think part of the reason why we saw an increase or staff put an increase for the police is measure X that was approved by voters just in 2018 not long ago they they gave the city 60 million dollars to do a variety of things that were honestly tilted toward public safety it was about reducing 911 response time addressing homelessness retaining retaining and hiring officers and yet a few other things but those were the main drivers and so you know we

got to also do right by the voters and if they decided to tax themselves for public safety spending you know we're just trying to do so responsibly but the economy is a little bit tougher so I think you know that's why you're not seeing a humongous increase also with the realignments and other changes we're decreasing the amount for the police department by about six million dollars also I know we've kind of been accustomed to just talking about the general fund but really we ought to look at the entirety of the city's budget which is closer to about 670 million dollars pd after these realignments is about 130 or 40 million dollars

so really what that means is for police department spending it's actually just about 20 percent so if we're going to talk apples to apples and talk about overall spending how much is for public safety really it's it's 20% for youth I'm very happy that we have at least 3 million and change and hopefully more that will allocate so we will get to the about 7 million dollars that we talked about that the last time thank my colleagues for the support on that and the staff in terms of safety in addition to the realignments I think our police chief can do some internal work to also

civilian eyes we talked about maybe taking some officers and turning them into PSOs that could maybe do motor services that maybe could do more PAL outreach there's a number of things that they could do there and again we don't need a council action to do things like that our chief of police can do that and and our city manager and I'll follow up separately on that also we talked about previously we had promised the community a community survey on how we do one 9-1-1 responses and customer service we owe that to the community and we ought to do it

also an independent use of force study that's something that ought to be done that with the resources in the police budget that's something that could be contracted for and then my son Michael did some great research and he found out kind of similar to way we do our quality of life team some cities are doing crisis intervention teams to address calls for service that might be a mental health issue, a domestic violence issue, a drug issue where you don't need a full officer or three or four officers. You might need a team that includes an officer with or without a gun, but maybe some

mental support and other staff. That's the kind of stuff that we could do. CIP, I think on the whole that is very good, but we do have some concrete street areas, particularly a long rate, north flower street and 19th street where i think the community still wants more and we want to make it look organized professional and planned instead we're getting complaints that those projects look abandoned because some parts were done some parts weren't so i do want to continue to work with staff on that on seniors i know i did request but maybe out of the covet and cares we do need to dedicate

some resources to our seniors, do some outreach, a senior services master plan, the way that I know our parks has something comparable in mind for parks and youth that I really support. And so with all these changes that we are pondering, I'm even more enthusiastic about supporting this proposal because it provides additional resources for young people, for our community, a little bit more balance and moving some items out of PD that don't necessarily need to be there and a lot of other good investments so I do think the staff and my colleagues for bringing us this far and I appreciate the time mr. mayor thank

you thank you this no comments council members somebody may who's not spoken

yet council member Mendoza yes councilman Mendoza please go ahead yes Well, I would like to thank staff and everybody who worked really hard on putting together the realignment of the suggestions that the council made at our last meeting. And I think we've progressed quite a lot. and I think that it's a much more, let's see, bite-sized budget that we can all see that there are the different departments that are benefiting, especially bringing

the CDBG monies for the rental assistance and it's a good idea to use some of that money for the youth for mental services because as we all know that the youth do benefit in their mental well-being through the arts. I would like to thank the police for collaborating and agreeing to the deferment. That saves the city $2.3 million, and so that money can be used for other very important services. And it shows that the police department POA is working in collaboration with what our what our

public is asking for so it makes no sense to defund the police because as we know that what was tried in Camden New Jersey the only thing that occurred was that the department was defunded and then the same police officers were rehired 80% of them so it was just a waste of money and we cannot do away with our police department who's gonna be responding to one of the emergencies that our public needs so it makes sense to work

with them and to continue providing excellent public safety and then there may be some reforms do and maybe better training and we can look at all that so we are listening I am glad that we have a city manager found some money for the artist grant program it is a very important part of city of Santa Ana we're known for the culture and the arts and that's something that we need to continue funding so that's very good thank you for listening to our requests the revenue enhancement

considerations it's a great idea i i think it's very uh productive to take advantage of using these resources that we have and have some money come in i would also like to suggest that maybe in addition to the water tower, the zoo, and the stadium, that perhaps we could include some parks. I mean, we have some great parks, and Centennial Park has been known as Centennial Park, but if somebody wants to pay several million dollars to have their name on that, why not? And the digital billboard revenue is a great idea also

because it is something that's not only going to benefit our residents and bringing in more revenue to providing more services to them. But it's a way to keep them informed, to keep the information out there in areas where they can quickly get the information in case of emergencies, that we can provide them with some really quick, beautiful areas where they can quickly just look up on their way home and get the information.

On the CARES Act, I want to ask whether on the high-risk resident testing and the medical services via community clinics, does that include some money to be allocated to Latino health access?

They are one of the key clients that is done.

Okay, very good, because they have been out there very actively testing on their own. And yesterday, a few days ago, they were out there in the 9-2-7-0-1 area code. So this is here, and it's very important for our public health. The other CARES spending plan, did we allocate some money in here to continue to the enforcement of masks in public areas? Is that the very last one where it says other direct city expenses?

compliance and I'm sorry my mic was not so compliance ambassadors to educate the businesses on what the California state governor is requiring and ensure that everyone's wearing their mask and then also distributing masks to our residents or to individuals that they come across that do not have masks excellent and

thank you for that response one more comment is that on the the cannabis as money for the youth, and my colleague, Council Member Solorio, suggested an additional $100,000 for the legal defense fund for the immigration. I would suggest that we may look at instead, allocate some money to DACA, DACA legal defense. That's youth, and it greatly impacts youth, or in addition, or allocates some additional monies for DACA.

So perhaps we can bring that in there in addition to what is suggested now. So we need to also provide for such a segment of our population and not exclude them. We want to be inclusive of all of our immigrants, regardless of their immigration status. and DACA students are very, they have contributed so much to our city, our nation, and our state, so we need to include them in some kind of legal defense fund as well. And in that area there, I also want to just remind the public that in addition to these monies, they do have other resources.

We have so many pro bono community resources such as the legal aid, and we have attorneys who will provide the services at very low or no cost. So we should take into consideration that they have these kind of services available to them through other sources. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That's all my comments.

Thank you. Who else would like to comment?

Yes, this is Council Member Sarmiento. Mr. Mayor, if I can...

Yes, please, Council Member.

Thank you. um let me first begin by thanking staff because i know there was a lot of work done on this budget from the first time that we saw it to what it is now so you listened to a lot of the comments that were made not only by us but also from the public so i i certainly appreciate the work and i know the director of finance has sat with me for long periods of time as did the city manager and others just to go ahead and go through this. One question I did have just on process. Tonight we're considering second reading of this budget, which includes non-substantive changes to the original version at first reading.

So the CARES Act stimulus money, that isn't being considered for approval. It's just for our context, right, and what we're doing, because that would be a substantive change.

Correct, sir. so we would return to appropriate it and have you approve the necessary contracts great thank you for

that i just wanted to make sure i i presume that but um what i did want to do is um just begin by giving some feedback because i think um you know staff does need to have arc uh comments so they can proceed further so i did want to say that some of the i agree with some of the comments that were made on the mental health and dedicating that 60 000 for that as well as the 800 000 of cdbg for rental assistance so i i i concur with staff's recommendation on that i'd like to come back to the police budget realignment after we go through some of the other items on the cannabis tax set

aside for youth you know one of the things that struck me when i was going back and we're talking about how do we invest in youth how do we increase that how do we increase those services i remember that when we began this whole exercise with cannabis we had 120 illegal operators in the city approximately give or take a few and we dedicated a third of that revenue to enforcement because the number was just so high and now i think if i'm not mistaken we're down to less than 15 or 10 unpermitted operators out there so our enforcement has certainly been effective

and successful so my question is do we continue to fund it at that level given that we've reduced it by maybe I don't know what the percentage would be maybe 90% so you know I think that there could be a way that we look at that fund maybe reduce it because it's not as compelling as it was when we first began we really did need an effective fund for that is that something that we can consider at some point in

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

the future absolutely yeah and if i if i just may add to that from the enforcement perspective the way that you drafted the ordinance did not limit the enforcement solely to cannabis operations it was drafted in a way to allow enforcement of all types of quality of life initiatives and so to some extent we have began at least from the city attorney's perspective in our office to focus in on how we can use some of that revenue to focus in on high profile enforcement items, whether that's the illegal gambling facilities, whether that's receiverships.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We are currently working on a program to address the vacant buildings and buildings which have been damaged by fire, for example. So that's something to keep in mind as to that is not just specific to cannabis enforcement. But, of course, it's always up to the council as to how they want to allocate that.

But remember, that's how we began this, that the enforcement was going to be dedicated to suppression and to closing of illegal, unpermitted cannabis operators. And that has been effective. If we've departed from that, then I think that's something important for us to understand because we cut the cannabis revenue three ways. General fund, a third. Youth, a third. Enforcement, a third. So the fact that a third of the enforcement now is going to non-cannabis enforcement or non-cannabis activity, quality of life issues, that you know those have nothing to do with cannabis i think that's the proposal moving

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

forward because of the ordinance not that that's currently what's happening so we may want to

reconsider that because that was that was the original premise mine mine would be to just take a look at that um because we have been so effective with our enforcement on that which is a good thing on the arts uh grant program i think um we could even i think as council member peña loza mentioned this could even be shifted to a revenue generator as well because the way I see it is that the arts have always been a draw to the city the fact that we have galleries that the fact that we have a creative space in downtown draws people to our you know to our area draws people to restaurants and

for folks to come and spend money at so I think that it not only belongs in our in our column for expenses, but also, or expenditures, but also on our revenue side as well. So I did want to come back to the realignment on the police department. So I do want to recognize the hard work that's been done by the staff as well on that. And I do want to recognize the fact that there has been adjustments, positive adjustments, when it comes to the deferment of the salary increases for a six-month period to January of 2021. So that is a good thing.

That $2.3 million is helpful, especially during this time where we have so many variables, we don't know what sales tax is going to look like, especially now with this recent shutdown that we've had, or basically the governor's recent orders sort of closing us down a little bit more. And also the shift in what I see as non-police core functions, and that is, you know, that's where animal services being moved to planning and building is a good thing, and that's a $3.2 million shift.

Where I guess, and also the crossing guard monies or responsibilities actually being shifted to public works. And so where I am a little bit disappointed is, I know that we were talking about field operations last time and I saw that on the allocation for field operations over the last three years. In fiscal year 17, 18, it was 52 million. In fiscal year 18, 19, it was 53. And fiscal year 19, 20, it was 53 million as well. And then this fiscal year 2021, we're going to about $57 million.

So one of my, I guess, concerns is that, as I said, to the extent that we can narrow police functions to core police functions, I think it doesn't only keep our public safe, but it keeps our police officers safe as well. And I know that the quality of life team has been something that we've had to address, because we have such an increasing number of homeless and unsheltered in our community. We have a lot of mentally ill in our community. And I just don't philosophically feel that that is a core police function, at least to be out there dedicating valuable resources to.

And I think our finance director told me that it's a difficult carve-out because when you talk about field operations, it involves a lot of different things. But I think as it relates to the Colt team, it's about $2.4 million that the police spend on those efforts for the quality of life. To me, that could be something that could be done by, to use the chief's term, a civilianized professional, which is maybe a mental health worker, a social worker, somebody that is trained professionally to address those problems.

Unfortunately, we see too many times that a simple welfare check or a contact with somebody who's not mentally well turns into something else. Because a person who's autistic, who's approached by somebody in uniform, doesn't know how to respond and may respond differently and bad things occur. So to the extent that we can keep those contacts minimized, that is something that I think I certainly see as an improvement. The other thing is there are things I think that the police department can do and we can try to direct them. Let me just say, we've already done some very good things, so let me give credit where credit is due.

The fact that we have introduced de-escalating training and de-escalation training and to an extent that it is a very important part of the training for our officers is very impressive because many communities don't even know what de-escalation means. And I think the fact that we have simulations, we have very sophisticated equipment, that is a huge step in the right direction. The second thing is community-oriented policing. I know that it's been embraced by our department, and we know that it's been very effective to make sure that we build what I see as a lack of trust.

And that's what I kept hearing from our constituents that spoke to us, not tonight, not the meeting before, but going back years, which is there is this disconnect between our community and the department. And that shouldn't occur because it endangers not only the public, but endangers the very lives of the officers. So if we can solve that, we're creating a safer city, a safer environment for everybody who works here and everybody who lives here. And I guess that's my goal to do that. So, you know, one of the things that has helped that is hiring a lot of bilingual officer staff.

People who can speak to somebody in, whether it's Vietnamese or in Spanish, when there's a moment that's really heated and you're trying to understand somebody who is speaking in a foreign language, look, it's hard to be able to make sense because things are already heightened. So that is a very good thing that we have. We have a lot of bilingual officers. So those are good things. I would think that our chief would say, and I'm not going to speak for him, but there's always room for improvement. This isn't a perfect department, nor are we a perfect city, nor are we a perfect organization when it comes to every department.

So I always want to continue looking at better solutions and better ways to operate. So I would just say there are some non-fiscal things that we could do that could help us be a better organization and a better department in how we exercise public safety. And some of those things are just basically holding, as we hold all our residents to an accountability standard, a legal standard, when somebody violates the law as a resident, as a taxpayer, as a member of the public, all of our employees should be held to that same standard. and our officers are our employees.

And I think the disconnect sometimes begins because the public thinks that we're held to a certain standard and officers are held to a different one, and that can't exist. It puts the officers in jeopardy. And that's the thing that really concerns me is that that disconnect continues. The fact that sometimes we militarize our officers to the extent that they look like they're coming into battle or going into battle is a provocative impression that folks have, And that's something that I think, to the extent we can become more of a resource rather than an antagonist, I think those help.

But consistent training when it comes to not racial profiling, to make sure that we do sensitivity training, diversity training, all those things are investments in our safety. That's a public health cost. to the extent that our officers and our public understand that we're constantly sensitizing folks to understand that things shouldn't be so heated when we confront one another, those save lives. And that's worth all the money in the world, as we're seeing with this pandemic. We're expending an incredible cost just to save lives. So to the extent, Chief, you can look at those non-fiscal ways of improving just the environment

and the way our officers are trained. You've already done, as I said, as I've enumerated at the beginning, you've already done a lot. But I think that we always can improve. We always can continue trying to be the example that other people set themselves to rather than us following. So those were my comments. I did want to go just briefly to the CARES Act money. And I would say, you know, I kind of disagree with what was said about an ad hoc because we don't have time to convene an ad hoc. We don't have time to meet. These are things that are happening now.

And I know the mayor knows that as of last Friday and last week, the numbers were out by zip code. Santa Ana has the highest zip code of cases in the entire county. We're considered the hot spot. and West Anaheim, but we're even outpacing them, and we just don't have time to discuss this. What we did during the recession, Mr. Mayor, and you remember this because I think you and I were the only ones here in 2008, we were meeting weekly because we knew we were facing an imminent threat of bankruptcy. I would ask my colleagues to consider not forming an ad hoc because this should be decided by all of us. We should be meeting weekly.

we should be meeting in between these general meetings and maybe going into closed session and saying how do we solve this problem we have folks in our community that are living in such crowded spaces that they're getting infected exponentially and so when you see these numbers when you see what's presented to us by the professionals look it is it is a very very dangerous case so I would ask that you know we don't have the luxury of time and three people shouldn't be recommending to the rest of us all seven as seven of us we need to make this

decision with staff to say how do we move and how do we move immediately this isn't something that we can wait for a long time this money it's precious but it's only precious if we spend it now if it's spent three months from now we see what the federal government is doing to us by sitting on their hands and sitting on money and not doing anything so i would say that we do that um and um and look Look, again, I feel passionate about this because of what I saw yesterday. I saw 400 people go to a mobile testing unit here in town, and they got a lot of help. Why? Because we were in their community. Why? Because it was a trusted place.

It was at a school, and because we were all partnering up for this. So I just hope that we take this extremely seriously because if you look at all the data, it's people of color who are being impacted and Latinos are disproportionately impacted and 80% of our residents are Latino and low income and have already compromised immune systems. So if we can't find it within us to say yeah let's meet in between these general meetings that we have then look I don't know where our priorities are. So you know I thank staff for presenting this. I

fact that you're talking about rental assistance to the degree of three million, you're talking about utility bills that people have been backed up on and not being able to pay, the fact that you're looking at isolating folks and maybe placing them in a hotel or someplace outside of their very crowded households, and the fact that you're going to be sending hopefully our part-timers to be ambassadors to educate our businesses and our public on how we should be behaving and the fact that we should be wearing masks, that is an excellent start and i want to really thank you for that thoughtful approach that you've taken and look

when it comes back to us i i think that there's some adjustments but you certainly have a good premise here and um and i appreciate all the work that you've done thank you mr mayor thank you for

that let me let me just make one comment and then i'll recognize you councillor thank you um i'm not talking about an ad hoc that uh you know that meets over a period of time i'm talking about a week max maybe less than that i'm very aware that we don't have time i'm also very aware that this is probably the last money we're going to get and if we don't maximize it um we're going to be in real trouble once that money is spent so i think in a few days we can we can make recommendation the city manager can chat you know she can uh you know discuss with other members

if we need to have a special council meeting we'll do that um we just need to move quickly but we've got to really make sure that at the end of the day there's going to be less less cases in town i mean i've been seeing this tumbleweed catch on fire for months now and i can tell you right now before the end of the month we're probably going to be at 5 000 cases and there's no plan even with the efforts that that america and others are engaged in right now there is no active plan that's going to be able to keep up with it so it's really up to us and maximizing

this money very very quickly so um so let me let's continue councilman panielosa please

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you Mr. Mayor just wanted to also reiterate what Councilmember Sermiento said about the the ad hoc and just the you know time is in of the essence here when it comes to these funds but yeah that's my I don't believe we should do an ad hoc but you know that's my opinion thank you sir thank you Mr. Mayor do we

have a motion on the budget or Mr. Mayor but he also need to speak more I'd like

Phil BacerraItem —

to speak mr harry go ahead thank you mr mayor as i have the last couple of times that the budget's come before the council i've read out the city's mission statement because i think it's important to kind of calibrate what we're supposed to be doing with this item to deliver efficient public services in partnership with our community which ensures public safety a prosperous economic environment opportunities for our youth and a high quality of life for our residents so i i want to thanks staff for all that they've done to really take this responsibility seriously to provide

Phil BacerraItem —

these public municipal services and figure out how we can do it through the budget i appreciate that in our budget we have increases to parks and rec at about five percent public works at three percent and if my colleagues do support the proposed reallocations of animal services and the crossing guards we're looking at pd only having a two percent increase i mean going from what we had initially proposed that's remarkable so i want to thank staff for their work on that i would also like to express my support for uh funding towards the arts programs if those

Phil BacerraItem —

carryover funds can be identified in regards to the police budget one particular part that I expressed at the last meeting that kind of concerns me is the supplemental request for 500,000 for the quality of life team or the the Colt team and that team as many of you know is to address the homeless and how they impact our quality of life here our residents and so responding to the homeless related issues is not a supplemental item and while I do appreciate that our our police have allocated more staff to the colt team but just calling it a team in that regard almost

Phil BacerraItem —

sounds like it's an external you know extra uh function and i know it's a collaborative effort amongst city departments but i feel like to have a supplemental request at such a level where you have in the police budget over time proposed at smaller accounts it just sends the wrong message in my my opinion and so with that you know it just i appreciate what our police are doing out there uh but i feel like we're we really need to focus you know we're talking about what the community wants and and how our police work out there folks that call me are concerned about the homeless and

Phil BacerraItem —

and what they're doing out there and so i think that while i know our police are trying their best to take care of the situation i would just push even further that we really dedicate more resources to that and i think that can come from within the current proposal for our field staff with that having been said you know i talk about the 500 000 and supplemental requests from pd's allocation from colt i would actually like to see that 500 000 go towards our city sidewalks i know it's not a sexy topic but it is a basic municipal city service that we're supposed to provide

Phil BacerraItem —

and right now you know our public works director put together a program it's a seven-year program that'll get our crumbling sidewalks up to a good shape and that we can reasonably maintain with less money over time but that takes the dedication from our part to fulfill that basic city function And so, you know, right now when I reached out to Nabil and I had asked him about a couple of sites that needed some work, you know, we had some crumbled sidewalks and curbs, he said, well, I'd love to, but, you know, by the way, sir, I've asked for some money to provide this service for all of you, but I'm at $500,000.

Phil BacerraItem —

And I thought, well, $500,000, what do you need? $1.6 million. So out of a budget that is over $300-plus million for the general fund and over half a billion when it comes to the overall package, I don't think it's a terrible thing to, you know, as we talk about all these wonderful things we want to do, I feel like, you know, just let's get back down to the basics where our community would like to be able to walk to the store or walk to a park without tripping and falling or having just terrible infrastructure under him. So again, I know it's not the most headline-grabbing item,

Phil BacerraItem —

but I would like to ask my colleagues that as we consider the second reading that we give Nabil just $500,000 more. And the sad thing is if we don't, he's at 31% of what he needs to provide sidewalks, just sidewalks. So this would only get him up to 63%, but I hope Nabil would appreciate being able to get up to 63% versus 31%. So that would be something I would like to pose to my colleagues to consider as we look at this second reading. But also, too, I just want to thank everybody for all the time, and I thank everybody for calling in, especially those that weren't too profane.

Phil BacerraItem —

But I think it's – I'm glad that all of us agreed that we wanted to hear the community out. I'm glad we gave them as much time as we did, and I'm glad that, you know, it may be late, but, you know, that's what we signed up to do. So that's all my comments at this point, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to say my comment on the budget.

Yes, please. Go ahead, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to ‑‑ I'll be quick. So I'm in agreement with the comments regarding DACA and the defense fund. I was also going to suggest a mid-year budget review. Maybe we can find something there. And I think when we started the defense fund a while back, it was less than $100,000. Then it was $100,000. And then there was a mid-year review somewhere. And then we doubled it. And so it was never set at that amount. It was just money that was allocated to it. but I don't mind adding more to it.

The DACA comment was a great comment by Council Member Mendoza, and I appreciate that. I'm in support of the art programs, the CDBG funds, the Youth Commission comments, and also the artist grant comments. One thing that I want to mention also that's in this budget, El Salvador Park, the basketball courts are going to be replaced. So it broke my heart when I was there a while back, and I saw that there was cracks in the basketball courts, and people had to dribble the ball around the cracks

because it would just make the ball go elsewhere, and you couldn't even play. And it took a while because I believe that's concrete. So that's in this year's budget. There's also going to be some sports courts, and there's new led lights are going to be um put in there also and recently i had some uh speed bumps put on buley i'm looking at gunther next it just takes a while and i gotta find funds there's a lot going on and like council member becerra was saying uh you know to repair the the sidewalks and the streets and all that you know i would love to do a lot and i know it costs

It costs about $300, $350 million to do the drainage here in the city, and that's why the certain sections of the city flood. And it's very, very tough. We could use more money on that. Also, I think there was some folks that didn't seem to understand, I guess, the police budget. I'm glad that the animal control portion is going to be moved out, and I think the responsibility will be going to another department. And I hope they take care of the whole thing.

And with all the responsibilities that come with it, the crossing guards thing, that's a great service that we offered. It helps our schools. But in this police budget, the increase, a lot of it was a workers' comp increase. There was a liability charge increase. There was the jail meal increase. There was a ton of overtime that was accumulated recently. and also the quality of life team also, and a lot of things just to keep the police department sustained and the level of service. You know, we heard a lot of voices today,

and I appreciate everyone that came out and spoke, and I thank you. But there's also a voice that people seem to forget, and it is the voice of the people that keep calling the police department every day for service, for help. those 400 phone calls on the average that come in every 24 hours, those 13,000 phone calls that come in every month that accumulate to about 150,000 calls for service a year on our police department, which is operating with half of the officers. One of the main complaints that I get about the officers, what took so long to get there? Well, we don't have the personnel.

And Santa Ana is a very active city. I'm sure you all know that. Let's not forget about the voice of those people who called that are asking for help, that are asking for service. Their voice matters also, and we need to maintain the level of service best we can for those residents. They don't call to say we're having a great day. They call because they need help. Whatever the case may be, a dispute with a neighbor or a lost child or a drowning or a baby not breathing or what have you, because those calls go first to police dispatch before they get down to the fire department.

And, you know, it takes a lot for a person to pick up the phone and call the police on many occasions. For that woman who's having problems with her abuse at home or something happened to her children, God forbid, or the daughter didn't come home and they're very desperate, they would need people to show up right away. And these men and women in uniform come to work every day and to provide that service and they put their life on the line for everyone. And I appreciate that and we cannot forget about that voice. And those are my comments, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. I just want to add that on the arts programs, I've been a supporter from the arts since before we started the Artage Village. and of course Bowers and everything else. And right now I think it's important that we do support the local artists. I know in certain cases they don't have the money to front a project and then seek reimbursement. So I just hope we can add flexibility to the rules such that if we award a grant, we actually are able to provide the money without forcing them to come up

uh you know with the money themselves and then seek reimbursement you know for some that's just uh you know more than they can handle and frankly more than they they should handle i think they're doing a a service to the community uh when they embark on on these projects that they're a part of and i'm just glad they're they're here in our city uh making beautiful art so with that i i know we've I had thoughts and comments. I'd like to entertain a motion, and hopefully we can get a vote and keep moving forward.

Mr. Mayor, I do have a motion in mind, but I have a question first to our city attorney. I know we took great care at our last city council meeting to talk about we couldn't make any substantive changes today. The changes that we are seeing today that are in front of us are based off of staff's assessment of the prior meeting comments and that was put into our budget. I think other things like, you know, sidewalk and streets and COVID stuff, that'll come next. We did give, I think, you know, good direction for that, but that'll come separately. So in some ways, we're a little bit limited on what other changes we can make

tonight. I also do like Mayor Potem Villegas' suggestion of a mid-year budget review, I think because the economy and COVID and all these other things. I know we typically do a mid-year budget review around October, so maybe we try to advance it a month or whatever it may be, and we can revisit things there as well to recalibrate. With that, the recommended action that staff has I think is very simple and appropriate and so i'll move that we place this ordinance on second reading and

adopt the budget thank you is there a second mr mayor i have a quick question just go ahead

David PenalozaItem —

count spania logan thank you sir uh so i just want to be clear the the second ordinance that there's a motion for um is that including everything that was said because i i don't think there were any differences in opinions up here in regards to the the changes that were

presented to us in this uh follow-up um thank you council member i would like to if we can go back to your motion council member salaro and add clarification sure so my understanding from what i heard is you are going to adopt the budget at the second reading with the following changes staff will carry over the cdbg money and will utilize it for rental assistance of 800 000 unless they cannot locate money for the artist grants, and then some of that money would be used for artist grants. Staff will allocate $60,000 for mental health assistance, as recommended on the slide. And the other items I heard is of the youth cannabis money.

There was a desire to take $100,000 of that to go for legal defense, specifically for DACA. and the other one was the non-fiscal direction that we received is emphasis on seniors in the CARES program, looking at enforcement funding from cannabis to see if there's any excess and also adding to the revenue opportunities, extending it out to the parks and further dive into the CIP plan and then opportunities within the police department to create better practices. So that's what I took away with my notes.

Phil BacerraItem —

Does that not include what I asked as far as the $500,000 to move over from the supplemental request over to the sidewalks?

So, City Attorney, I would consider $500,000 non-substantive. I don't know if you would opine the same way.

David PenalozaItem —

Really quick before you answer, I was in agreement with that because, you know, the sidewalks is something that's very basic and very, I mean, just over the last couple of weeks, I've submitted a lot of sidewalk through the app that needs to get repaired, and they're very quick to do it, which I'm happy with. But, I mean, these are temporary repairs. I just wasn't sure what it meant for the supplemental request. I mean, that doesn't...

What it would do is it would take away the half a million dollars in Colt overtime that's currently in the police department, and it would transfer it to the Public Works Department for the sidewalk program.

David PenalozaItem —

And see, what I don't agree with that is that these services shouldn't be in overtime. I mean, we've hired enough officers over the last year to say, you know what, we have six or whatever it is now, or eight, to be able to just, that's their job. That's their basic nine to five, or not nine to five, but whatever the hours it is they work. it shouldn't be overtime. I mean that's the whole reason why we were hiring is to be able to provide these these extra services that we haven't seen. Those are my just comments on that. I would be interested in seeing that

David PenalozaItem —

supplemental request go towards something like sidewalks but maintaining DA officers for Colt at their pay. I mean it shouldn't be an overtime duty.

The chief has grown the Colt team at the regular pay as well. This is just an additional amount in case there is an enormous amount of calls for service that they do oftentimes use over time. But they do have regularly funded police officers assigned to the Colt team.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

And I can answer that question that City Manager Ridge is asking to address. So at the last meeting, you had a conversation about potentially reducing the police department expenditures and shifting them to other priorities. I think that here that priority is the infrastructure. So I do believe it would fall within your charter rules. It would allow you to have the second reading tonight on that issue.

David PenalozaItem —

Which I'd be supportive of, but I want to make sure that the police department or the chief or anybody goes and says, okay, we're reducing three or four officers from the Colt team because, again, this is something that should be done just as their services. And the few times that I've reached out for Colt, very responsive, and I'm happy with the service they do. I know it's a tough job, but, I mean, that's what they get paid for. So, I mean, I'd be interested in seeing that.

Mr. Mayor, I just had a quick question, and it was more opposed to the city. Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you.

It's more opposed to the city attorney because I guess I don't understand the technical difference between money being allocated for the Universal Legal Defense Fund and DACA recipients. Because isn't the defense fund incorporate cases that would involve potential DACA defendants?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

so when I when I look at the issue I just looked at the the scope of your conversation the last at the last meeting within the scope of that conversation you talked about potentially diverting some or potentially reallocating money that was in the police department for other uses and you had a conversation about some of your capital improvements that was a topic that was discussed I don't recall at the last meeting there being a specific discussion about the that DACA issue. I know you had a discussion about rent subsidies and also a discussion about

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

providing legal defense. So maybe I would ask, I look to the city manager and ask her what her

staff looked at. Yeah, because I think the councilwoman was talking about increasing to make sure that DACA students or DACA youth are represented as a role or as maybe a potential recipient of these services but isn't that being done already I guess is my question is wouldn't those DACA funds when we employ the service provider which is immigrant defense I think they're called they provide services legal representation to to ensure due process is being followed for defendants that are being repatriated or deported and separated from their families

wouldn't a DACA student already be eligible for that defense?

Council Member, I believe you're correct. There isn't a prohibition on whether it's DACA or other status of illegal alien. I think that Council Member Mendoza wanted to supplement the existing 100,000 with an additional 100,000 and focus that second 100,000 specifically on DACA, is my understanding.

And I think that works so long as we understand it's subsumed. like i think there were comments made even previously let's make sure that veterans or we make sure that folks who are vulnerable um are addressed within that so i just wanted to get some clarity because i don't think they were ever excluded so it's not like we're carving out a new population that's going to be protected but it is part of that larger population that we're trying to protect so with that clarification i think that was a good comment and i'll accept

those as friendly amendments and on the docket thing councilman america sarmento is right the way had we designed it and the organizations running the program, there kind of is an informal preference for San Antonio residents, veterans, and dreamers. You know dreamers really is with DACA, so I think the idea is to add another hundred thousand with you know preference to help you know dreamers and DACA students that we have a lot in our community and there's a lot changing

in that program so I think that makes sense. So you'll add that to your motion and then the other item that i didn't mention was the realignment of the the two identified police yes and the

realignment items as well yes i took all those up all right were those clarifications uh are we ready i'd like to have the clerk call the roll i think we need a second maybe do we have a second i thought you had one no so council member viega second mayor pro tem seconds okay just really quick

David PenalozaItem —

go ahead madam city manager so i i never got a yes or no or what was going to happen on that 500

000. it's included in the motion it's included okay but we would maintain the staffing level of the coal team at the same you will but the overtime hours that is typically used by your dart team will not be available for the police department to utilize so my concern with that

David PenalozaItem —

it's like why i know that even in the police department's budget we created this the new uh met team that uses five plus million dollars you know how is there not any money in the entire police department budget to be able to provide that 500 grand for any overtime needed for the

coal team there is additional programming for regular overtime but based on the experience of the DART team, this was the amount that was determined to be needed to keep up the same level of effort with the homeless population in our city.

Phil BacerraItem —

Madam City Manager, the line item doesn't say DART. It just says it's a supplemental request for COLT overtime. No DART.

DART is part of COLT, in my opinion.

Phil BacerraItem —

Well, no, but it didn't say that. That's why, I mean.

I don't want to see anybody removed from the COLT team. i mean that's a priority here for us to deal with the homeless and um i mean i'll approve the budget but with my own personal opinion i don't approve that portion we're not we're not defunding cult i

Phil BacerraItem —

hope i never said we're defunding cold it's over it's overtime that i'm saying should be reallocated

yeah but it's very come out of the police department at the end of the day it stays

within the department we're short on officers and i think that's why you know there's a lot of overtime issued regarding that service.

David PenalozaItem —

But so what I understand, so I'm just, why can't we have that as its own funded group within I don't understand how there's nowhere in the police department, there could be an absorption of $500,000 for overtime for a quality of life team, something that is urgently needed and is a high priority for residents. it is is there any money available in the whether it's the met team that was you know created with that extra five i mean there there isn't two officers that could be repositioned or re

classified to that area of the cult team i'll ask the the chief to come up to the mic if you'd like but all the officers regular salaries are budgeted so the eight that are on the colt that serve on the Colt teams, their regular salaries are budgeted. This was just a supplemental request that the police department had based on their experience in addressing homelessness that they felt they needed a half a million in overtime to keep up with all of the requests. So as to whether he has officers that can be deployed from other areas to make up at a regular time, I would defer to him on that.

Okay.

Don't touch the mic. Thank you for the question. So we have one sergeant and now eight police officers assigned full-time. So when the comment is that we don't, we haven't allocated resources, we very much in fact have. We went from one police officer to nine full-time quality of life. this overtime request is for the additional staffing that's required to get the six and seven day a week coverage right and that's the dark team on overtime that's what that is and and so we reallocate that money will there be an impact sure if the direction of the council under the city manager is to

figure that out then that's what I have to do I also think you know you know When we make the comment on MET, for example, specifically, I'm charged with first and foremost addressing violent crime and quality of life. So it's a balanced approach. I clearly understand the priorities of this council and the community, and that's why we've allocated those additional resources to quality of life on a full-time, permanent basis. This is an additional request for the seven-day-a-week coverage that when you pick up the phone, you have that immediate response. It's there. It's staffed.

I don't know if that answered your question.

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, it did, Chief. Thank you. Okay. Just one thought on the Colt team. just as I mean the times that I've reached out to CDA over encampments and whatnot a handful of times the cold team is always in the Santiago Creek area which I know it needs to be cleaned I'm not saying it shouldn't but every time never fails it could be in the morning it could be in the afternoon it could be at noon oh they'll be there they're a little late because they're in the creek it's like you know and the creek's north of 17 and that's what we're all there's a

David PenalozaItem —

lot of hot spots along first street along standard along ettinger along harbor that just get ignored all day long when we have now eight police officers on the coal team because they're always at the creek and i know the creek's important but we should try to spread out the the target different areas of the city throughout the week and not just spend the entire 500 000 in overtime in the creek which I know needs to be cleaned. I'm not saying it shouldn't, but there's a lot of, and the last time I brought that up, it's, you know, we're trying to identify the hotspots in the city.

David PenalozaItem —

Well, I could tell you where the hotspots in the city are. I just did. And just any resident in the city could tell you where the hotspots of the city are. So I just want to be mindful of when we're having the Colt team out there. They're being, you know, they're being spread out equally throughout the city and addressing the numerous encampments and and just loitering that we're seeing throughout the city um and not just in the creek that many people don't often see it's the ones we the areas we drive everyone sees daily and slap you in the face when you get off the freeway

David PenalozaItem —

those are the areas that should be uh addressed more than than the creek and those are those are

Phil BacerraItem —

my comments mr mayor i'd like to just make one clarifying comment from my end and that is go

Go ahead, Gomes, and then Mayor Brokow. Go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem —

I'm absolutely supportive of our Colt team. I just don't believe that the Colt functions need to be done with overtime dollars. I believe that we appropriate for officers to be on duty at all hours. Just because they're on after 5 p.m. doesn't mean they should be on overtime, right? There are night shifts. So to somehow say that the Colt team, once it becomes dark, now it's overtime, I'm just not buying that. I'm not subscribing to that theory. So for me, I'm not trying to defund Colt, just so we can be absolutely clear. All I'm saying is let's bring in the officers.

Phil BacerraItem —

In fact, I'm pretty sure the chief has heard us ad nauseum tell them we think that we need to deal with the homeless situation. So with that being said, if our prescription for that is Colt, then fine. But all I'm saying is when I see a supplemental request for overtime for something that should be a basic function, I don't know, like sidewalks, then maybe that's what we need to do. So I just want to be clear. I'm not trying to take away from Colt. I'm not trying to take away. All I'm saying is let's be smarter about how we allocate our officers and let's not try to ramp up the overtime. That's all I'm asking.

So my comment, Mr. Mayor, so my comment is.

Yes, go ahead. Mayor broke down.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So my comment is that I understand I'm with him with Council Member Becerra regarding the sidewalks. Totally agree. But at the same time, Measure X dollars were, you know, the voters voted on it so we could address the homeless issue and a lot of other things. And I understand also part of that is quality of life to fix the sidewalks and we'll have to find some money. And it's true. I had my meeting with our public works director also, and we concurred on how much money they actually need to do the sidewalks.

but one of the major priorities in this city was to address the homeless issue and so we needed that quality of life to go and like the chief said we're talking seven days a week maybe if you call in the evening and at the same time the chief is trying to juggle the you know public safety issue also when it comes to violent crime I mean there is people who do come from out of town to our city to commit crime and they're not the nicest folks I mean, some of these people come from other counties and they do what they do out here. So it needs to be addressed. And I think the chief is doing a great job trying to address this.

But the Measure X dollars are for the quality of life team and it needs to be addressed. And that's my opinion.

If I may make a suggestion. So you have a motion and you have it seconded. But if that's a concern, what we can do is the chief and I can work together. and if throughout the year we feel that we are hampered by the lack of that money and it is interfering with addressing the homeless issue we'll

certainly come back to you. During the mid-year or during the early mid-year.

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah yeah that would be good. This just opens up the you know the the idea we need to have another conversation of what exactly is a priority for us out here in the open when it comes to the police department there are a lot of good things that the chief is doing in the police department. I thank him for his leadership just over the last three years alone. We've seen an increase across the board in transparency and just relationships with the public. I mean, it has gotten better than it was in the 90s and 80s. There's no arguing that. But one thing that I'm just thinking right now out loud as we think of

David PenalozaItem —

overtime, how we are asking for 500 grand for the Colton for overtime, I think of operations like the Easter Sunday cruising operations that we've done. I mean, I know that that was a huge problem in the 80s and 90s, and that was, you know, a lot of people had concerns over that, over the cruising, and I don't think it's, you know, I've seen it. I live right off of modern day. I know I have to deal with it every time, but those are things that we can look at as we move forward. It's like, is that type of enforcement and overtime and huge production necessary to what it is now, to what it was.

David PenalozaItem —

There are areas where we do all these little things that we could probably scale back a little bit and find that money to provide that extra supplemental request for the Colt team. Those are just little ideas I'm thinking about, but that's another conversation that we could probably have in the next couple of weeks Those are my comments.

All right, Madam Clerk, if there's no objection, roll call vote, please.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa?

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

No.

Council Member Soloria?

Soloria, yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Viegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Okay, motion passes 6-1.

Okay, let's go back. Madam Clerk, help me out here. We're going to go back.

To the consent.

Consent countered. Does anybody wish to pull any items on consent?

Yes, Mayor Pulido. This is Council Member Mendoza. Go ahead. Item 13A.

That is it.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, this is Councilmember Peñalosa. Yes, sir. I'm going to make us all stay here until 3 a.m. I'm polling items 19E, 25A, 55A, and 55B.

Mr. Mayor, if this wasn't in his long list, I'd like to do just one item, 55A.

Okay.

Phil BacerraItem —

Mr. Mayor, I don't want to be left out. I'm going to join my two colleagues on the other side and go with the 55A as well.

Okay.

Any other items?

And nothing for me.

Well, then why don't you make the motion on the balance?

I'll move it with that privilege.

Gentleman without one item. Second. All right. Roll call vote on the balance, please, Madam. Clerk, go ahead.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento? Yes. Council Member Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Proctin-Vegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Okay, what's the first item that was called?

13A.

That's me, Mayor Pulido. Please, go ahead. Thank you. Go ahead. I just have a clarification question. It indicates that these two commissioners will be appointed to the Ward 6 representatives for a full term expiring December 13, 2020. It was my understanding that the term would end in 2022.

One moment while I look at that.

Do we want to go to the next item if the clerk needs a moment?

Yes, that's fine. I believe it's 19.

What's the next item? I believe 19E, sir.

David PenalozaItem —

All right, move forward that one. I did, sir. This is Councilmember Peñalosa. Please, go ahead. 19E is receive and file a status report regarding the comprehensive update to the general plan um the reason i pulled it is uh because i i don't think it should be filed or received i don't agree with uh with what what it's what's been presented in the receiving file personally um i know that i've met you know two or three times with the planning staff over the general plan update and from what it seems um and i don't know what any of my colleagues have have relayed to the planning in their meetings with with planning staff but none of my

David PenalozaItem —

Suggestions or recommendations to the general plan update have been considered at all. I mean zero. I don't see any of them I had you know a couple questions for The planning director or the city manager whoever wants to come up and Take these questions

certainly we do have a short presentation if you just want to go straight to questions and skip the presentation or see the presentation with the presentation first okay

David PenalozaItem —

was the presentation going to be presented regardless because i pulled the item i have okay yeah let's let's let's see it

thank you mayor and member of the Commission tonight we are presenting the update on the progress of the general plan process as you recall this process has been in the works since 2015 and a lot of work has been done on the update in terms of reaching out to the community working with the various

technical advisory technical advisory and then also meeting with the various council members the general plan update is a a combination of working through the various issues with the community providing the input and also addressing it into a long-term document. The question of the Golden City and Beyond is a slogan that is being used as part of this process. This slogan was actually adopted back by the City Council in the early 80s as part of the revitalization of Santa Ana, and there was

changed in 2006 to the current slogan, which is Downtown Orange County. We're using the slogan to help convey the message that since the general plan is being changed and updated for the first time in almost 40 years that this is going beyond the the Golden City and it's looking to the future for a vision you know as a city and being known as downtown Orange County we are city that is looking towards as a leadership city and very many recognizable aspects of our city are seen throughout the region. And as any city, any good plan out city has, it has culture, it has arts,

very recognizable, iconic images. And as you look on the slide there, you can instantly recognize the picture there, which city is being referred to and really recognize it for what it is and what it conveys. And we believe that Santa Ana also has that same level of energy and that same level of focus that can be a world-class city. So there are things in our city that we can also work upon, enhance, and look at how we can continue to do that as we look towards the future. And the general plan is a document to do that. We have the museum.

We have iconic images as you drive down the freeway, the cube. We have the Santa Ana water tower. We have arts and culture. We have a zoo. You know, we have iconic skyline in the south area with office buildings and residential building. So, you know, a good transportation system, the streetcar, those are aspects of what we see as a city that can, you know, have a world-class image and a vision as we move forward. not only do we have all those assets but we are in a region with other assets that we can potentially explore

and be able to benefit from throughout the region the John Wayne Airport it has the call sign of SNA that's the Santa Ana so that's something that is quite a benefit in terms of just worldwide recognition the Honda Center, Angels, Disneyland all of those things are close by and looking at what type of activity, what kind of economic development activity that we can generate and benefit from that. Those are the things that we want to capture in this general plan. So, you know, just to kind of go back to the slide, you know, ask the question of what other city can be recognizable.

We think that Santa Ana is something that can be very recognizable. as we go through this process throughout general plan we can become a world-class city and look at what we can do to continue to convey that cultivate that and promote that the general plan is a long-term blueprint it's looking out 25 years as a plan for development of all of our land use infrastructures we're looking at the first time economic development element that focuses on what we do for economic development historical preservation for the very first time we're

making sure that we continue to change but change in a way that respect and celebrate our culture and heritage and you know together we're looking at a total of 12 elements eight of which are required by the state law and four of which are something that we felt very important locally through listening to the community through working with the council and all those will be updated and also be added so these are the various elements that are required by the state as well as the that we're adding the only element that won't be

updated currently is the housing element and that element has its own track it's only one one of the eight elements of the required by the state that we have to update it regularly and we have to update it to address the RHNA numbers as allocated by the state through HCD and then ultimately SCAG so that won't be updated until SCAG and HCD has finalized their allocation number at the end of this year and it will give us about a year from October to complete and we should have it adopted by October 2021.

Right now, we're in the process of going out and doing outreach for the environmental justice, and we're doing it virtually, unfortunately, as much as we'd like to engage the public. Because of the COVID-19, we have had to work through a virtual process, working with our neighborhood improvement program. We outreach to 32,000 mailers to the community, asking and sharing information about environmental justice issues and then also informing the community about upcoming meetings. In 2019, we did a survey of focus area workshops citywide working, and we received over 650 responses,

over 300 participants at a citywide focus area workshop, so almost 1,000 residents participating in that process. we work with the general plan technique tech advisory group and met with that team the general plan advisory group which is a community based stakeholders you know that I think council member of Pinses made as well so throughout that process we were able to gather and you know input and also provide a direction and then working with the council to really focus in on that.

And then some of the initial outreach, while I wasn't here for that and reviewing that, I think we, as a city, the staff did a tremendous job in just going out to the community, working with the community groups, going to community events, attending weekends, night events, just so that they can hear the residents. So very extensive. and to say that the outreach is monumental is another statement I think it was the staff did a great job with that so the key focus area and this is really looking at you know what is our strategy here we are a built-out city we

are you know a city of over 27 square miles that's built out to every square inch so the opportunity that we have is to only really look at a strategy of where can we accommodate growth that can best accommodate growth so that we can still maintain the character of certain neighborhoods single-family neighborhood residential neighborhood but also looking at how do we ensure that the major corridor throughout our city not only serve as a transportation corridor but as opportunity for us to continue to expand to grow and create economic

mobility and economic diversity for our community with the goal of improving the quality of life ultimately so the five areas are the South Main Street which reach from First Street all the way down to Warner we have grand and 17th corridor we have the West Santa Boulevard 55 Dire Road and South District and when you look at it just by themselves you say well these how would selected they were selected because they fill in the gap and of existing plans that we have so when you connect them with the blues you can see that they

all kind of work together in order to have a comprehensive vision and continue to promote redevelopment revitalization and reuse of existing major corridors that can help us to accommodate some of these strategies

So the general plan format addresses key community topics that are important to resident businesses as well as council members that we met with. As I mentioned, there are eight mandated topics elements, but we have a total of 12, which includes four that is locally being proposed. There is an environmental justice element, and this is a key element that's actually required by state law. this is very much needed in our community because we have quite a bit of environmental issues where we have manufacturing businesses located adjacent

to sensitive land uses such as residential and there is quite a bit of conflict with that there are a few areas throughout the city the conflict is so great that residents are concerned about their health so through the general plan environmental justice element we're able to weave in looking at different strategy on how do we address those type of issues how do we mitigate and make the land uses more compatible over a period of time and that is in the environmental justice element another thing that we're proposing to do is to streamline the document a general plan is a living document is something that

we actually as a city uses on a daily basis but sometimes complicated it's hard to navigate and we believe that with making it more streamlined make it easier to navigate we can make that more transparent to our community easier to review easier to access and hopefully it's something that everybody can refer to so the goal is to reduce the document down to its basic minimal requirements and make it simple to use so that's really what we're looking at in terms of the format talk about the environmental outreach I won't go over that too much

up community community workshop we have one on July 1st and one August 1st these are going to be evening but also events that will be done virtually we as I mentioned provided quite a bit of extensive outreach and send out our invitation we hope to have a high level participation we'll be presenting the draft community plan to the community as well and then look at it going over some major changes on the land use policy in terms of the next step we'll continue our environmental outreach complete our community workshop the really next big

milestone is to complete the IR and the draft element so that we can provide that to the council for your review and then also feedback to us on whether you think we heard you or not and you know if those issues are are being characterized correctly and then with that we can go through the process of working with the Commission to adopt and make the adoption process basically by the City Council and the plan commission the goal is for that to begin late

summer this year that concludes the presentation

do you have questions council member go ahead yeah thank you mr mayor uh thank you for the

David PenalozaItem —

presentation min um i had a uh you know what some of the emails that i received today in regards to the general plan receiving file was that you know a lot of uh some a couple residents participated in these outreach efforts done over the last year or two to three years and then none of the concerns that were there that were spoken about at these meetings we're taking into consideration given what the maps and the proposed changes that are that are proposed in the staff report the comment that I one of the comments that I got was saying you know the Planning Department doesn't listen

David PenalozaItem —

to the community in these in these uh and my response was clearly you don't listen to at least me as a council member uh the city council uh one of the questions that i had is because i know that a lot of the proposed changes in the maps presented in the staff report i'm most mostly in central santa ana along main street um along uh bristol bristol street so i i wanted to just quickly ask

David PenalozaItem —

i know north main street isn't included in here um when we had that project in off across the street from the discovery cube what what is that zone currently zone that that land office office and we were one of the the ordinance was to change it to what district center district center and so what does district center mr. Thai allow you to allow us as a city to build by right the district center is a a

mixed-use designation that allows for a combination of commercial retail use It's generally used to accommodate higher density type development in a mixed-use urban environment.

David PenalozaItem —

Higher density development, so like apartments? Can we build apartments on there?

Apartments, commercial center, correct.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. So, and I'm trying to understand what the thought process of the planning department is. If we've seen what happened and what the outspoken support from the neighborhoods north of the city, north Santa Ana, that they don't want to see high-density development along single-family homes, why would we even propose to change all the central part of santa ana the the poor communities single-family homes that we know don't have the resources to activate and organize and come to

David PenalozaItem —

the council meetings and stay here till three in the morning to speak in opposition of a project why would we want to do that all throughout main street from first to warner believe i believe um bristol street you know all throughout bristol street uh i want to know if the residents north of 17th and grand do they know that this they wanted we want to change the the the general plan to include dc to allow high density development i mean is that i don't just by being on the council last year and the multiple council meetings and planning commission meetings

David PenalozaItem —

that we saw of how the community feels about high density development along single-family homes just the on main street i mean i live half less than that a quarter of a mile from that i know that a lot i know a lot of people that live along main street do the wilshire square residents know about this proposed change do the madison park residents know about these proposed changes that are going to severely impact their quality of life. One of the things that we mentioned was part of our goal here is to improve the quality of life in Santa Ana, which I don't think that this does that.

David PenalozaItem —

I think it really diminishes the quality of life of all those single-family homes that live along these stretches of the city, especially centrally located in the city. I know that just looking at the proposed changes, I mean, that's all that we're doing is, you know, moving commercial to, you know, district center to allow for high density development. I know that right before the 2525 North Main Apartments were proposed or came for a final vote,

David PenalozaItem —

a developer reached out to me about asking me how I felt about developing a commercial site off of Grand and Fairhaven, I believe, or Grand and Santa Clara into high-density apartments. and the first thing I said it's like have you not watched or paid attention to what's happening with 2525 North Main Street all those really nice single family homes along the Santa Cemetery and Fairhaven and and I I don't think that they'll be very happy to find out that there's high-density development coming you know just right on the other side of their of their cinder block wall

David PenalozaItem —

so I want to make sure that the public knows that these proposed changes are coming you know the idea is to build high density along next year single-family homes along Main Street along Bristol on Grand and I I mean I'm not comfortable with it I haven't I've haven't been from the beginning if we're gonna see high density development should be on the outskirts of the city on the edges throughout the where a lot of it already exists or by where Phil lives high density but I'm kidding but I mean that that's that's what you know we've seen

David PenalozaItem —

how how against this type of development the city is so why would we want to update the general plan to include more of this throughout the entire city I know we're built out and I know that housing is is a crisis and it's much needed but I mean that's that's the thing it's like we should build high density housing in areas where we can, but not just update the entire general plan to allow for that type of development from north to south along big stretches of road, especially considering Main Street is only in one area. I think it's two lanes, one way in each direction. I mean,

David PenalozaItem —

I don't see this working, just my opinion. Those are my comments, but I want to make sure that we, The outreach that's done is good. It's better than what we've done. I know that I've pushed and pushed the idea of social media sponsoring content to really, really have residents see it. People that would normally not be subscribed to the city's Nixle alerts or the city's Facebook page. There's a lot of residents that aren't subscribed to any of that but would still want to know and see what changes are coming.

David PenalozaItem —

So if we could, I mean, increase the outreach on this and really make the public aware of what's being proposed, I mean, that's all I can ask for at this point. But just wanted to say that I'm not comfortable with any of this general update proposed. So I know it's a receiving file. So I personally wouldn't want to receive and file it. I mean, just want to send it back and bring us, but i don't know what the pleasure of my colleagues are or this council so those are my thoughts thank

you mr mayor mr mayor yeah go ahead councilman but sarah go ahead thank you uh well i i gotta

Phil BacerraItem —

say you know i i sat on the general plan advisory committee when i was uh a planning commissioner and i was very impressed you know men's predecessor just you know had a great cross-section of the community you had folks from the school district business residents different institutions all throughout the city that all participated and i when min was kind of thumping his chest there talking about the outreach he has every right to do so i mean they this is one of those things where i think our city really shined when it came to outreach because it was thorough um unfortunately

Phil BacerraItem —

it didn't continue on a consistent course and so here we are a couple of years later but a lot of what was said back then i i dusted off my old binder just a couple days ago just to kind of see where we were with everything and not much has changed as far as those concerns when it comes to land use development and patterns and uh to your point council member penniless bring it down to south bristol because you know what it's the same as north grand you have these areas that are just they're outdated they're underutilized and it's not about bringing in you know the the 25 25

Phil BacerraItem —

projects and dropping them all over the city it's about doing it the right way in the smart way i think with what um mr ty did tonight in bringing this before us to receive and file it wasn't for us to make a judgment on what is on these plan areas and i i too received a couple of calls from folks that were concerned about what was being proposed but at this point and i'll ask mr ty so from here this is just a receiving file you're letting us know where your staff is at but we are not even close to being done with the exhaustive public process right i mean could you

Phil BacerraItem —

just give us a couple of the highlights real quick i mean as far as the eir etc right so from here

on out as i mentioned we'll be going through the adoption process and as part of that adoption process, we will have to complete a public hearing process. Some of the meetings that I mentioned on the 31st and the 1st is a part of that outreach. But in terms of the official public hearing process, there is the circulation of the EIR that the public has to review. How long is that? That's 45 days that we will be circulating for the EIR. And as part of that, we will be also providing information to the public about the general plan and the proposed changes. just to address the concern about the

post changes and whether or not it was outreach to the community last year we did five separate meetings in five separate areas inviting the public to meet with us and I know some of the council members attended those as well so each one of those areas we strictly focused on the residents and work with neighborhood group to get the residents out so I really appreciate that and I want to make sure that you know that that was

David PenalozaItem —

done thank you for that men um but i and it comes back to brings me to the the charter item it's like yeah we did the outreach but how many people participated because i know that in a lot of the outreach that we do in our city for numerous different things it is sometimes it's very low

barely it was very well attended actually and the attendance will up in the you know 60 to 100 folks

David PenalozaItem —

and beyond and which is good and and and we and obviously we can't with covid but you know we got to increase those efforts absolutely and the reason i asked that i said that is because i mean just with uh back in in march um or i think it was yeah it was march february when we had that update meeting over at at um esqueda elementary about the main street uh improvement project which I like a lot of it um that that this was after a year and three months of me on this council

David PenalozaItem —

I had not heard a single peep about that project that that that that uh you know uh improvement to that huge stretch of Main Street at all nothing you know and when people were at the meeting saying this is the first we hear of it we live you know a house away from main street and and i was sitting in the back room i'm like you know what this is the first time i hear of it which is embarrassing because i you know had met with planning numerous times where the general plan update but that was never brought up that was never uh and and you know and maybe that was my fault but it's a it's

David PenalozaItem —

a thing where it's like i know we do outreach and we do all the right things but we know that the participation from our community as much is not there not because they don't want to but because they work a lot and they have multiple jobs and they they can't find child care and and it's tough to to to attend these meetings a lot of the times i know we're doing but we need to really you know i mean i don't we need to know the community we serve in order to say how can we best serve them the charter review thing, I'll bring it up, the survey. The survey was great. We put it out there. But I went through the survey and I was like,

David PenalozaItem —

well, no one would understand this unless you're a council member or a city attorney. So it's like we've got to know who we're serving when we're doing this outreach because that's the only way we're going to get people to participate. I mean, that's my opinion. I completely agree.

And I think that plan that you're talking about, the public realm street improvement plan that was done many years ago uh you know the between cda and public works they were able to uh re-secure the fund to basically implement that so that project i i remember learning about it as well so we did facilitate it with outreach to that community but specifically when we outreached to this community regarding the general plan and i attended that one it was very well attended and i participated with that the room was full i imagine it probably be about 60 to 100 folks. So, you know, that was completed.

But Sarah, he was not done. Yes. Go ahead, Councillor Busser.

I just wanted to make sure I answered your question. So the next step will be also as part of the circulation process, we will go into the public doing process where we will notify the public about what is being proposed, what is being proposed in front of the planning commission, doing the recommendation process, and what's going to be considered by the city council. So the public and the community will be able to participate in all of that. And we'll be reaching out through mailing, advertising on the web, and every other avenues that we have.

Phil BacerraItem —

Well, I just thank you, Min, for that. Because, you know, I share your concerns, Councilman Pellowson, because there are a lot of times, like the charter amendment stuff, where we don't get much feedback and we just wonder what's going on. But, again, I think, you know, from what Min has done since he's been here, verney and his team working on this i mean again it's an amazing uh output i mean what they were able to do with what they did i mean they were doing everything in-house and they did a fantastic job so i i right now even though we've had a little lag time on getting to where we're at today

Phil BacerraItem —

i still feel comfortable with the amount of participation that happened i mean it wasn't just one or two meetings hoping people would show up and if they didn't do well i mean I mean, SNAP really went out and got people out there, and the General Plan Advisory Group, again, great cross-section of folks that participated. One other thing I want to clarify for folks is that with the General Plan, we're not going to get, I mean, this is really, I hate to say this, but high level. You know, we're talking about do we want housing here, do we not, do we want mixed use here, do we not.

Phil BacerraItem —

we talk about intensity to a certain extent but we're really going to get more into the weeds of what it really starts to look like when we go on the next step which will be when we update our zoning code so right now with the general plan this is kind of the big picture stuff you know as min mentioned you know our our state requires our general plan to have certain elements and our city has gone above and beyond that and i actually appreciate the way you're organizing the general plan i think it it is very user friendly and once the document's completed no

Phil BacerraItem —

matter what it looks like as far as you know which areas we truly focus on i think it'll be something that people will be able to recite look at and be able to refer to uh so i just i want to emphasize though that i think what's presented to us now is not anything close to being in stone i think this is you know based on input that staff has received and i think that you know that's why we have this exhaustive process from the eir to the public hearings that will come before the planning commission and city council so uh folks should not feel left out i mean i think if staff continues

Phil BacerraItem —

to do what they've done so far in this general plan i don't think anybody's going to be left out or not know what's going on and not have a chance to provide their input if i may mayor make a

comment this is christine yes go ahead go ahead so just go ahead thank you so thank you for those comments we certainly will take that into consideration in the community outreach in the future as we finish the process but a couple of clarifications similar to what councilmember Becerra said there isn't this plan isn't about putting high density projects next to single-family homes I didn't want to to leave that out there there's many opportunities dress that in the future and one of the things that has guided the conversation was to be mindful of that and not put the higher rise buildings or the higher densities of

budding single-family homes. And the reason the five areas were picked is if you look at the map that he put up there, those other areas in blue have been updated in the past. These are the areas, as Councilmember Becerra mentioned, that they are run down, they're deteriorated, there is a lot of opportunity in them. That's why those five areas were picked, and they're along major transportation corridors. So I just wanted to clarify those two things.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you. And for that, Madam St. Major, Member Solaria, did you want to speak? If just one last thing. So thank you for the outreach. I mean, I'm not saying you guys aren't doing any at all, but, you know, there's always room for improvement. But at the same time, when we do these outreach events and we go into a room or a Zoom call, whatever it's going to be, and there's 60 to 100 people there, I want the planning department to ask yourselves, Are we meeting with this community to just make them aware of what we're doing? Or are we taking their input into consideration and including them as part of this?

David PenalozaItem —

Because from what I'm hearing from the residents that have been attending these meetings is that all of their suggestions and input and outcries have fallen on deaf ears with what's proposed in this receiving file. So that's also, I want to make sure we're not just gathering groups of people to let them know what we're doing but gathering them to say okay you know what i hear you loud and clear this isn't you know you're not comfortable with this let's go back and and and you know try to change it but that's it i'm done with let me address that comment if i may

because i i just want to make sure that the the what is being proposed is a combination of what we heard back from the community from the city council it's not something that we just went and propose it now it may not addresses all of the comments because we actually went through a process of serving the entire city residents community so that they can provide input on which land use scenarios that they would prefer so the scenarios that we're proposing is a scenario the are the scenarios that we receive the most input on where the community says we prefer to have this

scenario does that mean that everyone agrees with it I don't I don't think so but this is a community wide outreach and what we what we consider is to look at what is being agreed upon at least being you know conveyed to us by the community and we try to also create and ensure that there are compatibility as well we just don't go and put it there because that's what we heard but we want make sure that doesn't make sense and so that we can put policies in place that can help to address the placement and the the location of the land use and compatibility so yes we're very quite

aware of that i just want to make sure that you understand that that was done that was considered and we're just not not listening to folks we are listening and we're taking steps to address those

David PenalozaItem —

concerns thank you man uh again i'm not trying to pick on you or pick on the part but i'm just You know, even just looking at them, going through Central Santa Ana, none of the zone changes are changed to open space. What I'm hearing is that nobody at any of these outreach meetings asks for more open space, which I find it hard to believe because that's all I hear every single day of the week on social media. Every time it's like we need more open space, and I agree. so given the fact that there's no open space designated I mean in these general plan changes I mean it's just there is there is an open space element

that will be forwarded to it's not in here there's an actual open space element that shows areas that have lack of park space and it will show the goal of how we can get to increasing more spark space throughout the city so that's a part of the open space element and it's not a part of the land use element so i just want to make sure

Phil BacerraItem —

thank you so that concludes my presentation mr mayor if there's unless many of my colleagues have any comments go ahead i i was just going to make a motion to go ahead and receive and file

the item second and then mr may the only second roll call vote a quick comment mr mayor before we

start the roll call I'm also just anxious to get this work done the community's been working on this for five six years or more and everything is old takes longer I know we also complain up here in the community about how long it takes to get a projects approved and it's because we have a very old general plan across the board and so let's let's dig in and I'm glad that councilmember Benyelos is having us all focus in on it but we need to get moving on this thank Thank you.

Yeah, just one comment, Mr. Mayor.

Yes, go ahead, Councilor Mienta.

So, number one, I can't believe we're on 19E and it's just a receive and file. So and it's 1130, I think. In any event.

We've spent 30 minutes on it almost. Go ahead.

And it's a receive and file. So look, I agree with the Councilmember. I think that I was on the Council that funded this initial funding of $2 million for the general plan amendment because we hadn't done one since 1982. so we've had i don't know how many uh planning directors and city managers and council members so it is a very difficult task to outreach and engage the community on something as exciting as a general plan amendment so um you know and we've had people out at meetings and i've been at one of you with them uh men when we did it

in ward one the problem i'm having is that i don't know where the comments are from the public right so if you could and i don't know what the you know um the real reason for accelerating this during a pandemic where we know we have trouble engaging the public in the best of times and to try to engage the public when it comes to environmental justice issues compatibility issues We have neighborhoods next to crematoriums. We have neighborhoods next to, you know, chrome plating plants. There's air quality impacts. There's, you know, contaminant impacts in the ground.

Look, there are some serious problems because this city grew up at a time where when planning wasn't a priority, right? It kind of grew up with some old neighborhoods and then heavy manufacturing are right next to them. And now we have the whole issue of having the fourth most densely populated city with us saying we're going to relax some conditions in certain areas. And maybe not introduce or invite those developments, but if we zone it this way, look, somebody can make a real compelling argument to say, I have a right to do this. And so I don't want to put us in that position.

I certainly think that we've waited close to 40 years. we can wait maybe another few months uh before we uh when we can effectively outreach um you know we have a new council member that maybe is seeing this for the first time she's going to have to get up to speed but look i know we're all you know pretty sharp and we can figure this out but i you know again i don't know what the acceleration is if you can explain to us when it comes back to us what is it specifically in this document that was incorporated as a result of those meetings. That would be helpful because those are good first steps for us to be able to see,

yes, those opinions are now part of this document. So thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments? Before we take a vote, let me just mention this. We have been working on this for about four years, and in the best of times, it's difficult to interest folks on this. So I think we should continue to try to get input, but really the council needs to give it a lot of thought. We need to get into the details. I know it's probably not exciting for us either, but if we don't move it along, it'll be another year.

And then you'll have a bunch of new council members trying to figure it out and that'll make it even more difficult. So I think we need to balance the timelines and the legal public review periods and the environmental impact report and all that has to be done with the five months that we have left or whatever to see if we can get it done this year or not. So with that, it's a receiving file. We have a motion and a second. Roll call vote, please, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa?

No.

Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Plotin-Viegas?

Yes.

Mayor Polino?

Yes. Let's go on to the next item. Should we go back to Council Member Mendoza?

Yes.

She had a, wasn't there a question? Please go ahead.

Yes. Council Member Mendes, I thank you for bringing this out, actually. There is a correction. It should state December 13, 2022. Both commissioners coincide with the sitting council member, and that has always been the practice.

Okay, seeing that clarification was made, I make a motion to accept two commissioners as indicated on item 13A.

Is there a second for the motion?

Second.

If no discussion, roll call vote.

Council Member Becerra?

Council Member Mendoza? Aye. Council Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio? Yes. Mayor Plotin-Vegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion passes.

What's our next item, Madam Clerk?

25A, Councilmember Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Madam Clerk. 25A is to approve various contractual services agreements for ongoing operations for finance in various departments. The reason I pulled it, Madam City Manager, is because number three, the Civic Collections, Inc. How long have we been using them to collect dog license fees? Of course, it's related to dogs. They didn't plan that.

I didn't know it would be dogs. I'm going to defer to our finance director that manages that.

David PenalozaItem —

And the reason I'm asking is because over the holiday break back in December, I received two different constituents reached out to me on Christmas Eve. saying that there was, and I think I brought this up to city management as well, that there was a random woman, it was described to me, at their door on Christmas Eve in the morning as they were trying to wrap gifts and cook Christmas dinner, asking for or demanding.

David PenalozaItem —

They said that they were pretty tough on demanding that they pay their dog license payment, which uh you know of course i told the the resident well you should neuter your dog it wouldn't be that expensive but um they said that they the person was requesting cash or check if someone's at my door asking for a cash payment i'm gonna say no i'm gonna be like i don't know who you are get get the hell out of my house and uh so first i'm not we shouldn't be sending anybody to collect payments, especially on regular days, maybe, but on Christmas Eve.

David PenalozaItem —

I mean, I don't know who the Civic Collections, Inc. are, but, I mean, they should not be bothering our residents for asking for payment on holidays or any day, really. And demanding cash payment is also troubling because, you know, I believe the amount due from this particular resident was $220 or something for a pass-through fee and whatnot for their dog. But I'm not going to give anybody that comes to my door $200 in cash because, I mean, that's not – so I want to make sure that we correct that with this company, what their practice is and what they're doing,

David PenalozaItem —

because I'm not comfortable sending people out to harass our residents, especially on holidays.

Phil BacerraItem —

Right. Can we get them to do code enforcement? I mean, it sounds like they're fantastic, right?

David PenalozaItem —

Maybe they're just in the long racket. Yeah, that would be.

Phil BacerraItem —

Collect the fines.

I don't know, Ms. Finance Director, if you know if that was the company that was in place. They would be good for fireworks fines, you know.

David PenalozaItem —

I'd be down for that if we could send them out on 4th of July.

We will address your concerns, Council Member.

Yeah, we can certainly address that concern. In short answer to your question, I don't know how long we've been using them, but we have been using them for a while. So related to your incident, that would have been the company, and we can certainly work with them to make sure that they do.

David PenalozaItem —

And I was also told they had no city signage on them. Of course, they're civic. I mean, they're not a city. So the way it was, it was a piece of paper on a clipboard with just typed line name. name and so it just doesn't i i wouldn't trust that and no one else would so i want to make sure we and if that i mean how much should we even pay the the civic collections i know it said 150 000

is that what we pay them i mean it's i believe 50 000 per year wait a second um 75 annual no it is you're you're right it's an annual amount of 150. do we get more than that back yes okay

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. Really? Just from collecting? Wow. Okay. But I mean, still, we should make sure that they're not doing that on holidays.

Thank you for the comment, and we will definitely follow up with that, and I will get back to you specifically.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you. With that, I'll make a motion to approve.

Second. Is there a second?

David PenalozaItem —

Second, Mr. Mayor.

Provo, I'll vote, please.

Councilmember Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem —

Yes.

Councilmember Mendoza yes councilmember Pinaleza yes councilmember Sarmiento yes councilmember Soloria yes mayor Potem-Viegas yes mayor Pulido yes

David PenalozaItem —

motion carries 7-0 next item please madam clerk 55A thank you mr. mayor that was also me 55A was that's your last item by the way right no I have one more adopt the resolution I told you guys I'm keeping here till 3 a.m. Adopt the resolution to temporarily expand guidelines to allow food vending vehicles to use private properties and certain city parking lots for vending activities and suspending the requirement for land use certificate. I'm all in for this. I think it's great that we're giving vendors an opportunity to, you know, given the pandemic

David PenalozaItem —

that's going on, there's a lot of businesses that have now, you know, have to do mobile vending which is great but the only thing that I'm concerned with in the presentation the the the hours I think it was to allow them to operate remain open till 2 in the morning I I want to remind that you know not every private area in the city is is the same there's a lot that you know go up are up against single-family homes you know back to single-family homes and and other I I would not I already hear we currently receive concerns from neighborhoods that food trucks are

David PenalozaItem —

operating till two three in the morning you know across the street from their house with lights and people gathering and I want to make sure that if we could remove that 2 a.m. I don't know if we want to make it on a depending on the area of the city that it's in we'll decide if it's appropriate to leave them open until 2 a.m but to just you know or maybe i'm reading this wrong if staff could could

talk about that certainly we hear your concern um this provision is only on commercial property so ideally these are not adjacent to residential they'll be on major corridor and they won't be facing the residential area because it's only on commercial type properties what we can do is up to 2 a.m. subject to approval by the city manager through through you know her delegate as in myself we could do that so we can adjust it so that it's up to 2 a.m. per the approval of city staff basically okay well I know it's just the

David PenalozaItem —

commercial area men but like I said you know we just went up even those general plan maps that we just saw we you know my grandma lives across the street from commercial area and it's you know 50 feet away i think that's where the discretion will come in we can make adjustments right and that's what i'm asking is if i don't want to just blindly allow the entire city to have food trucks anywhere for till two in the morning uh because that could be problematic even if it's on a commercial area because we will get the phone calls we will get

David PenalozaItem —

the emails of people you know not being able to sleep because of the noise the smells or whatnot not of, but I want to make sure that we're really looking at that, make that adjustment. If I could include that adjustment in the motion, I'll make that motion to approve. I'll second.

And just a second with comment. Thank you to staff for following up. I know we spoke about this and it was rolled out earlier. I think we didn't get much of a response. I believe we will get a much, much more robust response this time around. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem —

Mr. Mayor, I had two quick questions for staff. Go ahead. Go ahead. So will these, the food trucks, as they're on these properties, are they required to obtain a San Diana business license?

They should. I have one, but the answer is yes.

Phil BacerraItem —

So they would. And then my other question, just for clarification for everybody. So they're still going to be required to follow all the standards in Article 14, like providing a trash can and all those.

All those operational standards are still in place. We're not asking to waive any of that. it's just the land use certificate process that is through the zoning code in order for them to be on private property they have to obtain that requirement so in place of that we're asking that they be required to be registered with the city so that we know who is operating on what property so we can monitor and evaluate the pilot program but they don't have to obtain approval from the

Phil BacerraItem —

city for a land use certificate but they do need the business license correct okay thank you

Mr. Mayor, this is Councilman Solorio. Yes, go ahead. I think separate to this, this might be an opportunity for us to meet with the Food Truck Association and related industries to, again, to get more buy-in so that we have more success this time, that they know what it is, and there might be some fine-tuning elements that they can suggest that don't need Council approval. they might be administrative in nature and then related to that work it will also be an opportunity for us to follow with our new Public Works director and staff on some outstanding questions like now that we have purchased the new light

poles to figure out maybe like a pilot program where food truck can plug into that you know that way they don't need to have their generators operating so as an EJ issue and an environmental issue that that's an improvement and then also Wi-Fi because when folks come to these areas they also see it as an amenity opportunity and then that also just ties into the ongoing question of we were promised that these new lights we were purchasing we're gonna have fixtures that would be compatible for Wi-Fi additions and it would be good for us to begin to know what those capabilities are and this may be an

opportunity to roll this into that program that broader program with this by the way the food truck industry is willing to pay upwards of $500 per month to have that kind of benefit and so there's a lot we could do here and economically would be a big plus but I do thank staff for moving at least this

element forward thank you mr. mayor quick comment on this I'm in favor

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just if we could also reach out to the neighborhood associations to get their input on this also. While we roll this thing out, this program.

That's my comment.

Thank you. I just want to make sure we continue to include Alvaro. He's still active in this area. Am I correct in that?

Yes, sir.

Alvar Nunez. Let's keep him plugged in because he was trying to promote this program pretty much on his own earlier. And now with the council taking this action, it should make it a lot easier to, you know, to work with those vendors. Also through the COVID, you know, Julie has been working with a large group of them. And I do, you know, periodic calls, giving them updates on what's going on with the pandemic. and especially in the early days, you know, safe practices and getting them sanitizers and getting them masks and gloves and all that. We've got a really good association right now.

I think if we plug them in, they ought to not only get the word out, but they could help us make this a successful endeavor, I'm sure. So with that, I think we have motion to second. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem —

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento? Yes. Council Member Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Vegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion carries 7-0.

So next item, Madam Clerk.

55B.

David PenalozaItem —

That was my last item, Mr. Mayor. Okay, go ahead. 55B is to adopt the resolution calling for and giving notice of a general election to be held on November 3rd, 2020. No, I don't want to cancel the election. I didn't pull it for that reason. I pulled it because I just want to clarify, Madam City Clerk, regarding the charter amendments. Would we still be able to put any measure, just want to make that clear, if we would, on the election? I know that there's a cost already on here for $430,000. We could still add measures after the fact, correct?

Thank you, Council Member Pinalista, for the question. So what I did encounter that I would get this question, which is why under the fiscal impact on page 55B-2, I did a breakdown of where the $430,000 would include, and it does not include the charter amendment. That was not something that I was anticipating when we were working on our budget. We haven't even had an ad hoc charter review meeting yet, and so I did not anticipate that and include that in our fee here.

David PenalozaItem —

So if we were to, let's say we go with one of the 18 amendments,

David PenalozaItem —

we could still add that, though, because it's on the agenda tonight. I mean, I don't know where it's going to go, but if we would, can it still be added after the fact that if we approve this?

We would appropriate an additional $60,000 if we add any one question, like for the charter ad hoc. Okay. Or the charter review.

David PenalozaItem —

And we could condense a lot of the amendments proposed into one question or two. So it could be upwards of $60,000 to possibly $120,000? Correct. Depending on how many measures we include on the, okay. That's correct. I just want to make sure that we're legally allowed to do that, Madam City Attorney. We could do it. We just got to appropriate for it, right? Correct. Okay. And if I'm not mistaken, the fiscal impact, there's the petition review, because there's another rent control petition going on. Or is that last year's or two years ago?

No, this is for this year. And they have until July 27th to file.

David PenalozaItem —

To file the?

The petition, correct.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. And the referendum is related to 2525? Correct. And then the recall? Okay. Yes. All right. Thank you. With that, I'll make a motion to approve.

Second.

David PenalozaItem —

Just for anybody listening, you have nomination period is opening, so.

July 13th, nomination period opens and it closes August 6th. Council Member Becerra. Yes. Yes. Councilmember Mendoza. Yes. Councilmember Peñalosa.

Yes.

Councilmember Sarmiento.

Yes, but just a quick question to City Attorney. City Attorney, was that the 27th to submit anything? I guess I missed the Councilmember's comment for, I guess, initiatives that were being collected. We talked about times being told during this pandemic when we couldn't go out and gather signatures. I guess I'm lost right now, so can you just clarify?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I think the rent initiative that the city clerk is referring to, there's a 180-day requirement, and the deadline is that July 27th date that she referenced. So the state did not provide us extensions of time on this circulation of initiatives. So that was the pre-existing deadline? Correct. That's correct. And even if they were to submit in July, by the time that the signatures are verified, if they're sent to the registrar for verification, by the time they actually come back, they wouldn't qualify in time to meet the November 2020 election anyhow. Correct.

Thank you.

Council Member Soloria?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido?

Mayor Pulido? Yes. Thank you. Motion carries 7-0.

Okay, next item.

65A. And, Mayor, we do have a very brief presentation.

If you would like to entertain us.

Yes, Mayor, this will be three hours and 15 minutes is what this presentation will be. Thank you so much for entertaining my very, very brief presentation, actually. This is a proposed pilot Park Coast Services program at Thornton Park.

and basically a park host program is someone, a person or a couple that lives at a park in a recreational vehicle or in the picture there is a fifth wheel and they are kind of the eyes and ears of the park. They're like a park ambassador. They're not the police department. They're not park patrol. they create that relationship with the community. There's a cell phone that they have. They can be contacted. They're not working 24-7. Some people will have jobs and they'll go to their job. They'll come back and they'll have a shift that

they'll work. There'll be signs posted as to you know the Park Coast is on duty. If not you can call this phone number and leave a message. So it's really just a program that gives better customer service to our community. We also would be recruiting through an RFP process, a request for proposal. So we would solicit applications, we would have interviews, and then we would eventually select the best person for the job. In return for that, they would live free. They would be provided their utilities, and we would

put together some type of license agreement or whatever the city attorney recommends. And this would be for, I would recommend for a year. Sometimes you'll see at state parks they're for 90 day terms, but that's a little bit different. They're for campgrounds. But this to have some consistency would be a year evaluation or a pilot. And then we could determine if this works and then we can expand it to other parks. So we picked Thornton Park because it was brought up at the last meeting and I think it's a great park. It's over 32 acres. There's a lot of amenities

and essentially the park host would be either on some type of golf cart or walking the park. They would have their vest on. They would talk with the community and get feedback and if they need help from SAPD they would contact them or the park patrol.

So this is looking northeast on South Lindus Way and this is just a picture. We would have some type of pad with their utility hookup and whether it's a motorhome or an RV or whatever you have, that would be fine.

David PenalozaItem —

Question, Lisa, with your picture here.

so there's two of them or is the other one no that one's just uh an encampment that we are

David PenalozaItem —

yeah so a person living in our parks um so i want questions now so mr mayor may i

David PenalozaItem —

mr mayor pro time yes go ahead go ahead thank you um so i just want to um because that's what And I thought about it initially when the city manager brought it up a couple weeks ago. And one of my first concerns was, is this going to invite other RVs to park down the street? And probably should have cropped that picture to, you know, or see, you know, there's an RV parked. And a couple of people reached out to me kind of with the same concerns. So I want to make sure that there's signage available. Yes. and I'm not too sure on the cost do people just volunteer to do this for free?

Yes.

David PenalozaItem —

Is that how it

Yes, in return they're providing services so if they have a job during the day then perhaps some people I've had someone who worked at a school district and she would get off work and then she would work from like 3 o'clock till the park closing 10 o'clock at night and they're happy to do that They have a place to live for free and

I mean it's worked in other communities and I'm not sure

David PenalozaItem —

Do we know of any local communities besides state parks where we've seen this and it's worked?

I worked for another city, the city of Yencinitas and we had about five park hosts

David PenalozaItem —

And it works fine? The only thought, just who would want to do this for free is just my so okay

Also one more thing, I've also fenced around so it gives it a little bit more privacy and then you can post the signs on there. So it doesn't look like there's just a fifth wheel there and everybody can park next to it. Okay.

David PenalozaItem —

All right. I guess it's a pilot so I'm not too concerned. I'm not sure if a year is the right length of time. I prefer six months, but that's just me. but i don't know what what my colleagues think but those are my comments thank you mr mayor

Phil BacerraItem —

yes go ahead thank you um i just want to thank you lisa for you know putting this together i think this is the kind of the outside the box thinking that we need when it comes to trying to put the eyes and ears in our parks you know we always have folks that say you know they don't feel safe there they're you know after dark or you know at least dusk you know and it's here here you're going to have a host that's on site that you know we we have these ambassadors that kind of come and go you know i i you know infrequently see them but this would be something where you know that they're

Phil BacerraItem —

there and i like what you're talking about where they're building the you know relationships and trust with the community the community is going to be able to go to them when they see certain things on site um i only had two questions though so one was related to you know as council member said about you know who are we going to have at the parks right so as part of the process we'll do the rfp but will that also once we get to the point of selection kind of like when you're offering somebody employment will we also conduct a background check on the folks that we select

yes absolutely in your staff report on the first page it talks about what would be included in the license agreement but what does what is not listed there is a background check okay so absolutely

Phil BacerraItem —

And then as far as for the actual RV or trailer, whatever the apparatus looks like, there will be standards, I'm assuming, as part of the RFP as we go forward. Just because I believe that, you know, obviously if they're going to go through that full vetting process, they're probably credible folks. But we also, I guess, want to ensure that they maintain a certain quality while they're located in our parks.

Absolutely. Yes, and also part of the application process is they have to have a picture of their RV or their motorhome, and they have to have their certificates, license, I'm sorry, all of their paperwork as far as them having that legally. Okay.

Phil BacerraItem —

Well, with that, I'll go ahead and just for the sake of it, I'll make the motion to approve the item.

second the motion I have a couple of brief comments number one on the year it probably sounds about right but as you know in contracts I like off-ramp so if they don't if the relationship doesn't work for them or for us there should be you know two month or a 30 day or whatever the right mixes for an exit my first reaction was I was jealous right because why isn't it a more three and why isn't it Santiago Park but we can't do everything that's on Tiago Park and so it's for the benefit of the city and it's a pilot and if it works here then maybe we can expand it out and I think as we move towards ward based

systems here in San Diego we got you know do things like this in mind with try it somewhere and if it works let's spread it out but the Irvine Ranch Water District at there they don't like get to be called the the duck pond anymore they forget what the official name is but they're across the street from UC Irvine and by the way chance former Chancellor Drake is gonna be the the new statewide you see presidents that's awesome but at the Irvine Ranch duck club or pond whatever they call it now they have something kind of like this like a curator they live on side and look after the property and so that would

be good and then as this program hopefully succeeds you know if you could be thinking about what other parks and other parts of the town this would work in it's fantastic especially because won't be too too expensive because they're getting you know free housing in exchange for some of these services so it's fantastic and I don't think it competes with our you know small park Ranger program or park security program but just will be an additional element of safety and comfort for the for our residents and improvements so thank you

I would like to say we talked with the Santiago neighborhood Association and they were in support of that so that that's a site that we would like to you know eventually get to once the park is all renovated yeah maybe this one and

anyone and you know penna lost the circuit they will go to Santiago Park

mr. mayor quick comment mayor pro tem go ahead real quick I'm I'm not gonna be in support of this project this pilot program I just see some my abilities I hope I'm wrong actually I see that the rest of the council is going for it I'm not comfortable with it and uh like i said i hope i'm wrong we'll see but thank you lisa for for

David PenalozaItem —

bringing that up appreciate it mr mayor i i just thought of something as council member go ahead so lorio was speaking um maybe uh on top of strict background checks that we should do on anybody who wants to participate uh we should also maybe think outside of the box a little bit more and and think of, you know, maybe it just happens to be a certified yoga instructor that we could say, you know what, two, three days a week, we're going to provide yoga classes. Obviously, now we've got to talk, do we want to compensate for those little, you know, extra things.

David PenalozaItem —

But, I mean, it doesn't hurt if whoever wants to be a part of this has an extra, you know, curricular, you know, art that they're certified in. Of course, I don't want to just put anybody in there giving classes that could open up more liability like Mayor Pro Tem Mentioned but looking at areas where we could okay, you know, let's Have them if they if they of course if they're open to it and if they're I guess certified. I mean that's just as I'm thinking what else we can do

Might be a possible idea. I like that and it kind of extra points and I forgot to mention to the only reason why I'm adding on, maybe also like if it's a Santa Ana resident, I think, you know, it's kind of like a local hire. And so if it's things like that or artistic or other abilities, I think that should be, that has real value as well. Thank you. Good.

All right. Just since we're throwing ideas out there, maybe one of these persons or a chess master or something they can play chess with the community or teach kids or anybody that wants to learn. Maybe some like rock climbing eventually we may have a small of your wall somewhere with supervision and our kids are yet doing more activities. But with that why don't we go ahead we have a motion a second Madam Clerk? Yes. All right roll call vote. Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza?

Yes. Councilmember Peñalosa? Yes. Councilmember Sarmiento? Councilmember Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempe-Viegas?

No.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion passes 5-2.

Next item.

65-B.

Any presentation or thoughts on this item?

For this item, Mayor, it has been before you before. You had the recommendations from the Historic Resources Commission and you directed staff to go back and to review their recommendations and bring forth their recommendations as to which elements should be implemented. We do have a brief presentation if you feel it is necessary.

it's getting a little bit late we've been at this for six hours but if we want a presentation

Phil BacerraItem —

of any comments either way mr mayor i i had a couple of questions but i can wait until after

David PenalozaItem —

the presentation if my colleagues want that the the presentation mr mayor is only three four slides

i'd be okay with it and it's informative all right look let's do the presentation and as we're doing I just want to voice a concern that I've spoken of the historic commission to me I think they want a lot of stuff. And my concern is how much will they hamper the development process and potentially act like potentially a second planning commission. And so I just have concerns along those lines. But let's go ahead and hear the presentation.

Okay, Director Minti.

This is the recommendation from staff with regards to the Historical Resources Commission. A recommendation on some of the changes that we're requesting to address some of the concerns, which was presented on April 7th of this past year. Seven of the items, as you see listed there, addresses commission power and duties, bylaws, and also looking towards enhancement of historical preservation in our cities. The concern was that we're looking at losing a lot of some of the older elements and historical elements, and also protection of trees. So there were a series of recommendations. The council directed staff to come back in 90 days,

and we're here with our recommendation. And the recommendation that we're recommending tonight have been looked at and considered in terms of the areas of development impacts and concern, balancing that with ensuring that we also have preservation and protection of historical resources, but also to really look at how we can, from an ongoing process, a way of addressing these concerns without impacting development. And we think we have found that. And the recommendation, some have already been put in place, and one of it is to create a historic preservation section within the planning division.

This section now has three planners that is working and staffing for the Historic Resources Commission, and they address projects and development projects that have historical issues. we established a program through the the upcoming general plan to look at ways of helping to create protection of historical sensitive neighborhood areas in process for identifying that and that is set in policy through the general plan we also are recommending to change the code to increase the frequency of the meeting as well as allowing for making changes to looking at potentially

incorporating the tree protection and preservation ordinance. And finally, one other thing that we need to do, and it's time that we do that, is strengthen our design guidelines. The design guideline basically is what staff use to review projects. When it comes to staff, we look at from a neighborhood-sensitive context, ensuring that whatever's going in is going to be consistent and compatible with existing neighborhoods. So those are the recommendations.

One of the things that has already been done is that we have already taken the changes to the City Council on the recommendation for reducing the self-nomination process from $3,700 to $500. And for the Mills Act Agreement, from $3,700 down to $2,500. and that is at the council's direction ensuring that since the Mills-Docker agreement process does have a financial benefit that we at least make sure that it's cost recovering. So the proposed fee structure was adopted actually as part of your budget as part of the resolution so that has also been accomplished. So

with that we recommend that the council basically take staff's recommendation which we all also have support from the commission as well as you've heard

earlier today. All right, thoughts from council members. Mr. Mayor, Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem —

Yes, go ahead please. Thank you. Well, thank you men for your work and your staff's work on coordinating with HRC. I know they had a very long list of items that they wanted us to consider and I know you brought that before us so I like what you've done. I think that these These are common sense tweaks to the process that I think will help because I think there's a lot of concern among folks who, you know, in the historical preservation community about, you know, projects that were being proposed that could impact some of our valuable and precious resources. So I think what you're, what you presented to us here makes a lot of sense.

Phil BacerraItem —

Just a couple of suggestions I'd like to add is, you know, in regards to the Planning commission representative to the hrc you know we're not going to tweak the composition of the commissions and i'm not even going to suggest that we do but i would like to just ask that planning staff as kind of a regular item rather than try to blend these commissions maybe we just ask that planning staff at on the regular meetings that fall after the hrc meetings that an update is provided to the planning commission just so that there's a lot more communication without the need

Phil BacerraItem —

to have to have um you know an hrc member at planning commission because i think the concern from when i sat on hrc was that planning commission wasn't understanding the concerns from the hrc so i think that might help there and uh as i've done before i want to commend you guys for reducing the the fees i think the mills act agreements are something that really helps our city because it's a commitment from these homeowners to not only do restoration work to their homes, but they're upgrading the homes. So I think that's great, and it benefits both the residents or the homeowners and the city.

Phil BacerraItem —

And with that, I would just like to go ahead and make a motion to authorize staff to proceed with these recommended actions.

David PenalozaItem —

I'll second.

All right. Any more discussion?

Seeing no discussion, a roll call vote.

Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Peñalosa? Yes. Councilmember Sarmiento? Yes. Councilmember Solorio? Mayor Pro Tem Vegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido? Yes. Motion carries 6-1. Councilmember Solano absent. We're on item 65C, Mayor.

All right, is there any presentation on this item?

Yes, sir. Daniel Soto from the City Manager's Office, who has worked with the Ad Hoc since the very beginning, is going to give you an update of what we've done in the past, the additional information that you requested, and then look for direction.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I have a brief presentation for you tonight on the City Charter Review. As you'll recall, at the June 2nd City Council meeting, the City Manager provided a brief presentation to the City Council outlining the 17 proposed charter amendments and five topic areas for discussion. The City Council directed staff to continue the item for two weeks and return at the June 16th meeting. At that meeting, staff gave a synthesized presentation to the City Council,

and at that meeting, the City Council directed staff to conduct additional community engagement regarding the charter update process, to solicit feedback through an online survey, to use existing community infrastructure such as local schools, neighborhood associations, and other networks to seek input from the public. And what did that look like? We used our city website to share information. We also relied upon city social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Nextdoor. We sent an email campaign through our constant contact tool to over 2,300 users. We also shared the email communication with the Santa Ana Unified School District's

Superintendent's Office. Staff also gave a presentation to the Comlink Board. It's a neighborhood association, excuse me, a coalition of neighborhood associations citywide. The Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce also shared the information on their social media and the Santa Ana Complete Count Committee shared the survey and website information with their peers as well.

Our data collection consisted of two methods. One was a suggestion form with two prompts, and the respondents were overwhelmingly Santa Ana residents, over 93%. We received a total of 47 responses. And the first prompt was, what problem are you trying to solve? Some of the feedback we received was elections-related issues, lack of funding for city services, excessive noise, dismal economic outlook, investment in public infrastructure, on-street parking, code enforcement, code of ethics and conduct issues, and poor air quality.

The second part was to ideate, share your ideas. Some of the feedback we received was reimagine the elections process, increase funding for non-public safety city services, expand noise regulations to limit excessive noise from vehicles, increase economic development opportunities, invest in public infrastructure, increase on-street parking availability, support regulations that reduce traffic, support social services, implement a code of ethics and conduct, increase community engagement and establish a feedback loop,

and review the rules of order and decorum relating to time limits for public comments at City Council meetings. Second part of our data collection consisted of a survey where we asked users to rank the proposed charter amendments as recommended by the Ad Hoc Charter Review Committee. We received 41 responses and 85% of the respondents were St. Anna residents.

to assist with reviewing the proposed charter amendments. I categorized them into two sections. The first is the administrative and cleanup items, and I've ranked the items for you here according to the responses we received in this survey. Number one is sections 1000 through 1015 relating to civil service. Item number two was section 1400, the employee's retirement system. item three was public works number four was section 613 claims formalities treasury warrants number five section 400 number selection and term of members

number six relating to using gender's gender neutral language in the charter number seven section 406 council judge of elections and qualifications of members and a replacing the term clerk of the council with city clerk. More information is available on your staff report on page two with additional details for each of these proposed amendments. The second category was regarding City Council policy issues and also ranked number one is the proposed new section 1206.01 regarding campaign contribution limitations. Item two,

section 401 qualification of members item 3 new section 401.01 regarding term limits item number 4 section 1206 campaign contributions number 5 section 1010 regarding an appetizer policy number 6 section 401.05 code of ethics and conduct. Number seven, section 1208, enforcement regarding campaign contributions. Number eight, section 404, presiding officer, mayor. Number nine, section 405, mayor pro tem.

Number 10, section 413, adoption of ordinances. And number 11, section 609, regarding budget appropriations. Some of these policy changes can be achieved by amending the Santa Ana Municipal Code. The City Attorney prepared a brief analysis of some of the sections which are highlighted in the left column which included topics such as Public Works, Code of Ethics and Conduct, Mayor Pro Tem, prohibitions enforcement qualifications of members and can't trick up campaign

contribution limitations in some instances the City Council may consider amending part of the city's municipal code or taking other policy action that doesn't involve the Charter to achieve some of the desired policy changes at the City Council may want to consider there are some costs as the clerk of the council mentioned earlier each ballot question depending on how many individual charter amendments that the City Council decides to take to the voters in November will cost approximately sixty five thousand dollars per ballot

Phil BacerraItem —

question regarding the fiscal real quick just just point of clarification sure we can group some of these questions together you can at the discretion of

the City Council yes I think and regarding the fiscal impact associated with the implementation of these proposed charter amendments 21 out of the 22 proposed harder amendments have a minimal fiscal impact that staff anticipates and that will likely look like a nominal increase in staff time one of the proposed harder amendments charter amendment 22 is regarding implementing new campaign finance disclosure requirements will likely have a significant fiscal impact and by comparing other jurisdictions that have

similar campaign finance disclosure requirements the cost for each of these jurisdictions to to implement those requirements range from four hundred fifty five thousand dollars to over eleven million dollars and this cost will vary depending on the number of individuals that are impacted by the campaign finance disclosure requirements and where are we now June 2nd June 16th and July 7th staff has presented an informational report to the City Council

regarding the Charter Review and by the next City Council meeting on July 21st the City Council must adopt a resolution approving the final charter amendments to submit to the voters if any calling for the election authorizing the filing of direct arguments and authorizing the city attorney to prepare an impartial analysis and fiscal impact next steps the City Council may choose to concur with the ad hoc committee regarding their recommendations on the proposed charter amendments they may direct staff to to pursue any options regarding

pursuing these policy changes through the Santa Ana Municipal Code or by other means and also directing the city attorney and clerk of the council to prepare any necessary documents to place any proposed charter amendments on the November 3rd 2020 general election ballot I'm available if have any questions and the city attorney and clerk of the council are also available if you have any technical questions thank you thank you our

comments by council members mr. mayor yes councilman Becerra go ahead thank you

Phil BacerraItem —

I would recommend and suggest to my colleagues that we just go through these items and just knock them out rather than just kind of bounce around let's just knock them out right now and we'll figure out which ones we have the most interest in and the ones that we don't and the ones that we do have interest in see if we agree with the language and go from there but I would appreciate if we

David PenalozaItem —

just go through them one by one mr. mayor this is councilman Pena Losa go ahead please I agree with what council member Sarah said we should just start going through them because i mean that's and that's why mainly why we wanted to have these presented to the full council multiple times you know it's been this is the fourth time now i believe so um if to save us some of the work um i noticed that the administrative cleanup items are very basic um

David PenalozaItem —

you know none of them are really anything besides cleaning up language uh that's in the city charter so I would just kind of I'm sure I hope that we've all gone through it I would just say you know to me that could be one measure in itself already since it's just cleanup language and I would not sure if anybody has gone to anyone any one of my colleagues has gone through them and has an opinion on any of the

administrative cleanup items I have a comment it was my impression that that was going to be put as together through an ordinance and it would not be necessary to place on the ballot is that correct attorney Carvalho and so what we

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

did is we did evaluate out of all the one all the proposals that were made by the ad hoc committee we did evaluate those items that could be handled as an ordinance if there was not a desire to put them forward as a ballot measure as an alternative but the ad hoc committee's recommendation was that the council move forward with charter amendments on all of these items staff provided the alternative in the event that there was not enough support for the Charter Amendment but the recommendation the ad hoc committee is that you proceed with

ballot measures and the cost to put these on the ballot measure it's $65,000

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

correct yes for each one however as I think what council member Penelosa was mentioning as a member of the ad hoc committee he knows this that you you can bundle all of the administrative items into one so you would take all of those items it would be sixty five thousand dollars for that comprehensive package I

see so it's more expensive than I thought so it's sixty five thousand each times

David PenalozaItem —

how many five six ten no you're mistaken councilwoman we could bundle them together as one measure question since it's just administrative language cleanup so it would cost sixty five thousand dollars to have one measure question on the ballot that would address the eight administrative cleanup language questions in regards to the City Council policy issues that are a little more sensitive those we haven't even discussed what we could bundle

together and whatnot I see regardless I think it's a very expensive to do this these charter amendments. I think we could hold off until something more significant comes along, and I appreciate the work that the ad hoc committee has done. I know you put in extensive hours and time, but if it means saving the taxpayers' money, I think we should just forego this and put it on the shelf for now, because the other amendments, such as the term limits, The voters already have that. They will vote us out if they don't want us here any longer.

So I think the public is interested right now in balancing the budget, and if we add these charter amendments, it's going to put us in bad position with our constituents. So at this time, I'm not supporting any of the charter amendments.

David PenalozaItem —

So I would like to make a motion to bundle administrative cleanup items proposed by the Charter Amendment Committee into one measure question. As we just clarified with the city attorney that that is possible to put forward as a measure ballot question on the ballot, which is slide 12 for anyone watching or my colleagues up here, eight administrative cleanup items.

David PenalozaItem —

and with the thought that we could also, you know, I don't know if that could be a separate motion and then look at the city council policy proposed changes as a separate. Madam City Attorney, can we do that?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

You may. You may make the motion to take the administrative items and then if there's a second, we can vote just on those items.

Phil BacerraItem —

Council Member Pelosi, I think, I know you're looking at the slide for eight, But I think we have 11 total and I'm here word number eight. It says various I think it was kind of a catch-all of the you know for the clerk of the council changing it to say clerk and I think there was The gender neutral well, no, that's a separate one, but there was 11 total Administrative but is your motion just to package them all together as one valid question?

David PenalozaItem —

Correct. Yes. Okay. I'll second that the the administrative ones that have nothing to do with term limits councilwoman or the mayor pro tem or and none of that is addressed in the administrative cleanup or the budget appropriations that's completely separate City Council policy issues that we'll also discuss but for now the motion would be to group all the administrative cleanup items and put them forward to the voters so they could decide I'll second that all right we

have a motion a second who would like to speak to that motion mr. mayor just just

just a comment uh i'm just hearing my colleagues out when we went down this route it was before covid uh i do worry that if we're not a little bit careful some of these on a member ballot are just going to look pretty small compared to just you know people dying and just the economic uh situation that we have as well as now that staff has done a review of what we might be able to do administratively or via ordinance we'd be able to do many of these administrative items more quickly and by ordinance without having to pay the 65 000 or taking it to the voters uh so maybe

that might be something to think about just because if we can achieve these through ordinance literally as quick as two to four weeks and save the 65 000 uh that might be okay well just

Phil BacerraItem —

councilmember slurry a point of clarification um six of the 11 items uh the city attorney shows here that they are not something we can do through an ordinance or resolution number one number two we met 11 times and I'm pretty sure we met during COVID because I remember quite a few Zoom meetings and we weren't doing

that before COVID so but but I disagree but I disagree with about half the actions and so now we not only have the COVID continuing but we had disagreements on some items and I think the ones that cost less during COVID it was during COVID that we met and we had these but it's been evolving and growing and the economic fallout is much more significant we're still governing it was envisioned there but again I know just when I speak with folks in town in terms of big issues they're thinking right now because of fireworks that we should be banning that or rental assistance or other bigger changes not do

we change let me finish it and not not not do we change the the position from clerk of the council to city clerk you know that on a november ballot is when we have nothing else next to it by some it's going to look a little just a little small in nature and again for those things that we could do right away and more quickly without having to spend the money that makes sense i mean that's rational so i'm not supportive of doing them all via the ballot because i think we should do