1,065 merged speaker turns. Unidentified speech is hidden by default; timestamps open the public recording.
Mayor we have a quorum. All right we want to do a roll call. Councilmember Becerra. Councilmember Becerra. Councilmember Becerra. Here. Councilmember Mendoza. Here. Councilmember Peñalosa. Present. Councilmember Sarmiento. Present.
0:01is absent. Council Member Solorio is not in yet. Mayor Pro Tempiegas Here. And Mayor Pulido.
0:30I am here. I know this is a continuation of our meeting, but just for the record, why don't we stand up, let's do the Pledge of Allegiance, and then we'll continue. So if you can all please stand.
0:41Ready? 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.
0:56okay we are now as I understand it we're done with a public hearing on the budget and I just want to bring it back to council I know we had questions and suggestions and all who would like to go first madam city manager would you like to say anything
1:16or would you like the council to go first thank you mayor I believe it's your deliberation time so I would like to hear from the council on we're here to answer any questions okay council members
1:35
thoughts questions mr. mayor yes councilor miss harry go ahead please thank you um well I'd like to begin by reading the mission from our city strategic plan as I did at the last meeting which which also appears on every city council meeting agenda to deliver efficient public services, 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. I appreciate all the people who took the time out of their busy schedule to call into our council meeting on Tuesday evening
1:48and those that emailed us over the last few weeks. As I've combed through this budget, I accumulated questions on many items from multiple departments, including our police department. The 10-year outlook on the general fund shows a deficit of $18.5 million. In other words, our city government plans on spending $18.5 million more than what we are projected to bring in in revenues for our general fund. In 10 years, in fiscal year 29, the 2029 to 2030, our city government will spend about $78 million more than we are projected to bring in. So I'd like to start asking my questions if I could.
2:29I'd like to ask whether it's our city manager or our finance director. So what do we attribute the growing gap in expenditures over revenue to?
3:11Thank you, Council Member. The 10-year forecast is a forecast, and it's a projection. We do have a better handle on what our expenditures are than our revenues, just like any typical business. We know what inflation factors are for medical benefits. We have an idea of what our pension obligations are. We have an idea of contractual increases based on CPI. The revenue side of it is the one that we don't have a lot of information on, other than just a general inflation for it. What is not captured in the revenue in the 10 year forecast is, should we have a new hotel built?
3:22Should we have an addition of lots of businesses, particularly sales tax producing businesses? So to answer your question, the growing expenditures are primarily driven by personnel cost, because we are a service sector. And on the revenue side, I believe that we can bring in a lot more revenue, to your point that you mentioned at the last budget hearing, that's an area that we need to focus in on. And we also have some other ideas. This council has authorized us to do a feasibility study of refinancing existing debt that would also help to control and level the expenditures in those outlying years.
3:54Okay, thank you for that, Madam City Manager.
4:27What's interesting and simultaneously frustrating is that as a government, we do need to try to live within our means. And the majority of the people in our city, they can't afford to have these sorts of gaps in their spending. They've got to live within a certain means. And I think as we take a look at this budget, while we're looking at what services we're providing, we've got to be realistic on what we can provide. And if our aspirations are to provide more, we've got to be realistic in how we can bring in that revenue to do that. One thing I wanted to ask was on the 10-year outlook, I see a dip in fiscal year 28-29.
4:31So we go from revenues of $394.7 million in fiscal year 27-28, and then we drop to $382.5 million in fiscal year 28-29. What would we attribute that to?
5:08So the measure X that was passed by the voters does have sunset dates on it. So 0.5 sunsets in 10 years from its adoption, and that would fall in 2029.
5:23Okay. So, you know, as I stayed at our last meeting that, you know, we do have a revenue problem and what's very concerning is that what it looks like here from our, um, from our, uh, report here, 18% of our budget is contingent upon measure X, a measure that has put, um, our sales tax in orange, our sales tax here in Santa Ana to the highest in Orange County. And just, it's insane. Given the fact that we have a population that that many are struggling to make ends meet, and we are taxing them this much. And I bring this up just because I think that we really need to address this as we move forward.
5:34We need to really look at the structural configuration when it comes to our budget and how we function going forward. I wanna kind of get into some of my more specific questions now. So when I'm looking at the general fund revenue summary table on page 20, it says that we have $0 coming in for fireworks stand permits are we not charging for permits for folks for fireworks stands now
6:12i will ask executive director of planning do you have an answer for that question a zero revenue on what i'm sorry sir what page are you on so it'd be page 20 um it would be our
6:42general fund revenue summary table so the fireworks permit this year will continue with the program and no fees have been waived. So I'm not sure why we didn't have a projection, but the fee are still continue for this year.
6:55Okay, because it shows here zero. So that's why I'm confused because I figure for all the nuisances that the fireworks present for our residents, you'd like to think that we're getting something out of it. So when I saw the zero, that was just, for me, a red flag. So why is that?
7:09I can certainly find out and evaluate why that was omitted.
7:23Okay, thank you, Mr. Tai. And then I don't know if this would be for Mr. Tai or who this would be, Madam City Manager, but on page 17, we have an item for business tax. Is that considered a business license fee?
7:26Yes, sir.
7:44Okay. And then as far as, so when I see the business tax, where would we see the certificate of occupancy fees captured on here?
7:45i will ask the finance director to answer that question and while she's coming up the reason i
7:57ask that is because santa anna seems to be one of the only cities that i've ever worked with that charges a business license fee and a simultaneous certificate of occupancy even if you aren't doing any tenant improvements or ti's so we're not swinging any hammers but we're charging people what i've seen i believe the certificate of occupancy fee is up to probably close to 400 dollars at this point so that's in addition to the business license fee and i mean just the cfo alone i mean just would drive people to our neighboring city so it's just a concern to me so i'm trying to
8:03as i'm looking at this seeing where it fits in so i see the business tax and could you
8:37help me understand where the cfo is it's towards the bottom of page 20. page 20. okay
8:43like about six up from the bottom.
8:51So it's the occupancy permits. Okay. Permit. And that captures both actual CFOs for folks that have done legitimate tenant improvements and those that are just getting the inspection to confirm the business license? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And then this one for you, Madam City Manager, we've talked a little bit about this in the past, but I just want to get a better understanding for our train station, the Regional Transportation Center. What are we subsidizing over there at this time?
8:55I'm going to ask our Public Works Director, Nabil, to come up and talk about that because it is operating at a deficit. There is a lot of opportunity for programming space and also available bus space that would generate revenue, so we are working diligently on that. But as to the cost driving the deficit, I will defer to Nabil.
9:28The cost for the SARTEC is related to utilities mostly and the maintenance and operation of the establishment itself. We are trying to bring in more businesses to the site. We're having difficult times because of the condition of the building itself and the parking. So we're trying to put some more improvements there so we can attract more businesses.
9:54And the reason I ask, too, because I figure with Metrolink, Amtrak, OCTA, all these different entities that are utilizing our center, you know just thinking okay keep the lights on versus these folks that are utilizing the space
10:24there we're somehow not making it into the black right the the the rental on the bay itself is not bringing enough revenue for us so we're trying to actually promote businesses to come in and do business like maybe a vending type businesses and such and offices right now we are attracting more offices into the establishment, but still we are in a deficit because we have a lot of vacancies there.
10:39Okay. And I don't want to go too far down that hole as far as that center, but I definitely would like us to take a look at what's happening in Union Station in Los Angeles. I've seen that happen over the years where it literally went from minimal retail spaces, and they were just creating it. Now, I understand that our center is a different animal altogether, but I just wanted to...
11:08So we're hoping that the OC Streetcar will bring in more business and make it more attractive. And next year, I'm looking to maybe bring in someone to help us promote that establishment and bring in more renters into the SARTEC and make it more active and bring in more businesses.
11:33Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. So I'm just going to go through my questions by department at this point. So I'm just, why delay it? I'm going to jump into police right now. So if I could have Chief Valentin come on up.
11:55
Councilor, Mr. Mayor, for time.
12:13Really quick, before we get into that, because I know all of us have questions for each department, I wanted to just, if I may, ask the city manager why, given that the fire department, you know, it's almost $50 million of our general fund. Nobody presented on the fire department's budget on the increase that we're seeing of almost $5 million. Is there anyone that's going to represent the fire department and show that? because that is a huge amount of money that the public should know you know where that
12:16that increase is going anybody presenting on their end excuse me council member we don't have an
12:52internal fire department we contract that out to ocfa so the entire cost is one contract and that contract is readily available and it goes through all of the services and what the cost of the services are i don't know if anyone's prepared to walk you through that contract tonight but we could deliver that information to you within a short period of time.
12:59Okay. Well, that was just a question I had because as a huge service to the city, that should also be disclosed to the public of what the cost is for service. And while we're seeing an increase, we know it's contracted out, but we shouldn't just gloss over it as if it doesn't exist. So in the future, Madam Senior Manager, if we could put something together, showing that cost for that department. That would be transparent and appreciated by not only my colleagues and us, but the public as well. Thank you.
13:19Real quick, I'd like to say something regarding the fire department. Chief Henry is here, and if we have any questions about that, and I was going to ask him to come up and give us a quick brief on that regarding the increase, because I know it's a concern for everyone. And just to answer a quick question, but if we could get a full briefing, we can do that also. But he is, I believe he's in the back. So we'll call him later.
13:53All right, if you don't mind, Mayor, Mayor Portem, I'll continue.
14:21Continue, Council Member Serra, please continue.
14:25Thank you. So Chief Valentin, come on up.
14:27Thank you. So I just want to jump right into some questions here on PD. So on page 14 of our city budget summary, there's a line item for supplemental requests. And the line item states quality of life team, the Colt team, for police overtime of $500,000. And that jumped out to me because I guess number one, I wanted to ask you, how many officers are dedicated to the Colt team outside of overtime? So they're just dedicated to working with the partners on the Colt team.
14:36So today we have one sergeant and four police officers assigned full-time as their primary duty. Come July 5th, that'll be one sergeant and eight police officers assigned full-time. And that's up from just one 12 months ago.
15:11So, and I understand, you know, we can't predict when your officers are needed to handle certain things. I mean, when we have certain disturbances, obviously it requires more officers to come in and that will draw overtime. But on the quality of life team, I kind of feel like the homeless, at least unfortunately right now, aren't going anywhere. And it is a persistent issue. So to have overtime, it sounds like as if we may not have accounted for something. So help me understand this request for the $500,000.
15:32So we staff beyond the regular duty hours of these officers that are their primary duty. So in order to get a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh day of coverage, we need to supplement with overtime. You have the eight officers eventually, or that'll be the full team, and they're assigned full time, but they work, say, a 4-10 schedule. That's four days. And so we need to supplement with additional overtime.
16:03Okay. I appreciate the addition of officers. And that actually leads me to my next question, which is, where are the Colt officers in the budget? Because when I look at your field operations, I see the staff and it's robust, but I didn't see anything carved out for the Colt officers.
16:31So this is a decision that's made based on the totality of the officers. And then I make the assignments based on priority. And so in the hiring effort from last year with the 50 officers, the carve-out there was to continue to grow the quality of life. So that's...
16:53But we don't see them as a separate carve-out on here. i just i think i think in future budget i would like to see that because what you're just um describing it's a dedication to it and i think you should be proud of that because it shows that you listen to us you've listened to the community homelessness is a concern and i think the community wants to know that there are resources dedicated to it and i know your officers are constantly responding to them but again i think just for just to see it in black and white to know that that's happening i think we'd appreciate that and then uh this this is a
17:14small one but still nonetheless i see another uh supplemental uh request for jail inmate meals cost increase are we uh upgrading the meals in the jail or what's happening there no not at all
17:47that's just the increase uh in cost to provide the meals uh robert i don't know if you have an additional information on that i had my jail bureau commander here the other night he's not here tonight but but it's it's just the differential in cost to provide the meal it's i don't know what it is per meal it's like two dollars and change it's really low okay uh 350. okay okay again i
18:01just as i see it in the supplemental request and it was just one of those items um and then uh let's see here on page 15 of the same summary we show uh 229 700 229 710 allocated for two traffic collision investigators and i've seen in other cities where traffic collision investigators are either civilians or maybe they're explorers or they're in other words they're not shielded officers they're folks that are there kind of taking notes they're there to kind of put together the reports but uh can you explain to me where 229 000 is going for traffic collision investigators
18:21so that likely is not two sworn police officers because you simply don't get there for that costing we do have civilian uh traffic investigators within the traffic division we have a police investigative specialist uh i'm not for certain right here at the moment if that is inclusive but i can i can clarify that for you for certain exactly what that line item is okay thank you
19:02council member i believe you're looking at the uh expenditure report for measure x yeah i just
19:25realized i misspoke i meant measure x i'm sorry yes so there's the measure it wasn't a supplemental but I just, the cost stuck out to me. Thank you. Um, and then, uh, in the detailed budget on page, uh, 1-52, uh, one of the items that kind of jumped out at me as well is that, uh, there was a $445,000 increase in animal services from fiscal year 18 to fiscal year 21. Uh, There's also $237,000 proposed for salaries, plus the $2.7 million for contract services.
19:31So I guess, you know, seeing that huge increase for the contracts, and then just that large amount for contracts, I guess if you could explain the reason what the increase is for. And I'll just, before you answer, part of my frustration is I have called numerous times as a civilian, for animal services we get a voicemail and i'm thinking for two million i at least should hopefully help hope that it pays for a cell phone on somebody to answer you know if we need something but it goes to a voicemail my experience with it has been very poor frankly i just i i don't get
20:07calls back or if i do get the calls back they come you know way down the road so um i'm just trying to rationalize a line item of this amount that i've had very poor uh experience with and i know others that i've spoken to have as well and then i guess one little thing to throw in there is how long has animal services been a function of the police department that's a great question um
20:46i i don't have the exact number of years as far as i can recall uh you know 10 15 20 plus years at least that animal services has been part of the police department should it be certainly a question okay in terms of the the costing the 400 000 i i could have my budget manager weigh in a little bit but the balance of that is the contract that we have to maintain with the county because we we simply can't provide 24 7 coverage for animal services and so that's uh that's the balance there but on the 400 000 increase
21:12and that was from what year to what year council member so i'm looking at from
21:52in our budget we have from fy 18 to fy 21.
21:56so this is on page 1-52 of our um our detailed general fund right i know a couple a couple
22:02years ago we did enter into the participation agreement with the county to help build a new shelter. That was a huge expense. I believe our cost for animal services, we have two large contracts. One is for the animal care. So once our animal control officers collect the animals, deliver them, so the cost to feed and care for the animals until they can be found homes. And that's, I want to say about $1.4 million or so. And then the participation agreement's about about 700,000 or so. So that's the bulk of those two contract line items.
22:10So, but it says here contract services. A service sounds like something you provide. A facility would be something different. So you're talking about the city of Santa Ana contributing to the construction of a facility. Here, I mean, without that explanation, I'm assuming this is purely going towards addressing animal control as far as, you know, going out to a site, picking up an animal, et cetera. So you're saying that within this line item, it also includes contributing to the construction of a facility.
22:47Yes, because they are contracts. We have two contracts with the county for animal services, one being the participation agreement, that contract, and the animal care contract. Because we're paying contract service expenses, we include them in that $62,300 line item.
23:16Okay. To me, that was misleading. So thank you for the explanation. You're welcome. um yeah i just i i think that with this particular item uh you know this is something i as we deliberate on this uh colleagues i think that we should look at as something that might might um we need to further explore uh thank you chief that's all i had on uh police um parks and rec you don't have to jump up i just want to at least i just wanted to thank you for what uh you guys are doing in the budget here with the um park master plan and i appreciate that it's a one-time
23:32expenditure so hopefully it'll be a worthwhile investment so thank you for sticking to it and keeping it in here and then uh planning and building um men i really just want to thank you for reducing the fees on the mills act uh bringing them down by about a thousand dollars down to 2500 so thank you for that and thank you for uh reducing the fees for our self-nomination of properties uh for the historic register here in santa anna got them down to 500 a huge drop so So thank you for that. The only question I had for you, Mr. Tai, so when I get calls from planning or related to planning and building,
24:05it's usually, you know, someone is submitted for a plan check, for an inspection, and, you know, they're just, they're not getting the response they need. So I just want to understand, I didn't see an increase for inspectors or any of the plan checkers, or I seen, no, there was one additional plan checker. So I appreciate that. But any reason why we weren't looking to expand as far as the inspections to kind of help expedite the process on those?
24:44So one of the goals in working with the city manager is to evaluate our current staffing and available budget. So one of the things we wanted to do is to provide service, but we go to both in-house as well as supplement our services with contracting. So that gives us the ability to scale up and scale down without creating permanent obligations for the city's structural budget. In this economy, that is a smart thing that we can do, allowing us to be able to propose a model that would help to scale up and scale down without affecting our budget.
25:09We did propose a change in title so that we can create a combination building inspector. and as a combination building inspector they're able to have multiple disciplines be inspected under one inspection instead of having specialized areas so we're also utilizing that aspect of
25:49inspection as well no i i appreciate that that's that's great because i think this is the kind of thinking we're going to need going forward because you know nobody expected a pandemic nobody knew things were going to slow down nobody knows when things are going to ramp up again and so having that flexibility i appreciate your thinking on that so that's all i have for you mr ty thank you
26:07very much if i may add something sir in addition to on-call services and streamlining the classifications when we evaluated where there were the longer wait times um it also it covered traffic and public works and with this budget we are adding bodies to public works to help expedite
26:26that area okay great thank you thank you nabil for doing that and madam city manager um actually my next thing was for Nabil you can stay where you're at I just wanted to thank you for reducing the sewer connection fee by 56 percent I literally just had someone reach out to me the other day talking about how they're going to have to at some point come in and work on their sewer laterals so this is I'm sure welcome news for them so thank you and with community development my only comment for you is just simply you know I appreciate that you're adding with the economic development I
26:42I think it's important that we really, again, I'm going to keep focusing on at some point, if we're going to want to provide a certain level of services that our residents deserve, we're going to have to enhance revenue. And I think that what your team has been doing, Mark Morley and others, I appreciate what they're doing. And so thank you for pushing that in the budget. I appreciate it. I just, in closing, when I ran for office, I promised to make public safety a priority. And that had nothing to do with the POA or any of their political activities.
27:15so just get that out there and be clear now but it had everything to do with wanting our city as as a homeowner with a family to be safe and to be inviting and as i walked door to door and talked to residents and talked to businesses many expressed the same desire this was not a lone crazy idea this was something that was embraced by many if not the majority and you know over the last few weeks we've heard comments that you know about investing in our parks and other recreational on municipal services well most people aren't going to go to a park if they don't feel safe
27:44in it and i've already said that we need investment in our city if we want to be able to deliver these type of efficient and top quality services but we're not going to be able to attract that investment in our city if we're not safe so i agree with those that believe that we have put a lot of money in fact almost too much money towards the police budget and i think as you've heard in some of my questions today, I want to kind of rethink how that looks. And it's not because we need less safe environment, but it's just rather, you know, thanks to the community,
28:17we are, I think all of us are really looking at this budget with a closer lens, and we're trying to see what makes sense to be in which departments. I mean, whether it is animal control or other aspects of the budget, I'm sure my colleagues have their own ideas as well, but that was one that stuck out to me i know that the police are part of our public safety equation along with fire and other departments but going forward we do have to be attentive as to who performs these city services how they can provide them professionally efficiently and so the budget we adopt today is
28:47really it's the first step towards really rethinking how we're going to do this because as we look at the structural deficit and as we look at our societal priorities i think that that really this is a good opportune moment to really drill into that. But again, this won't be the end of it because as we go forward and throughout the year, we're always adjusting. We know that there's gonna be different issues with funding, whether it's federal, state and whatnot. And thank you to our city manager and all the staff for what you've been doing to really adjust and accommodate these unprecedented times.
29:22We just gotta make sure though, that as we go forward, we've gotta keep looking down the road and make sure that we provide these services knowing that we don't want to go too far into the red and jeopardize our ability to provide them. Mr. Mayor, that's all I have right now.
29:56Thank you. Another council member that would like to comment, I'd be happy to call on you.
30:12Yeah, Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Sarmiento.
30:18Please go ahead, Council Member.
30:22Thank you, and I'm going to remove my mask because everybody else is masked up, So when I'm not speaking, I put it back on just so we can, you know, be audible for those that are listening and can't really hear really well through a mask. So first of all, thank you to the staff and thank you to all the members of the public that called in on Tuesday. I think that, you know, it certainly was, to me, impressive how much care and how much, you know, concern folks have to be able to wait four and five hours to be able to make a comment and also to be heard.
30:24So I just don't want that to be lost in this whole conversation. Anytime we have that much engagement, as I said that night, to me, is sort of a blessing and a curse. I think some folks say, well, boy, we have a lot of comments. It's going to be a long night. But at the same time, that means that we have a very engaged public and a very engaged community. I think other communities that don't have that privilege to have their neighbors and their residents care about what they do and decisions that are made, I think those are less privileged communities.
31:03And I think we live in one where people are very interested in decisions that are made. so I certainly appreciate that. What I wanted to start with, Madam City Manager, if you could, if you could just in a short summary tell us what are the variables and assumptions that we're still not certain on, and I know that there may be some stimulus money that we were awaiting from the federal government that was going to be a pass-through through the county, but maybe if you could specify that and any other variables that we still don't have a good handle
31:39on i think we were working under the premise as i walked into tuesday's meeting that we may have had some concession that was going to be made by one of the bargaining units but anything else that you see that may be variable right now and of course almost everything is variable sometimes when you really want to think about it but there are things that may be a little bit easier to um to focus on and i want to thank um our finance director because she spent some time with me explaining that what's not clear is our 19-20 sales revenue because that still is kind of an
32:12elusive target because of the virus and the shutdown that we've had in many of our businesses. So that is a very difficult number and I know we've had some May revised numbers from the governor's office that changed I think our math from what looked to be I think a 12 million dollar hole and turned it into close to a 20 million dollar hole so um you know just maybe doing that and i think 20 you know 2021 looks like it's a better forecast or something that we can maybe pin down a little bit more but can you just elaborate on maybe some of those variables that
32:48we're we're working with tonight certainly sir so first of all what's important is how we close the current fiscal year so depending on how we close this year we'll provide you a starting balance for next year, which would have unrestricted fund balance to use. The unknowns right now is sales tax. It's on a delay, so we're monitoring that very closely. I don't believe we will have another report until a month or two on those numbers. The other thing for the CARES Act funding, there's three pots of money that we're expected to receive. The county is giving us money for business recovery.
33:22That would go straight out to the businesses to help them recover, and a pot of money for COVID-related expenses. Under the CARES Act, that has to be spent by December 2020, and I signed the subrecipient agreements already, and we expect to have those deposited in our account either by Friday or Monday at the latest. We will be receiving $900,000 for business recovery programs, and we will be receiving about $2.9 for reimbursement of our COVID-related expenses. We have enough in COVID-related expenses to wipe out that 2.9 for the current fiscal year. In doing that, it will reduce down our expenditures that have already been recorded
33:57and thereby assisting us with ending the year with some excess unrestricted reserves. That is pretty much what we're expected to receive for sure. The larger funding source is from the state's allocation to us, and they have two pots of money. They have a pot of money that they want to provide cities that fall between $300,000 and $500,000 in population and a pot of money that they want to provide for cities that are smaller than $300,000. For that, we are anticipating to receive anywhere from $28,000 to $29,000 million. It's subject to the governor approving the state's budget.
34:34If he does that money, again, it's restricted to COVID-related expenses and also restricted to being utilized by December 2020. So with that money in the budget presentation, we did present some of the ideas of how we would spend that, and more than likely that would come in during the next fiscal year. The other thing you mentioned is on the concession. So we have a credit line in this proposed budget that would reduce down the general fund expenditures by 2.5, and that is in anticipation of receiving concessions with our full-time bargaining groups. If I'm not successful with doing that achieving that for you
35:09I will have a plan B that will meet that savings number, but it may not be through concessions
35:47Great. Thank you. So I guess what we're looking at is I know you've combed through most of these departments and and You have requested that they all you know Do a little fine-tuning and sharpening of the pencil and so I guess aggregately are we looking at a two to three million dollar? adjustment to the good from all the departments, I think, as one of the efforts that have been made?
35:53So just to prepare, I think one of the things that needs to be emphasized with this proposed budget is, I mean, we've never had a pandemic before. I think it goes back to the Spanish flu. What was that, 19, 19-20 maybe? So we're unsure of the economic recovery. So it is a budget that we are going to have to monitor very, very closely. If for plan B, I did do just that. I had all of the departments identify 3% reductions in their general fund, and we have that, and that would be the next step that we would move to.
36:19So that's only if we're not able to meet. So your plan Bs would be going back for additional concessions and going back to the departments for a 3% decrease on their budget. But I believe that there's about $2 million to $3 million of monies that are unspent from the departments as well that we're working with, or is that not?
36:49I'm not sure what $2.3 million. Just maybe the credit?
37:06No, $2 million to $3 million. It's somewhere in between $2 million to $3 million of unspent monies from the departments aggregately. I think the director is shaking her head, so is that correct? Maybe my assumption is wrong.
37:09Yeah, just to clarify, what I was sharing with Council Member Sarmiento was that we are a little bit concerned about our sales tax revenue estimate for the current year, but I do feel that we have, you know, we've been tracking our expenditures very closely, And I do feel that we have some expenditure savings in our departments for the current fiscal year that would offset if we do see a reduction in that sales tax revenue estimate. So basically what I was summarizing was our estimated beginning fund balance for the next fiscal year of $70 million to start on July 1, 2020.
37:23I think that that's still a sound estimate, even though we have some variables in play.
38:02Okay. And then we would be dipping into that to the amount of about $18 million. Is that correct?
38:07We would be leaving approximately $57 million in the operating reserve. That would be left intact and about a million in the economic uncertainty reserve based upon the proposed budget. So that would leave you with about a $58 million fund balance if all were to go according to plan on June 30, 2021.
38:16Great. Thank you. So it does appear that we're dealing with a few unknowns. What's a little concerning is that I know we've had to separate with some of our employees, I think, to the tune of about, and that number is between 176 and 178 part-time employees, give or take. And so the monies that are available to us both through the state for COVID-related funds, none of those really help us address the termination of those employees. Is that correct?
38:39Council member, it can. So it's 176, two separated voluntarily. So 176 part-time employees. and it was a result of the governor's order that didn't allow us to provide the services that those employees provide to our community. That was the reasoning behind it. With the employees, we are trying to bring them back as requested by this council wherever we can. So to the extent we have part-time positions that are non-general funded, they have the first right to them. We have a couple in public works that we're working on. We're bringing them back to supplement some contractor services.
39:13If we're successful with getting the state's COVID money, some of the ideas are extra cleaning, extra sanitization, and those would all be jobs that we could potentially redeploy some of those 176. And also of importance to note, in the budget next year, we have their positions funded. We hope that we get to return next summer to a full recreation programming and library program, which will bring them all back.
39:47Well, you know, that was something that I was going to mention, so I'm glad you anticipated it, that we don't lose this pool, these pool of employees. And hopefully we're able to bring them back before next summer because there are going to be some opportunities. But to the extent we can draw down from that pool as opposed to looking elsewhere because the uniqueness of them, I mean, these aren't just random part-time employees that we've kind of plucked out of thin air. These are folks that have had multiple years of service with the city, and they have relationships here.
40:13There's a level of trust that the community has had with them, and also their residents, many of them. So to the extent that we can see those as valuable human capital and assets, that's the way I'd like us to look at them. And I do want to thank the Public Works Director because I know there's about 20-something positions that could be absorbed in that department. Just a couple of other opportunities that we might be able to consider and how to bring them back, aside from youth-related programming that we're going to be looking at. Just the permanent shelter that we're going to be putting into place.
40:48We have a temporary shelter that's managed by a different operator. We're going to have a new operator going from Mercy to Illumination. That's going to be the operator there. Maybe we can incorporate some positions there. They're going to need employees. They're 24-7 at that site. And maybe to repurpose some of those employees that do have a skill set that lends themselves well for that. That's one opportunity. The second one is I know that after, and this is well before I think everybody's time here with the exception of the mayor,
41:28When we went through the 2008 recession, we had to contract out many, many services, one of them being our fire department, and that's how our relationship with the OCFA began. But we contracted other ancillary services having to do with park maintenance, graffiti removal. if there are some contracts out there that we have with vendors, maybe there's a way we can temporarily cancel those or toll those contracts and see how we can maybe repurpose our employees for some of those uses. So those are just some ideas to try to relieve the pain.
41:58The number is large, 170-plus, but to the extent we can maybe put a dent in that and accelerate it, that would be really helpful. You know for me what I think what I said on Tuesday night I think I don't want to repeat but there are some line items I know and in the larger budget not the summary that that I focused on and was you know was drawn to my attention as well and I think they were mentioned by the previous council member who spoke on things that just didn't quite seem like they fit well within the department and I'm talking about the police department
42:39and we could do this maybe with almost any departments and you know you see some line items that just don't seem like their core fundamental functions and I think what was mentioned were animal services and I think you know what caught my attention was that one building in facilities as a line item which is in the neighborhood for 19, 20, 2021 is somewhere between 3.6 and 3.3 million. Human resources, which is I think somewhere between 860 and 880,000.
43:19Tobacco retail, somewhere in the neighborhood of between 215,000 and 225. So just those taken as an aggregate is about 7.5 million. And I guess what we're doing here, to me, when I look at the pie chart that shows where our expenditures are, it really does jump out at you when you see one department that has such a large share of that unrestricted general fund money. And I think to even any layperson, they're going to say, wow, that's just really heavy. And we get that we need to have a safe environment.
43:57So not only do our residents feel safe, but our business and stakeholders also feel like they can invest in a community that is going to be safe. So I don't think it's saying let's diminish our ability to enforce the law. So these things are not mutually exclusive. So when we go through a scalpel-like review of a budget for a department, it doesn't mean let's gut it and let's do away with it. It means let's be smarter about it. Let's be more intelligent about it. Let's put uses that belong in other departments where they should be.
44:36And so I think, you know, even when you look at, I think what was called, what was mentioned earlier on the Colt team, the quality of life. You know, they deal with homeless problems and dealing with folks that are, you know, ill. and you know I don't know if that I guess is maybe in the field operations line item budget of the police department budget but maybe that can be revisited so we can have it go to where I thought it belonged well was maybe in compres or maybe in community development because I think what we've seen and what I think a lot of people are concerned about is that we've seen
45:12incidents of the public interacting with our officers and sometimes it's a very innocent interaction you're going to somebody's house maybe the music is too loud somebody called and you go there innocently and something happens and it's not the officers fault it's not the public's fault but maybe that moment is something that doesn't lend itself well to that exchange the more we can diminish those opportunities for things to go wrong and my wife is a disability attorney and so she deals with many folks who have autism they're on the spectrum of some kind
45:53and they don't know when they're misbehaving or being loud or maybe doing something that they shouldn't be in by social norms aren't acceptable so when we have maybe folks that go there that maybe aren't professionals and aren't trained it could lead to a bad outcome so i just want us to be sensitive to those things and let's be intelligent about it and and let's see how we can continue to provide a high level of law enforcement that's going to keep our folks safe and at the same time make sure that we provide a service that's really high quality because
46:26again our i think our officers are are now somewhere to the top uh quarter or 20 percent of the market. And that's, you know, we can debate that whether that's good or bad, but I think if somebody gets a premium pay, the community needs premium service. So I guess what I see is if we can lighten the load of things that the department has as obligations, we can have them focus on really core fundamental response time. And these are things that are things that, you know, threatened life where there's weapons involved, maybe where there's violence. And then that's
47:04where I think our officers are best utilized and maybe not dealing with somebody who's having an outburst or an episode who's mentally ill or maybe a person who's homeless or a homeless encampment. Maybe that's better left to folks who have a career background and being able to de-escalate those those moments so you know those are just some of the comments I have but I do want us to you know make sure that we look at also the other side of the ledger which is revenue because we talk about cutting and we don't we never talk about the other side of the ledger so you know one of the things that I think
47:42I'm concerned about is you we have a we have a jail that we have to pay you know debt service on, and I think we pay about $9 million a year. I'm not sure if that's still the case, whether it's gone up or whether it's gone down, but it's somewhere in that neighborhood from what I recall. But that debt service is going to end, I think, in 2024, if I'm not mistaken. So we have about, you know, four years remaining on that. I think that will be helpful to us once that goes away. Obviously, that's one more debt that we don't need to exhaust or dedicate our revenues to but I think as we as we did a study on and I'm
48:24not sure if that study is completed or if it's if it's still pending but you know I certainly and I've had this conversation with the city manager I I don't know if you know we want it if I want to continue to be in the jail business because it just seems like there are so many other services that we can use that facility for. And I know the county operates a mental health agency. It's called MHA on South Broadway. Has a lot of really, or excuse me, South Main. Has a lot of really bad impacts for the neighborhood. Maybe, and I know the county has a lot of mental health dollars. Maybe that
49:04facility can be used because it's already designed with modules and it's designed with a lot of other services, maybe that's something that we can consider taking some of those funds and using it for that service that we know many in our community have. So something to think about. I guess, again, unlike some of my colleagues, this is probably the 13th or 14th budget that we've had to approve, and under conditions that have been very difficult, as I said, when I came on in 07, in 08 is when the recession hit, and that was with us for about three or four
49:45years until we started carving ourselves out. Now we're dealing with the pandemic and those consequences. So, you know, we've done the same thing. I think what we need to do is we need to step back and see how we can do things better because the moment calls for it. And I do really want us to think about how we can, you know, just be better at providing that service with our officers. I think our officers, you know, they're sort of victims of the system and of
50:21the process that's been created. I don't think that they're any really to blame for something that is more of a systemic problem that we're trying to do and that we've had for years with us. But we can be better, and I think we can create an environment for them to be able to provide quality service, very fast response times, but limit maybe the contact with the public that should only be left for those dire moments. And so those are things that I think are important to do. But other things on the revenue side, I agree the streetcar is probably going to bring in some money.
50:57If you look at the model in Portland, if you look at the model in Seattle, any time you have a terminus or any time you have stops along the alignment, those places get developed. They have investment, and things follow that. One final thing is on naming rights. We have a lot of assets throughout the city, one of them being the zoo. you know there's a stadium I know it's called Eddie West but you know I know a lot of other communities that you know they're you know the StubHub Center using the Honda Center just different things and I know even at the zoo for
51:35some of our premier exhibits you can put something there you know it's the AT&T whatever you know site for something but I know the private sector is certainly willing to have their branding on things that you know are positive things and so So maybe that's another source. Digital reader boards are also another source. We can maybe relax those or revisit the municipal codes on that because they're pretty dated. But maybe that's another way to bring in some money. I know we've had solicitations in the past from Clear Channel and others. But we just have to think a little smarter and see what we can do.
52:09But, you know, finally, I don't know if I'm completely comfortable with where the budget is right now for me to be able to support its adoption tonight because there are so many variables in it, and I'd like to see how we can maybe make some adjustments before we do that. That's my personal opinion. I respect everybody else's to be able to make a decision and move forward. But I did want to make something clear before I turn it over, and this is a question for our city attorney. My reading of or my interpretation of a first reading has always been that when there is a first reading,
52:50from first to a second reading, we can only do nominal adjustments. We can't do material or substantive adjustments to our first reading adoption. So, in other words, I couldn't say at second reading, by the way, I want to introduce 10 different line items that weren't considered at the first reading, or I want to take a line item completely out. Those are material and substantive, in my opinion. But when we talk about adjustments from first to second, we're talking about very minor changes.
53:30
Council Member, yes, the city charter actually provides that there can be minor amendments between the first reading and the second reading. but those amendments have to be related to topics that were discussed at the first. So if you were to give, for example, direction to the city manager today to make minor adjustments to some of those areas, she can make those minor adjustments and bring them back within the second so you don't have to redo at first. But if you were to introduce brand-new expenditures or brand-new ideas about cuts or reductions, then you would have to start over again.
54:03Great. And, again, I don't want to take up more people's time. Hopefully we'll have a chance to discuss this again. But for the police, again, I think when we talk about youth, and it's all over the budget. There's not a youth expenditure. It's in different departments. But I think the police can go a long way, the department can go a long way in absorbing certain expenses. I know they have a PAL program. I know that there are other expenses. but the way I see it is investing in youth programming for youth is is a prevention is a
54:33crime prevention element because you know we're making folks young people busy and it has a a sort of secondary impact which is you know there you establish trust between young people and officers and right now that's what's lacking if not people wouldn't be marching in the streets I mean, I think that there is a real real concern Not everybody feels unsafe but enough of our residents feeling safe that we need to address that concern as well So, you know, I've spoken enough. I know there's other others that definitely need to speak and you know
55:10There's some other issues that I need to talk about but I'll turn it over for now. Thank you. Mr. Mayor
55:45Anybody? Thank you. Councilmember Sarmiento. Other council members who want to speak please? Yes, Mr. Mayor
55:50This is Councilmember Peñalosa.
55:57Please go ahead, sir.
55:59Thank you, sir.
56:01Hello, everyone.
56:04I had some questions in regards to, and I want to thank Councilmember Sarmiento for bringing up that idea of start to focusing on generating dollars in revenue, aside from just taxing at every chance we get. And that's one of the reasons why at the last council meeting I asked our CDA director, Mr. Mendoza, about the goals that were highlighted and outlined in your PowerPoint. Again, we saw a lot of housing opportunity and rental assistance and homeless shelters, which I'm all for.
56:07But under that department, there has to be a push for economic development, aside from just business retention. We want to retain our businesses, absolutely, but I wanted to ask the executive director of CDA, Mr. Mendoza, of what plans do we have as a city and as a department for the 2021 fiscal year to increase that economic development, to bring in new dollars to our city and new businesses? Is there anything? because, again, it wasn't in the goals, and that's something that should be pushed on.
56:41Over the last year, I haven't seen much of a push on the development of the economy, and just wanted to see what your thoughts on that were.
57:22Sure. Two major initiatives that you saw in ours were both the YMCA and Third and Broadway. Both of those seem like they are not economic development, but indeed they are. Third and Broadway includes a hotel. We were working closely on that hotel. you're also on the YMCA that also includes a hotel we're working diligently on bringing those two projects forward to the City Council you'll see one of them probably in September with both their entitlements from men's department and then the disposition and development agreement from our department and that is a hotel which will bring TOT to the community
57:32as well as turning turning in a parking structure that is currently exempt from property tax back onto the property tax rolls and then you add the third of a utility as well it's going to be a utility payer as well so you've improved property tax TOT and utility with that one project third and Broadway so we're working diligently to bring that one forward and we'll continue to work on other projects as they have as you know last year we worked on keeping the largest sales tax producer in our city by bringing something to you that you guys approved and we thank you very much for helping keep that business here so
58:05we will continue to work on generating income will continue to work to decrease the number of property tax-exempt properties in our city we have a lot and it starts to take a toll on a city when so many nonprofits or so many government agencies own these large swaths of land so we're working working closely to return them back to the tax rolls.
58:43And thank you for that. And that's good to constantly be reminding the public and the community and us up here as a legislative body that that work is being done because, you know, a lot of it that we see is, again, all the great work that your department is focusing on, which is fantastic. It's much needed. But at the same time, that economic development side needs to be highlighted as a goal and and listed in numerous points because just on the on the on the goals that were listed four out of the five bullet points were related to housing uh which is great but that that that
59:08economic development we got to have a balanced approach to how much we're going to do to bring in new businesses and new revenue to make sure that we have the ability to provide service for the people that were we you know that live here that that are in our community so thank you uh mr. Mendoza for that and the other questions I had I'm not sure if we were able to get that fire department presentation from OCFA madam city
59:45manager councilmember I can call up chief Henry to tell you what he knows about the the contract and what is driver behind some of the increases we can also follow up with an informational memo to all of you with more details
1:00:11okay I if he could present if you could take a couple minutes to present tonight just like the other department heads presented on Tuesday in regards to the entirety of the budget and and why we're seeing that 4.5 million dollar increase or roughly that would be that would be a good for the public to know and for us
1:00:25as well thank you get my notes here
1:00:45so i think the the question that you're asking council member is what the 4.5 percent increase
1:00:57cost is that what we're talking about sir well just the entirety of the of the budget um my my concern was and it was brought up to me by a lot of members of the public that on tuesday night every every department and that provides service to our community presented their their fiscal your budget and what services they provide to the city, what the goals are. And because of the amount of money, $50 million roughly, that goes to OCFA, I think it's important for the public to hear from our division chief, to hear what we're getting. We obviously know it's for firefighter
1:01:03service and paramedics, which is, again, very important, but it should be highlighted and and also discussed so the public can know. Okay.
1:01:41Including the increase that we're seeing. Right. So, well, as you know, in 2012, the city contracted with Orange County Fire Authority for fire protection services as well as paramedic services. And that was done during a budget crisis as well. So we currently have 10 fire stations in the city, and we have 48 members on service on a daily basis. There's about 150 employees that serve the city in the fire department. We have paramedics on every unit.
1:01:51And the majority of the increase that you're seeing is about $1.8 million is for services, specifically personnel costs, medical retirements, benefits, as well as increased cost in fuel and other services, equipment and stuff like that. The remainder of that increase you see is for ongoing maintenance for the facilities and as well as our apparatus replacement fund, which is about $605,000. And then I believe there's another $150,000 that goes to our ongoing maintenance fund
1:02:26for the facilities that the city owns and the fire stations. and so that's like roof repairs replacement of apparatus doors you know wear and tear things that you would have like ongoing maintenance at your home so that is the majority of the costs as far as presenting a budget or a presentation I talked to the city manager asked if that's something that we needed to do and she gave me no indication that's what she wanted and so but I'm happy to answer any questions and I can certainly have a budget prepared for a presentation prepared for you you know if you'd like or a memo that we can put together
1:03:07that outlines all of the details to give you a little idea about how ocfa's budget works with the contract cities is we put our budget together starting you know right after the the first budgets adopted like most cities do in february of this year we presented a a cost of what was going to be the expenditures for the 2021 expenditures in May it goes before the JPA it's a joint powers agreement board and those groups sit together and they talk about the budget and the impacts to the 24 cities and the two unincorporated areas that the Orange County Fire Authority provides service
1:03:42to in May that's when the budgets adopted and I'm not quite sure of how all of that happens because a lot of that happens behind closed doors so you know but it's it's adopted as a group and the costs that are generated by that is shared amongst all cities an example last year two ladder trucks were replaced the big hook and ladder trucks those cost about 1.7 million now that cost is spread out amongst all the cities that are part of this joint powers agreement so not one city is impacted so if you can imagine that the cost for those two
1:04:23ladder trucks almost four million dollars is spread out you know across 24 different agencies so that's part of the joint power agreement so um is there anything else i can answer in regards to
1:05:03that sir uh thank you uh chief henry um that was um i mean i just wanted to point out uh madam city manager that in the future we should have regardless whether it's contractual service and it's contracted out to ocfa it is 50 million dollars that the public should know how is being spent and why we're seeing this increase uh year after year uh in the future and i hope you know next year that the the fire uh service ocfa is considered when when presenting the budget to the city when we first see it like we did on Tuesday night and the previous meetings
1:05:16and that more detail is put into the fire department line item within the the summary because we just see one line item for forty nine million dollars four hundred and seventy thousand dollars which is which is okay I understand the the cost behind it but if we're part of the increase that you said chief henry was that a big portion of that goes into maintenance of our facilities which are city-owned so i want to make sure that that's clarified if it if it's going into upgrades to what the city-owned facilities madam city manager because i don't i don't see if that i don't want
1:05:55to you know 10 years from now say you know hear from ocfa hey by the way we've been fixing your properties for 15 years you owe us this much money or how how does that work so my apologies for not
1:06:34having a presentation on that item we certainly can do so in the future and we will provide you an email with more detail it's a very lengthy contract as to what we are actually contracting for there are formulas associated with what the rates can go up each and every fiscal year there is a maximum there is a carry forward amount there is the difference between assets that are owned by OCFA and assets that are retained by the city. You have a mix of them here at the city. You still own the assets that you had in place when you contracted out the service,
1:06:47but the other assets that are being deployed in our city, you don't have an ownership interest in it. So it's pretty complex, and I would request that you allow me to provide that information to you in an email. We can certainly also post it on the website to make it available for the public. The contract is publicly available. Anyone can access that contract and read through all of those terms.
1:07:17So is the information you said you would have to put it together?
1:07:37It's all within the contract that's publicly available right now.
1:07:41And that would reflect the increase that we're seeing, correct? Yes.
1:07:44Well, the contract will tell you what your base amount was and what your increases on a yearly basis can be and how it's calculated.
1:07:49Okay. I don't want to see an email. I want to see this made public under the line items in our budgets. and staff reports within that's available to the public certainly we can add the link to the contract perfect budget area so aside that and that would be great because it you know we we need to be transparent with every penny that's being spent um and and no i mean i'm not trying to ding you division chief henry that you know i know that i don't know where the the communicate the miscommunication happened but it's important that we're transparent and we we provide a
1:07:56presentation as well just like every other department but just just just so
1:08:32you understand sir the the contract is public you can you can go to OCFA's website and pull up the contract and and read right through it right now sir I I
1:08:37know that you know that but the 400,000 residents that we serve don't so it's not I'm not asking these questions for me but I'm asking for transparency purposes with our community so they can understand why we're seeing an increase of, you know, in total $13.5 million to public safety, including the police department. So, but thank you, sir.
1:08:48Okay. Any other questions from anyone else while I'm up?
1:09:12I do.
1:09:15Yes, sir.
1:09:16I just want to thank the OCFA for the great work that you guys do. I know that they've been, they helped us with the church fire the other day, and that was It was about $200,000 that OCFA stepped up and saved the city for that cost. I want to thank the Urban Search and Rescue Unit that came out to do the dig-out. The dig-out. Thank you, Chief. With that incident, it was just a lot. You know, we've had a lot of things. OCFA has been great, and I appreciate them. You know, we had a plane crash on Bristol two years ago. We had the flying car off 17th.
1:09:17We had this church fire that was a four-alarm church fire that was 120 firefighters that came out. That thing burned for days. And I appreciate the work. I understand that, you know, you were with Santa Ana Fire prior, I believe, 17 years, Chief.
1:09:5627, but who's counting, sir?
1:10:15Okay. I'm old. I know that. I'm off by 10. And you know this city. You love this city.
1:10:17I do, sir.
1:10:24I know you personally. And, you know, thank you very much. And the brave men and women that, you know, serve our city at the OCFA. And a lot of people want to come here to work.
1:10:25They do. I think one of the most proudest things that I am happy about is our Explorer program, which I've talked to you about, sir. And it's a great program. And it really, you know, reaches out to our youth. And I have to brag since I have the moment. We have the largest post in the agency, and we have a waiting list. And so it just goes to show some of the things that we do that are no-cost added value services.
1:10:37Thank you, Chief Henry. And thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I wholeheartedly agree. I mean, it's both our departments, fire and police. You guys do an exceptional job and serve our community. So thank you.
1:11:05Yeah, and I echoed that the other day when we talked. our ability to come together during these different events that have been occurring throughout the city is just it's second to none so we work hand in hand with with law enforcement and it's a it's really a pleasure i mean don't take that for granted because that doesn't happen everywhere so thank you sir i'm available sir you know absolutely you need to talk to me um you know
1:11:16you have my contact information so thank you thank you appreciate it um and madam senior manager if I could, or Chief Valentin, if you could come up, please. Because I have some questions also in regards to the line items and the police department's budget.
1:11:37How are you doing, sir? Are you good? I'm great, sir. How are you? Good. Thank you. Absolutely. Awesome. I was just going, and I want to first thank the finance director, Ms. Catherine Dow. We had a lengthy Zoom meeting yesterday over just numerous different changes that we're seeing from prior year and this new approaching fiscal year. So thank you, Catherine, for the clarity.
1:11:58Chief Valentin, the questions I had with regards to the police department, and I made some notes here, was I'm seeing some changes from the upcoming budget year to the previous budget year. Some changes that I see are the crimes against persons line item, the Metropolitan Division, which was nonexistent the previous three years. It now has a cost of $5.5 million. dollars and the joel operations has increased by one million and regional narcotic suppression has
1:12:28also increased by one million the joel operations um i i have uh i'm pretty sure i think i know why it's increasing it's because we've have we opened the additional wings we have one last mod to open
1:13:08uh we're not quite there yet i hope to get there in the next quarter okay call it 60 to 90 days
1:13:22And is that why we're seeing that $1 million increase?
1:13:29So if I can call my budget manager up specifically on that jail increase, and I can take care of the other two items for you.
1:13:32Thank you, Council Member.
1:13:58Looking at the comparison between the proposed budget for this upcoming year, I'm seeing a $700,000 increase in the salary and benefit line item, which makes up a majority of that million dollar increase. There's also some additional money, as was pointed out, for inmate meals. And also we're hiring a jail medical consultant to come in and provide us some expertise to make sure that we're getting a good rate on the medical services that we provide.
1:14:02so those two expenses there and contract services about another hundred thousand dollars or so
1:14:40so so the bulk was um is related to the the mou that the city council approved
1:14:47um that we approved last february correct several mous correct um okay we have a lot of SEIU employees in that unit. So multiple MOUs.
1:14:55Okay.
1:15:08Thank you. Thank you for that. You're welcome, sir. The other ones, Chief Valentin, was crimes against persons in Metropolitan Division. I see that the Metropolitan Division increase is almost similar to the decrease that we saw in crimes against persons. Not sure if that was a reclassification of roles or bodies within the department. But the reason I'm asking is because, you know, in December, which is part of the, right now we're seeing a $9.2 million increase in the police department's budget from last year to this year.
1:15:11I'm very aware that part of that is the MOU contract that we approved last February, but it doesn't make up for the additional $6, $7 million. And, you know, in December, we authorized the hiring of 18 new police officers in order to reduce our 911 response times. And I'm aware that that came with the cost of $2.7 million, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct?
1:15:49That sounds about right, yes.
1:16:18So, which is also now included in that $9 million increase that we're seeing to the police department. I was under the impression when we approved this, the hiring of additional officers was to put more patrol officers out on our street, reduce 911 response times, make sure that police officers could quickly respond to 911 calls when constituents respond. So seeing an entire new division pop up in the budget at a cost of $5.6 million is questionable to me
1:16:20because that means that the way I see it is, oh, look, we were able to hire additional police officers that was authorized by the city council, so now we could create this whole new team, which still keeps the patrol officers lower or at the same level than they were prior to hiring the 18 new police officers. That's how I'm seeing it. I'm not sure if I'm accurate or not, but I wanted you to talk a little bit more about what the Metropolitan Division is and what the purpose is there.
1:16:57Yes, thank you for the opportunity. So what the council did was authorize the funding for 18 police officer positions that were already authorized in the table of organization. Funded 18 of the 36 unfunded positions, actually. So the police department is staffed primarily, first and foremost, out of patrol. That's our core of core. right calls for service so that's patrol and then we look at all the other priorities that we have
1:17:30across the city so what you find with the metropolitan division and i provided historical information on this the thought behind it the setup of it the organizational chart everything to the entire council prior to doing this and so what what it is is we still need to address proactively we need to mitigate and and whenever possible prevent violent crime that's that's a core function of your police department and something that the community speaks of as a top priority as well so in the 50 officers that were
1:18:08hired it we staff based on priority so this here was the allocation of a major enforcement team all they do is address violent crime so part of the division it was a reorg the pre-existing gang unit is part of the metropolitan division and then the swat team which is an ancillary function is also part of that function the reason they were all brought into one division is a best practice we had a similar structure about 15 10 15 years ago and it was sporadic their chain of command was in different parts of the police department so you
1:18:47didn't have a unified chain of command to to make sure that the priorities were very clear and they reported to one stream of command so we put that in place so what you see is actually the line item is explaining the monies behind those officers okay so it's it's uh the the the new unit is the major enforcement team these other units were already pre-existing we put them under one umbrella okay so similar to the question about where do you delineate quality of life officers and and and we will work on that we will
1:19:25make sure that that happens so it's a it's very clearly delineated so the did I address the purpose of the unit is to address proactively and then mitigate and then also in some instances and they have I have statistics since inception of the team going back to January of this of this year of course with COVID that that had an impact but not really these officers have continued to apply themselves and I think a few of you have had the opportunity to actually visit with the team go out on a ride along with the team so you
1:20:04get a good a good sense of what their purpose is they in January or let's just give you the totals 238 arrests since January. This is just the Met team and 23 firearms seized. They've stayed active each of the months through the pandemic and continue to. So one of the top priorities I've made very clear is to take guns off the streets. That needs to happen because if we
1:20:39don't address that we we can find ourselves with an increase in violent crime even more so right the pandemic has caused certain crimes to go up overall crime is trending down but having been part of this police department for 30 years 50 years in this city I can tell you that if we don't pay attention to this area it could be it could be an issue for us and very quickly so I look at the entire staffing model and then make allocations according to priorities. That's the reason why you see the line item on this piece here.
1:21:14Thank you for that. So you're saying that gang unit is under the Metropolitan Division line item here? It's the Metropolitan Division is made up
1:21:53of the Met Team, Major Enforcement Team, the gang unit, and then not a full-time
1:22:04element an ancillary function the SWAT team okay it where were those uh positions i know you said that they were kind of spread out where were they under before was it the crimes against persons
1:22:09so uh i first staffed up patrol to make sure that there's enough officers there and that has increased significantly and that's the reason for the lowering of uh times for 9-1-1 calls response times and so additional officers that are hired you know redistributing throughout the organization I'm able to establish this team now if I can point out one critical piece here and that is in hiring 50 police officers last year we there's a lag time to see the direct impact out on the street wherever you put them whether it's quality of life met patrol detectives wherever
1:22:23you put them it's a six and a half month police academy there's a four month fto period cross training so it's really about a year before we see that police officer in a black and white car by themselves patrolling ready to handle a call for service so with the pandemic all recruits in all police academies were sent back to their respective police organizations so for us we had upwards of over 25 recruits that were midstream in their police academy training that are now back in the police department that's going to delay us a little further back right so the idea is as we
1:23:02continue to hire officers obviously we assign them based on priority and then over time we should see an impact also on lowering overtime expenditures overall that's the goal when we can when I can place a sergeant and eight police officers on the quality of life team when previously just 12 months ago there was just one and every every other effort that was done in this area was on
1:23:41overtime so that's kind of the broader context okay um thank you for that the crimes against persons can we talk about why that we see that 50 cut is that i mean what exactly is crimes against persons in in the yes what what does that cover within the department so crimes against persons
1:24:03is is homicide cold case homicide missing persons the previously it was the gang unit so so that reallocation that redistribution that's what you see there another factor is in in making this division occur what we're doing is also right sizing it so one of my top priorities when I took over as chief in 2017 was to have seven day a week gang suppression coverage on straight time no overtime involved so we did that had this opportunity to put this met team together there's no reason to continue to spread them thin across the seven days so we reallocated positions to
1:24:25other areas of the department and now I have these two elements that cover the seven day a week period on straight time the met team and the gang unit they work
1:25:07on straight time this is not over time and the gang unit and met team they're not on the beat right they're not you know if god forbid i got a con 9-1-1 they don't they don't respond to that call right it's it's they're separate uh they're a separate entity they're a separate um unit i guess that doesn't respond to your to a person's 9-1-1 call it's the patrol officers that do that so uh
1:25:15Not exactly. So you have patrol officers assigned by district and division throughout the city, and then the gang unit is in uniform out in the field. So if they hear an emergency call, they can respond to it, and in fact do. The major enforcement team, one of their priorities is to be available for any 911, any major call that occurs. They can get there, stabilize the scene until a patrol officer arrives and maybe has to do a longer report, take more time. But they're in the field. They're in a uniform capacity.
1:25:41And they have, in fact, responded to calls, in-progress shootings and robberies, and made arrests because they're already in the field in a uniform capacity. And they can quickly and rapidly respond.
1:26:15Did that make sense?
1:26:32Yes. So there's also a decrease in field operations of about $4 million. Is that same? Because now we're looking at $8 million in decreases in, I'm sorry, a $4 million increase. That is, I know there's a POA contract that we approved, but is that also including the, in the field operations bracket, is that including the hired, the recently hired or appropriation of the $2.7 million to hire the 18 new police officers?
1:26:34It's got to be both.
1:27:06Okay.
1:27:07All right.
1:27:09Thank you, Chief. Thank you, sir. That's it.
1:27:12Mr. Mayor, go ahead. I'm sorry.
1:27:33I'm right here. Go ahead.
1:27:37I just wanted to interrupt really quickly. I promise to yield my time after this. I promise. Two things that I forgot to mention that I think hopefully will give direction to staff. We're going to be expiring our moratorium at the end of this month, or did it expire already? Could you clarify that?
1:27:39Certainly. Which moratorium are you referring to?
1:28:01For the displacement, the moratorium on the residential and the commercial evictions.
1:28:06Oh, the eviction moratorium? Yeah. I'm looking for Paul's acknowledgement on it. I believe that did expire. Am I correct, Paul? No.
1:28:13The rents increased by the day, but the evictions are going to leave those in July.
1:28:25To July? Okay. And the reason why I asked that, I believe it expires at the end of this month or the end of next month. But two things. If you could look at, I know once that expires, we're going to have a myriad of people just trying to recover and pay for their rents as they go, and then for some of the arrearages from their rents as well. Can you look into the, are there any CDBG monies that we could provide for rental assistance as we see that relief being very necessary at that point once the moratorium relief expires? to the extent that we dedicated, I think it was $500,000. I know the city of Anaheim did $2 million.
1:28:32Is there any funding available for that?
1:29:14There actually would. We could program. There's additional CDBG money that we're expecting as a result of COVID-19, and that certainly would be a qualified use to supplement additional rental assistance.
1:29:17Great. Thank you. And last thing was, I know that the Legal Defense Fund was funded at the level of $100,000. I think it was increased to $200,000. If there's any CDBG money left for that to be increased as well at the present funding level of $200,000, just for us to research that if that's possible as well. But I apologize, and I thank my colleagues for their indulgence. I will cede my time and yield to everybody else.
1:29:31Thank you. Let's continue, please.
1:30:00Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, I have some questions kind of by Department 2. First, starting with our clerk's office, I know we have a new clerk. She has quickly acclimated to this new culture, bureaucracy, everything else. I just have a high-level question of how are you feeling about your current staffing level
1:30:03and what type of resources do you believe you need for the next fiscal year and beyond? and any just kind of high-level observations about what's reflected in the current budget request for your department yes thank you for the
1:30:26question councilmember so I currently am looking at reorganizing the office because I do see that the demand is really high the election is exceedingly high even more than the size of Long Beach, which is bigger than Santa Ana. And so I believe my first entire year here has been dedicated to the election process and exposing the staff that I currently have. Currently, I have temporary employees.
1:30:41So I have two vacancies, and those two vacancies I used to currently have temporary employees just so that I can keep up with the workload. So what I did was I didn't want to make any drastic changes in recruiting because I really wanted to take an observation and time to find out what the real need was. because we don't have election season every year or we shouldn't. And so one of the things that I did was I analyzed all the tasks
1:31:17and started to figure out that the best way of handling it is by delegating. So what I did was I kept the one assistant clerk of the council, and then I have one deputy clerk of the council. So the assistant is really one who works hand-in-hand with me, is really learning a lot with the election processes. So it takes a lot of dedicated time. The deputy clerk of the council really handles the agenda management system, boards and commissions. And then what I did was I wanted to reorganize the office.
1:31:56And so with the two vacancies is reallocate those two positions and downgrade them to delegating the duties and responsibilities with three office specialists. So it really did have a little bit of a savings because the two higher positions that I had, it just the workload was not, it was too many for just two people to handle. So delegating it really worked out well. And I'm just going to continue to see how the process will change.
1:32:30I actually had listed every single position and I outlined what their tasks are to make sure that a lot of the data entry, a lot of the agreements, a lot of the things that we do on a daily basis is being kept up with and that there's transfer of information. so there's a lot of support with the current staff that I have. So it's just been working out better. The workload is very, very high, and, again, I think it's primarily because of the unusual election mandates that I've received this year.
1:33:02Thank you. I think I appreciate that. We value the work you do, and we know that you haven't had a full crew, a full-time staff, but somehow agendas are still getting out and we're here and you're processing a lot of good work so i want to thank you in particular norma and the rest of your your team
1:33:40uh can we have parks and rec come on up uh very able director ridloff thank you you two you've now i think been here maybe a couple years and again the same kind of thing I think you've adjusted well and appreciate all the work that you've done. I know you've rolled out some new initiatives and they're doing well. So I want to let you know that we see you, recognize you, and we value the work that you're doing. Thank you.
1:34:01Part-timers, I think we're all interested in figuring out how we can bring them all back sooner than later. I think between the fact that the governor now is allowing more youth sports, more facilities to open, that we will come up with correct appropriate procedures to have a safe environment for them and their clients and students. How do you feel about the prospect of what you might be able to do with respect to, is there going to be enough room to bring them all back? I know there's also probably some sanitation dollars from care and COVID. it maybe that's a question for you or city manager but I know you know you
1:34:29have to help you know make that happen so one end or the other I think that's
1:35:11one of the big questions of the day yeah I think as the as we start opening up a little bit more and the restrictions are lifted then we'll bring a part-time staff back as appropriate we're going to be opening practices for sports and and they can do camps.
1:35:15The lawn bowling, basketball, volleyball, things of that nature. We're going to open all that aquatics. Everything's going to open up on June 29th at the end of the month. And then the zoo will be opening in July. So as we need part-time people, we're working with Stephen Pham and his department and getting them on board as quick as possible.
1:35:34That's fantastic. Another thing that I know you have started to work on is a parks master plan, and there's an item in the budget for that.
1:35:57Yes.
1:36:07I don't know if we're there yet to request it in the budget, and I know collectively, you know, we're all giving direction. So something I'd like you and our city manager and our council colleagues to think about is also a senior services master plan. And I think years ago, a youth master plan was started but never completed. uh i'd like to complete that and so if you could kind of look to see what that body work might be also many cities also have senior service advisory boards and i think it's critical i know kind of now in hindsight across the country we're seeing that
1:36:08a lot of senior facilities have had big issues with with uh covid as well as issues of food have been significant in senior communities so i think the more activity that we can do with the senior community and be involved would be fantastic. I want to thank you for letting me know about the renovations that are coming up at our senior centers and that was already a work in action so I wanted to reference that.
1:36:43Bookmobiles and Wi-Fi, I think you started some of those initiatives but now that we have a library you know probably save those questions there. I would also like to think about and this is more just of a general thing that will connect to something I'm going to say later but whenever too we can involve youth not just as volunteers or as clients but as givers meaning as like part-time staff or stipends or or academies our youth they're ready they got energy learning is good but a few dollars in the pocket are also good for their wishes and and and their dreams so would encourage you to think about that absolutely and can I
1:37:11say one thing on that we do have five hundred thousand dollars that we have allocated for um that will be mr mendoza is going to help us with is you is internships so as soon as we have the covid uh restrictions lifted uh then we will start the um that money goes to weowa and they're
1:37:51going to be running that program that's that's fantastic and one of the things uh i'm going to ask my colleagues to entertain and uh you know two of the other co-authors are here on the 85b item i I think given some times passed since Tuesday, given that the governor now has allowed these things to open up quicker, and I think the fact that there's still a lot of, even for next year's youth fund, a lot of unallocated money, I'd like for us to consider for the next fiscal year, just to have our youth commission in quick order come back with recommendations on how to spend the full $7 million.
1:38:10There's three to four million that were in the fund for this year. Some may have been appropriated, And then for next fiscal year, there's another three also in the youth fund. And as we continue to work on our budget now, we ought to think about how we can put those dollars out there in a quick fashion. And as was the original intention of the council, so with some youth commission input.
1:38:45Absolutely. The youth commission, that is one of their goals on their annual plan. Yes. And they have provided that information. The paid internships was something they wanted. So, again, half a million dollars we put. And then other things that they want, we'll utilize that out of our allocation, our general fund allocation. Yeah. Absolutely.
1:39:12That would be fantastic. And part of it will be also bringing them back for meetings because, you know, they haven't really been meeting since February. And that's why, you know, two or three of the commissioners were saying they haven't been able to meet. There's this need for the dollars. Let's get it out there. And, again, I'll speak a little bit more to that later, but that's what I had for you. Library. Do we have our library person here?
1:39:34You can't recognize them with their mask on. I know.
1:40:01That's the other thing. And I have a plexiglass here as well. Good evening, sir. Welcome. I know we had an informally a little bit of a Q&A yesterday on some of these topics. I want to thank you for the work you're doing on bookmobiles. I know they're not quick, easy to bring online. I worked for OCTA for a few years, and I know a lot of these things really have to be custom-built, and so they do take some time, and we had COVID and all the rest. But can you talk, though, a little bit more just quickly, because you did talk a little bit about it the last time. How many bookmobiles are we talking about?
1:40:04And then I know either the city staff or the Youth Commission, I think there was also a concept for, like, a techmobile, or maybe it was just going to be a more techie, traditional bookmobile, but if you could quickly speak to that. And then I am very fond of Wi-Fi's, and we're in the area where our kids and our families don't have enough of it. Talk a little bit more about if you did have more dollars, is there enough demand there that you think there's a need to order more Wi-Fi hotspots? Speak about those two things, please.
1:40:37Sure. So, yes, absolutely. For our bookmobile, we are definitely going that tech route. It is going to be a little bit different than your traditional large bus where kids come on. It's going to be more of a, like I said, a technology mobile where the service is happening in front of it. So it will have an electronic retractable awning. We'll have tables. So the kids will actually be in front of it, and we will be able to bring things out. So the bookmobile itself will be a wireless hotspot as well. Okay. So it can park in a neighborhood. It will beam out that signal so people can jump on the internet right there.
1:41:07It can go to parks and do that. But, yes, it's going to have things like laptops, 3D printers on it, tablet computers. And it's also going to have supplies where we go out and we do STEM types of activities, coding. Kids are going to be able to, you know, it's going to, we're actually working with Santa Ana Unified as kind of to develop a base schedule where we'll visit certain schools. And it won't just visit Santa Ana Unified. It'll go to other schools, senior centers, neighborhoods. It's going to parks. It'll go everywhere. And it will be STEM-focused.
1:41:48Tell me again how many.
1:42:23We have one bookmobile right now that was funded by Cannabis. That funding was actually for fiscal year 2021. So we're doing pretty well in terms of timeline.
1:42:25Okay, excellent. And I would encourage that, you know, we probably need more than one. And as the Youth Commission comes back and hopefully we can, you can have that conversation with them. Yes, sir. That'd be great. And we do have about 6,000 students that live in school districts other than San Unified. Yes. Like Garden Grove, Orange, and Tustin. And we have some charters and some privates. So I do appreciate you saying that we're going to reach out. And if we're at Parks, obviously we're serving the entirety of the community. What about hot spots?
1:42:33Do we have like a waiting list for hotspots or how would you speak about these Wi-Fi hotspots?
1:43:01So Wi-Fi hotspots, yes, we have had a waiting list. When we first rolled out the program, the waiting list was, you know, sometimes 50 people deep. We had some hotspots that were sort of focused just on census. but since COVID-19 and really a demand for kids to use them for school I have made all of our hotspots available for any purpose that anyone needs whether it's you know to take the census get their homework done study whatever it might be so that has helped out just reallocating how so what's the waiting list right now we're circulating those Wi-Fi hotspots has helped us kind of
1:43:07quell that demand but additional hot spots absolutely that was one of my goals for next year and I think do you know what the current wait list is right now I don't have but there is okay but there's typically a wait list it is much lower than it has been because we've reallocated how we're circulating keep up
1:43:48the good work and later on and I may bring it up in questions related to PD or if not, you know, been directly now. We do have what was an old library, you know, where now really most of the PAL activity is. That's a beautiful facility. I'd like to activate it more. Maybe, for example, we have the equivalent of an Internet cafe and more PAL activities, and maybe, you know, the PAL individuals and staff and other leaders can go out to other community centers or nonprofits that also are interested in providing services at their sites. And so I'd like to talk to you about that more and maybe visit that site
1:44:07so we could see how we can partner a little bit more with that facility. So I appreciate your time and welcome to our city. Thank you, sir. IT is come on up, Jack. I think you know that for the past two, three years, I keep asking primarily just about one question, and that is open data, where we're at, where we're going, and what are some of the best practices that we're following? If you could just kind of start with some general comments.
1:44:49Yeah, so we have established an open data section on our website. PD also has their site where they're putting their data as well, and we've linked some of their data over to ours that the trick always to the open data is not so much presenting it but how you capture it and gather it from the underlying systems and that's where we've always had some challenges we've tried to expand more and work with the departments to to make more data available we increased quite a bit this year we've added more things to the the open data site also working with the
1:45:20City Clerk, we're looking at putting more of the public documents and making them available online.
1:45:59So would you view that you're like about halfway done compared to your current city that says they have open data? Where do you think you're at and do you need more resources?
1:46:06I think we're still, I wouldn't say it's half ways. I think we still have a long ways to go. But I think we have to make the investments in the underlying systems, like the land management system, which we have on track. There's a lot of data there that can be made.
1:46:18I know in our police system, and maybe you're involved with it or not at all, I know that we're having some issues with their CMR, their data system. Has all that now completely fine? There's no data issues? There's no problems reporting data to other agencies? Or you don't know? If you don't know, that's okay.
1:46:35Yeah, I don't know on the PD. I know that was one of the big challenges, particularly with the PD data, because it was a new system, and they were ramping it up, and they were having issues. But I know that's been getting better. I don't know if they're completely to the point where they could spit information out of their system and make that available. Maybe PD can answer that.
1:46:54That's helpful. The only thing I would ask is for you to work more closely with our city manager and our police department. we really should have comparable open data across all departments including our police department. I would prefer that our police department err on the side of more data rather than less data. I want us to be a standard in open data for public safety. I know there are other agencies, for example, the New York Police Department that has this, you know, CompStat program, top of the line and they've tried to, you know, maintain it.
1:47:14And I know I recently shared that type of information with our city manager and our police department and others. And I want us to kind of have a best-in-the-class open data system for community and policing services, which is much needed. So thank you for that.
1:47:43New York has a very elaborate dashboard that they presented in. Yeah, they do.
1:48:01That's very nice. Thank you so much for your work, Jack.
1:48:05Let's see. Let's have, I guess, PD. I have a few questions for PD.
1:48:09Chief, I am thankful that over the past few years we have added a few more PSO type of positions. I know I've said now for several years that there's some positions that don't need to be filled with officers. wearing guns whether it be our park ranger program fortunately we now have this public-private program with allied services so there's not too much pressure there and reinventing how we do our park ranger program but I would encourage our city manager and our police chief to see if it's not time to do what other cities
1:48:22do which is not requiring that park rangers have guns on the job where I I believe still the only city in Orange County with that requirement, and that's why for a long time we only had one park ranger full-time. But can you speak a little bit, Chief, about what's your philosophy on when we can use PSOs or other non-POST certified individuals for what traditionally, at least in our city, were folks wearing guns?
1:49:00Absolutely. Thank you for the question, Councilman Salario. So, civilianization, as it's referred to in the policing industry, really began some 30 years ago. And we, fast forward, we look for really any opportunity to do that. We have PSOs that are critically involved in our community engagement. We have a classification called PIS, Police Investigative Specialists. Those positions are at various places in the organization. they have the authority to conduct criminal investigations all the way to the point of making an arrest. They can actually seek out arrest warrants.
1:49:32They can't serve them, right? But they're doing all the legwork. So we have folks in domestic violence, traffic investigations, domestic violence as well, sexual registrants, a variety of different areas in the department that already exist, and we look to do that even more. So absolutely, it makes sense.
1:50:12Yeah, thank you. Did I hear you say that you consider that civilization of the workforce?
1:50:33Civilization, yes, where appropriate, where it's appropriate.
1:50:39Okay. On the Quality of Life team, and I know Councilmember Becerra, you know, echoed something that I've been saying for some time as well. we we we know that homelessness is our top community concern that for better not you know police their police department embrace that they would do a lot of that work in that area and so given that we know that and why do we continue to fund so many of those officers with overtime I mean if we know
1:50:43that we probably need like $500,000 worth of time why not assign regular officers and maybe it's a combo of regular officers and in PSOs or others and you have you know a program that's gonna cost you a little bit less because you're not gonna pay time and a half as well as if they're not post certified officers that would also be less expensive so maybe you could just be generally about that but that's I think something that I'd like the city manager and you to think about between now and this comes back that given that we know
1:51:19it's such a big need you know because we went from one to two and we were very initially there was thought there wasn't that need but obviously there is I think you're now proposing that I go up to nine total including the sergeant so that's a good number right and so let's figure out what some good classification there because also too if someone's only doing that work part-time they never really master it and or do it well or have the right credentials whether it be as you know social work degree or something else I think if we value that it's important doing homelessness work and doing it well you
1:51:56assign a full-time person to that doesn't have to be somebody with you know post certified but I think we owe it to the public and those homeless to to be with soft touch and effective. I know too often there's a focus on the crimes that homeless commit. I think there's there's growing need to do what Los Angeles does which is monitor crimes also against homeless. There's a lot of you know injuries, there's a lot of theft, there's a lot of crimes committed against homeless and for example the LA Police Department you know some things they
1:52:36don't do well some things they do do well and they for example do regular reporting of homeless related crimes by and against and I think that that's important I know at the school district level there's there's now conversations about whether they should have a school police program or not speak a little bit about how we coordinate with them and my understanding is there's no Senate PD officers at any of the school sites anymore the kind of example of something a little bit different is we do have a contract with OSHA to provide some
1:53:15policing services but for our regular school districts in general we don't have any contracts with them and we don't have any officers at the site or doing we do not okay thank you that so on use of force overall issues I know there's been statements made of in the media that were one of the most dangerous cities in the country based off of police brutality deaths in the past three years that chief early since you've been chief have there been any
1:53:57any police-involved shootings where there was a death?
1:54:37So let me give you exact numbers here.
1:54:44That and related lawsuits. I think a lot of these lawsuits that we keep hearing about, I don't believe any of them were officers that you hired.
1:54:48Yeah. So similar to our open government initiative on our website, You'll find data regarding misconduct, use of force, officer-involved shootings, and in-custody deaths. So if I may, over the last five years up to current, in 2016 we had 10 officer-involved shootings. In 2017 we had nine. And this is where you see a trend going downward. In 2018 we had three. In 2019 we had two. And thus far this year we've had two. So I attribute that to two areas of focus.
1:54:56And you hear the dialogue when we're talking about police reform and recommendations and initiatives. And one is the focus on de-escalation training to ensure that our officers are trained with all the tools necessary to decompress situations and de-escalate. The other piece is body-worn camera. We outfitted, shortly after I took over, body-worn camera with every officer and patrol, gang unit, traffic unit, essentially everyone in uniform, including the gang unit and the MET team as well. The balance that's left is a portion of our detectives.
1:55:33They're not in uniform every day, but we did receive a small grant from the Department of Justice to leverage that further.
1:56:12Fantastic. Can you tell me again, these figures that you mentioned, you said there were use of force incidents, or what's the title for what those numbers represent?
1:56:19This was officer-involved shootings for the last five years.
1:56:28Officer-involved shootings. So we went from 10 in 2016 to the full year 19, which was 2. And so I think that's fantastic. I mean, if anything, I think that shows that Santa Ana, under your leadership, and the leadership of the city council that, you know, incidents of police brutality are coming down and de-escalation training has been very helpful as well. I know related to that there's been questions about, you know, big lawsuits paid out related to previous situations.
1:56:31I believe most of those lawsuits were of officers that were hired prior to you. On the whole, does that seem about accurate? Or if not, maybe that's something you could follow up with us on.
1:57:06Well, we could get an exact reporting on who the officers were behind each specific case.
1:57:20Okay. Maybe because there is always sensitivity, obviously, always to names, et cetera. Maybe that's something you could provide to me. But I bring this up just because I know there's concern in the community about how much police brutality we have in Sanon at the hands of our cops. I always quickly say that number one in recent years we haven't had that history or tradition that under the leadership of yourself and this council that we've made this a priority. And I remember, and it was like in the first month or so, Chief, I know there was questions on a lot of related things.
1:57:26And one of the first things that some community leaders told me was how important body-worn cameras were. I share that with my colleagues and you and you know councilmember Vegas and I you know you know co-led the Public Safety Committee and we got it done and I think because of that there's more trust there there's less issues and I think we're heading in the right direction in that front anybody that says we're not heading the right in the right direction they're just reading very old data and so I do thank you for that again I always do believe that there
1:58:00are areas for improvement and I think prior to you chief I think the the prior City Council had committed to do a community survey maybe with Chapman University or others and I don't think it ever got completed that is something that I believe we can and should do maybe with next year's budget and that's one of the things I'd like to be added and I think that's something maybe you have in your budget today chief that you can begin to kind of work on or next year but I think we need to every now and then calibrate what are the community's needs or the council request for what the services should be because
1:58:30I do think that we right now focus a little too much on major and violent crimes and because those are dipping down because of the good work of the gang unit taking guns off the street shootings are down etc because of that I think we need to do more softer touch work and so I think community survey really annually every couple of years I think would be helpful I do think that You know, the trainings that you've done have been helpful as the stats show. But have we ever done any independent reviews of our use of force policy or our organization or things of that sort?
1:59:05Yes, we consistently look at our use of force policy, our shooting policy, all of the policies in general, but those that have potential liability exposure attached to them by their very nature. I have the luxury now of having a full-time police legal advisor. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago prior to all this unrest, we made some additional revisions.
1:59:42So you have an advisor?
2:00:07Police legal advisor. Okay.
2:00:09Something I'd like us to consider in the future is our independent reviews, and I'll write something separately about that. But I think every now and then it's good for any department, not just yours, and I know there's other departments we've done that as well. And even when we speak about the survey and services, I'd like for us to do a citywide survey, too, just about what are the services that our community needs, something broad-based with more than six responses, something that really showcases, you know, for the city what we should be doing.
2:00:11So I think, Chief, oh, you know, the other thing I have for you that they're kind of fireworks-related, and maybe because of this too I'm shrinking down the end part of the evening. I know the past two or three years that I've been on the council, fireworks night, the voice machine gets full, and I know that's a very busy night. What plans do we have this year for technology for a variety of areas? I know we had a similar issue with the vice number, that you'd call that number and no one would pick it up or there was no answer, et cetera,
2:00:41and I know I and the city manager and other tried that and found the same thing. I know we talked about 3-1-1, but obviously we've been busy with a number of things, but how are our voicemail systems doing in particular for fireworks night? Are we going to have a system or maybe live dispatchers or live numbers so that we don't have people hung up on or no places to leave calls, especially since we encourage them to call?
2:01:19Absolutely. Thank you for the question. So a couple of different factors that are impacting this particular 4th of July weekend, day and weekend, really. So we don't have a citywide event, and so it's over a weekend. We're still transitioning out of this pandemic, and I believe that if you have a 4th of July weekend on a Saturday night, it could be quite busy. So in addition to the standard number, we are opening the department operations center, which will also have a live feed number. will make that very publicly known it's going to be staffed in addition to an incident command post
2:01:44that we will have open and running i have directed that a higher level tactical alert be put in place and what that does is it provides us additional officers to start the night every night i hope it's not you know extremely busy but i can anticipate it will be so we will have additional messaging and additional ways in which the public can reach us. And we actually will have people staffed both Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. Our operational period is from June 29th through the 5th. So we extend beyond just the 4th of July.
2:02:21Thank you. And we'll talk more about that, but I appreciate that response as well. And that's all for you right now, Chief. Thank you. Thank you. Our fire department chief, our OCFA assigned chief, I've got a couple questions for you. As you're walking up, also, yeah, just starting with the 4th of July as well, a few years ago I did do a ride along on a fire engine and it does look like a war zone on the 4th of July and it is very hard to discern who is shooting off fireworks and not and how to get folks to practice safely in the midst of the smoke and everything
2:03:00else. What are your plans for how to make Santa Ana safer and quieter this 4th of July season and what proactive kind of work can be done to reduce it given that you're such a very important partner in our fireworks
2:03:41program so we're working with obviously law enforcement we've done some community outreach we weren't able to do what we normally do was partner with law enforcement to reach out to the schools because of the of the pandemic i would suggest you still can so please do not give up
2:03:57on working with our school districts their emails work their phones work their staffs work in their kids have you know emails and parents are getting emails so please do reach out to our school
2:04:12districts right so excuse me one moment though councilmember may I just make a point of order are these questions really directly to the budget or yeah
2:04:24like to save them for your comments no these are but you related what are the budget plans for this year and next of how we are going to make our fireworks season safer if there's a lot of some numbers yes okay yes and staffing and staffing and practices they're all related all right so for staffing we
2:04:33We will have our traditional 14 units that we have on every day. We are also bringing in additional units to assist us from the region. How many? Two.
2:04:52Okay, great.
2:05:04And so we'll have our resources available. They'll be strategically placed in the city to assist with response.
2:05:05Do you need extra resources for next year to help site individuals as well, or do you not have any siting or investigative authority?
2:05:13authorities we don't do the sighting that's uh i'll defer to the city attorney but that's specifically related to the municipal code as far as i understand and law enforcement we have our fire investigators that uh you know work hand in hand with pd and uh will you know make confiscations and those kind of things and and uh we'll also respond you know to burn injuries and things of those natures. In the past, we've worked with law enforcement in those instances.
2:05:21Great. Thank you. Ambulance-related issues. From a budget standpoint, does your relationship with care, are ambulance issues at all any of your concern anymore or that is now all solely budget and other issues related to our care ambulance contract?
2:05:54So the care contract, I believe, is separate from OCFA's contract. And from what I understand, that is something that's bid upon, and the city basically accepts the bid from the vendor.
2:06:19So the reason why I bring it up, I know, and this now delves into the homeless question, I know a lot of the calls that you respond to are somehow homeless-related. Are you the best to respond to those homeless calls? Should it be ambulance responding to those calls? Should it be PD? I'm trying to just figure out resource allocation because you do have a substantial budget and you're responding to a lot of homelessness calls. Is that appropriate? Do you need more resources, less? different kind of personnel speak about your role in helping us fight homelessness so we've we've
2:06:34worked with the the different shelters in educating their staff you know but you know unfortunately we don't we don't tear our dispatching so if somebody calls 9-1-1 we respond with paramedics and the closest ambulance to the situation. If the paramedics are not needed, then the patient, then if they want to go to the hospital and they need to go to the hospital and they don't need a paramedic escort, then they ride in the ambulance or they at times can go by their own means, private auto.
2:07:11And that's across the board regardless of, you know, what their status is in life. And so...
2:07:53And are paramedics needed most of the time for those homeless calls? Or should we be sending out a mental health person or somebody from our quality of life team?
2:07:59Well, it depends. So obviously when somebody calls 911, you know, to them it's an emergency. So really it's subjective. If you want our statistical data, I can get that. But as far as our response, we respond with the intent that they need our services. A lot of times they don't.
2:08:10Sometimes they need other needs. And so, but, you know, I mean, I'm not the expert to tell you if, you know, I think it's a bigger question than for us. I think it has to do with, you know, county health and all of those different pieces that are part of the problem.
2:08:35I'll follow up you as well. I've been working with our police department trying to get information about the calls for services citations that we serve there. Likewise, because so many of your calls are homeless related, I want to get a better sense of really what the need is, who's responding, and maybe the mix of classifications helping, whether internal or external might be different. Thank you so much. Okay. Probably for our city manager, some higher level questions and points. Pension stabilization.
2:08:53I know you and I kind of have the same feeling that the pension stabilization program might make sense because financing is easy right now. The rates are affordable, and if we can smooth out our pension obligations over the years, it'll be helpful. How quick can we realize that process and savings associated with that?
2:09:20So the one action that you've approved so far was to direct us to do the feasibility study on a refinancing of our unfunded pension liability. And so that will take a couple months to do, and then we would need to go out to the market to do any refinancing. So you're probably looking at, I want to say 9 to 12 months to concur finance. Yeah, nine to 12 months to actually refinance it, which would then produce the savings between what we're currently required to remit to CalPERS versus a smooth payment.
2:09:46Excellent. I think that is very important. I think maybe we could get like a quarterly status report on that, even if it's just a receiving file or even just a memo to the council, because I do think that that will provide real savings. And I know we often from our community get questions of, hey, what are you doing about pension? though many of our employees now are under the newer system too where the the rates are low and so that's that's helpful too. The last two things for now just might be in the form of questions because I will close with some comments
2:10:18later up. I have started to see as well that other cities are using care type funding to increase their rental assistance program. City Manager for this fiscal year next do you have any current plans on what that amount might be or maybe now that we're kind of really getting insurance from the state of how much money there is maybe between now and the next council meeting you can kind of give us a projection but I don't want to prejudge that maybe you already
2:10:49do have a certain amount in mind it certainly can and it's contingent on the state doing that approval so if you would allow me to have a little more time to prepare that response to you but we do have as mentioned earlier we do have cdbg extra money that we're receiving as a result of covid and we certainly can program that to rental assistance
2:11:21very good thank you uh and then finally uh the legal defense uh fund i know we've slowly been increasing over the years as we're seeing that uh the individuals running the program are doing a good job uh they're following that the advice that many of us gave early on of look focus on serving San Ana residents, San Ana Dreamers, San Ana veterans, whereas before the concept was, no, give us money and we could serve anybody in the country, and irregardless of what crimes or what age or anything, and I think they've been mindful that if we could do San Ana first and youth and such, that is good.
2:11:40Maybe from general fund, I wouldn't think that care is eligible, but if not, I know the youth fund. I know that a lot of the youth also care greatly about that, as well as rental assistance, legal defense and rental assistance, so that as staff works with the Youth Commission, and I know we'll all be talking to them and vice versa, that would maybe be something for them to consider as well, including on the rental assistance side, just because we do have a lot of foster youth that are homeless, in particular, a lot of LGBTQ tend to also have, you know,
2:12:17reasons why they often are not included and if we can work with them as well that would be fantastic that that is all for now but you know I think we want to talk about some macro issues later and I I know that I had many questions but obviously we have many departments and needs in our city thank you thank you
2:12:54for that who else would like to speak I'll open up the floor to the next
2:13:12speaker this is councilmember Mendoza I would like to speak please go ahead
2:13:17Thank you.
2:13:22My first question is directed at probably the city manager. I want to know if in this budget, and I'm so new with this budget that I'm not familiar or where to look, to see if there is any money somewhere to be able to rehire those 176 part-time employees who were laid off recently.
2:13:24Thank you, Council Member. There is. So we did not take out the funding for their positions in this proposed budget before you, so we have the part-time funding as a part of this proposed budget. I certainly hope that the state will lift the orders so that those individuals can return to their jobs and perform their duties. A lot of it was in the library and the recreation area, and the work that they did did require recreation classes and large gatherings, which we are unable to provide at this time because of the state order. But the budget does include the funding for those positions and then more on an interim basis
2:13:52We are trying to find available part-time positions to bring back individuals and with the state if we do receive the CARES funding that will also provide some other not their jobs that they were typically performing for us But some other opportunities for them to be employed
2:14:26Okay along the same lines how much of the deficit will be covered by the sales tax now, that the stores are opening and people are shopping again?
2:14:43That's an excellent question, and if I had a crystal ball, I could give you an exact figure. You know, we're monitoring our sales tax very closely. It's on a lag that we know the amount that we've collected. So at this point, this budget is built on our best projection as to how much we will recover. One of the things that you mentioned is that's the unknown. We don't know is this a recovery that's going to be a steep recovery where everything bounces back and we're back at our spending, or is it going to be slow?
2:14:56There also is the risk that as we've had some bad news over the last week on the number of COVID cases and hospitalizations, there is a possibility that if that trend keeps that way, the economy is going to retract again, because the state has indicated and the county has indicated that if the criteria that they're monitoring goes in the wrong direction, they could, those businesses that just got reopened, could be closed again. I see.
2:15:24Well, hopefully we can move ahead with rehiring them soon. And because there are services that are being lost to our communities, but these are services that these employees provide, and our youth need some activities and recreation during the summer. So hopefully that is not affected. And another thing is that with the homeless shelter being built and coming up soon, hopefully maybe some of these employees can be loaned out to that homeless shelter and provide the services.
2:15:50I'm sure they're easily trained and flexible that they can be rehired, I mean, loaned out to the Elimination Foundation. And then I have a question on the schedule for the fee schedule changes. page 65 I noted that the in the aquatics and the tennis fees they were deleted because there was a contract made with a aquatic programs operator and a tennis
2:16:28operator respectively which includes in the terms of the contract that the operator will collect all the fees and provide all the staffing. I have two questions regarding to that. Number one is so the operator will be collecting fees. What happens to those fees? Do they keep them or the turn them over to the city? And the second question is why can't we just rehire those some of those So 176 staff to run the aquatics program and the tennis center.
2:17:09Okay. Thank you for those questions. I'm going to ask our Parks and Rec Director to come up. In general, those fees are collected to provide programming. And in regards to bringing back park timers, to the extent we can, we would, most of the contract employees are certified lifeguards. I see.
2:17:47Right. Yes, Council Member Mendoza. The tennis program, the Cabrillo Tennis Center, is run by Matchpoint Tennis, and they have done this for a number of years. And so they have always provided tennis lessons, contract tennis lessons, for the kids in the community. We do have some contract tennis at the Neal Machander Tennis Center, so we do use contract instructors. but we don't have any in-house that we typically use for tennis and we have in the past for
2:18:06aquatics. Aquatics is very hard to hire for. Lifeguard certification is difficult and it's hard to find people. So this past year we used a contractor to help us out and so we feel that we could provide more to the community with a contractor coming in and having year-round swimming swim lessons swim team water polo things of that nature so again we were just having a hard time filling the positions so we contracted that out
2:18:42okay I see thank you very much chief Valentin in regards to public safety and as it relates to your budget, because it seems to be an item that is pretty much in the public eye right now. So with the additional officers, off the top of your head, can you give me an idea of how many calls for service per month, and what's the average response time? Has there been a difference since the hiring of those police officers?
2:19:18Yes, thank you, Councilwoman Mendoza. And there has been, I just pulled it up right now, so if you just give me a second here, I'll give you accurate numbers.
2:20:01This, again, information is readily accessible on our department website, has been for about the last year and a half or so. so calls for service we average about 13,000 calls for service per month it ebbs and flows but for example last month we had 15,800 calls the previous month 14,800 previous month 14,600 it etc so that's that's a high call volume that's total calls for service in terms of our response
2:20:13times we've experienced a drop in response times in all five of our categories of response levels so our priority number one is 9-1-1 life and death type situation that has been lowered last month it was at five minutes and 80 seconds so that is the lowest it's been in the last at least three years or so so you do see a decline now I will caution that the last two and a half months since
2:20:51about mid-march when the pandemic hit a lot less traffic in our city we're 27 square miles and it can take some time to get from one edge of the city to the next so with less cars less traffic officers are able to get to calls much much quicker but even prior to the pandemic as the rest of the council they've seen a staff report on a pretty regular basis where there is a lowering of response times really across the board thank you one more question given the the deficit in
2:21:26our budget are there any police expenditures that can be eliminated and trimmed from the budget
2:22:01so like every other department head under the direction of the city manager we I've looked at my entire budget and look to see where we could do that we do have a couple of substations for example that aren't used on a regular basis one really is a storefront on the east side of town that is just an office space that's provided by a business partner it's available for officers to go in there write reports etc i don't have the exact frequency of usage but it's it's very low but there's a cost for maintenance of that of that asset to the city we have another office space at
2:22:10the train station i do have a pso that goes in there once or twice a week but i don't have a full-time asset assigned there that's a possibility redirecting people going there for assistance they could come to the main police station the other substation is out on the far west side of town and that's i believe there's a there's a need to keep that substation but we're continuing to
2:22:49look at at all areas of the department certainly well that's good to know because we need to achieve a balanced budget a budget so whenever we have facilities that are not being used and that can save our city some money then we commend you in looking for areas where we can trim those expenditures down thank you that was my last question to you and I appreciate it and I do have just one more question on the but actually two for I think it's for the city manager we know that there has been that there's a possibility of
2:23:12the city of Santa Ana obtaining some protest funding because together with other surrounding cities when we declared an emergency in the combined cities who declared the emergency that there was a possibility of the cities getting some protest funding and I wanted to know if that has been applied for and if so what is the share that or an estimated share that the city of Santa would be getting. So, Council Member, your city took an action early on
2:23:53and did an emergency declaration due to the civil unrest. That was the first step to qualify for any type of funding. Anaheim also filed suit. Costa Mesa did. I believe Tustin did. But we needed the county to actually declare. And so a few of the cities engaged in conversations with Frank Kim, the CEO over at the county, and they just did a week ago. So the chair still signed theirs, their board approved it, and it's on its way to the governor's office. The governor's office would have to approve it, and then it would go on to the president for approval.
2:24:31If approved, we would have access to apply for it, and it would be strictly a reimbursement basis. One of the thresholds that we had to hit in order to qualify for it is collectively all the cities in Orange County and the sheriff's department would have had to spend at least $12 million. We are well above that amount between all of the agencies, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it does get approved, and then it would be submitting reimbursement. I believe the greatest cost that we've incurred is overtime in the police department for all the large number of protests.
2:25:05Thank you. Thank you for staying on top of that. And my last question is probably also to you, Madam City Manager. It seems that because we have higher expenditures than what are the revenues that are coming in, so that gives us an unbalanced budget. So I'm thinking that in order to bring that balanced budget, that we could have our department directors sit down together and see with where what areas
2:25:37similar to what I asked Chief Valentin a few minutes ago what areas can they trim down what facilities can they not use and so save some money in some areas so we could reduce those expenditures and then finally get a balanced budget is that a possibility that our department directors can come together in one meeting and work together for that?
2:26:15Well, certainly, and you are correct. We do have a structural deficit, meaning the revenues do not cover the expenditures. You do have funds and unrestricted reserves that you can rely upon, which is often a very common practice for cities to do to address a structural deficit. It's not a long-term solution by any means, and so we are already preparing a list of additional cuts that we can make. We try to do it very judiciously because if we reduce expenditures, it's impacting the services that we provide to the community.
2:26:39Thank you very much. Those were all my comments, Mayor.
2:27:11Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a comment.
2:27:16Go ahead, Mayor Prokent.
2:27:19Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to say that for the last few weeks, I've been meeting with every department head to go over their budget, to see how many vacancies they have and you know I want to thank them for their hard work and I would always ask well how many folks are you short in your department and what challenges are you experiencing at the moment regarding you know the pandemic and a lot of them stepped up you know obviously all of them a city manager asked them to make sure they step up and I appreciate their dedication to the city.
2:27:20Also, in regards to the OCFA contract,
2:28:03you'd be surprised how much money we've saved since 2012 up until now. But costs do go up, inflation, and there's repairs that are needed in all of our stations. We own all the stations and the land on it, and we are responsible for the upkeep. And I want to thank the chief for coming out and Chief Henry speaking on that.
2:28:09But one thing I do want to say for the next budget, for next year, is that I think we're really going to have to take a look, and like Councilwoman Mendoza was saying, that we all need to get together and get on the same page because I think we need to look at our core services and just start to adjust. Those are very hard conversations. I thank all of my colleagues up here for their comments and their questions to the staff, and I think they're very, very important. There were some really, really interesting questions. But I think we need to go back to the basics because, like my colleague,
2:28:41Councilwoman Mendoza was saying we need to get out of this deficit and it's going to be tough and the pandemic sure as heck is not helping and it is tough so I want to thank everyone for their hard work dedication yes want to bring back those part time employees working on it and I know you do I know we would like for everything to go back to the way it was with the level of service but there's going to be some tough conversations coming in the future and we just need to be prepared for that to remember that what are the core services that we need to provide and and start there and that's everyone
2:29:22together and I think the city manager has been asking all of the you know the directors to come together and ask for cuts and ask where you can make some changes that'll help the city out and I really appreciate that and appreciate all the staff that has been working on that and all of so the ones that have been working from home, you know, I thank you all for your time and dedication to the city. And those are my comments, Mr. Mayor.
2:30:01Hello?
2:30:33Mr. Mayor, this is Councilman Peñalosa. Yeah, I'm right here.
2:30:34And any other comments? Councilman Peñalosa, go ahead.
2:30:38Thank you, sir.
2:30:41Hello again. um chief chief valentin i wanted to ask a question in regards to the the 18 uh police officers that we appropriated for i'm not sure if the city manager wants to answer this or yourself sir but just going over the the summary the city budget summary i noticed that in the personnel breakdown changes that is displayed on page 41
2:30:46There's an asterisk next to police officer And then the asterisk at the bottom says 18 police officers added during fiscal year 19 Well, it says 29, but I think that was supposed to be 20 Okay, so fiscal year 19-20 And when you look at the funded positions The number doesn't change, it remains at 304 And on the last page, it says unfunded for fiscal year 2021 21-18. Is that that increase that we're seeing that we need to approve in order for you to fund those positions? Because from what I have, have any of those been filled? I can answer that question.
2:31:18You want me to take a stab, Chief? So he has, he's down 36 officers. You hired and funded 18 of them this fiscal year in December. He still has 18 that are unfunded, that are not funded within this
2:31:58budget okay but we're not asking for funding for those additional 18 no but
2:32:15you do have to there's an increase to his funding that would be included in the nine million dollar increase because you funded the 18 that you did fund mid-year so you only funded them for six months so the other six months cost
2:32:20would be in addition to his next year's budget so those 18 are separate then I
2:32:35know it's difficult because they're the same number but he's down 36 we hired in
2:32:40funded 18 and 18 or not. So if we did that why doesn't the the number change in the columns when it's where it says funded for for year 19-20 and funded for fiscal year 2021 the number remains the same at 304 last year to 304 this year. If we've if we've hired or or appropriated for 18
2:32:45in December wouldn't that number change? Because you did that change this fiscal year so at the end of this fiscal year those 18 are included so there's no change from the
2:33:07end of this fiscal year to the next fiscal year. Okay so previous year it was I'm assuming 290 or I'm terrible at short math 285 is it about is that
2:33:16accurate? Well what's authorized right now is 366 authorized and funded so
2:33:28minus 18. 366 minus 18? Right. That's what's funded. Well you're okay you're including, well that doesn't make sense. The the police officer says, line says 304.
2:33:35That same column that you're looking at for police officer it would have been 286 over a year ago. Okay.
2:33:49Okay.
2:34:05So do you want to clarify what she just said?
2:34:06Why don't you come up and just go ahead and put that one to bed?
2:34:09Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Catherine.
2:34:11Yeah, so the confusion between the 366 number that you just threw out and the 304 that's being discussed right here, 304 is just for the classification of police officer. The Chief, when he talks about 366, he's talking about sworn uniformed officers, which could include sergeants and other, yeah.
2:34:14Got it. So from those 18, Chief, how many have been filled? Are there still any vacancies that are funded currently?
2:34:37So of the total 366 that are authorized and funded, there are 361 filled today. So a portion of those 18 have, in fact, been filled.
2:34:48Okay. Yeah. So there's leaves about five.
2:35:01Or five vacancies.
2:35:04That's funded vacancies. Correct. And are those, and I'm just trying to think, are those five, are we actively recruiting? Are those already in the pipeline to become officers, or what's the status on those five?
2:35:05We have active recruitments on all five of those vacancies. In fact, I have a couple of interviews this week. So we hope to fill those five in the next 30 days or so.
2:35:21Yes, absolutely. Now, have we considered, Madam City Manager, because of the pandemic, I know that we did a hiring freeze for the others, other departments, and other levels within the police department. Have we considered a potential hiring freeze for those five in the meantime, just so that we wait this period out while there's a pandemic and there's unknown shortfalls that we're seeing?
2:35:31No, we've implemented a hard hiring freeze for all positions that are funded by the general fund with the exception of jail Dispatchers and police officers Partly because I know that what public safety was a priority and hiring up was a priority of this council Also because the pipeline and the lead time to fill those positions is so long to put a hard hiring freeze It really would set us back quite a ways. So as of now built into this budget is a hard hiring freeze on other full-time general positions But not those three types within the police department. Okay, which makes sense and the
2:35:59I'm trying to think the the so the five that we've that were are still vacant but funded We expect those to be filled some you have interviews is that very quickly pre-academy interviews or post-academy interviews
2:36:36uh no no no so the processing occurs all pre-academy okay yeah and then you once you interview and give
2:36:51the okay correct go on okay that makes sense and and i don't know how the the during covid how these academies work i know i'm very familiar with with the how academies work but i mean have are they on the back burner during covid are they reduced does it become more competitive
2:36:57to yes great question so there's only a couple of academies in the state that remained opened most including the orange county sheriff's academy which we use was completely closed it just opened up just a couple three weeks ago and they only have the senior class in there right now so and they're all six feet apart practicing social distancing so it's a it's a layered approach similar to public school districts etc that are going to try and and reopen same same impact so So that's how we ended up with 25 of our own recruits back in the police station, waiting to transition back to the academy.
2:37:17So the 25 of the recruits, they came back to the police station, and they're doing office work in the meantime?
2:37:51So they're responding to calls telephonically. They're continuing to study radio codes and all the police decorum, prepping to go back into the police academy. They've done weaponless defense training. They've done de-escalation training. So they are not sitting idle one bit. What they can't do is go out in the field because they're not peace officers yet. But any and everything that we've had them sanitizing, anything we can have them do, we've had them do. Absolutely.
2:38:00Can we have them patrol the parks for a bit with Allied Universal? Is that out of the question?
2:38:30That may be a liability issue because they're hired as police recruits. right and so yeah they're definitely busy trust me okay yes i mean i didn't mean armed or anything
2:38:38but just as hired bodies of the city right any any okay all right thank you thank you that answer that question that those columns were confusing okay um to me so that that explains them all thank
2:38:47you thank you all right any additional questions by council members if not madam city manager it would be your desire and I think all of ours could probably do a first reading today of the budget is am I correct in that yes you
2:39:01are correct mayor but I would like to use the time between should you choose to approve the first reading of this i would take back all of the notes and direction that i received at this meeting and i would incorporate those in the budget and be able to present that to you at
2:39:23the second reading a stated uh obviously none of them are substantive so all right so i think we have a motion with that as part of the motion do we have a second second if we've already had a of discussion if we all understand the motion i'd like to ask the clerk to do a roll call vote please
2:39:37can we clarify the motion please i think the idea is that that we're we're approving the budget actions as they are but that staff has taken good notes on our direction points almost department by department and that they come back with you know their best effort at accommodating the the recommendations from the council and then at that time we we'd get the staff report agenda ahead of time so we'd have a few days to review and the community so that when is the meeting in July the first meeting July July 7th so that July 7th we could come back and vote on that budget and even then if we needed to
2:40:00move some dollar figures up or down my understanding is we can do that and and And the city attorney has also confirmed that. So I think that's the idea.
2:40:39And, Mayor and Council members, I want to make sure that I'm clear on the motion is also including not just the ordinance on the first reading.
2:40:52Yes, I said the various items. So items, that's 75A1, A2, A3, and A4.
2:41:00Thank you for that. The second of the motion.
2:41:10yes i do i accept okay council member becerra yes council member mendoza yes council member
2:41:14piñalosa no council member sarmiento yeah i'm a no as well and i think it i i deserve or at least my colleagues deserve to hear why i i can't be supported maybe after the the roll call is over
2:41:24i think well then process protocol isn't to do it in the middle of the vote if you don't mind a council member let me speak well maybe let the mayor the mayor pro tem well there's a first and a second we're still okay i'll make some comments as well too that's thank you that's fine nobody
2:41:37will interrupt you thank you i just i just thought out of a courtesy very well i'll explain why i
2:41:49can't support it tonight thank you please don't interrupt again um so i do think and this is no reflection on staff i do think that they've made very good efforts tonight to get us there i just know that there are a couple of things there are some variables that still haven't been you know solidified and they're still uncertain and they impact my decision the other one is that we have till the end of July from what I understand to go ahead and present a budget so we'll have two additional meetings two in July one on the seventh and I believe one on the 14th and if we
2:41:55had to do something we could call another special as we did today to those to that extent i think that the way the budget is presented in my opinion it doesn't reflect the priorities and the values that i've heard from many of our residents and constituents we're getting there and i think a lot of the comments that were made tonight were very helpful i think on the revenue side there were some good comments made i think a couple of things that we forgot to mention were small businesses and how do we help them out of this covet problem micro
2:42:29businesses of five or fewer employees look are probably going to fail and and i see that a lot of them going away that's going to impact us on the revenue side so those are things that we haven't looked at how do we provide relief to make sure that those businesses remain in uh in operation the other one is to look at how we can you know also use our public lands better and see how we can use the cert the california surplus land act to make sure that we provide services that are reflective of our community's needs. Obviously, we've spoken a lot about youth. Youth is embedded all over the budget.
2:43:02The one thing, if we can bring back to the next meeting, is what's the ratio? In other words, how much do we spend per youth? And I'm talking about maybe 5 to 18. What is the city's expenditure if we can? I know it's a really difficult number to quantify, but what is it that we,
2:43:39monetarily spend on those youths. I do want to thank staff for helping on the rental assistance for tenants. That's very important because we know we've given quite a bit of relief already, but there is going to be a huge, huge demand for additional relief. And with those comments, again, I respect my colleagues for supporting it. I hope they respect my opinion as well. I think we all have to, you know, basically make our opinions heard based upon our values on our contacts with folks that we communicate with in the city. So with that, I will be a note. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the opportunity.
2:44:00Thank you. Let's continue with the roll call unless there's other comments. Let's continue, please.
2:44:40Council Member Soloria.
2:44:46Yes, and a couple of quick comments just to clarify. with that with the youth fund given that we've already have slipped some additional time I'd like the city managers I'd indicated or just as a refresher that that unused money which is probably in the three to four million range that that be carried over into the next fiscal year and that staff work with our youth commission school district nonprofits etc to get that first summer and fall programs and I want to reiterate that the police chief did say
2:44:48which is why I'm supportive that he believes in civilization of our police department and that we will work collaboratively to figure out what kinds of positions, rather than being post-certified with officers wearing guns, can instead be used in the existing units or to do things with and for seniors, community, PAL, maybe our Family Justice Center. councilmember Villegas I thought that this might be an opportunity to use some maybe even youth fund dollars and general fund dollars to build up and have an actual center that we can all be proud of I know that was important
2:45:19initiative years finally on the jail I have questions about that last module and if we can't fill it as we traditionally thought that we consider community reentry and finally there's some items that I think aren't budget related related to budget accountability measures that can be done really just as policy items administratively and I will submit those separately to our city manager in the days to come and to you as well colleagues thank you for those
2:45:54reasons of an aye thank you please I continue madam clerk mayor Potem
2:46:19Vegas yes mayor Polito yeah okay motion passes 5-2
2:46:26thank you so what is the next item on our agenda 75 B it's a public hearing
2:46:38item.
2:46:44Okay, let me go ahead and open up
2:46:48item 75B. Open up the public pane as well. Madam City Manager, is there a presentation on this
2:46:51item? Yes, there is, sir. Our Public Works Director, Nabil.
2:47:00Please go ahead.
2:47:04good evening mayor mayor pro tem members of the council my name is nabeel sabah i'm the executive director of public works agency before you tonight is the public hearing for the proposed initial study medicated negative declaration for the fairview bridge replacement and street improvement from 9th Street to 6th Street.
2:47:24Public Works Agency is proposing to expand on the existing bridge, replace the existing bridge with a new one, and expand on the number of lanes through the bridge. This is a depiction of the typical cross-section of what the bridge would look like. It's an expansion from about a 50-foot bridge right now to width to about 100. doubling the size of the bridge it will include three lanes in both directions along with a bike lane and the sidewalk this picture or these pictures show the current conditions of the
2:47:47existing bridge that we would like to replace in terms of a sequa process we are june 2020 at City Council hearing we would like you to adopt the initial study and certify the mitigated negative declaration document so we can proceed with asking for funding from Caltrans to fund this project
2:48:28madam clerk are there any speakers that wish to address the council on this item
2:48:57Did you want to wait for staff to finish the presentation?
2:49:04I'm sorry. I thought they were done. Go ahead, Sam.
2:49:08There was no impact on the – no impacts shown on energy, greenhouse gas emissions, land use and planning, mineral resources, and agriculture and forestry resources. However, there was some impact on aesthetics, air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, geology and soils. Hazard and hazardous material, hydrology, water quality, noise traffic and utilities and service systems.
2:49:15All these impacts will be mitigated by the construction and the design of the bridge.
2:49:51The recommended action is to adopt a resolution approving the initial study, medicated negative declaration and medication monitoring and reporting program for the Fairview Bridge replacement and street improvements from 9th Street to 16th Street project and approve the Fairview Bridge replacement and street improvements from 9th to 16th. That concludes my presentation.
2:50:02Thank you. Madam Clerk, any of the speakers on this item?
2:50:29Yes, Mayor, I do have two.
2:50:34Callers, if you'd like to speak on item 75B, select or dial star 9. For the record, please clearly state your name. You have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.
2:50:40Caller, you have three minutes.
2:50:57Hi, I'm actually 85B.
2:51:01Okay, thank you. I'll put you on mute and unmute you then.
2:51:04Caller, we're on item 75B. If you'd like to speak on this item, you have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
2:51:09Hello, my name is Christopher Forden. I'm the project director of Santa Ana Active Streets. our organization sent a letter and I'm also calling to voice our opposition to this item. Santa Ana Streets Coalition is a coalition of residents community partners that aim to cultivate diverse community participation in creating a safe and accessible environment for active transportation Santa Ana and we know that Santa Ana is a pivotal moment for improving mobility we have partnered with the city in its active transportation planning efforts and value the city's work in being leaders in active transportation city and the
2:51:16region but concerning this resolution we appreciate the need to update the Fairview bridge as it is a safety hazard to tell to all users but we believe that the proposed design will continue to be unsafe for bicyclists and pedestrians and is not consistent with the city's recently approved active transportation plan on page 106 and 107 of the active transportation plan the street type proposed shows four general purpose lanes a center turn lane a 10 foot multi-use path on the west side of the street where bicyclists pedestrians can use and on the east side of the street a five foot sidewalk and five foot greenway
2:51:47this would maintain the street at 82 feet and that is even with maintaining most general purpose lanes at 11 feet and one lane at 15. in a letter we submitted to council we proposed a different street configuration but what is proposed in the city approved after transportation plan is even better what is proposed today would widen the road to 100 feet and cause the acquisition demolition of one residential and commercial property and as we have seen on bristol street what's being proposed today users will not feel safe or feel safe next to a high speed on a lane on a bike lane next to high speed traffic just like Bristol instead we
2:52:19believe they were rely on the sidewalk to present even better street we would include the reduction of lane widths to 10 feet in order to limit vehicle speeds and reduce further need to acquire land for the project have been late have been done on other streets including Bristol SAS multiple CBOs and even Senate residents were involved in the development of the the active transportation plan and applaud the creative path the city took in working with CBOs in developing this plan from 2018 and 2019. And to the city council for approving this plan. But what is proposed today ignores the community voices
2:52:53that have already said what they want on Fairview. Instead of coming back to the street after it has dramatically changed, we can design the street as proposed in the active transportation plan. Again, that the city approved with the better infrastructure for cyclist skaters, folks of all ages, and diminished long-term impact on that roadway.
2:53:22Thank you, Collin.
2:53:37Is that it, Madam Clerk?
2:53:45We have one more caller. For the record, please clearly state your name. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
2:53:47Hi, this is Kelly Krause-Lee. I'm a resident in Santa Ana, and I frequently use my bicycle to get around the city. And I also oppose this because of the comments made by the previous caller that this, without a protected bike lane it's not going to be any safer and we're going to continue to see accidents involving bicyclists i actually was with a friend who got hit by a car and it set back her back a year in her life since she was in the icu so we really need to take safety seriously and come up with an option that aligns with our active streets proposal that you have approved thank you
2:53:56thank you for that let me then close the public hearing and bring it to council for questions and hopefully a motion would staff want to address any of the comments made by the speakers as it relates to the bicycles and the safety yes mayor we the design of the bridge is not final
2:54:37and we will consider providing some type of a protective bike lane through the final design. And we do plan to go to the community and do a lot of outreach before the design is complete. Thank you for that.
2:55:03With that, I would entertain a motion. Is there a motion?
2:55:20Mr. Mayor?
2:55:23Yes.
2:55:25I have a couple of comments. Well, first I want to thank the callers. Go ahead. I want to thank the callers that called in expressing concerns about the bike lanes. I, too, have that concern. I agree that maybe we should consider lane width reductions in order to accommodate an actual class one separated bike lane on both sides of this bridge. I think that's something that, from looking at the section that you're showing here, Nabil, I think that's very feasible and doable.
2:55:27I wouldn't support this project unless the bike lanes were protected because I grew up in that area and there's no way I would ride my bike along Fairview without some sort of protected bike lane. No way. And I can't imagine anybody else doing it. And from what the comments I came in talked about, I mean, it just seems like a no-brainer, especially three lanes of traffic moving as fast as they do on Fairview outside of rush hour, of course, because you don't move much along there during rush hour. And I also appreciate what you're saying, Nabila, as far as the community input,
2:55:56because as I've seen the bridges designed up the river from starting at Ettinger, working their way up to McFadden, First Street, we started to see a little bit, excuse me a little bit of design a little bit but not too much more from what we saw the other ones the other ones they look like caltrans designed and they've got the k rail they just they look very utilitarian i think that you know for our city we we celebrate the arts and we celebrate community involvement let's wed those together let's bring the community in let's talk about design um it does kind of concern me though that we're at this point where we're adopting an mnd
2:56:29and we've got this project here with the section but you're going to come back with the design because I imagine depending on what design aspects are added to the project, you might have to go back to Caltrans anyways or whoever the funders are, whether it's OCTA or grants or whatnot. So I'm not sure why it's coming to us this way where it seems kind of incomplete, but I mean, for me, the two components that I'm most concerned with are protected bike lanes and community input on the aesthetic of the design.
2:57:04And we'll do both. again we need to adopt the CEQA documentation so we'll be able to apply for funding okay so that we can apply so just to be clear though so in adopting
2:57:32this now we're not locked in with the design that no you're not okay well I'll just say for my end I'll make a motion to approve to adopt the MND with the with two conditions that we incorporate a protected bike lane on both sides northbound and southbound along fairview and that we do have community input for the design of the
2:57:45aesthetics on the bridge i'll second that as well nabeel can you is this the bridge that has the uh that we're looking not this isn't the one with the screening for them no that's a different okay
2:58:08but i'll second the motion all right thank you for that council members uh additional comments
2:58:18on the motion are we ready to vote mr mayor this is council member penalosa i had a couple comments
2:58:25Please go ahead, sir.
2:58:29Just basically, I was going to second Council Member Sargento, so I'm happy Council Member Sargento did, but that is something that I want to further look at, Nibiu. If we're going to put bike lanes on a bridge like that, I mean, I've seen the dangerous conditions it is right now, that it's in right now, and having a protected bike lane to protect not only the bikers, but the people walking along on the sidewalks is very important for a bridge like this, especially when it's hovering over the the Santa Ana River and I also want to pay closer attention to the design of it because it is very true we have a city
2:58:31that's 150 years old and made up with beautiful architectures throughout the entire city and and the first street bridge is a perfect example just like my colleague mentioned so I don't want to see something come in that's just gonna be you know an aluminum looking uh just eyesore that that looks very industrial i want it to bring character to that area of town more than already has and uh definitely focus on that security barriers between the the cars the fast moving cars and the the public not only the bikers but
2:59:08the people walking and those are are my comments will do thank you um if there's no additional
2:59:43If there are no comments, I'd like the clerk to call roll call vote, please.
2:59:51Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento? Yes. Council Member Solorio? Yes. Mayor Plotin-Viegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido? Yes. Motion carries 7-0.
2:59:56We are on 85A.
3:00:18I know we have speakers on this item, Madam Clerk.
3:00:24Yes, and I would like to also announce that we did receive communications by email on this. we received 54 in support and they were santa anna residents and non-santa anna residents were 10 and then there were four that did not state and then we did have seven objections to this item and with
3:00:31that how many speakers do we have right now we currently have five speakers
3:00:55okay why don't you go ahead and start with those five speakers please and then we'll bring it to council thank you and we if we only have five speakers we go ahead and give them up you know i was thinking about last time but let's give them a three minutes per speaker if
3:01:02we only have five go ahead please callers if you'd like to speak on 85a please clearly state your name for the record you have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted please proceed with your comment. Sorry I'm 85B. Oh thank you. Caller please state your name for the record you have three minutes please proceed with your comment. Hi it's Kelly
3:01:18Krause Lee again Santa Ana residents bill. I am calling I sent you all an email with a link to an article in the Seton Hall Law Review about how to have effective civilian review boards to oversee police so i am in support of creating some sort of oversight on our police because they are the largest portion of our budget and yet operate with the least amount of oversight however i don't want to see this become a commission with no real authority so we need to have civic organizations nominate the board not the police
3:01:48chief. We need them to have broad scope to review complaints, independent investigatory authority, including subpoena authority. Findings must be binding. They must have audit policies and practices because the ability to review underlying policies would allow them to identify the underlying cause for individual rights violations. They need secure funding, so a budget that's tied to a fixed percentage of the police budget. They need due process for police officers, and most importantly, public access and reporting. So without these eight criteria as a bare minimum, the commission really would be worthless.
3:02:24So I am in support of creating one that's effective. Thank you.
3:03:05Thank you, caller.
3:03:11Please clearly state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
3:03:16Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.
3:03:28Hi. Hi, my name is Jennifer Rojas and I am the policy advocate and organizer with the ACLU of Southern California. Good evening, council members. Very quickly, we have 360 ACLU of Southern California members in the city of Santa Ana. And I'm here to speak tonight in support of agenda item 85A.
3:03:45In 2017, the ACLU of Southern California, alongside several community-based organizations, wrote a letter to the city council urging the establishment of an independent civilian oversight board to ensure accountability and transparency within the Santa Ana Police Department. We believe an effective civilian oversight body can only be established in partnership with community-based organizations and must include the following four elements, we think, at a minimum. The first element is independent board membership.
3:04:08So members must exclude current and former city employees and police officers. Board members must also include representatives from communities most impacted by police violence. The second element we think is necessary is independent investigatory authority. So obviously the purpose of civilian oversight is to establish an external community-based body to conduct independent investigations. The oversight board must have broad authority to investigate complaints, serious incidents, and use of force by SAPD.
3:04:48The board must have ability to subpoena witnesses and documents, including police disciplinary documents, video and audio footage, and other relevant materials. And of course, the board must be guaranteed complete and prompt access to all police department documents, information, and testimony. The third element is that the board must have officer disciplinary power. The outcomes of board investigations must be public and in writing, and the board must have power to remove the police chief for cause and be involved in appointing of the police chief.
3:05:25Importantly, we must not replicate the failures of the Santa Ana Police Personnel Board that that has unjustly reversed the former chief's decision to fire officers for prior misconduct. And the final... 30 seconds left. Thank you. Finally, we think that the board must have the power to audit issue recommendations and set policy. And the board must based on such audits, be empowered to set and change the police department policies, as well as consultant hiring and training and collective bargaining. Thank you.
3:06:03Thank you, caller. You have three minutes. Please clearly state your name for the record. We're on item 85B. Please proceed with your comment.
3:06:47Hi, this is Dan Escamilla.
3:06:56I'm calling to comment on the need for an oversight commission as well as recognize that the board's vote on the five luxury SUVs awarded to Chief Allerton and his command staff at the last meeting was done in violation of the Brown Act as none of the public was allowed to comment due to the delay that was caused by the YouTube and the board's online channel. And I think that that vote should be reversed and the public should be allowed to comment whether they want to allocate $236,000 to five luxury SUVs for the chief and his command staff,
3:06:59especially in light of the fact that the city paid out a settlement based on the chief's sexual harassment and retaliation of John and Laura Franks early last year. And also, I think that it should be recognized that Santa Ana, with one out of seven officers, having been trained and hired within the past year has one of the youngest and most experienced police departments in the county. This is a bad recipe given the upper command staff's corruption that I think is well known among the Stantan residents.
3:07:39So if a commission is established or does vote to investigate the establishment commission, I think it needs to be one that has all of the powers that the previous callers recommended in conformance with the powers discussed in the Seton Hall law review article. Thanks very much.
3:08:19Thank you, caller. Please clearly state your name for the record. We're on item 85A. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
3:08:42Good evening, Mayor Palliva and Council members. My name is Tai Phan, and I am calling as a longtime resident and someone who has had experiences with the Santa Ana Police Department. Actually, when I was four, I went looking for Santa Claus and became lost. It was a police officer from Santa Ana in the West End substation, actually, who helped me find my way home. So I have very fond memories of that. but at the same time I know that we have problems in our police department and our issues of public
3:08:53safety and I believe that a police oversight commission will help ensure that any and all misconduct allegations are thoroughly investigated and reviewed not just by the chief but also by residents and other individuals in the community who have the right to know what's going on. so currently as far as i can tell from the policy and please correct me if i'm wrong if there's an allegation of misconduct it is the chief and the internal affairs division that investigates so according to the san anna pd website the internal affairs division is staffed
3:09:29by three police sergeants a police corporal and two part-time office assistants so they're responsible for dealing with all important misconduct offers to involve shootings in custody that have civil claims, et cetera. And that's a problem because they work with the officers every day. My husband is an Air Force veteran and a former JAG officer. And in the Air Force, if an airman has a use of force incident or is alleged to have engaged in misconduct, it is not the airman's supervising officer or commander who reviews this misconduct. This is considered a conflict of interest because of the need for unit cohesion and comedy.
3:10:03We need that in our police department. So no, if there's an allegation of misconduct, whether it's from inside the department or outside, it's a completely independent third party that investigates. So I really hope that we have this police oversight commission and that the commission actually comes with subpoena power to interview witnesses, to look at all the documents like the first two commenters mentioned. And I also want to point out that back in 2019, when this item was on the agenda, a council member stated that we didn't need an oversight commission because the council's oversight.
3:10:39But again, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the council only has direct authority over the chief, the city manager, the city clerk, and the city attorney. The charter specifically states that no council member shall deal with the administrative branch of the city government except through the city manager. So they cannot give orders to subordinate, i.e. anyone else to hire or fire a discipline, an officer who has conducted anything illegal or with misconduct. A police oversight commission will not just ensure that we protect residents and the community.
3:11:11It protects the officers from other officers who are willing to commit harm, to do illegal things, and to commit misconduct and save the city millions of dollars in federal law. I hope you support the Police Oversight Commission. Thank you.
3:11:42Thank you, caller.
3:11:58Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
3:12:02Hi, this is Roberto. I live on the West End. And I didn't finish my comments from last time, but it's connected to oversight. I hear city council members talk about sort of response time, and that is like a metric of success in oversight. But I disagree. And why I disagree is because I've been looking at data from calls for service for SATB that's publicly available online. Not all of it is available online, only the calls for service. well, I guess it's available, but it's not downloadable, which needs to be more accessible
3:12:09for folks to be able to, quote unquote, like understand and sort of navigate that data to like extract more information. But what I came to find out is like a lot of the calls for service, for instance, SATD, they sort of, they prioritize the different sort of calls that come in.
3:12:49overwhelmingly 41 of 41 percent of all the calls that were made were lowest or low priority so that's very important because like the calls that are coming in you know are they're they don't necessarily have to involve sapd to respond only 17 of the calls that came in were for highest and high so i think that's important to consider like the data and that we make all this information publicly available for the community to be able to understand and sort of navigate that data for themselves. And also, I think like what this just data tells me is that they're just a bunch of
3:13:11Karens in our city. And what do I mean by Karens? I mean, people of color and white folks who call the cops on other people of color. And you all see in the videos, you see what happens when police shows up to address nonviolent issues. You know, we're simply criminalized for existing simply for breathing, simply for driving, walking while black, flying while trans, laughing while being young. Everything we do is criminalized, and Karens out there take it upon themselves to criminalize every action and call the police on us. So Karens out there, stop othering people from our community.
3:13:50You're part of the problem when it comes to stopping police violence. Stop calling the police. Instead, reach out to your neighbors and build community. And that's pretty much all I have to And I agree with Jennifer Rojas from the ACLU and sort of the different points and what folks have been saying about, you know, like having real subpoena power and having representation, non-police representation on this oversight. Because I think that those that are directly most impacted should be able to speak freely about their experiences, you know, being criminalized or confronting the sort of police.
3:14:25I was just out there, city council, making our demands for the Santana Budget Advocacy platform, people's platform. And there was around four or five of us just in the beginning. And, like, there was more than 15 to 20 cops that were there that were showing up and, like, in batons and masks. Thank you. Yeah, okay. Well, bye.
3:15:02Last caller. please clearly state your name for the record you have three minutes
3:15:29caller can you hear me hello Santa Ana City Council yes can you please read
3:15:41we can hear the feedback okay my name is Tanya Navarro and I'm calling in
3:15:46in support of creating an effective community oversight committee through the creation of a civilian review board with the following powers, subpoena power, investigatory authority, disciplinary authority, and the ability to hire and fire officers, including the chief of police. I would like to say a comment about the council, and I hope that they all listen to their constituents and represent their needs.
3:15:59Caller, are you still there? I think the caller got disconnected. That's all the hands I had virtually raised, Mayor.
3:16:29Mayor, are you still there?
3:16:43Mayor, he's connected.
3:16:46Is the mayor on?
3:16:49Mayor is connected.
3:16:50Okay, very good. Well, let's see if we can get him back on the line.
3:16:53Mayor, are you there?
3:17:04Yes, I'm right here.
3:17:07That was the last caller, Mayor, on 85A.
3:17:11Mayor?
3:17:22Madam Clerk?
3:17:23Yes, that was the last caller on 85A.
3:17:24All right. So let's bring it to the members of the council that requested this item. Would any of you like to speak at this time?
3:17:26Yeah, Mr. Mayor, Council Member Becerra.
3:17:37Go ahead.
3:17:40Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to thank Council Member Penaloza for working with me to place this item on the agenda, and thank you to Council Member Sarmiento for joining us. I supported placing this item on the agenda not because we have a police department full of officers behaving like former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin or acting like the officers of LAPD's infamous Rampart Division. Part of my reason for supporting this item came from the history of the Santa Ana Police Department. Before Chief Valentin and former Chief Walters, the Santa Ana Police Department was led by Chief Ray Davis.
3:17:42In 1983, Chief Davis announced a policy that SAPD would not cooperate with INS, or what we now call ICE today, in their immigration sweeps at those times. Santa Ana was ahead of San Francisco by two years, at a time that nobody was confusing the politics between those two cities. Chief Davis claimed then that the Santa Ana Police Department needed the entire community, regardless of immigration status, to keep the peace and prevent crime. The same holds true today. The Santa Ana Police Department needs the entire community to keep the peace and prevent crime. Santa Ana PD was also a pioneer
3:18:19in community-oriented policing. It was untested at the time, but later Chief Walters received an award in the Oval Office from President Obama. Now, oversight commissions are not a new idea, and how they are composed and what are their roles and responsibilities are not a one-size-fits-all situation. For example, how Santa Ana's Planning Commission functions is very different from how Planning Commission's in the City of Los Angeles function. I would like to see City staff research the most up-to-date best practices and various models of police oversight commissions and bring that back to the Council in 90 days,
3:18:59which would be in time for our September 15th City Council meeting. Again, September 15th, we're not letting this drag on, but this situation, this item is too important not to take enough time to do it right. Rather than opine tonight on what I believe Santa Ana's commission should look like, I'm going to wait to see what information our city staff brings back. But I will say that I do want to see Santa Ana's police oversight commission provide a valuable way for residents and businesses to give input into improving how Santa Ana police serve our community in a way that will help strengthen our community's trust and confidence
3:19:36in them. I want this exercise and this commission to help Santa Ana PD be the model police agency in Southern California and beyond. I believe that if there is a city that can do this with a police department that can do this, I believe it's our city and I believe we can show how a commission can be done right. So with that, I feel very strongly that we would be able to do it the right way for our residents, our businesses, and the overall community. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
3:20:15Mr. Mayor?
3:20:48Any other, go ahead.
3:20:49This is Council Member Peñalosa. Just wanted, Madam City Clerk, Madam City Clerk, I'm being told that there's still callers waiting with their hand up, but they're not getting called on for some reason, that they've been waiting.
3:20:51It looks like since we had the last, when Councilmember Becerra started speaking, we had additional callers did virtually raise their hand. It wasn't raised at the time prior to him speaking. The last caller that I had was the last one I had. I wrote down the numbers. I have a list of them.
3:21:07Okay. I'll defer to the mayor or the mayor for a time.
3:21:28right now why don't we continue uh uh councilman peñalosa um let's have the other members of the committee speak please
3:21:34oh i guess that would be me uh just wanted to state that i'm very supportive of having staff come back with different options uh as well as cost and regards and as it pertains to police Oversight Commission Commission I personally would be interested in seeing all of the above and best practices that are used across the country and in different jurisdictions in the state including you know what subpoena powers look like investigative authority and want to see it all presented because given that the police department currently takes up 43 percent of our general fund we should give
3:21:45the public an opportunity to have oversight of sensitive incidents and incidents that garner large public interest. This will only help build the trust between our police department and the public. If one of those options is expanding the authority of our personnel board or having an additional appointed body as a commission, then let's see that come forward. I want to see that. I want to see every option available and want to see what is done in different jurisdictions, as stated earlier. I also want to state that and clarify to our police department that this is in
3:22:19no way intended at least in my opinion to be punitive I know there are hundreds of men and women that report to work daily and with the sole intent to protect and serve our community and I thank you but this is something that the community has been requesting for a long time and we should take an honest and serious look at it so with that I'm supportive of staff to I know that there was research done three years ago but times times change and this whole body has changed this whole elected body and as an elected official i can't just go off the information
3:22:50that was you know put together by staff executives that aren't even here anymore and um electives that aren't even here anymore so i want to see that so with that i am supportive of having this come back to us see what is done uh in different jurisdictions and what amounts of different power we could give this oversight body and what the and if there's a cost i want to see that too so i'm supportive thank you to my colleagues council members hermiento and and bassetta for for bringing this forward with me so uh those are my comments
3:23:23mr mayor i'd like to make a comment uh oh sorry it's okay you're on the you're on the uh i was
3:24:00actually gonna just um defer to the public because there are some people waiting so before i speak I'd like to hear those comments from folks who've been waiting patiently.
3:24:07Yeah, so the numbers are growing as the longer the call is. So after a speaker speaks, I keep getting more virtual hands. So if you'd like to, I mean there's 30 of them now. Okay.
3:24:19That's the presenting speaker. Well look, here's the problem is that there's been a delay. This isn't the first time this is happening. So, you know, there's obviously some technical problems that we're in. Nobody to blame. Maybe just our system somehow isn't being responsive to, you know, what our needs are. There are people who want to speak, and we definitely don't want to keep the public out because then we expose ourselves to censoring and just not being open and transparent. So, you know, if there's some way we can fix these problems because it's nobody's fault,
3:24:31but that means that valuable comments from our residents are not being heard, and that makes part of our deliberation more effective. I agree.
3:25:02Mayor, if you would like to have the public comment continue to speak at this time as the chair of the meeting.
3:25:16Mayor, are you there?
3:25:26Mayor, are you there?
3:25:31Hello Mayor are you there? Yes I am can you hear me? Yes would you like to proceed with having the additional public comments with their virtual hands that
3:25:37have been raised? Oh boy I look this is about 20 of them now let's do it but let's limit it to one minute of these because it's after we already had closed off comment but and also limit it otherwise by time they're done we'll have more and that that's not the point the point is to also do the you know the people's business so let's go ahead and allow these 20 but let's cut it off there and give everybody a minute please okay and mayor to
3:25:49clarify there's actually now 30 34 so time
3:26:22caller could please go ahead mayor go ahead I would suggest let's do it at the 20 because by time you get to 34 there'll be more and that that's not the purpose of this is to give the access public but we also have to conduct city business and so let's just do the 20 a minute a person and as more come in film that you know they can come in on the next meeting please go ahead okay caller
3:26:31please state your name for the record you have one minute caller you have one minute please state your name for the record
3:27:01Caller, please state your name for the record. You have one minute.
3:27:20Hi, my name is Indigo Vu. I'm an educator in Orange County. It's first of all terrible that you're limiting us to one minute from three just a couple of minutes ago. What are you even doing? You said on Tuesday that we were your boss and you're not letting us talk at all. 20 callers, you're being ridiculous. You're being embarrassing. I'm in adamant support of a community-led police oversight committee and I don't have time to read what I was going to say. All I know is that you need to let, you need to do your damn job. You need to listen to people. You can't just do this. You can't silence us. We're watching.
3:27:26The police oversight committee is literally the least you can do and honestly abolish the police. Just do it. If you can't do your job, then you have to at least listen to us. or I don't even know what. I yield my time.
3:28:02Thank you, caller. If you could please state your name for the record. You have one minute.
3:28:23Steve Gallegos. Actually, to the clerk, this is something I explained to you two days ago, that there was a lag, and now it's being brought up again. And to be quite honest with you, it's very disingenuous that you said that there was only five because when the first caller called, I actually was already on the line. So I do not know if you're doing it on purpose or if for whatever reason, you may not see that there are people on the line. As for the mayor, I understand that you have things going on at home, but to be quite honest with you, if you do not have the time to be fully present here at the meeting,
3:28:28whatever you maybe have going on, you shouldn't be voting on these and you should please just step away for the time being. In terms of the council itself, it's really disappointing that the only ones even speaking out are Sarmiento and Peñalosa to even hear it. It really just saddens me, especially, you know, Villegas, you had said that you wanted our input, you wanted our survey, but when we all gave it to you, all of a sudden you decided to say, you know, to hell with the budget and then I'm just going to still do it. So again, if you want to hear our input, then go ahead and hear it.
3:29:04Thank you, caller. Caller, please state your name for the record. You have one minute. Hi, Selena Gallegos. Selena Gallegos. And I just want to let you know, Mayor, that for the next election, I don't know if you're running or not, but you have completely lost the vote of my generation eliminated us to one minute and to the clerk honestly you've been so rude since Tuesday and you keep saying that you don't see our calls when they're clearly there anyways the police oversight committee needs to be implemented because this is an issue that we've been dealing with
3:29:46for a very long time okay so it needs to be there so that the people the residents of Santana have a voice and what happens when something unfortunate as such as police misconduct happens and we're able to say hey no these police need to get disciplined correctly and not just be investigated by internal affairs and then they get a slap on the wrist because that's not okay then that leaves us as the citizens left with no one to back us up so if you guys aren't going to back us up and they're clearly not backing us up. We need to back up each other. And we also...
3:30:21I'm sorry? Your time is up. Thank you for your call. Okay, thank you.
3:30:59Caller, please state your name for the record. You have one minute.
3:31:08Hey, everyone. My name is Bumaro. I'm Bumaro Vicente. I'm a resident of Santa Ana and an organizer with Chicano Sonidos and Chispa. Last October, I came to of city council and made public comment, advocating for police review commission. I spoke about my experience serving two terms on the police review commission for the city of Berkeley.
3:31:13Yes, we could hear you.
3:31:35Oh, this commission is just to speak to the power of community oversight and the necessary need for communities to envision their own idea of public safety. You all feel for this item blackout. Some of you have said no many before. or is there someone on the call? For the guy and for them to be on the call.
3:31:37Hello? She unmuted everybody. Yeah, she unmuted everybody.
3:31:59And they better not-Can you please continue to speak?
3:32:08I think there's multiple people on the call.
3:32:14Okay, can you hear me?
3:32:23Yeah, I can hear you.
3:32:25Okay, if you could please proceed to speak.
3:32:27Okay, that was weird.
3:32:30Anyway, yeah, I think it's important for us to really have a strong oversight commission. Just what previous folks have mentioned, one with powerful teeth. We need a commission with teeth. one with subpoena power, investigatory authority, disciplinary authority, and the ability to hire and fire officers, including the chief of police. A commission with weak oversight is worse than having no commission. If you won't pass such an item, then let the people decide and vote. We will gladly write a charter amendment. Lastly, Mr. Mayor, as you term out this year after being in office for 26 years, older than I am,
3:32:35think about the legacy that you want to leave behind. Under your leadership, I've had friends fall into the school the prison pipeline, arrested and incarcerated. My old neighbor was shot and killed by SAPD in 2015. The shooting was real justified and no officers were held accountable. Your legacy is not going to be about how long you reign, but how you created one of the deadliest police departments in the country and failed to protect your residents. And now your time is up. Thank you, caller. Caller, please
3:33:11state your name and address for the record you have one minute hi my name is
3:33:42Julie and I live in Santa Ana um my full address or um am I live hello yes you're you're live okay okay hi my name is Julie Herrick I've been a Santa Ana resident for 12 years and I'm calling to ask for a effective civilian review board that has the authority to exercise oversight and accountability um for the of the police department and its officers and this must have subpoena power investigatory authority disciplinary authority and the ability to hire and fire officers including the chief of police
3:33:48even then a creation of such an oversight body is just the bare minimum that the city can do and needs to be part of other efforts to approach public safety by divesting from enforcement and investing in positive community programs that address residents needs like libraries education um health care and all of you know homeless services and things like that um i also want to note that i pressed star nine uh earlier in the process and there were two other people that spoke after i had already pressed star nine so i was definitely already in the queue and I'm not sure what's going on but I think it's I don't think it's cool that
3:34:27we've been cut down to one minute and some of us waited five hours on Tuesday and never got to speak and now to thank you caller your time is happening thank
3:35:06you thank you mr. mayor this is councilman Pinalosa can I interrupt for a second yes go ahead please I just I I want to say that I agree and with expanding the time of the callers they did wait on Tuesday for over five hours to speak on this item and a lot of them did it we abruptly adjourned the meeting on Tuesday I was against that because of the I knew that people were waiting so I think we should at least at the very least give the callers on the line the ability to speak at least for two minutes because one minute is is you know it's the the what you mentioned that
3:35:18wasn't the point but the point is to listen to our constituents and that is all I have to say I don't know if I need to make a motion. I'll go for two
3:35:58minutes but I want them to state their address I want to see you know that folks live in town that they're our constituents so let's please ask them to do that and let's
3:36:09continue madam clerk okay caller if you could please state your name and address for the record you have two minutes hello do you hear me yes we could hear you thank you very much first i want
3:36:20to say i am very sorry to the royal uh mr palito that i'm coming up to your throne and taking two minutes of your time away from you but i want to say that i am a resident of santa anna my name is carlo ortiz and i am in support of 85a but i implore the council members to do justice for our community and not just consider research onto 85a in the creation of the police oversight commission but rather confirm that one will be created the wording used in 85a makes it seem like even though it will go through after 90 days if nothing is found with your research the creation
3:36:33of the police oversight commission will be ignored and then possibly discarded there is more than enough uproar from multiple different protests all over Orange County to prove that the Police Oversight Commission is necessary for the community of Santa Ana. I see no negatives coming forward with 85A, but I see a lot of negative outcomes from ignoring or letting 85A lose momentum. As representatives of us, you owe it to us, your community, to work alongside us and meet our demands or be removed from office. I'm sure you feel the demanding spirit of the people calling
3:37:09for justice and i hope that you keep that in mind when making your decision it shouldn't be taken lightly and do not let us down after those 90 days also i would like to speak on behalf of sarmanso saying that officers are victim of these systemic stereotypes maybe cops wouldn't be wouldn't need to answer 13 000 calls if there were specialists for every type of call in the public police should not be the first one to be on rape scenes or mental health calls or in schools to fight tension or drug overdose problems or child abuse calls. The simple badge and uniform of an officer and what they wear is a form of intimidation and this
3:37:41is an extra fear tactic that is not necessary. Basically what I want to say is that there's other people that are professionals with years of de-escalating practice and they should be the ones on call not with people with weapons on their belt.
3:38:21Your time is up. Thank you.
3:38:35Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes.
3:38:42My name is Marla Sanchez, and I'm a resident of Santana. I want to call in support of defunding the police and the civilian oversight committee. I think that it's pretty obvious that with the people in the streets, that something's very, very wrong. And I want to tell you that when my children were small, we were in downtown, and a white woman came and yelled at us and grabbed my daughter and bruised her. And the police came and treated us like the criminals. They taped us off and put us in a corner. And they told us that it was within her right for her to hurt my daughter that way.
3:38:48Now, you're raised, these kids that are coming up right now are being traumatized by the police. You're pushing people to be disenfranchised and giving us very little choice in being able to have a happy, healthy life. And it's time for things to change. We have to do things differently. We have to hold police accountable. We have to make sure that our communities have parks and affordable housing. And this is now on your conscience to do something different for our city. Thank you.
3:39:25Thank you.
3:39:55Caller, if you would please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes.
3:39:58Hi, my name is Jay Gist, and I am a resident of Santa Ana living in Ward 2. and before I begin I just want to mention how disrespectful the mayor has been to the people that he is supposed to serve. It's astounding but I am calling in support of 85A. I believe we absolutely need a police oversight committee. Police officers should be accountable public servants who work collaboratively and transparently with all the communities that they serve. I feel too often police departments and officers violate that role in their community and they abuse the
3:40:05power by engaging in excessive force, acting in an increasingly militarized capacity and routinely stopping and frisking entire communities of color, among other practices that treat individuals as not a citizen of a democracy, but the subject of a carceral state just waiting to be cataloged. Far too often, they have not been held accountable. And that lack of accountability has eroded community trust and fostered suspicion and resentment. In order to restore public legitimacy, I feel there needs to be effective structures in place, such as a Community Oversight Committee in order to promote responsible accountable
3:40:36policing and measures to ensure that police are held accountable for the actions when they deviate from that standard. Thank you. Thank you. Caller,
3:41:09please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes. Caller.
3:41:23Okay, next caller. Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record. You may proceed.
3:41:36Hi, good afternoon. My name is Carla Juarez, and I am a longtime resident of Santa Ana. I've been here more than 30 years. I am mentally distraught. I think that it's a mental abuse what you guys do to your constituents by cutting the time, even though you've known that we've been online forever since of Tuesday, but that was not my point on calling today. I also want to bring to your attention, I know, Mr. Pulido, you're concerned with whether or not these are residents of Santana, but you guys accepted correspondence for 75A that
3:41:46were in opposition to defund the police from outside of Santana, like including Murrieta, like Ladera Ranch, Corona. I even saw one from Florida, which does not make no sense. Why are we allowing others to say how to run our city?
3:42:24I am very distraught of the fact that I have been cut off before and have not been able to say my piece.
3:42:45But regardless, and I am still trying to gather my thoughts to try to express what I want to see in my city. I do want to see a police oversight. What's subpoena power? There has been many, many, much information out there. The Santa Ana Police Department has destroyed records of the police officers. They have a bad rap, and that is not okay, and I haven't heard you guys mention that. To pull up those files and make those accountable for murder. Police are not meant to murder people. They're meant to arrest them, detain them,
3:42:57and wait for due process. It is sad that I have to talk to my brother, male relative, and kind of coach him on how not to be killed by police if stopped on the street or driving. This is insane, and it needs to stop. Thank you for my two minutes.
3:43:33Thank you, caller.
3:43:52Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record.
3:43:57Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record.
3:44:05I believe you're muted on your phone on your line.
3:44:13Okay, next caller. Caller, please state your name for the record and address. You have two minutes.
3:44:19Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record.
3:44:34Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record.
3:44:50Victor Mendez, can you hear me?
3:44:57Yes, we can hear you. Please proceed with your comment.
3:44:59Oh, thank you. The wisdom, yes, I do. Thank you very much. I'll be brief. victor mendez 340 east first street downtown santa anna yes i'm just calling to uh to um recommend that the council upon receiving the amendment to you report move forward with the commission i think it's a very good idea um i've actually done some research on my own and i do know uh one particular city stands out i've encouraged the city manager looking at it thoroughly and that's the city of Englewood. Obviously, Englewood is a very, very visible city. It's a very diverse population
3:45:02and is definitely moving forward into the times like Santa Ana is. Interestingly enough, I heard some callers talking about the independence of the commission. This particular commission has an appointee or the chief of police gets one appointee to the commission. And I think if we're going to be effective in oversight, we have to also be engaged with senior management of the police department. So I'd encourage a very thorough look at that commission and how they're working in a very complex global community.
3:45:41Secondly, I'd just like to encourage the council to make this actionable. I mean, it doesn't have to be all things to all people initially. let's get a good commission that's good structure and they can start doing good things now today and let's not get caught in a paralysis by paralysis by analysis of what's good what other cities are doing i think you're all intelligent people let's put together a good structure that's workable and actionable and can be built upon as the commission defined its vision and its goals again it doesn't have to be all things old people
3:46:16I think the investigative authority needs to be kind of pulled back a little bit. Let's do something right. Let's make it right. Let's do it the Santa Ana way and let's get something done. Thank you.
3:46:54Thank you.
3:47:05Caller, you have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment. Please state your name and address.
3:47:11Hi.
3:47:18Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hi. my name is citizen x and my address is 60 civic center plaza santana 92701 that is my address okay because i'm speaking on behalf of more than 50 of the citizens in santana which are being detained unfairly every day okay and so yes i am requesting for you to establish Okay, a commission to define Santa Ana PD.
3:47:19Because while you're spending all those millions on your campaign flyers,
3:47:55you can't even update us on the new laws, such as storage of property. You can check right there on January 18th, after the women's march, there was an incident where I witnessed that afternoon, where somebody was being detained because they were simply recording another officer that was detaining a gentleman just because he was charging his phone in one of those outlets okay
3:48:02so yes i am i am requesting that and how is it that you need my address why don't you give us the address of every officer out there.
3:48:36It's given, received.
3:48:46Caller, are you done? You have 20 seconds left. Hello? Yes, you have 20 seconds left.
3:48:56Yeah, so when are we going to get an answer?
3:49:03That's what I want to know. This is an opportunity for you to provide your comment. It's not a question and answer session. Exactly. And let me tell you something. He thinks he's running his whole playground right there.
3:49:09Thank you, caller. Your time is up.
3:49:23Caller, please state your name and address. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
3:49:31Caller, please state your name and address. You have two minutes.
3:49:41Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes.
3:49:53Juan Gonzalez, I live in Ward 1.
3:49:58Hi, can you hear me?
3:50:03Yes, we can hear you.
3:50:04Hi, it's Juan Gonzales in Ward 1, and I am adamantly in support of 85A, and I just wanted to uplift a few things that were mentioned earlier. One, that we should really affirm the creation of this oversight commission. We have to be very clear about the direction of this item. Ultimately, I think the most important research that y'all can conduct is listening to our voice, and we're very much demanding the creation of this commission. With that being said, I think y'all have to take into account the following characteristics. subpoena power, investigative authority, disciplinary authority, and the ability to hire and fire
3:50:05officers, including the chief of police. Those should all be central to the creation of this commission. And I think it's also important to remember that ultimately we as a community still have our ultimate target in sight. Ultimately, we don't even want to be investigating these instances of injustice and police brutality because we don't want our friends, neighbors, and families to be victims of this oppression to begin with. So please don't interpret this commission as some kind of concession or compromise. It really is anything but. Like people have said, it's the very least that y'all can do.
3:50:41And ultimately minimizing the control and power the police department has in the city, specifically through its defunding, is our continuous call. So please listen to all of our demands, not just what is most convenient to all of you. Thanks.
3:51:14Thank you, caller.
3:51:30Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes.
3:51:37Hello, can you hear me?
3:51:45Yes, we can hear you. Please proceed. Oh, hi. My name is Sudalia Rios and I'm calling to say yes on the Oversight Committee Commission. I heard many times from city officials that you will like community input. This is a perfect example to put out the community and listen to the input of all the stuff that we want to say. And I also, last Tuesday, I was waiting for six hours and you guys didn't take any comments of the Spanish-speaking community. So not just community input, but all community input knowing that 96% of our community is Latinx and they don't speak English.
3:51:46So, and another thing, the interpreters need to do a better job because we are getting comments that they're not understanding a word that you guys are saying. So please think about the residents that you guys are serving and listen to, really listen to the community. But go beyond and really show that you
3:52:26care. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Caller, you have two minutes. please state your name and address for the record. Caller please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes. Hi my name is Poro. I live in
3:52:47Sanahan in the village community. I'm calling in support of establishing a police oversight commission through on item 85A. I'm a former prosecutor and military veteran and in my experience we spent a great deal of time making sure that there was some transparency and a robust system to make sure that misconduct was handled either through disciplinary means or even court martial. Generally speaking the military police are rather well known to be more disciplined than their civilian counterparts
3:53:08but we still took that very seriously and we still found a good deal of misconduct committed in military police in the military police world it's kind of ridiculous that this is even a conversation that needs to go at length the very bare minimum that can be done is to establish a baseline um oversight commission that can properly assess the quote-unquote bad apples that might be plaguing a lot of these departments. I think it is brainless to not support such a commission in this day and age and it's outrageous that anyone is opposed
3:53:45honestly. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, caller.
3:54:26Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two
3:54:37minutes. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hi, good night, council. My name is Alexis Teodoro and my address is 826 Beverly Place, Santa Ana, California, 92701. And I just want to express the disappointing sentiments that have been expressed by other callers as well. This is not a democratic process. Limiting the time speaking that we have fringes on our First Amendment rights to address our grievances to our elected officials. And it's extremely
3:54:40disappointing and it's a sad day for democracy in Santana that I'm witnessing this, just like everybody else on the call. I'm here to express support for the Oversight Commission and for every single point that was shared, I want to echo. And it's about time that Santa Indiana Council, this new generation, continues the leadership that other councils in the past have taken by listening to the community. The caller before me, a couple of callers talked about listening to the community. We've been living in Santana for so many years. We know what we need. We know what makes us heal. We know what makes us smile.
3:55:21And we know what we need to transform our lives to remain and thrive. And more funding for police is not that. We need to hold police accountable, and we need to fund the programs that make our lives better. And these are the programs that have to relate to transformative justice, and we need the kind of transformative leadership in this council to not just pass an oversight police board, but it must have subpoena investigatory power. Anything left is symbolic, and we don't need symbolic things anymore. Thank you so much, and I hope that you consider Santana's voice, which is the people, and
3:56:00we demand an oversight committee board with investigatory subpoena power. Thank you.
3:56:40Thank you.
3:56:45Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record.
3:56:53Hi, this is Keith Carpenter, Ward 6. I'm just calling in support of the 85A for the Police Oversight Commission. I think it's long overdue and very necessary. And it's a little sad that it's taken the events of recent time to make this come about. And I also echo what the previous callers have said about having some real power being the chair of the Measure X Committee. I know what that means to be able to just recommend without any power and that really is ineffective. So again, I'm in support of the Police Oversight Commission, and please refer to us as citizens, not civilians. This is not the military.
3:56:58So again, long overdue, very needed, and let's make it happen. Thank you.
3:57:37Thank you.
3:57:44Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes.
3:57:49This is Carl Benninger, and I live at 1829 West Gary Avenue in Santa Ana, and I'm a 40-year resident of Santa Ana. I also support 85A as a way of increasing transparency. I don't want it to become an overboarding board as there is in L.A., and they really accomplished nothing except argue back and forth. So I would see this starting off much like Inglewood, who's really an advisory. And they include their chief of police and they include their police union on the board.
3:57:54And they direct where the work needs to be done and gives a thought for their citizens to express their concerns. I've heard a lot of emotions tonight. I don't think Santa Ana PD is a killing operation. I don't think they purposely go out to harm people. and I just it gets me upset with all that emotion so let's put this back let's kind of pump the brakes take a deep breath look at this reasonably and I do think we need something to help with transparency so people can voice their issues and so that all citizens can see what's going
3:58:32You're cutting off a little bit.
3:59:14Hello?
3:59:18Advisory committee. Thank you.
3:59:21Thank you for your comment.
3:59:23Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed.
3:59:28My name is Sarahia Arpero. I'm a resident for 20 years. I'm calling because I'm a favor of making a committee of vigilance for the Department of Police. If they don't have anything to hide, if they're supposed to be a model for other places and they have presumed to have other countries, what is the fear of having a committee that vigilance and revise? Why do they have to be postponed these decisions when we have years, years have passed by those areas, the same alcalde continues and has been asked transparency,
3:59:35has been asked, of course there is abuse of power, of course that people want to say, but they also want to say that. I have a child with a mental condition, I have two or three weeks asked for emergency to support him and they have 30 minutes. When I asked why they had been taking so much, I gave the blame to the dispatcher. I want to understand where the police left. I call to tell myself, nobody can tell what is happening, because as a person who is a mental disease, as a person who doesn't have interest for you, then they stay where they stay. At the end of the day, my fear is that one of their officers
4:00:17will end up killing my son, because in a crisis he starts to run away. They need to put officials, or not officials, but people who are capable of dealing with mental conditions. I'm tired of having a fear of my son and that I'm criminalizing because he's in a mental crisis. So, I support that there is a committee of vigilance and it's time. It's time for us to be able to check the police because we pay their salaries. Thank you.
4:00:58We will get the translation when our translator comes in and I'll take the next caller.
4:01:40Caller.
4:01:50Please state your name for the record and your address. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
4:01:50Caller you may state your name for the record and address. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
4:02:01my name is Sarah I have a better I've been a resident of Santa Ana for 20 years and I do support the formation of an oversight committee oversight police committee committee if you have nothing to hide then why don't you want this to be had to be so that we have this if you're supposedly a model department that's even a model to other countries why are you afraid why are you afraid and why are you postponing this decision to have this now we've been asking for this for years before many of you council members were here for a long time even before the mayor was here we
4:02:19need to have accountability you need to be accountable for the people there There is a lot of abuse of power. People are afraid to complain, and we need help. My son has special needs, and something happened to him. I called for help, and it took them 30 minutes to respond. When I asked them why it took them so long to respond, they blamed the dispatcher. So where does the buck stop? Where does the buck stop? Where does the responsibility stop? My son has mental needs and because my son has mental needs you don't care about him. But I'm afraid that one of these days my son is going to be killed by one of your officers
4:02:57because in his condition, his mental condition, his special ed, he might just run. So you need to train people in dealing with special education, special needs people. And I support the creation of this oversight commission. it's time for you for the people to see what the police is doing we pay their
4:03:38salary caller please state your name and address for the record you have two minutes please proceed with your comment caller you've been unmuted please state your name and address for the record
4:03:58Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed.
4:04:24Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record. Please proceed. Yes, please proceed with your comment.
4:04:36Okay, thank you. Hi, my name is Lyndon Willis. I'm a resident in Ward 2. I just also wanted to state, I wanted to echo, I'm sympathetic to the tech issues. I understand that that's difficult. We're dealing with like really strange times and having to come up with tech solutions, but I don't think that's a reason to cut people off. So I appreciate not having our time limited. I want to hear what other people have to say, even if it takes hours. I was the last meeting and I'm at this one too. And I'll be here till everybody is done talking, all right? In addition, I am in favor of the creation
4:04:45of the Civilian Police Oversight Commission. and I just want to restate that I'm in favor of subpoena power, investigatory authority, disciplinary authority, and the ability to hire and fire officers, including the chief of police. And I do hope that the council looks into this seriously. Thank you. I yield the rest of my time.
4:05:15Thank you, caller. Callers, please remember to unmute your phone when I unmute you here because I have no control of unmuting you if you mute your phone. Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes, please proceed.
4:05:35Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes.
4:05:57Caller, you have two minutes, please state your name and address for the record.
4:06:09caller please state your name and address for the record you have two minutes yes my name is
4:06:22Jarvis Jennings and I live in Ward 1 I am in favor of 85A to have an oversight committee I believe this committee has to have full transparency which means that there cannot be any police officers police union city elected officials or anything on the board the board needs to be civilians the board needs to have subpoena power it does not need to be able to hire and fire but its recommendation should be taken by the district attorney's office if they have misconduct and they believe that something is wrong that's been done then they should be able to go to the
4:06:29DA and say, hey, we believe this was done. You need to look into it and further prosecute or whatever. I do know that the police have a hard job. I've been in the military. I've worked in the jail at the military. I know what it's like to be a police officer. Okay. It's a difficult job. However, you must realize what you're being a police officer for is not to harm. It is to protect and serve. Yes, you have to be able to defend yourself, and it is a difficult situation. However, there are some that do go too far, and the ones that go too far do not need to be there.
4:07:06Santa Ana is a high-minority city, okay? And last but not least, that committee needs to be a diverse committee. It cannot be a committee of seven or eight non-Hispanic or minorities. It needs to be the majority of minority because the minority population of this city are the ones who are being abused okay I appreciate you giving me the time
4:07:44thank you thank you caller caller please state your name for the record you have two minutes hello hi please state your name and address for the record you have
4:08:11two minutes hi my name is Julie Gallego and actually I did want to let everybody know that actually on the Senate website all it says that you need to say your name and we actually have a time limit of three minutes to speak so I don't know why we're being cut off so short and I don't know why you guys need our address there's absolutely no need unless you are going to be sending me a birthday gift then you can have my address also it does um you only need to be a taxpayer to make a comment to the committee so
4:08:27what if somebody's homeless so that is not fair so you're seeing if they don't have an actual address yet they're paying taxes if they have a job they can't make a comment so that's not fair and that's not okay. There's absolutely no need for that. Anyways, I do agree with the police, having a police committee here in Senate, and I've been here for 33 years, but I also don't think it should take 90 days to look over any sort of evidence, material. It should be right away. So those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you.
4:09:07Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes. Hello? Hi. Please state your name and address for the record.
4:09:52Hi. My name is Mr. Palmer and I live in Ward 6. I just think it's a shame that after hearing all those people asking to defund the police and the stories of harassment and negligence, we still have some council members trying to prove the ways in which the police department had supposedly worked or improved. We have never felt safe with the police and trying to reform the police department or form an oversight committee, which does not work. We have seen this in Minneapolis. Obviously, this isn't working. Oversight committees don't work, and people have said that we don't have any power to do anything with those.
4:10:02Crime is a by-profit of an environment in which a person is in and the way a person is labeled and treated. We are not animals. We are not dogs. We are not ghetto. We are people tired of seeing black people die every day and of people being criminalized, and the system meant to exploit us.
4:10:32Our ultimate goal, as should be yours, is to dismantle the police department and we'll continue to fight for this. And lastly, the police system is not individualistic. We're talking about a system that is affecting marginalized people globally. Every police department is an issue. By reforming the police, we're giving them more money. I do not want to do what Cosmessa has done, which was give a million dollars for body care months. We will not unarm the police officers like one of the council members had suggested, because this isn't going to change the issue with our police department. There is systemic racism within it.
4:10:48We need to, instead of trying to reform the system that has been trying to reform for so long, we need to instead create a new system with health care workers, mental health workers, drug addiction workers, therapists, social workers, mentors, getting students back into education, helping those who are in poverty. If we can't do this, then what is the point of us saying that we're for black lives when we're not able to do the simplest thing for our people? You can't be the poison and the antidote. That's all I'm saying. Thank you.
4:11:20Thank you.
4:11:49Caller?
4:11:54Caller, please state your name and address for the record. You have two minutes. My name is Emaneliola.
4:11:56I am from Ward 1, and I want to start off.
4:12:04I'm sorry can you proceed with your comment
4:12:11hello caller can you clerk I've already clerk I've already spoken thank you oh thank you
4:12:20caller please state your name and address for the record you may proceed with your comment you have
4:12:31two minutes my name is Terry sidak and I'm in Ward 4 I'd like to say that Santa Ana needs to establish an effective civilian review board with the authority to exercise proper oversight and accountability of the police department and its officers this would include subpoena power investigatory authority discipline disciplinary authority and the ability to hire and fire officers including the chief of police even then the creation of such an oversight body is the bare minimum the city can do and needs to be part of the efforts to approach public safety by divesting from enforcement and
4:12:36investing positive community programs that address the residents real needs.
4:13:13Thanks for listening. Thank you. Caller please state your name and address for the record.
4:13:18My name is Araceli Robles, I'm a resident of the city of Santana for 18 years. And if they're giving me money to my income to the Department of Police, my next home will be the yard of the Alcalde Pulido. I'm calling to support that there's a committee of vigilance, because it's not just that it's a crime in our city, because the police are a family well organized, where they are attacking our young people, they are attacking and they are attacking themselves, they are attacking themselves. What would you like to do, Alcalde Pulido and Concejal? That they would be attacking their children, that they would be afraid of fear,
4:13:30as we are living in our lives. I have a child with a condition, and nobody likes to live with fear, and less in a city where our taxes have to be for our benefit, not for the private benefit, like Mr. Solorio, that wants to support their friends. We need justice in our city and that there is a community of vigilance because they can't support such injustice to our young people. They are criminalizing. What would you like to do if they did that to their children? Would you like to be in front of you to see them in the face? A ver if they would like to see them. Mr. Alcalde, would you like to be a kid and still
4:14:10to burlar their children? Would you like to be in front of them? How would you like to be in front of them? ahorita para ver que sienten que le lastiman a sus hijos así como toda la comunidad estamos sufriendo porque toda la policía es una persona que no tienen valores no les importa nuestra comunidad les importa su dinero igual que al señor solorio le importa quedar bien con ellos no con una comunidad que yo no sé qué está haciendo en esta silla gracias gracias
4:14:50Our translator will go ahead and translate that.
4:15:22My name is Alasary Robles. I've been a resident for 18 years. And if the mayor wants to give me some money, then I'll give him my address. I'm in favor of supporting an oversight committee for the police. The police is just an organized gang that attacks our young people. and they hit our young people and on top of that they mocked them. My son has a condition and I'm afraid for him. We don't like to be afraid. We pay taxes to pay for our benefits, not for Solorio to pay favors to his friends.
4:15:26There is no justice for our young people. Our young people are being criminalized. and if the mayor had, if you had your son, you wouldn't want him to be hit and then to be mocked on top of that. How would you feel if that were to happen to you? We are suffering here because of the police. The police has no values and the police doesn't care about their community. They only care about their money. And they only care about their money. So we need to, I'm supporting an oversight commission for the police, over the police.
4:16:06Thank you, caller. you have two minutes please state your name and address for the record hi hi can you hear me yes we could hear you please proceed great good evening mayor
4:16:39and council members my name is Gabrielle Wilson and I'm a member of word for you know I wrote this whole statement out but I'm just gonna freaking me it now I want to be clear that I'm all for abolishing the police because as a black American as a black American in Santa Ana every single day I wake up so fucking terrified part of my language but I wake up so fucking terrified that my siblings aren't gonna make it home when they go to the store or they'll get shot in their own bed because I know that you guys know that that happens if you're paying attention to anything that's happening right now in the news
4:16:50and not not the the copaganda bias news the real actual news of what's going on right now you know that my brother and my siblings and my family are not even safe in their own home. I am for abolishing the police and I'm extremely disgusted and embarrassed to be a member of this city, of this community that prioritizes funding the police and allocating $13.5 million on top of the over $100 million that they're already allocated when you guys are complaining about $10,000 per day fines or only giving the school district a few million dollars.
4:17:29And I don't understand how these kids and in a city that prides itself on quality education and helping students reach their goals. I don't understand how y'all are so freaking comfortable with funding the police, a terrorist organization, and not pouring into the communities that you guys committed to serve. fund our schools fund our rehabilitation centers and our community services defund the police and then abolish it by the looks of the budget you all have a shit ton more to learn about what it means to be for the people do frickin
4:18:08better thank you thank you caller caller you have two minutes please state your
4:18:37name and address for the record caller please state your name and address for
4:18:46the record you may proceed. Caller I think you may have YouTube on the volume on high if you would reduce the volume so that we don't get any feedback. Caller you could proceed with your comment. You have two minutes.
4:18:55Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record. Please proceed.
4:19:28Hi. My name is Dominic De Los Santos. I'm a resident of Santa Ana, and I decline to state my address because you have no right to ask me that, and I have no obligation to provide you with that information. I'm calling to provide my support in item 85A and the creation of a citizen oversight committee for the police of Santa Ana. I would like to stress the importance of having that committee have the power to subpoena, investigatory and disciplinary authority, and the hiring and firing power, including the chief of police.
4:19:33I would also like to stress the fact that this is the barest possible, the barest minimum possible step that we can take. This needs to be the first step towards defunding and eventually abolishing the police in Santa Ana. The police have done nothing but act as a gang that suppresses and oppresses our people, and we have shown collectively that we have had enough. We have shown that we are capable of organizing within and outside of your system to create this change and we will continue to do so until you meet with our demands. I yield my time. Fuck you.
4:20:01Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address for the record. please proceed with your comment hi good afternoon can you guys hear me yes we
4:20:40could hear you please proceed hi this is Cecilia Iglesias I live in Ward 6 I just want to say to mayor Pulido I'm very disappointed that you're asking our residents to give an address knowing that some of your taxpayer you're able to provide public input and one one thing I wanted to say as you know I did to support this, bringing it back to the council back in October of last year. I do support law and order. And I believe having an oversight committee is going to help not only our officers, but also build trust in our community. Because the reason for police oversight is to provide individual complainants
4:20:50in the larger community safety and voicing their concerns outside of the law enforcement agency. because how are you going to have a law enforcement agency, the one taking the complaints and the ones that are actually deciding what's happening. So oversight can help hold the police department accountable for officers actions. It also can help improve the quality of the department's internal investigation of alleged misconduct and the community at large can be reassured that discipline is being imposed when appropriate while also increasing the transparency of the disciplinary process because as you know we talk about this
4:21:32in closed session and nothing else happens we can't really share but having an oversight committee from community members it's going to help build that trust when the oversight agency also you know confirms their allegations it also protects the officers and you know that's one thing that we need to do we also need to protect the officers and what's going on because there's some things that are confidential so our oversight agency my under you know in my way of doing it it would also improve community relations by fostering communication between the community and
4:22:06the police agency and that's something that I know it's not happening now even though we try to say that there is but there is no trust between the community and the police department so thank you very much and I do support an oversight committee with subpoena power thank you.
4:22:37Madam Clerk can we ask the public to please not use curse words we're on channel three and there's families listening and please be mindful and respectful of that.
4:22:53Mayor Pro Tem, if I might just also make comment, I just want to make it clear that under the Brown Act, the City Council may ask someone to give their name and their address, but they cannot condition speaking on them providing that address. So you may want to maybe direct them to say...
4:23:05We did not condition it, we requested it. Yes, I just wanted to make sure that was clarified. You only
4:23:17requested it. But maybe you might want to just say whether they're a Santa Ana resident or not. That may make it easier for them.
4:23:22Caller, please state your name.
4:23:32Please reduce the volume on YouTube so that we don't get any feedback.
4:23:36Yes, caller, if you would please proceed with your comment.
4:23:45Caller, we can barely hear you.
4:23:56Caller, please state your name and if you're a Santa Ana resident. You have two minutes.
4:24:10Please proceed with your comment. Hi, my name is I'm on Ward 3. I'm calling just to to make an opposition to this proposal. I feel that most of the callers that have just called are hiding behind a script. I encourage everyone that is asking for this to be imposed
4:24:17for this oversight commission to be imposed to please apply to be a police officer first and see if you could go ahead and provide the service that our law enforcement agents provide day in and day out that they risk their lives to protect us. So before you are asking for this oversight commission to be enforced, please, please go ahead and go see our chief in Santa Ana and apply to become a police officer.
4:24:43Thank you and have a great night. Thank you. Caller, please state your name and if you're a Santa Ana resident for the record you have two minutes. Caller, please state your name and state if you're a Santa Ana resident you have two
4:25:20minutes please proceed with your comment my name is Anna Urzua I'm a Santana resident I want to say that the service of the institution of the police is a racist institution that was created to to protect the status quo and that enough is enough and that people are are calling and and and raising up all over the country and that Santana can't be deaf and to all of the calls that are coming from young people, all of the calls that we've heard about people talking,
4:25:45people that just graduated from the universities that are coming back to our city, that are gonna be voting. Everybody's putting out exactly what they're requiring from the leadership of this city council and the script is not a script, it's people calling from their personal experiences and sharing what it is that they've lived at the hands of the police here in Santana. Not only before the three years that this chief of police has been instated, but historically and it continues today.
4:26:25So I add myself in support of all of the callers, all of the callers that have called, asking for an oversight commission with the powers of subpoena, with the powers of investigation, and that it's about time. Enough is enough, and we need bold leadership. Thank you. Thank you.
4:27:02Caller, you have two minutes. Please state your name and if you're a Santa Ana resident.
4:27:24Caller, you have two minutes. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Please proceed with your comment.
4:27:32All right. My name is Katie Mondelon.
4:27:38I am a Santa Ana resident. I believe an 85 committee, which should be built by Santa Ana residents. The reason being is because the citizens of Santa Ana need an input in the disciplinary action to police who, quote, serve and protect its people. Yes, Santa Ana PD is rated the fourth most deadliest in California. So it is unethical and un-moral to even think of having to lose pride on the board as corruption. Quote, like many of the callers said, and it is also a conflict of interest.
4:27:41Police actions will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and will not be brushed off because the lives of the community matter. I yield the rest of my time since one minute isn't enough to get any points across.
4:28:24Thank you.
4:28:40Thank you, caller.
4:28:44caller you have two minutes please proceed with your comment hi can you hear me yes it can hear you? Hello caller, you may speak. You've been unmuted. Hello caller.
4:28:58These are all the callers we have left. I don't have any other virtual hands raised.
4:29:30Mayor, are you there?
4:29:37Mayor Pro Tem, the mayor is not responding.
4:29:43Mr. Mayor, are you on the line, sir?
4:29:46Mr. Mayor, are you on the line?
4:29:53if that will just continue with the with the gentleman who brought the item forward so they can speak until the mayor comes back we'll update him the next council member was council member
4:30:04sarmiento thank you mr. mayor pro tem and if there's one thing I think we all can agree on is that we have some technical difficulties. And I don't think they're intentional, but what they do is they really do take us away from the merits and substance of what we're trying to talk about, and we're having people complain about the difficulty and just being able to be heard. So I know we may want to include a line item in our budget that maybe corrects this. And to the clerk's credit, she never would have been experiencing this, but for the fact that we have this pandemic and we have to have people call remotely.
4:30:16When people come in physically and they come in and have spoken on other matters, we've had this chamber full, even, you know, standing room outside. So, look, I am sensitive to that, but we have to be really careful with limiting people's time and not allowing some people to speak. And I want to thank the council member, Council Member Peñalosa, who raised that. some people have been waiting to speak on this item since Tuesday.
4:30:53And I think the mayor's comment to his, maybe he doesn't understand that this is the people's business that we're doing. So this is an agenda item brought by three council members. So if there isn't anything that warrants something being the people's business, this is the people's business. So I also want to know, Madam City Attorney, do we have anything that dictates how long a person can speak? I mean, I know that there are these types of limitations on the time that people can speak across the street at the Board of Supervisors, and they've been sued by the ACLU.
4:31:25I don't want to be one of those defendants in that case because I don't think we can defend ourselves. But we can't arbitrarily and capriciously say you're down to two minutes or one minute or 30 seconds. That just doesn't seem fair. We may not like the topic. Some of us may disagree with it, but we can't allow even the presiding chair to do that. We have to be consistent, hearing good things and hearing bad things. So can you give us some thoughts?
4:32:04Yes, Council Member Sarmento. I can tell you that the City Council does have a resolution that was adopted. The City Council resolution establishes what we call decorum and speaking timelines. The resolution provides that every speaker shall be given a total of three minutes to speak. however it also provides it at the discretion the chair may evaluate the topic and may evaluate the number of speakers and may adjust that time based on the time the council stated and then it has another exception which allows for the city council members to say to the chair we would like to make a motion
4:32:28to actually give them more time I think what your resolution says and what happened today is is exactly in accordance with your resolution the chair did impose a time frame but the city council members overruled that so So I think what the key is, is that you're supposed to establish in the very beginning, I've got 100 speakers, I'm going to take an hour of testimony, and therefore everyone's going to get 30 seconds. Not a reasonable timeline, in my opinion. Or I've got 30 speakers, and I want to give everyone two minutes. So that's the way it should be handled under your resolution.
4:33:01Thank you. And for the benefit of those that were on the committee, to on the ad hoc committee for the charter amendments i would suggest that this be one of those because a resolution is not binding it is just intentional so to the extent that we may want to include this as one of the proposed or charter amendments that we may want to consider it's that important of an issue that we may want to have the voters also opine on this so look i don't want to repeat going back to the merits of this i don't want to repeat what was said. I want to thank both Councilmember Becerra and Councilmember
4:33:32Penalosa for allowing me to join this. I know I joined Councilmember Martinez a few years ago when we put this on and this has been, as was said, a topic that's been discussed at length in the past. So my rationale for this is you know there's obviously a trust issue and a problem that we have with our public and our officers. I think that, you know, we have to be able to resolve that problem because we can't coexist and coexist in a healthy way in our city if we don't address these topics, and we don't
4:34:10have a forum for that. I think this would be a forum, this would be an opportunity for the public who we all are vested to serve, and this is, I think, the right moment to do it. I think that we may need to change some things. It may be just sort of the way we conduct ourselves and how our department conducts itself. I think the trust and the culture change in that will go a long way, and those things don't cost anything. Being able to manage law enforcement shouldn't be something costly.
4:34:49I think it's something that we can instill in our community, a trust that has been missing for a long time. Another rationale for me for supporting whether we want to call it an oversight commission, a public safety commission, it can go by several different names, but I guess the intent is that it creates balance. We expect our residents to behave and conduct themselves in a certain way and we hold them to a legal standard. And that's what I think is necessary for officers because we hold all of our public servants to a certain standard. In fact, there's a duty of care that we all have.
4:35:28And we have to make sure that there is no preference, there is no detriment to anybody, but all of us are treated to a standard that is important for us to live up to. So what I would add to the direction that we're giving, because this is simply direction that we're giving to the city manager and staff, is to consider maybe something that we've done in the past, and the city attorney may remember this, is that we were presented with options, because there are schools of thought on how an oversight body should be conducted and should be constructed.
4:36:05You know, some are very, very sort of low-level tier where it's advisory. Some are mid-tier where it has some powers. And maybe the high-level tier that has more assertive powers like investigatory or subpoena. So to the extent that maybe those options that are used by different cities, similarly situated to ours, would be helpful. and I think it would give us some ability to dissect what makes sense for our community. Finally, what I would say is I understand that we want to get it right. Three months may be a little longer than I expect.
4:36:44What I would suggest is if you can get it done sooner, maybe you can come and advise us. If you can't and you need the full time, please let us know that as well. But we know you have a lot on your plate, so we want to be respectful and sensitive to that. But to the extent that these things aren't, you know, it isn't rocket science, I think it's something that we could get done and get done correctly. But I want to thank all the speakers who spoke because, you know, it's obvious if you're waiting for five hours to speak on a subject, it must be meaningful. So that's what we're called upon to do is listen as much as speak.
4:37:23we may want to we may enjoy the sound of our voices but uh look what's more important for us to do as a deliberative body and public servants is to listen to our residents so with that uh i want to thank everybody for for uh bringing this matter before us thank you uh who would like to
4:37:59speak next who would like to speak next uh mr mayor this is uh city council member jose solorio
4:38:17Please go ahead, Council Member.
4:38:28Thank you. I thank my colleagues for bringing this forward. And like in the past, we'll appreciate seeing good research on this. But in addition to providing some ideas of the kind of research that we should be doing to consider a police commission, I would ask my colleagues and the community that in addition to or separate from promoting really what's a 50-year-old idea, You know, we've had police commissions in our country, you know, since about the 70s, and so it's an idea that's 50 years old. And in some communities, those commissions are working better than others.
4:38:30But really, as a whole, you know, most of this community have their challenges. I would instead ask that we consider new ideas and approaches, results, and particular actions that we could do sooner than later to improve community safety overall for both our residents starting with in the residents of our community that are African American also you know Latinos and Vietnamese and Anglos and police officers and everybody I want us to be a community of positive and good community safety and really more important and broader to create a
4:39:06culture of non-violence and kindness and non-violence in many ways so this is part of that effort. With respect to the research project first, similar to what Councilmember Sarmento said, like for me what would be useful it would be seeing like the ten largest cities that have police commissions, what they look like as well as cities kind of in our population graphic, you know cities of 200 to let's say 400 or 700 thousand so because I know Oakland is in that bunch and then the top 10 cities of population. And I'd be interested in what kind of powers do they have,
4:39:42how many members are on that body, who the appointors are, what the cost is to administer that program, and where in the organization that commission fits. So I would be interested in seeing that. We have seen some of that information before, but it is always valuable to see what is out there. I would ask, though, my colleagues and staff, because I know today we're really just giving direction, that we also look at some things that are actionable today. In fact some of these things could be done fairly easily. I think they are more cutting-edge and as one example I'll
4:40:26start with something that's really a combination of two best practices. That would be transitioning the Office of Internal Affairs from the Police department to the city attorney's office to have you know officers essentially investigate other officers I don't know that that makes sense to me I think we've heard doesn't make sense to the community I would suggest that in the city attorney's office that we consider creating you know whoever really oversees that body be something along the lines of what Sacramento mayor Steinberg just announced earlier in the week he's a very respected
4:41:05Democratic leader in our state, and I value his judgment, and he's proposed that. And then that way we don't have police overseeing police on issues of misconduct. I would also suggest that some of these things could be done that are being discussed by expanding the responsibilities of our existing resident personnel board to include review and approval of use of force policies police accountability measures you know what do we want to you know hold our police accountable by including things such as you know police response time police brutality use of force etc as
4:41:42well as the publication of community reports showcasing their works and their findings I think what's important to consider as well when we have any Commission because they report to the City Council you also have then this body reporting to the City Council that's elected by the general public as opposed to reporting to a police chief or somebody else. And then finally related to that, because of their connection to the city council, the city council has subpoena powers. And so if there is something that really at some point we feel that requires extra resources or subpoena powers, et cetera, they do exist via the city council.
4:42:23So I would like our staff to consider that, see what it would cost, see what's doable or not, or, for example, to clarify what kind of subpoena powers we currently have and how we might share them with our personnel board and, for that matter, any other city commission. So those are my comments. And also, I know we get a lot of complaints about when there are issues of officer misconduct or complaints of excessive force, that they don't get publicized very well or people don't know where to find them.
4:43:04And I would say that within the Office of the Inspector General or, again, this move, the shift of moving the Office of Internal Affairs somewhere else, that they compile those and make those available. I know I've been trying to find updates on some incidents in Santa Ana that I'm curious about, and it would be nice to have a non-police department access opportunity for that information. So I thank my colleagues for their time on this and look forward to whenever this comes back. And I was mentioned before, if it takes 90 days, 90 days, but I think some of these things can come back quicker,
4:43:42and I do think many of these things are actionable today. Thank you.
4:44:19Other comments by council members? If not, I've got some comments. But any other comments?
4:44:25Yes, Mayor. This is Council Member Mendoza. I am in support in exploring a police oversight commissioned and I would ask staff and direct staff to similarly as the other council members have mentioned to include in the findings or in this research what existing avenues we have now as far as disciplinary boards and what sort of agencies do the investigations for disciplinary cases
4:44:32such as internal affairs and the district attorney's office, etc. In addition, I would like to have a section in there that includes what the policy and laws and procedures are at the state and federal level, in what mandates police brutality cases and what sort of disciplinary issues or consequences in imprisonment of violation of the laws of the state and federal government.
4:45:11In addition, we should also have some information on what the governor and the current presidential administration suggests because there is reform in that area. So we need to include what the new reform propositions are. And then we need to have clear understanding of if we do create this oversight committee, what kind of civilian requirements, what are the qualifications of a civilian?
4:45:47Is there going to be additional training for the civilian member? How many civilians? and what the cost will be to employ or to compensate someone from or who all the members. Is there going to be compensation or is it voluntary? What's going to be the effect to the city? And lastly, we need to know what the pros and cons are of giving this body the powers of a subpoena.
4:46:29and with the understanding that we have other measures that are available to the public, such as public records requests and the information that is already available on the police website. So we don't want to duplicate anything that we already have with the city. We don't want to have additional expense for services, disciplinary services that are already being provided by other boards. Those are my comments, Mayor.
4:47:07Any additional comments?
4:47:52Mr. Mayor, I'll make a comment.
4:47:54Okay, go ahead.
4:47:57Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank my colleagues for bringing the item forward. And, you know, there's good and bad in everything. And the great overwhelming majority of our officers, across the nation, but I'll speak to our officers here in Santa Ana, they're great people. They get, they put their uniform on, they go to work every day. They go out there and do the work that they have to. And people make mistakes because they have to recruit from the human race. Nothing's perfect.
4:47:59Like I said, there's good and bad in everything.
4:48:39There's not great teachers. There's not great doctors.
4:48:44There's not great mechanics. People have faults. And I would dare to say that no one hates bad cops more than the good cops because they dishonor the profession. And it's true because, you know, it takes a lot of work just to get to the position. Now, they don't have a crystal ball. We don't, you know, the department, you know, they do a very robust background check. And they do a lot of work to make sure that they're hiring the best candidate. But still, that person is a human, and that, like all humans, every one of us, we fail in one way or another.
4:48:48But yes, people need to be held accountable, absolutely. I do agree with the public. Because there are some people that should not be wearing the uniform out there.
4:49:29But the great vast majority of our officers are great officers. And I thank them for the work that they do. because there's about 413 calls every 24 hours in this that they receive for service. That comes out to about 12,000 calls a month or 13,000 calls a month, which is about 150,000 calls a year. They're the ones you call when the woman is being assaulted by someone, by her husband, and it's a domestic violence and they have to go. Or there's a child not breathing. or there's someone who's drowning because they always get there before the fire department because they're already deployed out in the city.
4:49:40We cannot forget what these brave men and women do. It's important. But yes, they have to be held accountable when they make mistakes. And they agree. Believe me, they agree. Because like I said, they don't like people dishonoring the profession. You know, a while back, during the Rodney King riots, there was a commission that was established in Los Angeles called the Christopher Commission.
4:50:21The guy heading it was a guy named Warren Christopher, who later became the, I think it was the state, yeah, Secretary of State, thank you, Jose, Secretary of State for the Nation. and in there in that study they found that you know there was they were looking for the problems of excessive force because of what happened with Mr. King so during that time they investigated and they found that you know there was some officers who they had complaints and then very few complaints but they had some then there's some officers who had you know a couple more number of
4:50:52complaints but they were still good officers but you know people make mistakes and then you had the group of officers that were smaller but they were rebel cops and they thought that the rules didn't apply to them then they continued to research and they found that the evaluations didn't reflect the the discipline that they were the the complaints or any discipline so these people were moving up the ranks. What happened was that it was the leadership that failed them. The leadership lost control of the officers. So they had to adjust that. Years later, the rampart
4:51:30thing went on. Let's not compare apples to oranges. The city of Los Angeles back then was about 9,200 officers compared to 300 officers here. And when I look at the numbers of complaints, let's say for 12,000 calls, we have less than one quarter of 1% of complaints out of the 12,000 calls a month. Very, very little.
4:52:09But, you know, in all fairness, the public when there's something going on, when there's an officer that gets caught on tape, like recently, there's something that happens. They're curious. Well, what happened with the officer? Was he disciplined? So am I. But guess what? I don't comment on it because it's an act of investigation. I can't influence the investigation. I don't want to look at the film. I don't want to do anything. I'm respecting the investigation to make sure that it's done correctly. And then we'll see what happens.
4:52:38So I think a couple of years back when we spoke about an oversight committee, this council had looked into it. And I think it was about $800,000 a year to a million dollars a year.
4:53:12But I think I have a way that we can start something fairly soon that would help satisfy some of the curiosity of what's going on with the police department here. And like I said, we have a police chief who is open to an advisory board. And we have a city manager who comes from a city where there was an advisory board.
4:53:26So, and this is just my suggestion. I will support the item that go forward and explore. I understand that. But this is something that we can do now, and I don't think it costs that much. So if there was a board, they could look into the complaints, and are the evaluations consistent of these officers with the complaints? Are the complaints being investigated thoroughly? Things like that, that many departments do, and they offer them, and different agencies have internal memos, like I'm holding here, that tell you, that reflect those investigations.
4:53:47But there's also laws that prohibit information going out, like the Peace Officer Bill of Rights. There's HR and personnel laws, and we have to look at all that. I'm not an expert in that, so I definitely would be open to researching that also. And that is my suggestion that I think our council can look into. And we just got to ask the right questions. And I thank everyone again for bringing this item forward. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Mayor.
4:54:22Any other speaker on this item?
4:54:56Hearing no one, let me just make a couple comments, if I may. One, I just want to talk about listening to people. I think it's very important to listen to people. but we also have to conduct work on behalf of folks. Tonight, we had four speakers. We listened to four speakers. Then we had more speakers calling in and more speakers calling in. So, you know, I was simply trying to manage a fluid process. Also, I spoke to the city attorney at length earlier today,
4:55:03going over the rules and the way to conduct matters. And I believe I've done it correctly for many, many years. And I believe that ultimately we just have to have something that's fair. But also we have to protect, I believe, the process and not just allow it to be abused because we'll set up, I believe, a bad precedent on a go-forward basis.
4:55:43But, you know, when I was asked by Councilor Peña-Losa to go for two minutes, we did that. I think no harm, no foul at the end of the day. But in general, my tendency is just to listen to folks and listen and listen and listen, but try to keep us focused on what we're doing. And right now, I think what we're wanting to do is to find improvements or areas of improvement. And I'm certainly open to that. But I have to remind us that we are not, I believe, by any stretch of the imagination, Minneapolis.
4:56:21I believe that we have one officer per 1,000. At our current level, it's 1.01 per 1,000. In L.A., I don't think they're any safer than we are. And they have 2.9 police officers per 1,000, almost three times as many as we have. So I think as we look at other cities and look at examples of things, we have to make sure we don't sell ourselves short because I think we have a great city I think we have a wonderful police department can we improve we can always improve and we should
4:57:02and and and we can apply that to many things but I think we have a very solid chief of police I think we have a very good city manager I think we have a city council that's you know also you know very caring and I think everything we're doing is because we care about this community so with that I'm gonna go ahead and move the agenda to the next item madam clerk is that 85 years yes okay and who had that item mr. mayor this
4:57:43is a city councilmember Jose Solorio I along with council members Mendoza and Villegas put this idea forward to give direction and really since we had discussed this a few things have changed you know we have the governor who has allowed cities and counties to open up more of their parks community centers etc we also know that we're still doing work with our bargaining units to seek concessions we also now know that there are also dollars available out of the youth fund for July 1st and then also because of the recent postponement we're closer to July 1st
4:58:17than than we think you know we're at June 18th today so given all those things I know that there still might be some some speakers and I know that the chair of the Youth Commission and another commissioner sent me just like two sentences that they want would want me to read on their behalf we also may have Jerry and Manda is with us the superintendent of the San Unified on the phone and he's also been waiting for for two days to speak but let me let me revise now given what I said earlier what I think I'd like to discuss and ask my colleagues to share ideas with staff to follow up obviously
4:58:56you know we had some discussions about what items might be carried over into the next fiscal year but here is how I view it now discuss and request city managers needed to bring back for council consideration within 45 days final recommendations for use of the entire six to seven million dollars in the youth fund that's funded by the cannabis fund that will be available as of July 1st 2020 in addition to requests by city departments and the city sue the the Santa Ana Unified School District, the Discovery Cube, and Santa Ana-based nonprofits should be encouraged
4:59:36to submit proposals to fund 2020 summer and fall programs. The type of programs that folks have been suggesting are ethnic studies in the nonviolence movement, restorative justice, interactive STEAM online education, student leadership and public speaking, open air arts programs and technology access programs, and when possible funded programs should be made available for all youth in our city and I know that as a general rule our city obviously does that even the school district does that but you know we do have other districts as well so
5:00:14again the general thought here is we have put in thus far four million dollars into this youth fund but things such as the bookmobile for a variety of reasons we haven't really been able to fully appropriate or get out there and then we have additional dollars and I rather have our city as quickly as possible get that money to good use rather than letting it collect dust in a bank account who knows where I also know that our Youth Commission is very eager to start meeting again and so part of the direction here would be to allow our Youth Commission to begin meeting again so that they can get to work on getting
5:00:52these proposals in front of them. I also know that our city manager, Rich, has been actively in an ongoing way meeting with Superintendent Almendariz. And I know that this has been a subject in the past and a subject moving forward, including just Wi-Fi. I know we've been discussing that forever. So those are my comments. I'd like Council Member Villegas and Mendoza to speak. councilmember Villegas helped create this youth fund some years ago so we'd like to hear him speak and then you know any folks on the phone thank you and then my colleagues thank you
5:01:32councilmember Solorio appreciate it yes I'm very happy to be on this item and thank you for the invitation councilmember Solorio I also am looking forward to working having the parks and recs Director to work on this for our youth. This information that we have, this plan that they have put together. I understand that maybe you want to get some proposals from outside, but definitely we want to bring our employees back to help with this.
5:02:08And that should be the focus, the youth and our employees. and then if we can get a hand from someone else, I'm open to that. And thank you again for the invitation. And now Council Member Mendoza would like to speak.
5:02:46Thank you. So for clarification purposes, we're going to include the entire $6 or $7 million rather than just the 1.5 to Santa Ana Unified School District. And we're going to have all those other departments take a look at. I see. Okay. Yes, we do need to get back to providing youth services because it's all summer long they've been indoors, stuck indoors,
5:03:04so we need to use this money that has been allocated to youth services as soon as possible so that we could get that energy out of these kids and begin a great summer. And also, I want to thank the school district for jumping into assisting and making the suggestion that they would be able to provide the services. But I think now with our reopening of some of our facilities, we could possibly re-employ those 176 laid-off employees
5:03:39and keep the majority of those funds here with the city of Santa Ana. So it's a very good item to support. I encourage my colleagues to support this because it's going to bring much benefit to our city and to our communities.
5:04:21One more ask that I have, Madam City Manager. If we can look into child care also for that, council members agree on that? Yeah, I think that would be important. So we can also take care of the little ones. And I think if we can explore that. Thank you.
5:04:49Before we go to the online speakers, I did mention I had some very brief statements from our youth commission chair and another commissioner, Joseph Acevedo, who's the chair, says, With the barriers youth are facing in online schooling and the lack of extracurricular programs in the current environment, it is important that San Andreas seek new ways to continue developing this age group. In achieving this, the youth commissioners would be very eager to meet and provide the city with our perspective and recommendations. Cielo Echegoyan writes, This item supports online education, which has become a necessity during the coronavirus.
5:05:08I strongly support item 85B as it funds necessary education and provides the Youth Commission with the opportunity to meet virtually and continue working a prospect that all the Youth Commissioners have expressed strong support for. With that again Superintendent Elmendariz might be on the line and if he is we obviously like to hear him speak and anybody else that would like to. Thank you.
5:05:46Thank you. Let me ask the clerk do we have speakers on this item? Yes we do.
5:06:10would you all righty how many do you have any idea how many currently we have eight
5:06:18fine let's go ahead give them three minutes and let's hear from the eight please caller
5:06:25please state your name and if you're Santa Ana resident you have three minutes please proceed with your comment. Caller, we are on 85B. If you would please proceed with your comment.
5:06:32Hi there. I just got unmuted. This is Tai Fan. First, I want to say that I wholeheartedly support youth programs and I'm so proud and excited that Santa Ana Unified School District has an ethnic studies program and that it is doing everything it can to help provide services to students in Santa Ana in the Santa Ana Unified School District. But I'm really concerned that council members Mendoza, Solorio, Villegas all three of your wards cover the west side everything west of the river. Yet, I did not hear that we are working with Garden Grove Unified School District
5:06:55or that you have contacted Superintendent Mahfi from Garden Grove Unified. The vast majority of Asian American students who predominantly are Vietnamese live on the west side. From K-12, I lived my entire life in Santa Ana, but I went to Garden Grove Unified School districts we're going to make sure that they're also being provided with services being able to attend these out school programs youth programs events getting child care because i'm not hearing that and we are so tired on the west side of being forgotten being the part of santa ana that no one
5:07:37knows exists and it's frankly unfair so i really hope that if you are going to be allocating 1.5 million dollars and now an extra three million dollars for a total of seven million in a fiscal year that where we're already struggling to another agency that we better make sure that every single student in the city of Santa Ana is getting these services are being provided with the care and the education that we're supposed to be providing because you know we're just tired and we want to make sure that everyone is treated equally in the city of Santa Ana in fact we settled a lawsuit because Asian Americans were not represented.
5:08:15So I really hope that if you do move forward with this item that when you look at our budget, that you make sure that we actually have the money to do what we say we're going to do and that we actually serve every single student in the city of Santa Ana who's a resident, not just those who attend Santa Ana Unified School District. Thank you.
5:08:55Thank you.
5:09:15Caller, you have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment. We're on 85B.
5:09:18Caller, you've been unmuted. You may proceed with your comment.
5:09:27Caller, you've been unmuted. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
5:09:41Yes, hello. Honorable members of the Santa Ana City Council. My name is Jerry Almendarez, Superintendent of Santa Ana Unified School District and I'm commenting and in support of item 85B which is the discussion and consideration of allocating funds to the Santa Ana Unified School District for the summer and fall programs. Just want you to know that Santa Ana Unified School district is very great thankful and greatly appreciates the opportunity to partner with the city of Santa Ana and thanks to city council for your consideration today to provide these funds
5:09:46that will allow us to support a variety of programs and services for our students and ultimately our community even during these unprecedented times we are continuing to offer students summer enrichment bridge and recovery opportunity programs while we prepare for the the upcoming school year. We are now working on reinventing our instruction models so our students can continue to learn in a safe and nurturing environment. And your support will help us tremendously as we work towards these goals. Stronger schools lead to stronger Santa Ana community overall and investing in our youth helps lay the foundation.
5:10:24Thank you for all you do. And I want to thank city manager, Christine Ridge for the collaboration and the wonderful relationship that she has with the city and the unified school district. Thank you very much.
5:11:01Thank you.
5:11:14Caller, you have three minutes. Please state your name for the record.
5:11:19Hi, my name is Dulce. I'm with Orange County. I'm in Ward 5. I want to say that I strongly believe in investing in youth. I know that I definitely am in line with supporting our ethnic studies and nonviolent movements and really participating in engaging young people. But I really implore you all to think about how you all are engaging young people. I know that the youth commission has not met since December. It's actually not been active, and it's having its meetings postponed. And the plans that have been presented to young people have actually not been taken into consideration.
5:11:24So I don't know how, I don't know if all you commissioners are on the same page. And I think to my understanding, they haven't all been on the same page. So I would love to see that the city of Santana invests and does the work to make sure that they hear the voices of young people because just putting it in 1.5 million at the USD and just making sure that it gets renovated every year is lazy. And it's not having any input from actual community members. I heard the person sharing about the west side of Santana. We definitely need to include all young people,
5:11:57programs that include young people that have been pushed out of the school system, young people that have been in incarceration system, teen moms that have been kicked out of school. So there's plenty of other students that we need to think about beyond SAUSD students. And I want you all to do the work to make sure you all get the input, listen to young people, our strategic, see a vision, and include a broader strategic idea on how young people are going to succeed and win and have opportunities to send that. That's what I just want to give feedback with you all. Thank you.
5:12:34Thank you, caller.
5:13:04Caller, you have three minutes. Please state your name for the record.
5:13:12Good evening. This is Kathy Decker, long-time resident of Santa Ana and executive director for the Friends of Santa Ana Zoo. As you know, every year we raise funds through the Friends of Zoo and we donate them to the zoo, including underwriting a staff position in the education department. But we still need to do more. In 2018, the zoo's strategic plan was approved by council, which included a number of key goals. One goal was to create an initiative that better connects with the people in Santa Ana community.
5:13:17The zoo is such an amazing resource in our community, and utilizing the Youth Fund is the perfect way for the zoo to reach all ages, from toddler through high school, through experiential learning. Research shows that the majority of learning actually occurs outside of the formal classroom. Zoo programming is a hands-on way to get kids interested in science and provide them with opportunities to make academic strides and to instill a love for the environment that will translate into civic minded leadership as they develop into lifelong learners. The goal is to work with local schools to boost science
5:13:46learning and outreach through field trips and other programs in addition to providing programs for families. The staff to start this first year of these programs are included in the proposed city budget. This is a creative way to educate the children in our community and we are fortunate to have an actual zoo right here in our own backyard to utilize in teaching science education and what better way than hands-on. Please keep these youth funds set aside for the parks and recreation to use this for our comprehensive well research education program at the Santa Ana Zoo. Thank you for your time.
5:14:22Thank you.
5:14:57Clerk, you just told me seven more just jumped in. Let's go ahead and hear from them.
5:15:02Go ahead.
5:15:10Mayor, I don't know. I don't have a way of identifying who the caller is. All I have is the last three phone numbers.
5:15:13Well, go ahead. But you said seven just called in. Let's go ahead.
5:15:20Okay, caller, please. Hello there again. Yes, caller, please. I'm here to go.
5:15:25Yes, I actually, I've been on the wait, on hold since the first time, but again, that lag. I think that this, I think it's wonderful that you guys are investing in the children, you know, but I do wonder if this is the best way to approach that. I remember kind of, you know, when I was a kid, I would play with little insects, little bugs, things like that, and you end up kind of growing this type of sensitivity to the life around you, whether that's plants, whether that's animals, insects, whatever. But eventually that kind of, you know, compassion that grows in you, you end up translating it to the people around you.
5:15:29And I think when you make wonderful people, you make a wonderful society. So I think that I'm not sure if, depending on what this program looks like, I don't know if it's going to be more memorization, you know, more of here are some statistics, children. I don't know what that's going to look like. whereas the caller before, she had said this was a hands-on approach. You're taking people to the zoo and whatnot. I think it might be better utilized in that way when you have these children actively interacting with the life around them.
5:16:05So as much as I'd like to say yes, I definitely want to support the creation of these other programs. I'm just not quite sure if this is the best way to spend the money, and especially at this moment where we just approved, it's a huge increase for law enforcement. So those are my comments.
5:16:40Thank you.
5:16:58Caller, please state your name. You have three minutes. Please proceed.
5:17:02Hello, if you please proceed with your comment. Yes.
5:17:08Please proceed with your comment. Yes, hello, if you could please proceed with your comment.
5:17:15State your name for the record. Selena? Diego? And I was calling to say yes on the 1.5 million for the SAUS defense because I do believe that we need to start reinvesting in our youth and in programs such as ECNAS studies and giving them, you know, summer's pastimes so that they don't start lingering around and finding becoming curious and getting into trouble and since it
5:17:19wasn't an issue for you guys to completely disregard our comments on on the police increase and giving them that funding it shouldn't be an issue for you guys to give the sa usd of funding i don't know where you're pulling this money from that you're generously giving away to the police Department and law enforcement but I'm sure you can find it to give it to our youth so I do vote yes on the yes SAUSD 1.5 million and thank you thank you
5:17:57caller caller please state your name for the record you have three minutes can you hear me yes we could hear you please proceed with your comment okay my name is
5:18:28working on our ethnic studies program as you know we have a new graduation requirement that will be implemented in 2022 23 which is very exciting I urge you to vote yes on 85 B to issue 1.5 million dollars to create youth programs through our school district during this time when education has suffered financially and physically during this hard difficult period this will help create and promote great programs for our youth I'm a part of a summer enrichment program called the people's history of Orange County in which we expose our students the contributions the historical
5:18:51discriminatory practices that have occurred towards communities of color and and how each has rose up and struggled and confronted these practices and have actually turned the city into a better place. For those of you who were here on the city council in 2018 in the summer may remember we were recognized by you and we really appreciate that. I believe Councilman Viegas, Sarmiento and Salorio were there as well as the mayor, Pulido. Thank you so much. When students learn about this rich history in their community, they become more actively engaged in their local governments and in local organizations, making our city a better
5:19:32place. I feel our program will definitely expand for students, and we hope to expand it not just for students, but for teachers in the future with this fund. In fact, I'm curious if I invite you to observe this program.
5:20:14this involved them in academic and extracurricular activities so please
5:20:35vote yes on 85 B thank you thank you caller caller you have been unmuted please proceed with your comment state your name for the record hello hello caller you've been unmuted please state your name for the record and you may proceed with your comment hi um yes this is Magdalena Soria I wanted to agree on
5:20:40the giving 1.5 mil for the SAUSD because like our youth is just as important as the police to be funded and I think it's absurd about we're able to you know vote yes even though the residents have said no for funding of the police so i hope that since a lot of callers are saying yes that you guys actually do what the callers say and not do the opposite for those council members that voted yes including mayor bolido who um stated that it is important um to listen to the residents and if that was so important then why did you and other council
5:21:10members vote yes on funding giving a raise to the police when residents over a hundred callers over a hundred callers calling to say no to it and i just i think um that's all i have to say thank you thank you caller
5:21:50caller you've been unmuted please state your name for the record you have three minutes hi good um can you hear me yes we could hear you please proceed with your comment
5:22:11hi this is cecilia iglesias um i want to call um and talk um in just asking for the council to be very mindful of this money as a former school board member here for sanify school district i know that the school district has more money than the city actually the budget for the school district is close to 800 million dollars a year versus what we have in the city what 600 600 million so i i believe that uh with the one place that we can definitely help out is uh with the
5:22:21internet access but uh for the uh other programs the the school district gets money from the um from the state and also from the federal government to provide these programs to our to our students. So I would hope that they have that money and they should be able to do that because it wouldn't be fair, like some other callers have said. I live on the west end of Santa Ana too, and we also have a Garden Grove Unified School District. What are we doing for them? How about on the east side? You know, what are we doing for Orange Unified for the families
5:22:56that live on that side? So I believe this is not a good use of our, you know, of our Santa Ana tax dollars if we're not going to be serving the entire city. So I believe in giving access, like I said, for the internet and technology, because that will benefit the entire community. But, you know, I agree with the lady that called in from the zoo. We should be able to provide these services, do an RFP for the non-profit, see what they can do for our youth, because they have different things that they can provide for different,
5:23:26you know constituents for us so I just you know I also it this doesn't mean how many how many students are going to be served I mean what how are we going to measure performance so it's something that we have to look into and I would you know I would caution I was giving 1.5 million dollars to an institution that gets more money than the city our residents I mean that's money that should be spent on youth and what is it that they want you know I heard one caller saying that I don't think all youth commissioners are on the same page with this item.
5:24:02So I would say hold on, talk to the youth commissioners, ask them what is it that they want, and survey all of the city, not just that and I'm in the right school district, because they're the biggest district here in Orange County, and they have a lot of money. And I know they should be using that money for the youth and for the students that they serve. And, you know, so how about our youth that are over the age of 18? I mean, what are we doing for them? so there's a lot of questions so i would ask council members the lord uh salario and um
5:24:33villegas for you guys to really uh look into this and i know that you know the budget we have we have limited amount of funds as a city so uh hold that district accountable too and how they're spending their money so that's all i have to say it's not that i'm opposed to this but i just feel this is um too soon you guys need to really research uh how the money is going to be spent and who's going to be served and then also take the input from the youth commission because that's what we have them for so thank you very much for listening and i know you guys are going to do the
5:25:04right thing thank you thank you caller please state your name for the record you have been unmuted you have three minutes hello hello please state your name for the record you have three
5:25:32minutes hi this is julie gallegos um actually i did want to comment in regards to 85b i do think it's a great idea that we are um investing in our youth as myself as two children's and um the essay san anafi school district however looking at this i do have questions and i would like for there to be more explanation as to what open air arts program is exactly what non-violence movement is i definitely agree that we do need to have technology access to all students however i also
5:25:48am agree with the lady at what at the zoo kids do need to be more creative and be more interactive and just be able to, especially right now with the whole pandemic thing going on, I also do think that we should look more into also holding the Sanified Youth School District accountable. As Cecilia said, she did work for it, but really where's all the money going? I think we definitely need to be asking questions, but I do like the fact that you as a city is thinking about our youth because we definitely need to uplift them, especially at times like this. So that is all I have to say. Thank you.
5:26:27Thank you.
5:27:08Caller, you've been unmuted. You have three minutes. Please state your name for the record.
5:27:13Sí, buenas noches. Mi nombre es Hidalia Ríos. Soy madre del Distrito Escolar de Santa Ana y también residente del Distrito 2. and I'm talking about the 85B, because our students need to study ethnic and also classes of restorative practices. When we talk about the budget, and when we have less than a year, you guys have joined us with the district to have an extra election and spent thousands of dollars, vez no lo pensaron dos veces en unirse con el distrito ahora es el momento de
5:27:19que una vez se vuelvan a unir pero esta vez a favor de invertir en programas para nuestros jóvenes para nuestros estudiantes para lo que van a hacer el futuro así es que estoy a favor de los 85 b y de verdad deseo que juntos tanto la ciudad como el distrito trabajen a favor de todos gracias
5:27:56We'll wait for our translator to come and translate. That was the last caller that I have.
5:28:19Maybe as the translator is coming, there are a couple of questions that I did want to clarify. So really since the initial meeting, part of this direction item did say when possible, funded programs should be made available citywide for all youth in our city. So the expectation is that the vast majority of all these should benefit cities throughout our city because really this isn't about districts. It's about our children. And most of our children are in San Unified, but we have 6,000 that live outside of San Unified. As I mentioned during the budget talk, because this was discussed also during the budget talk,
5:28:25we have about 4,000 students that live in Garden Grove Unified that are the students that live largely west of the river. We have some also in Orange Unified and Tustin Unified, and then we do have charter schools and some private schools and some homeschooled students as well. I also wanted to clarify, because it was mentioned also during the budget presentation, and actually our city manager had answered it, really the part-timers that currently don't have work because centers and pools are closed, resources for them are already in the budget. but this actually would also be helpful too because if any of this also goes to
5:29:02programs that they could work in it would create opportunities there clearly the expectation is that all city departments and the city zoo would be kind of at the front of the line as we always are but really consistent with the process that the Youth Commission had started you know they do want and the City Council and the city does want proposals from others you know wouldn't call them all our RFPs because we want to act quickly this time but the idea is that in addition to the the city and the zoo that the school district the Discovery Cube and stand-based nonprofits be encouraged to submit
5:29:40proposals to fund 2020 summer and fall programs for example ethnic studies in the non-violence movement people's history of Orange County which one of the colors mentioned restorative justice interactive steam online education that's Something, for example, that Discovery Cube is very good at. Student leadership and public speaking programs that the district and others have. Open Air Arts Program. The idea is about bringing arts to parks, arts to community centers. And the beauty about art is that you hand folks, let's say, canvases or crayons or, you know, vital other types of materials to use in creating art.
5:30:18And they can take it with them. And they don't need to share it. and there would be artists there because not everybody is into you know online education or not everybody is into sports not everybody is into into zoos and then also technology access programs including you know student by student that's in these programs do they have access do they need help with anything etc and and that is all and I know we haven't heard from other colleagues if they did want to speak but thank you for that and I think our translator is here
5:30:59for that one parent thank you my name is italia Rios and I am an SAUS imam and a resident of Ward 2 I support 85B our students need ethnic studies and restorative practice training and justice you spoke of speaking about you're speaking about the budget less than one year ago you joined with Santa Ana Unified School District to get into a special election you spend thousands of dollars on that special election it's time to again to get together but this time get together for our kids I support 85 B lets together for all of our
5:31:35students thank you other comments from council members yeah mr. mayor this is
5:32:09councilman pinialosa go ahead please thank you sir just wanted to state that you know I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this item forward because I know how important it is to invest in our youth and how great of a school district we have here in Santa Ana. Not just one, but three of them. I'm a proud product of the Santa Ana Unified School District. I've said that before and I'll say it and always be proud of that. Washington Elementary, MacArthur, the Saddleback High School. I'm very proud of that.
5:32:18However, you know, I can't with a straight face sit up here and say that we should give another government agency a check in the amount of 1.5 or $3 million. Just thinking about, you know, how we recently laid off 176 Parks and Rec employees that provide youth services. I know that at the December 19th, or actually December 17th, City Council meeting, we had a receive and file for Cannabis Public Benefit Fund for Youth Services, an informational report.
5:32:54Some of the things that were listed on there as desires were bookmobiles, public Wi-Fi hotspots, citywide Wi-Fi, increased engagement and youth services with our zoo. and just on Tuesday night our library director tells me that the bookmobile that he told me should come by fall of this year is now expected summer or fall of next year because of just economic uncertainties that we've seen over the last couple of months so these things that we've
5:33:31addressed and we received and filed back in December where we were going to use cannabis youth fund for bookmobiles, hotspots, increasing our inventory for hotspots. That is youth services. I cannot support giving another government agency a check currently at this time because of what we're seeing throughout, you know, with this pandemic. We don't even know what the actual budget's going to be. We approve the first reading tonight, but that's not even accurate because of all these things that we're waiting for and all these unknowns so at the time I don't think it's appropriate to try to decide if we're gonna give another
5:34:09agency a check I'm all supportive of youth services there's so much in our city that we've cut back on that are for youth services so you know I it's it's it's funny how this is coming up now I mean I know that this on this City Council we've had instances and a chance to be good partners with the school district. I know that just in the last seven, eight months, this council has made decisions that have cost the school district $10 plus million. And now to sit here and say, we got to
5:34:49give a school district $1.5 million, to me, it's election pandering. I'm going to say it as it is. And that's unfortunate because we're being disingenuous and we're not taken into consideration all the youth services that we have cut back on at the city level. So at the moment, because I don't know what the economic outcome over the next six months is going to be,
5:35:24I cannot support this. And those are my comments. Mr. Mayor. Yes, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
5:35:51Well, as a caller Ty Phan mentioned, she was a proud product of the Garden Grove Unified School district so am i and so when i saw this item i was appreciative because of course we want to invest in our youth and we want to provide them with opportunities with these programs that are listed but when i saw that it was just going to go to san andon unified my first thought was kids in the something neat the neighborhood and other neighborhoods west of the river would be left out so that that was my first point of concern um the second point of concern that i have and I'd like to ask our Parks and Rec Executive Director Lisa Rudloff to
5:36:02come up to the podium please. So I just want to make sure I understand it just to make sure I'm clear. So as Council Member Penaloza mentioned we had a receive and file item back in December and that item had certain programs listed that from what I understood were tied to the cannabis funds that were to be directed to youth services correct and then in today we have a budget that had certain programs in there a book tech mobile uh the zoo and you expanded uh operations of the newport branch
5:36:38new hope branch library excuse me and so you know uh what was it year-round aquatic uh programming over at memorial park so which we had i believe adopted maybe a couple months ago correct Correct. Okay. So I guess what I want to understand is while I want to be able to help out another agency that is going to provide services, I feel like, as some of my colleagues have already said, we had employees. I say had because they were laid off because they were no longer able to provide these services. But our budget right now has those programmed in there, correct?
5:37:14So it's not like this money that I believe we're talking about is just sitting there gathering dust, as I think somebody said, but rather it's been programmed. Is that correct? That's correct. That's correct. So if we were to go ahead and move on this item the way it's laid out here, would we be unfunding the programs that were laid out?
5:37:51Yes, you would be unfunding the Bookmobile, the Santa Ana Zoo program, the New Hope Branch Library, the year-round aquatics, the youth and teen excursions, and the anti-drug education. children's outdoor playground at the library, laptop kiosk at the library, fitness courts, youth-paid internships of a half million dollars, traveling zoo exhibit. So they would have to stop.
5:38:12Well, I apologize because I listed a couple of programs. You've just expanded. So there's a lot of programs that would be impacted if we were to move forward on this allocation to the school district. Correct. And, again, this is for youth. This isn't to go to PD. This isn't to go to anybody else. This is funds that are programmed for the youth right now that we are, for some reason, discussing, taking away, defunding our own youth programs to give to another entity to have youth programs.
5:38:41Right. And these programs, when they were presented in 2019, had a timeline and a budget and a three-year timeline. So it told you exactly, for example, the bookmobile. It had a van or a bookmobile for 2021, either $350,000 or $700,000. We had some one-time money of $1 million that we were going to utilize for things like the bookmobile. So it lays out what we're doing, what we're going to do, and we are not behind on any of this.
5:39:09Okay. So, I mean, essentially, again, if we move forward on this item before us tonight, we would be pulling the rug out from under you in all your efforts to provide these services to our youth. Yes. Okay. And thank you for that. And I just, one of the callers had mentioned the budget of the school district versus the city of Santa Ana. Our general fund, as presented tonight, we're in the $307 million range, while the school district, I believe they proposed a $642 million budget. I think it's in that ballpark. So we're looking at something that's double the size of the city's budget, and we're going to be the donor?
5:39:45Again, that's kind of interesting math that we're playing with here. So I have to side with my colleagues that I don't really feel confident in supporting this at this time because I think that our staff, you know, Lisa's done a great job in planning ahead on not just like the park master plan, but programs. I mean, she's doing exactly what we would want our parks and rec executive director to do. And so I feel like this is almost like a slight to our own staff by pulling these funds out from under them. So while I appreciate the intentions, at least what I believe the intentions were, I won't be supporting this item.
5:40:24I'd like to say something, Mr. Mayor, real quick to clarify this. I have a clarification. Earlier when I spoke on this item, I said I was in favor of Lisa's plan, which I'm holding right here, dated June 12th, which talks about funding all of these programs. So I just want to clarify that. it's not uh you know the whole item here i said hey we can discuss it but i was in favor of this and bringing back our employees so it's very clear about that that was the focus just want to clarify that not a campaign stunt or anything else nothing like that that everyone else is talking about
5:40:59that's not me just want to clarify it well i haven't had a chance to speak yet so i think
5:41:39But I have a clarification left with Viejas. I had asked for clarification. Let's keep in mind, too, that when we discussed the budget, I mentioned there that these kinds of items, including the parks items and anything that might be left over in the youth fund, that when the budget comes back, that would include what dollars from this year to carry over into the next and the dollars there. I would also say, and I'm glad that that memo or that update was brought up from last fall, it was merely an update of what programs the Youth Commission was reviewing what
5:41:45they're kind of leaning towards but the idea was they were going to continue reviewing programs and really make their final recommendations probably I don't know you know very March or April and the youth are upset because they haven't been able to meet to finalize their recommendations and then some things because of like the bookmobile and others got pushed back and so even though there are dollars in the budget for some of these things they may be delayed but again also all these requests that parks now has they should have went through the youth commission the agreement and council member
5:42:17Becerra you don't know because you weren't here when we created the fund but the idea was we were creating this fund and we asked them you know for full engagement with our youth because it was a youth fund that we would ask them to review all the proposals and to give us a final list of all the recommendations on how to use the three million dollars I would tell you that because the youth Commission hasn't met since about January or February they never finished their work the chair that's the reason why they've been collaborating with me because they haven't done that they want to get back to meeting and so that's why
5:42:49part of the action and direction is we want the Youth Commission to meet so that they can review the parks proposals rather than doing that loophole and having a staff driven proposal on what youth want I again believe more in surveying our residents in this case it's for youth services so I rather our youth say what they recommend that we fund rather than our staff and quite frankly rather than our council even though we can obviously give direction so this isn't an effort to take money away from anybody if anything it's an effort to get this thing back on track because this Youth Commission has not
5:43:20met they haven't finalized their recommendations they would like to and part of this action is for our staff to work with the Youth Commission to bring that back so i really wanted to clarify that because uh you know that's important well mr
5:43:55mayor if i may also add a point of clarification maybe staff can help go ahead so are we obligated to to i mean look we want the input of the youth commission we absolutely do i mean it makes absolute sense to have that but the way it's being discussed up here it sounds like a conditional use permit going through the planning commission that you have to go to planning commission before gets to council is there a hard set requirement that you can't move forward on programming these cannabis funds meant for youth services unless the youth commission certifies a list of some sorts
5:44:09that is not correct so let me just go back really quick in um in june june of um give me one second here the city oh june 18th on 2019 the city council recommended that we go to the youth Commission to get input so on July 19th we went to the Youth Commission meeting and asked them for input and they put this on their strategic plan goals so they put an ad hoc committee together we they had public speakers and they were they spoke about that's where the bookmobile came up and Wi-Fi and things of that nature and then on August 16th we went back to the Youth Commission and
5:44:44And they weren't able to meet. They didn't have anything to provide.
5:45:26In December, they came back. Five months later, we received their input. However, so we put in, like, they wanted to have paid internships. So we made sure that the paid internships were in there. There's also other things that the Youth Commission wants. and as they go along with their work plan, we can continue to add things that they want. But they are not the end-all for these funds.
5:45:35Well, I appreciate you saying that because as I'm looking at our muni code, Section 13-203 when it comes to cannabis revenue funding, if you want to look at Subsection C, then I'll read it for you. It says, expenditures from the cannabis fund. Funds in the cannabis fund shall be restricted to youth services. It doesn't say anything that it has to go to a youth commission. So thank you for clarifying that for me because I kept thinking, gosh, am I missing something in the code? But you've just clarified that, no, there is no codified requirement that we need to have the youth commission ratify a list before we can proceed.
5:46:05And I appreciate you taking the initiative to program this and move it forward. So thank you very much.
5:46:38Additional comments?
5:46:46Yeah, Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Sarmiento. so I wanted to make sure everybody got their clarifications in before I spoke. And so I guess I'll wrap up.
5:46:48There might be more clarifications coming, though, so speak fast.
5:46:55I don't want to open up that Pandora's box. But look, I certainly think that all of us, as we speak about, you know, what we need to do to provide services, a basic service I think we as a municipal government need to do is fund our youth. and that was one of the reasons I couldn't support the budget earlier was because I believe that that fund should have been expanded. But I guess this item is a little misleading.
5:46:59Somebody just mentioned, and I think it was Councilman Becerra, that the monies that we're talking about here, Madam City Manager, they're cannabis monies, right? It just appears like these are monies that we just found and that we're kind of getting out from the air. These are monies that we've had. They're unspent monies that were restricted for youth expenditures and youth funding and programming. Is that correct, or am I misreading that?
5:47:34No, you're correct, sir.
5:48:03Okay. And so, you know.
5:48:04Are we having a conversation here?
5:48:08And so, look, I just think, you know, I don't want to mislead the public because these are monies that we've already directed. And I just heard a very, you know, involved enumerated list from our director of Parks and Recs on her plans to spend these monies. And I think that those were well thought out. I think they incorporated some of the comments and opinions from the Youth Commission, as well as some of the comments from the Council and members of the public. So, you know, what I don't want to have as the optics is to be saying we're going to get out of the business of providing services and programming to the youth.
5:48:11I mean, that is a core service delivery that we have a responsibility to respect and to perform. I have no objection whatsoever to having the school districts, not just SAUSD, but all the districts that compose our, are within our city boundary and serve our residents, to give us opinions. I'm really proud of Santa Ana Unified for what they did with ethnic studies. I couldn't be prouder. I'm a product of the school district, and I'm also a Chicano Studies minor. So I know how important it is to give historical context when a person is studying, especially when you're young.
5:48:52But I think we also have an opportunity here, and I think the city manager, the director of Parks and Recs, and their staffs have really given a lot of thought about how we should expend these monies that are important. This is what we're supposed to do. These are things that we have an obligation, and I don't want to abrogate that responsibility that we have to our youth. I don't want to break that trust and just give it to another agency or give it to somebody who we're going to procure. That is our role. And especially at this moment when we have close to 175, 176 part-time employees that could help deliver that service,
5:49:30and we can employ them at the same time. I get that it's a noble effort. The way I see it is that these monies are going to be spent on youth, whether we spend it or whether we give it away. I just think I don't want us to sort of disengage ourselves as a city, because then it will be easy to say, you know, let somebody else handle the responsibilities for the youth. That is something that I'm not able to support. I welcome all the opinions and all the comments from our sister agencies that work with youth, especially SAUSD.
5:50:09I got a very detailed message from a trustee and school board member Valerie Amesqua and said, look, you guys can't defund yourselves out of this youth programming. This is something that we have to work in concert with, not remove ourselves and let somebody else do it. And I'm just you know I'm very concerned the one thing I do want to say that as you were listing making your list Lisa on things that you had you know scheduled for these expenditures please include Wi-Fi access because I think that's what all
5:50:42of us have been saying and that is something that will provide services to all our youth all our residents and I think that's something that is extremely important but look I I'm just I'm just a little troubled because this is really really misleading the way it's presented and and I just don't appreciate that I think it's better just to be straight with the community and say these are monies that we already have for the youth this isn't newfound money and these aren't things that we you know and it almost makes it look like our staff is incompetent they haven't been able to expend it that they have no idea how to
5:51:21use it they don't know what they're doing and i have tremendous respect for the city manager the director of parks and recs because she's been able to accomplish a lot in a very little in a very short time i know that there's bathrooms going in at you at delhi there's improvements going in at madison park you know you're the predecessors you've had have been very good people but in the short time that you've been here miss rudloff you've made a big difference and i appreciate all the work that you've done and you've heard us on what we need for our youth
5:51:57So I think that we have to work in concert and with our agencies, but we cannot get out of the business of providing youth services. That is something that, that's one of the reasons why many of us ran, was to help our youth. And if we're going to simply just go ahead and abrogate that and disengage and contract that out to another agency, we're not in a position to do that. We're separating and terminating employees and we're going to be doing something like that. Makes no sense. So I agree with my colleagues that have spoken previously. I cannot support the direction.
5:52:26I can certainly welcome input and work as a partner in delivering service to the youth, but I cannot support us removing ourselves from that.
5:52:59Thank you. Additional comments?
5:53:11Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Penaloza.
5:53:18Please go ahead, Council Member.
5:53:21I just wanted to thank my colleague, Councilmember Sarmiento, for those comments. And I wanted to double down on that Wi-Fi hotspots. I know that I have put in a request, and I wasn't going to check it out in the library for a hotspot, just to see how long the process really is. And it's been over almost two months, and I haven't, you know, there hasn't been one available for me to rent or check out. And I know there's a very long waiting list for that. and I know that when you do check it out, it's only two weeks max that residents get. So let's focus on that. The Wi-Fi talk has been going on for years,
5:53:23and we definitely have the capability to really, really start looking at how we could partner with our school districts and even the cell companies that keep putting cell antennas on every pole in the city, it seems like. how can we put that to use? How can we provide free Wi-Fi to our youth? And that is something that is very important and needed for a lot of our communities. Internet's expensive. At my house, it's over $100, and it is expensive, and it could be very costly for an average family in Santa
5:54:04Anna. I know that growing up as a kid, the way that my brothers and I would get internet was we would go and steal the free AOL 500-hour CDs from supermarkets, and we'd install it on our giant desktop, and we'd have a little tally of how many hours we used the internet. And as soon as it was getting close to the 500, we'd cancel it, or if it wasn't my mom fighting to use the phone, she needed the... So that's how we used the internet. And now, You don't have those creative ways to do it besides going and sitting at a Starbucks. But do we really want our children hanging out at a Starbucks unattended?
5:54:41We know that they can't do that. So if there's a way that we could use these funds to get those bookmobiles sooner than later, I know that speaking to Brian, he said that they will have Wi-Fi hotspot capability on the vans and park them in these neighborhoods where we know they need them for three, four hours a day. And the hotspots, increasing that inventory is so critical to our youth and getting them the tools that they're going to need to succeed in school. Because coming home from school, they don't have that internet access.
5:55:23So I want to make sure that we really put those dollars towards this and focus on that and expand that Wi-Fi hotspot inventory. because, again, it's been almost two months, and I still haven't heard back from the library. Summer vacation is about a month and a half, two months long. So here we have potentially one of our school districts, whether it's Garden Grove or Santa Ana Unified or Orange, wanting to get a Wi-Fi hotspot and not getting one at all, all summer, because of how short that inventory is.
5:56:00So in a way that we could focus on that and focus on really beefing up these youth services that we already provide, that's going to, I mean, it's going to go a long ways. And we will see the impact on it that it could have on our community. So that's it. Those are my comments. But thank you.
5:56:35I have a quick comment.
5:56:56Yes, go ahead, Councilwoman. Go ahead.
5:56:59Thank you. I just wanted to inform my colleagues that the Santa Ana Unified School District has already bought 5,800 hotspots, and they'll be buying about 4,000 more. So we should collaborate so that we could work together on having the Wi-Fi hotspots. and the other clarification that I just want to make is that my intention is that the all the other programs be included the ones that our director
5:57:01mentioned earlier so not just in a partnership with the school district but the school district was extended its services because we were our facilities are still being restricted. However, they were going to be able to provide those services for the summer, which is much sooner than we could, than the city could. So that's why we asked for this $1.5 million, which still leaves plenty of money for the other programs.
5:57:39So I encourage my colleagues to reconsider so that we could work together. and it will include all of Santa Ana residents, all of our youth, whoever is able to come to these services. It's not limiting anyone from these services. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
5:58:18You're welcome. Additional comments? Mr. Mayor, one last thing.
5:58:40This is Councilman Peñaloza, and I just want to take this opportunity to remind the council that we did have a joint committee with the school district and the city council at one point, and it was disbanded last year. And from what I recall, they didn't meet for over a year. And it's something that we should sit back and look at and say, could we bring that back? Is there support on this council and from the school district to bring that committee back and meet quarterly and talk about these things? because these things, I mean, like if the school district did buy 5,000 hotspots or whatnot,
5:58:47I'd be supportive to say, okay, you know what, we're providing for the same constituents, for the same kids, let's split the bill. Let's, you know, what can we do and say, okay, you know, we'll pay for half of them. That is fine, but for me to sit here and just give a check to the school district, that's not a real partnership. a partnership you got to sit down and and and i'm not married but i'm assuming this is what married couples do and sit down and you know draw out their budget and what they want to buy and what can they afford and and and that's what i mean you know i'm i'm i wholeheartedly love the school
5:59:25district and i know they're doing so good and so much for our youth but at the same time we we got to focus on on the youth programs that we're providing and not you know short changing them there but working on that partnership so i mean if i need to 85 that that conversation to bring back that committee at the next council meeting i mean i'm i'm uh behind it and i'd love to serve on it just gonna say that now so um yeah that's those are my final comments that's it i promise
6:00:03thank you um if i may maybe uh just to wrap it up um i'd like to say i think there's a middle ground here um i believe that uh monies should stay within the city but i think that there's many ways within the city that we can do more for you i know this is not new money but it's money that i believe hasn't all been extended um so even though you're getting all sorts of different ideas madam city manager may you can do your magic and doesn't have to be right away but may you can bring
6:00:34back some ideas or talk individually uh with council members because i know you meet with council members and go over wish lists and agendas kind of like the way we do the the block grant dollars and other things they may even come back with something that'll move things forward um you know this is going to be a very tough summer for all of us especially the youth um you know they got school cut out from underneath them and, you know, some graduated the best they could and many are getting ready to go to college, but it's not certain what that's going to mean. And meanwhile, you know,
6:01:11jobs are tough because a lot of industry is not really going the way they normally go. So I think making an extra effort in this environment of a triple pandemic because that's what we've got we've got the virus we we've got the economy and we have social unrest so i i just think this summer uh if we can do anything anything we ought to think out of the box and make it happen um so with that um what's our next item madam clerk 85c
6:01:52this is my this is my two speakers on that mr mayor this is uh councilmember solorio
6:02:32i brought this forward you want to speak first you want to let speakers speak uh i'll speak
6:02:37first just to kind of tee it up and if there are speakers or my colleagues uh or all right that's fine go ahead thank you first regarding timing the reason why i'm bringing this up is because fourth of july is around the corner uh and on the prior item uh we we created that youth fund almost four years ago and we haven't spent one dollar. That's why there's the urgency to make sure that via the budget we address it. So that was the reason for the timing on that because we're working on the budget. So for those that were curious on fireworks, I know we're all getting emails
6:02:42calls and texts already about the fireworks going on. It's not the sparklers that people call about. It's about ones that sound like they're bombs literally or like guns or there's concern for fires and personal danger and I know that we have had programs that focus heavy on like July 1st through July 5th or so and we put a lot of our resources at the back end but at the back end there's just so much stuff out there and so much smoke and activity that I know citation wise we haven't been able to do much on the day of though educational warnings we
6:03:15should start with that first but as I said earlier I really want to encourage early enforcement you know between now and then if we see things go up or if we get calls or complaints as well as I know I think it was three years ago a former council member Lisa Mills and I we did a kind of pilot project because I you know believe in private pilot projects too and we asked individuals to give us addresses of folks that launch major and many illegal fireworks we sent letters to him saying hey we know you've done it don't do it again and about at
6:03:56least a third didn't shoot off fireworks and just by the letter alone I think in a few cases we also had officers or staff go by and visit so early enforcement is key use of past complaints is key that data is there let's use data let's be smart with the data and then please please and I don't know who manages this number and maybe as a follow-up city manager you can let me know but if we have a central number where we're asking people to call in for fireworks that number needs to be staffed all night long on the fourth and quite frankly probably the third and the fifth too or whatever the history is of
6:04:32when that voicemail gets full those are my ass I know there's a lot of people that really want them gone, banned, but you know I think really when that happened what happens is the sparklers get banned but the illegal fireworks get continue and so we're always still looking for more insights on that and maybe our police chief or anybody from our fire department might have insight on that. I just wanted to share those thoughts with our city manager and our police department as we head into this 4th of July and hoping that everybody has a safe and sane 4th
6:05:09of July. Those are my comments. This, like the prior item, is also just for direction, Mr. Mayor.
6:05:42All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Any item, any speakers on this one?
6:05:48Yes, we do.
6:05:53Go ahead. How many?
6:05:56We have two currently.
6:05:57Fine. Go ahead.
6:06:00Caller, please do.
6:06:01Hi, my name is Steve Dallito. I would want to talk about the fireworks. I think, yes, there definitely needs to be some kind of mitigation towards it. However, at the same time, I do not think that imposing a $1,000 fine on people right now makes sense because of COVID-19. Now, if you guys did want a fine, wouldn't it make more sense, especially right now, to not burden someone with that? Because the policeman, if that person goes to the court, he's going to have to be there, he's going to get overtime, and he's going to further burden the city. So there needs to be some compassion as well.
6:06:02It is interesting that you said people have already been calling you and texting you. it's great that you reach out to them i wrote you an open letter and you have not reached out to me jones olorio uh or sorry jose solorio um so what i would suggest is for the time being have a little bit more compassion and just do what i do here's a suggestion i take my hose i water down my roof so that it doesn't catch on fire and then i buy some nicer plugs and i would suggest for you on that day probably wear just you know maybe a little bit less hairspray and there'll be no problem That's the end of my comment.
6:06:37Let's talk with Ned. Okay.
6:07:12Thank you, caller.
6:07:17Caller, please state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
6:07:23Hi, my name is Carla Juarez again. I just also wanted to let you guys know that we are still here. So we do stay with you all throughout the meeting. I was on hold for the previous item on the agenda in regards to the money invested into the youth. If you're concerned about civil unrest, please take precaution if you decide not to spend the money on youth, because it'll create more civil unrest knowing that you guys did provide money for the police
6:07:29department but you guys are not willing to provide money for the youth now i agree and i accept whatever if you guys are trying to look into on how to spend that money but i just urge you that it does go to the youth because there's a lot of mistrust already for the council i mean for the police department and for the council and for the government and if you guys keep on not listening to your constituents it is not going to create a good environment for all of us to live in and for all of us to share space the fireworks are not an issue for me but i do have an issue
6:08:09on how much money we spent for the helicopter to be flying around and i do want to make sure that you guys name it how much is it i understand it's 30 000 for every hour that the helicopter is hovering around my house i want to make sure that the city knows because that money could also be invested in youth if we found a way to give money to the police department we can find a way to give money to invest in youth i want to thank you for my time and i will continue to be here and listening to y'all until the media ends. Thank you for my time.
6:08:48Thank you.
6:09:26Is there any, Madam Clerk?
6:09:31We have another caller. Caller, if you would please state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.
6:09:32Hi, I'm sorry, but I was calling for the item before this. This is Lisa Gonzalez-Selloman. Once again, here to talk to you about our youth and about programs that are being provided for the kids in our community. I know that we're worried about fireworks. We're worried about what's going on in our community, and there's so much that we need to do. But if we do not work through all of this together, whether it's providing education, providing summer programs, Santa Ana Unified has done a lot to help the kids throughout this COVID time, and I hope that you continue to work with us on all of our efforts
6:09:41and work with us together because right now who is with the kids i have i have 12 teachers who are teaching summer programs who are educating our kids who are teaching them how to be safe throughout these difficult difficult times and i hope that santa anna the city of santa anna i chose to live here because i love it here and i hope that you will continue to work with the school district work with all the school districts and i know we can find the money to support all the
6:10:17programs for you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers, Madam Clerk? No, that was the last,
6:10:43but I did want to announce that we did receive emails on this item. We had eight residents that
6:10:51supported it and three that objected. That is all. All right. Additional comments, council members?
6:10:57Are there no comments? If not, we'll just move on.
6:11:15Madam Clerk, what's next on the agenda?
6:11:25Mayor, we do not have any other action items, but we have general public comment period, so items that are not listed on the agenda.
6:11:29Okay, how many speakers do we have for that?
6:11:41Currently, we only have one.
6:11:46Fine, let's go ahead, no problem.
6:11:48Caller, please state your name for the record.
6:11:53Hi, this is Olga from Ward 3. I was supposed to speak on a couple items earlier today, but for some reason, my calls weren't taken. and for item 85A, I was in the queue, but you unmuted multiple people at the same time, and thus I was taken out of the queue. So I think you need to have more experience with this, because you silenced me and you silenced a bunch of other people who were supposed to go, but because of your incompetence, they weren't able to speak on any of the matters that they wanted to.
6:11:57I just wanted to say I support the police oversight commission, but I don't want the cops to have any power over it. You can't have the same people investigating themselves. A close friend of mine was groped by an officer after the police were called for a domestic violence incident. And the police, who was from Santa Ana, PD, who escorted her home, broke her. I don't want any of any cops on this commission. It's just it's irresponsible. Pulido, you need to do better.
6:12:35I've attended only three of these meetings, and you sound so disinterested each time. You all need to do better. Thank you. Good night.
6:13:12All right. Thank you. Madam, are we to the city manager's comments, or where are we?
6:13:23Yes, you are. and I don't have anything.
6:13:31Go ahead, madam.
6:13:34Nothing to report, sir.
6:13:36All right, thank you. Council members, let's go ahead and start with Council Member Solario, please.
6:13:39Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank all the staff for their patience this whole week with all these meetings, et cetera. I especially want to thank City Manager Ridge, our budget officer, and all the department heads on bringing forth a good start in a budget. I think you heard ideas for a lot of reforms and improvements to accommodate, you know, requests of the community. So I'm thankful for that and just wish everybody a happy 4th of July. Be safe and sane and have your mask around. Most hopefully everybody knows that Governor Newsom did make it a statewide requirement to wear a mask or face covering.
6:13:46So look to send in as Nixle messages or social media to get the latest and greatest on that. We're all stronger together, and let's stay safe. Thank you.
6:14:27Thank you. Councilman Peña-Losa, please.
6:14:41Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to also thank staff for their patience this whole last month, or couple of months, really, with COVID and the budget process. I mean, you guys have done as best as you can, and I appreciate all of you, and I want to thank you. I also want to, you know, keep it short. I want to, you know, I grew up without a father, but with Father's Day coming up, I just want to wish everybody a Father's Day and a happy Father's Day. My colleagues up here on this dais, the mayor, Councilmember Sarmiento, Councilmember Villegas, Salorio, you know happy father's day to all you guys and our executive team that our
6:14:45fathers you know my mother filled both roles and wish her a happy father's day too because she wore that hat and she did a great job and just wanted to you know wish everyone a happy 4th of July as well that's it
6:15:27thank you Councilor Mendoza please yes thank you staff for staying so late and for all the hard work and the effort that you put into preparing the meetings for us. And also, I want to thank my colleagues.
6:15:42We disagree on some items, but I commend you that you keep it professional, and that's the way it should be. Happy Fourth of July to everyone, and happy Father's Day. That's it. Good night.
6:15:59Thank you. Councilman Ravince-Sarmiento, please.
6:16:13caught me off guard mr. Mary you forgot about councilmember Becerra but I guess he'll yield to me just for a couple minutes I'll be quick so I do want to start by wishing everybody a happy Father's Day as well you know I don't have my father with me it's been close to 25 years so for those of you who do have your father you know treasure them love them give them a hug you know we we need some love as well we know that mothers monopolize a lot of the love because they do the heavy lifting, but some of our fathers also try to help out as much as we can. I want to thank staff and the public for their patience,
6:16:18and we know these have been two very long nights in a single week, and so our apologies, but again, this is the people's work, and this is what we all signed up for, and we did it voluntarily. Nobody drafted us to do this. I do want to recognize three good pieces of news that we had this week. The first one was from the Supreme Court earlier this week on its decision to not discriminate and fire anybody on the basis of sexual orientation. So that was a big win coming from a court that's fairly splintered. And it reminds me a little bit of this council every once in a while.
6:16:54But they also handed down a very good decision today, having to do with many of our children and youth, speaking of youth, on the DACA decision. So they decided on a very slim margin, on a 5-4 margin, that the attempt to dismantle the DACA executive order was denied. And, you know, thank God for procedural process, right, Madam City Attorney? Sometimes you don't win on the merits, but so long as you win and you keep folks' hopes alive, that's an important thing. So procedure matters.
6:17:33Finally, I want to thank Governor Newsom because I was going to dedicate my public comments specifically on the whole issue of masks, and he kind of preempted my comments by making a decision earlier today, mandating those when we're in public spaces and when we can't physically distance. That doesn't mean when you're walking on the sidewalk and you're riding your bike with your children or your friends. or on your own. You have to wear them, but when you're going into a space that you could expose others to, that is what the governor ordered, and I think that was the prudent thing to do,
6:18:09because the sooner we can get rid of this, we can open up quicker. We don't want to take any steps backward. We've sacrificed so long. The last thing I'd want to see us do is take steps backwards and have to shelter in place for a longer period of time. I think all of us have had enough of that. So let's open up and conduct ourselves responsibly. Thank you all for your
6:18:41patience. Good night. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Becerra, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
6:19:02I just wanted to thank everybody who stayed with us and participated in Tuesday night's meeting and tonight's meeting as well. I wanted to wish our LGBTQ neighbors a happy Pride Month. I'm very proud that Santa Ana flies the Pride flag throughout the month of June. And I also wanted I wish everybody a happy 4th of July. And, of course, to echo my colleagues' sentiments, a happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. Good night.
6:19:08Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem, Villegas, please.
6:19:36Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to say a happy Father's Day to everyone. Happy 4th of July. This will be my first Father's Day without my dad. And, you know, I guess I'll move forward like he did when his father passed. But thank you, everyone. Good night.
6:19:39Thank you. Good night. I just want to say that, unfortunately, on the viral pandemic, because I believe we have three pandemics, but, you know, on the biological one, we're right at 2,000 cases in Santa Ana right now. We're leading the county in a category we don't want to lead. I've been working very hard day and night really trying to figure out with the state how to get more money. And I do think we're going to get possibly as much as $28 million.
6:19:57It depends on what they end up doing with the budget, and that money will have some more flexibility. I think as a council, we have to be working closely with our city manager, and we need to do something that, frankly, I believe the county has failed to do, and that is to take this matter seriously. I'm talking about contact tracing. I'm talking about getting masks, you know, for the entire community. Some of the community don't know where to get them or can't afford them, and yet, you know, they're very, very vulnerable.
6:20:35I do thank the governor for the order today because I've been trying to get masks on OCTA buses and I've not been able to convince a majority, well not a majority necessarily, but certainly not the entire board to do that and that's made it difficult. but as we have buses people trying to go back to work trying to get to places it's not enough to have a mask on the bus driver we have to have masks on on on on the riders that are in these buses because they become mobile petri dishes if you will and so i i i believe uh you know we have
6:21:12to hopefully get this money soon, become very aggressive. One of the things I've spoken to the city manager about is potentially having a public health official that we gave up the right to have back in 1974, gave it back to the county, but potentially, you know, having one here for us as a city, it's something Long Beach did, and I believe it has served them well. You know, Certainly, I've argued with our county public health official that we have a city that requires more attention. We're not Villa Park. I love Villa Park.
6:21:52I know the mayor there. We converse often. We have a different situation, and yet the county is pretty much doing one-size-fits-all. And they are beginning to do more here in Santa Ana. but just look at the statistics and it's real. I would also tell you that I think there's a category that the whole world is missing. And that category is the category of people that are dying from the virus, but they're not being properly categorized. There's countries right now they're not even really counting people anymore. They're just, you know, digging a lot of graves
6:22:34and burying people, and that's just a terrible concept, but that's reality. And, you know, here we do know that we have more people in hospitals right now than we've ever had. There's more people in ICUs than we've ever had. And the deaths in Santa Ana, I'm trying to get them more often by city, but I believe we're approaching about 50 deaths here in the city. so it's real we're nowhere near over it if we're not aggressive and are able to handle it the virus will be here for a long long time to come and so we have to all do our part
6:23:14and be very aggressive I hope that we all have a safe 4th of July I think I expect that you know there's going to be a lot of energy out there because people have been cooped up for a long time and it's just natural to want to celebrate, but to the extent we can encourage everybody to be safe, we ought to let them blow out steam, but I'd encourage everybody to be safe at the same time. And as it relates to Father's Day, definitely happy Father's Day to everybody. In my case, I'm fortunate.
6:23:55it, you know, my dad's still alive and I'm working very hard to make his life as best I can. And, and just a personal note to Councilmember Sarmento, because, you know, I was very close to, you know, his dad and, and, and I just know what a wonderful individual he was. And I know that It's been years since he passed, but a father like a mother, somebody very, very, hopefully very, very close to your heart for your whole life.
6:24:36And so there's a chance to honor our fathers and spend a little bit of time with them and say thank you the same way we honor our mothers on Mother's Day. So with that, this meeting is adjourned, and onward and forward, everybody.
6:25:12Thank you.
6:25:29