Read the June 16 meeting.

Mayor Pro Temer in County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County County

Here. Councilmember Mendoza? Here. Councilmember Peñalosa?

Present.

Councilmember Sarmiento?

Here.

Councilmember Solorio?

Here.

Mayor Potem-Viegas? Here. Mayor Pulido?

Here.

I guess we don't have the mayor on the line just yet. No, I'm here. Oh, you're here? Okay, here we go. Now we can hear you, sir. Okay, if everyone can please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Put your right hand over your heart. Ready to 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. If you can remain standing, we have our invocation by our police chaplain, Bob Barnett.

lord it's a real privilege to in a sense be together this night and be in agreement lord throughout our whole city we ask your presence to fill this place your word tells us that you are always a present help in our times of trouble and lord there are times we need you to intervene and lord i'm not afraid to ask that you would cause this virus to diminish that you would bring back our economy that you would anoint our leadership here lord for all the decisions they have to make. You would guard and protect them and bless our city. And Lord, I would also pray that you would guard and protect our

first responders, our policemen, our firemen, Lord God, as they're out and working in the community. And Lord, we thank you for our people. Bless them in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Thank you. Please be seated. We're now moving on to the ceremonial presentation where myself and Council Member Mendoza, if you can meet me out here in the well.

good evening everyone watching us online and on channel three I'm mayor pro Juan Villegas and this is our new council member Nelita Mendoza and we are here today to present this proclamation to all of you to show our commitment that we stand with the community and with all of our residents and we will not tolerate any injustice and we have this proclamation to present to everyone today we're not giving this to anyone in particular this will be for the public

and obviously we don't really have an audience here today other than staff and I would like to ask councilmember Mendoza to please say a few words regarding our proclamation Do you agree with that?

Sure.

Would you like to read it? Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

Good evening, Santa Ana residents. The City of Santa Ana issues a proclamation recognizing Santa Ana solidarity, whereas the City of Santa Ana's purpose is to provide quality service to enhance the safety, livability, and prosperity of our community, and whereas a prosperous community is one in which freedom, liberation, and justice are afforded to all people and whereas systemic injustice has plagued our country and has especially harmed our black community

and whereas acts of injustice persist in our institutions, our schools, workplaces, criminal justice systems, police departments, and elsewhere. and whereas as a local government it is our duty to combat these injustices champion social justices and I will let you finish the other where asses so we can do it together.

Where is that over here?

Yes.

Whereas the Santa Ana Police Department is committed to providing professional, fair and compassionate, and dedicated law enforcement with integrity and respect for all individuals. And whereas the Santa Ana City Council supports individuals' rights to freedom of expression, including engaging in peaceful protests that raise awareness of injustice and promote social justice. and whereas the City of Santa Ana does not support acts of violence such as looting and riots that may be carried out by individuals who are not affiliated with peaceful protests

or inciting or producing imminent lawless action. That is a proclamation for the City of Santa Ana. We'll take a photo.

Would the council like to join us? Please.

Thank you.

Okay, we're going to continue with the meeting.

Madam City Attorney, do we have anything to report out of closed session?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor, Council members, members of the public, we had several closed session items this evening, but we do not have any reportable action.

Thank you very much. Any of the council members would like to pull an item? We're not the clerk now.

David PenalozaItem —

Yes, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. This is Council Member Penaloza, and I would like to pull item 29A.

29A. Is there any other...

Anyone else? For the record, staff has requested to pull item 25F, so we will not be hearing that item today. Is there any other, Council Members?

20C, please.

20C.

Okay. You got that, Madam Clerk? Okay. Is there a motion to approve the balance? So moved.

Phil BacerraItem —

Second. Yes, sir.

Mayor Paton, I just want to make sure that if there are any members of the public who would like to speak on this, on any of the consent calendar items that they virtually raised their hand by selecting or dialing star nine.

We have none.

You have none. No members of the public wishing to speak on these items. Okay, can you please call the roll?

Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Peñalosa? Yes. Councilmember Sarmiento? Yes. Councilmember Solorio? Yes. Mayor Pretend-Viegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido? Yes.

Okay, very good. Passes. Let's go on to the first item, 29A. Council Member Peñalosa?

I believe, sir, 20C.

Oh, 20C, you want to go in that order? Okay, 20C.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Just a quick question for staff on this. This is the acquisition of five Tahoe vehicles. These are new vehicles that are going to be used because we have additional staff that are going to need transportation, I assume. and these aren't for vehicles that are expiring out and we're replacing, correct? And forgive me for that echo. I don't know if it's my microphone.

You're correct, sir.

Oh, I wasn't sure. I didn't.

Oh, no, you're correct, sir.

Okay, so because we have some additional staff that do need to have these, from what I understand,

we're going from 53 to 64 vehicles that's is that sir and I would like to ask the chief of police to

come out and he can explain the purchase of the vehicles and he also talked about the funding source that we're using to purchase those that'd be great thanks chief

good evening mayor portem council city manager city attorney appreciate the question yes this is for the purchase of five police vehicles that are needed for additional staff what occurred during the pandemic was the Ford dealer shut down completely and therefore the Ford Explorer wasn't available for a number of months so everything's on back order so what we're doing is getting Tahoes that are available now and putting sergeants in them and then having those vehicles available for line officers. We hired you know 50 officers last year and so it's just an

additional need for staff. Right. So this isn't to replace expiring or vehicles that are sort of phasing out of the system, correct? No. I'm just curious, what's that phasing out period at? Like, what's the expiration? Is it mileage or is it time? Both. Both. And then it depends on the vehicle

history as well, if it's been involved in collisions to the point where they can't be repaired. It can have low miles but if it's you know obviously damaged we get rid of that

vehicle as well got it thanks for that and I know that we have Public Works mentioned here as well are they sharing the vehicle or why why are they listed here as an agency that's going to yeah okay so they maintain the vehicle so that's right thank you for that thank you

I'll go ahead and move the yard.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second. Second by Mendoza. Do we have a, can we have a roll, please?

I'm sorry, Mayor, for time. Who motioned?

Sarmiento.

Oh, thank you. Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem —

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento? Yes. Councilmember Soloria? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem-Viegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido? Yeah.

David PenalozaItem —

The motion passes. Next item is 29A. Councilman Penielsen? Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I pulled 29A, which is to award a purchase order in the amount of $311,000 to total manufacturing for bus stop trash containers and benches. And the reason I pull this is because I just had a couple of questions to our public works director or city manager, whoever could answer these, in regards to the design of these bus shelters and what exactly we're buying. I know there was a bench mock-up in the exhibit of the staff report, but not an actual picture of what these benches will look like.

David PenalozaItem —

The reason I'm asking is because the ones we currently have, which is the ones with aluminum kind of backing with the little pictures in them, and the small, I mean, to me those are really ugly and problematic in the fact that the trash cans, we see them constantly flipped over throughout the city because it doesn't seem like these trash cans are emptied. So I had a couple questions, Mr. Nabil Saba, and the first one is the final design we're left with, as shown in the contractor's quote, is that final? Are we going to be presented with any potential modifications to that?

I believe there is potential for modification, but we selected this design that was attached to the report. The color can be changed. we selected kind of charcoal black with the city Santa Ana on it that's the the design on the bench and before we did this we I actually drove other cities like Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton and all of these cities do use the same vendor we've used the same vendor they're very very beautiful and we selected design typically what we do is we go to ETAC for their feedback but

because of COVID-19 we haven't been able to meet and so and because of the funding we would lose the funding because it's general fund come July 1st so we have accelerated this purchase and this is the design what we picked so is

David PenalozaItem —

that the reason why it also didn't go through the formal bidding process because of yes okay we were rushed for time got it and is there a map available identifying the bus shelters in the city that this will replace? I know it's about 150 bus shelters, but do we know where they're going?

It will replace some, but we have some stops that don't have benches or trash. So we will be doing both. We're looking at the condition of the ones that exist for replacement, but we will also be adding for a bus shelter, a bus bench, and a trash can for those that we don't have anything.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. And have we identified and considered the removal of problem bus shelters? And I'm talking, you know, ones that are constantly used for encampments, where we constantly see the trash just emptied out and laying there for days. Right off the top of my head, I could, you know, there's Maine and Warner by the McDonald's. I know that's a problematic bus shelter. I know that off of Broadway and 3rd, that's a problematic bus shelter along Bristol. First, there's some problematic bus shelters that we see.

David PenalozaItem —

I don't know if we need to increase the amount of times we empty these trash cans out or do constant clearing, but every time I drive by, I just feel that I see just this trash flipped over and trash littered everywhere. and I want to make sure we address that if we're going to be investing these dollars into these bus shelters that we maintain them and we really take care of the maintenance that they require.

Sure. I'm glad to let you know that we are trying to re-pepper some of the part-timers that we have let go to come back on a part-time basis to do just that, to maintain the shelters for us, pick up trash and clean the area from Friday all the way to Monday over the weekend. That's something I'm working with human resources on, and I think we're getting really close to bring back some of those individuals that will let go to do just that. And within a couple of weeks, we will have that team. In addition to what we have as clear channel is maintaining the

bus shelters for us right now, but we need more. So once we bring this team of four individuals, we hopefully will have better handle on that situation. As far as removing shelters just because there is a homeless that are there, that's a tough decision because there's people that need the shade and need to sit down and wait for the bus.

David PenalozaItem —

Right.

David PenalozaItem —

So you're saying that right now they're only emptied out once a week during the weekend?

I'll have to check on the frequency and how often they're maintained but probably twice a week but my observation is coming off of a weekend, it's really bad so I'm trying to implement this team where I would have two individuals Saturday Friday, Saturday two individuals, eight hours and eight hours and then another two individuals will be Sunday and Monday eight hours and eight hours a team of four or two individuals. So we'll have those done on the weekends, and then what Clear Channel will be doing, will be doing what they're doing right now. So it's an enhancement of what we have right now.

David PenalozaItem —

Good. And I just brought that up because of the high use that these bus shelters have. I know that I can't go a day without driving by one of them in the city where it's filled to the brim and flipped over and just makes it look messy. So if we could get a handle of that, I appreciate it. Those are my only questions. With that, I'll move the item for approval. If any of my colleagues have questions.

Yeah, thank you very much. Council Member Sarmiento.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. So, Nabil, kind of to the Council Member's question, I think those were really good questions about where they go because these are 134 bus benches and 155 trash containers. And so to me, I'm looking more at the aesthetics and the uniformity of it, right? So to the extent that we have different areas in the city, let's just use, for example, South Main, where it's a very Art Deco 50s architecture along that street from First to Warner, to the extent that they look uniform is really important, I think, to the just feel and the environment there.

So will these be replacing, in other words, will we have one style bench, which is new like this one, and then the next stop is going to have a completely different...

I'm looking for uniformity and not necessarily just change for the sake of change. So these will be added to some bus stops, but those that are deteriorating and needs to be changed, we will remove those and put the new ones in i will have to really specifically drive main street which i do to specifically look at which ones we can replace with the project south maine coming in we'll look close on what we need to change and and to what style now and i appreciate you and

your staff doing this obviously under these circumstances it's difficult under other circumstances i think you know what would have been ideal is that we almost look at a historic feel for a bench and a stop because or for the you know the trash bin because it really does match the architecture for that area right south maine has got some very interesting architecture you could say you know there's other places in the city like downtown also very different and then other parts of town north maine is is is a little bit more contemporary right so but the

uniformity in each district is something that's important so i just don't want to you know i just don't think it's a good look when you have a really nice looking you know stop and then you go to the next stop and it looks completely different and it's green and it's got a completely different look then it looks like we have a hodgepodge so to the extent you can make sure that these are introduced

consistently and councilmember we can follow up with you on where the planned installation would be so if you have any additional concerns we can address them

at that time. Thank you. Council Member Mendoza. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. And I agree with my colleague, Sarmiento, about having some kind of branding for our benches and our trash cans so that when we get people coming in, it's immediately noted that there is a pride in our city in having some kind of retro design or whatever it is that the community would like. and perhaps maybe we could have some kind of a committee to take a look at the different options. And that's one thing on this item.

The second thing is that I want to know what is going to happen with the old benches and trash cans that are being taken out because this is a lot of metal, which is worth a lot of money. so did we get a discount when this was because they're going to recycle this item right this material there would be a recycled yes yes so was there a credit given to us in the proposal the installation of these benches will be

done by a different contractor and the provisions for the one that when we do the change is the old one will be brought back to the yard where it will be recycled not necessarily credit today we're purchasing them and we're not getting credit for the ones that were attending or taking back so they will be recycled but the there is no credit for what we're returning back and I

forgot to second when I was commenting so first in a second any other comments

clerk can you call the roll councilmember Becerra yes councilmember Mendoza yes Councilmember Peñalosa? Yes. Councilmember Sarmiento? Yes. Councilmember Solorio?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempe Vegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido?

Yeah.

7-0.

Very good. The motion passes. We're going to move on to item, if I'm correct, 55C.

Is there any public speakers on this item, Madam Clerk?

Callers, if you would like to speak on item 55C, Dial star 9 for the record. Please clearly state your name, whether you're in support of or in opposition to this item. You have three minutes from the time you're unmuted. Please proceed with your comment. We do have four virtual hands raised.

Caller, please state your name for the record. You have three minutes.

This is for item 55C.

Okay, next caller.

Caller, if you'd like to speak on item 55C, dial star 9 for the record. Please clearly state your name, whether you're in support or in opposition to the item. You have three minutes.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we're on item 55C.

I just wanted to actually say a general comment. your live feed is maybe about a minute and a half behind the actual the real time so if someone calls to speak on an item it's already about a minute and a half past than when you guys were speaking about it. Thank you. We'll let

our IT team know.

Caller we're on item 55C please state your name for the record you have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted please proceed with your comment

next caller caller we are on item 55 C please state your name for the record you have three minutes from the time you have been unmuted please proceed with your comment hello yes hi we're on item 55 C please proceed with your comment

Oh, it was also a general statement about it lagging, but it's because I had a comment earlier about the police cars, but since it was lagging, I wasn't able to go through. I don't know if I could still comment.

That item has been closed. If you've provided your comment by email, we could also receive that for the record.

Okay, can I still submit that?

She can submit the email, yes.

You may submit the email. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there any other callers? No other callers? Okay. Is there any comments from council members regarding this item?

Council member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem —

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. So I just want to make sure on this particular item. So all we're doing at this point is if we were to approve this item, we're just approving the noticing of it. We're not approving any action as far as the, help me here real quick, it's the statement of overriding consideration.

Correct, sir. So the only thing you're doing is adopting a resolution that would authorize our planning division to prepare and provide notice to the Airport Land Use Commission in accordance with the PUC code. We do have a very brief presentation that explains it, if you would desire to hear that from our Executive Director of Planning.

It's a pleasure of the Council. I think everyone knows where to vote or how they're going to vote, so we're going to go ahead. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll? Is there a first and a second on this? Sorry. My mistake.

So moved.

Second. Very good. Can you call the roll, please, Madam Clerk?

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

Yes.

Councilmember Soloria?

Yes.

Mayor Potem-Viegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yeah. Okay, motion passes. We're going to item 60A, which is select and appoint a representative to the Orange County Sanitation District. Is there any nominations from council members? Mr. Mayor Potem, may I? Yes, sir.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you. I had initially expressed interest in serving as a rep since I currently serve as the alternate, but I also currently serve as a toll roads rep. So in fairness, I'll defer the position to Council Member Mendoza. So I'd make a motion to nominate and appoint Council Member Mendoza to the sanitation board and for I to remain as the alternate.

Second.

Okay, very good. There is no public comment on this item. And if we can run that by again, who was nominated and you seconded? Is that okay with you, Council Member Mendoza?

Absolutely. I accept wholeheartedly.

Very good. So, Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza?

I believe I need to abstain.

No.

You can vote on this.

Okay, then I will. Yes. Council Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Council Member Solorio?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tembegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido.

Yeah.

Motion passes 7-0.

Motion passes 7-0. We're going on to item number 60B. Consider options related to the solid waste compliance with a state mandate. Is there any public comments on this item, Madam Clerk?

Callers, if you would like to speak on item 60B, dial star 9. For the record, please clearly state your name, whether you're in support or in opposition to the item. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment. You have been unmuted.

Yes, my name is Jarvis Jennings, and I am really hoping that you guys go with option B, which would be to extend this deadline, as we are still having issues with the pandemic. And we may end up going into a second phase with the increases in cases that we're seeing in the state of California and in other places in our country. So I would encourage you to try to work with the waste management team to get this extended a year, as it will probably benefit a lot of people. And again, as I said two weeks ago, it's not a matter of the amount, but it's just a bad timing right now for this to go into effect.

So again, I really hope that you guys go with option B. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, is there any other colors?

We do not have any other callers. No more public comments.

Is there any questions for staff from the council members?

I have a question.

Council Member Mendoza?

Yes. As to the option B, if we were to extend it another, it looks like it's two years, what would be the cost to the city, and is there any consequence if the city is not able to meet the diversion if we don't comply with the diversion in this? What is the cost to the city?

Thank you, Council Member. So the three options before you, adopting the rate increase automatically does the extension of the contract for a year. So under option A, it would extend the contract a year. Under option B, you would be extending the contract a year, which is needed in order for us to process and select a new vendor because you have a request for proposal out on the street. In option B, you would be letting the contractor, you would not be requiring him to do diversion, which would be out of compliance with state law. The risk to the city would be we could be put under a compliance order,

and CalRecycle does have the ability to fine the city up to $10,000 a day for not meeting the diversion rates.

Thank you.

Is there any other comments?

If not, I have a question for the city manager. So we went back, the city went back to the company to try to negotiate and pretty much went nowhere. They were already done us a favor in the past by adjusting. Can you explain that?

Correct, Mayor Pro Temp. When this item was before you on June 2nd, we did receive direction to try to go back to see if we could get them to absorb. It is a straight pass through. It's not going to the city and it's not going to the profit of the contractor. It's a straight pass-through. We attempted to get the rates lower than what we had previously negotiated, and they did refuse because they have been providing this service since the state law came into effect in January, and they are eating roughly 38% of the cost of this service.

So the first year is $1.90 per household, correct? And then the following year, $1.50. $1.50. so it's going to be a total of 340. That's the increase I see. Thank you very much. Is there a motion for any of these options?

I make a motion that the city adopt the best fiscal option, which is option A.

Is there a second? If not, I'll second it. Madam Clerk, if you could call the roll. Well, I have a question.

A question, Councilor? So I think somebody had mentioned the cost, I guess, that could be assessed if we don't pass this. What is that cost? What's the amount?

You wouldn't know exactly. It's under the guidance of CalRecycle. They do have the ability to do a compliance order and a hearing and to fine municipalities up to $10,000 a day. I don't know if they necessarily would do that or a lesser amount. They have a lot of discretion at their fines.

So it's out there, that's a potential fine or penalty that could be assessed. But realistically, under these conditions and the fact that there's been relief provided to almost every sector, whether it's tenants, whether it's homeowners, whether it's businesses, that would probably be an extremely punitive step to be taken, which is probably unlikely. and we're going to be going, we already have a RFP that's being circulated and being procured. That's probably something that whoever the vendor is, or maybe it's waste, who could continue with that contract, will be able to absorb and will be able to negotiate with.

But I just have some trouble layering another fee on top of what we've already layered onto our rate payers. I know that we do have some pushback from folks on the water rate increase that is a little bit more excessive than I had anticipated it being. And I know it's a multi-year rate increase, and I was hoping we could flatten that a little bit. I don't want to get too far off topic because that's not within the scope of this item, but I guess it's to provide context of fees that we're going to be levying. And I just think that I can't support A. I'd be much more comfortable with B.

But, again, I'll leave it to the will of the council, but my support will be towards B. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. I have a comment. I remember the last time this item came before us, there was a gentleman who phoned in, and he was upset about the item, and I understand. But at the same time, he also sympathized with us because he knew it wasn't our doing. This is the state of California mandating these requirements that are going on at the landfills. And, you know, if you want to say something, maybe we've got to talk to our people in Sacramento and, you know, ask them why are they doing this. Why don't they absorb the cost? But, you know, so this is not really the council's doing on this.

this is the state of California imposing this, and we're just a mechanism that collects. Either way, the rate is going to get charged. And, you know, I don't like it either, and I completely understand, but just like the gentleman that called, you know, we're kind of caught in the middle on this, and that's my comment. Is there any other? Council Member Salorio?

Thank you, Mayor Patim. At the last meeting, I had a voice concerned about doing this fee increase, you know, top of the water fee increases, and really COVID, which was the unknown. I know that a few months ago we kind of knew we'd be here with these kinds of recommendations, but no one would have predicted that, you know, COVID and, you know, the George Floyd tragedy and the unrest that has come from that unfortunate death at the hands of police brutality. so we are here today and I just I mean a lot of people are also out of work I just can't in good conscience vote to increase their fees once again I like

that staff did go back and look at some options and I know that our city manager and mayor also talking to other mayors in the state about relief because potentially some of these statewide policies can be relaxed it seems to me really by the laying out of B and C that we don't necessarily need to take action tonight. That in fact, if we were to explore B or C, that probably is an action we could take in a couple weeks or a month.

The extension option isn't a bad idea, but I would prefer a six month extension rather than a full year. We've already extended this item for over a decade essentially, and I think we do need to bid out and I increasingly get concerned that our current Ways hauler just calls it in from their home state that very little local presence and we have you know some superb local haulers that I think would like an opportunity to to serve the community and invest in the community and and I know we don't know exactly who might bid but I know that there's that kind of interest and I I know this community and others,

we're trying to do more local hires and keeping dollars local. And for those reasons, I just don't want to continue to see year-long extension. So down the road, six months I'd be interested in supporting, or even tonight if my colleagues thought that that would make sense, or option C, in which case, then it just puts a little bit of pressure on us to keep moving this process and do a turnover on July 21st and I could tell you whether it's our current provider or new provider that will be excited to take on this opportunity because it's a one of the biggest waste contracts in the whole state it's very lucrative and those are

my thoughts so I'm supportive of variations of B and C but not increasing the waste fees currently councilmember if I may add comments so

So the year extension is needed to complete the RFP process and to provide any proposer, particularly if it's a different proposer than the current one, to procure the equipment needed to take our account. So by shortening the year extension, it would have a negative impact on the RFP process.

They had some timelines already. I don't fully disagree, but I think whoever went would be happy to move quickly to get this contract.

Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem —

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. But so last meeting, I was adamantly opposed to this. I just, you know, for a lot of the reasons that have already been voiced here, the idea of trying to levy another fee on top of all the other fees that we've seen impact our residents, I just, it's hard for me to support it. But, you know, I think I want to applaud our city manager for her attempt to work with waste management and for getting them to the point that they're absorbing a lot of the cost for this state mandate. We didn't ask for this. This isn't something that's coming from the council. This is something that's coming from the state.

Phil BacerraItem —

And Madam City Manager, I just want to get a little clarification. So let's just say we blow past this. We say we're not going to comply. You mentioned penalties. So part of the concern you mentioned was $10,000 a day. So can they retroactively apply that? So let's say, for instance, they don't do anything. They, being CalRecycle, doesn't act for six months. In theory, could they come back and assess that retroactively?

That's an excellent question. I'm sorry, sir. I don't know the answer as to what their powers are. If they have to put us on notice first before they could implement fines, I don't have the answer for that.

Phil BacerraItem —

So they would put the jurisdiction on notice and then pretty much start running the clock on the fines?

I'll defer to see if Christy Kindig. I believe Santa Ana has had a compliance order before.

Yes, we were in the compliance unit, but we successfully exited that with much, much work, much consultant work that needed to provide data. It's an expensive process just to get out of a compliance unit, aside from possible fees.

Phil BacerraItem —

So if you'll mind me asking, what was the cost to go through that process previously?

I'm sure I went through probably a hundred thousand two hundred thousand at

Phil BacerraItem —

least okay and and how long were we out of compliance at that time about a year

year and a half okay okay thank you very much this item was continued from a couple weeks ago so my I was under the impression that we needed to vote on it today and so that's why I made my recommendation that we go with a because otherwise it's going to be the city of Santa Ana making all these payouts and understandably our hands are tied because this is not something that came from the city of Santa Ana we don't want to tax our our residents any

more than we have to but it's either we comply with the state requirements or we're going to get penalized thousands and thousands of dollars and then we won't be able to provide services to our community so I know it's a it's a tough decision that we have to assess this fee but we have to weigh it against what are the what are the options and if the if we have to cut back on other services then the resident ends up losing anyway so that's why I recommended that we vote now and

we vote for option A because we keep extending this along and extending it along and then pretty soon it's going to be a year and then what happens we're going to get retroactively have to go with something like this anyway and who knows maybe the fees will increase again in a year so if it's something that we have to do that I urge my colleagues to reconsider and and go with option A. It's not, I mean, times are bad. I agree. And some people have been laid off

because of the COVID. But we all have to do our due diligence in helping our city. I mean, I'm willing to pay this extra money to continue to be in compliance with something that is so crucial. I mean, we cannot just let the garbage sit out there and without being properly dispersed. So I would consider, though, if you want to, if my colleagues feel that maybe a short, another short extension, that I would withdraw my motion and maybe another month. But we need to vote on it.

We just can't keep sending it back. and it's going to have the same results unless the state changes its laws.

Thank you for your comment. Councilmember Solorio?

Yes, one comment then, some clarifying questions. The way that most of these contracts work is the contractor is responsible for following all regulations, including new regulations. I think the reason why the city feels a little bit responsible to help out is because we keep delaying the core contract, the current contractor keeps having to absorb new fees and regulations that weren't envisioned earlier. So they're kind of on the hook for paying those, which is why, and clarifying if anything is incorrect, if we, for example, would go to option C,

which essentially says let just the contract expire when it does and do the RFP and do the turnover on July 1st of 2021. If we do that, the full assumption is that waste management will remain in compliance and they'll probably make a little bit less profit. Is that correct?

I do have a minute.

Or city manager.

That's incorrect. So if you don't take any action, they're not going to get their rate increase and they're not contractually obligated by us to meet that diversion rate. So my assumption would be they would stop doing that and then your contract would not be extended, which could have a negative impact on the RFP process in terms of having a thorough one and allowing the time for proposers to have the lead time that they would need to take on a contract of our size.

I hear what you're saying, but I know that our contract probably says that are the contractors responsible for following all regulations. I know like last year we did get close and there was some discussion of that, but it is for maybe the course that's it is their responsibility to follow all current state regulations relates to waste law right correct and so for example like the past few months they've been absorbing it again I think the city's feeling responsible saying we want to you know sharing the cost with them so really one option is that we let the current contract phase out and waste

magic manager keeps absorbing that extra cost as they have been now and no new fees that's not to say that it's impossible if that may not occur so that's option C on option B that's the one of extending it out in which case maybe explain to us that option if it gets extended out a year because waste management wouldn't allow that and I guess would be interested would they meet the regulations under those criteria option B your action no so an option B they would not they would the requirement for composting or green

waste would be removed and who would be subject to following the regulations and the fines with the penalties this is also a key point sometimes it's both who's responsible for following that regulation and is the fee imposed on the city or is the fee imposed on the contractor your current contract does

not have us indemnified. So should the waste hauler not meet the diversion, we are not indemnified by them. So the city would be ultimately responsible.

In that case, so for B, is that the assumption that they would not make an effort to be compliant? Because currently right now they're compliant and they don't have this extra money. I just don't know at what point they absolutely can no longer afford to.

So in option B, the language of there would approve the amendment to go for a year longer. but it would also remove the requirement of composting the green waste and doing the diversion. So your three options are simply adopt the resolution with the rate increases, which is the contingency that will automatically extend it a year. B is do an extension of a year but remove the requirement for them to do the diversion. Therefore, there isn't the rate increase and they're not absorbing any more money. and then C is taking no action, which basically lets their contract expire and, in my opinion, interfere with the RFP process.

So on option B, you're proposing, even though staff probably thinks that we're going to be fined on a regular basis?

Well, our recommendation on June 2nd was option A.

Okay, so you have it on here, but you're not recommending it. Option B.

We put three options in front of you. I would be recommending option A.

And then another clarification on the fees, aren't they really more about just the percentage being diverted away from a landfill?

And although the green waste law changes have impacted what those rates are, but isn't it really all about if our diversion rate is high, then we don't really need to even worry about this compact compost issue?

I believe that without the composting, we will not be in compliance with our total diversion.

Right. I get that point. But the law really is more specific on how much we're diverting. And if we divert enough with or without the compost, we wouldn't be subject to a fine.

No. This one is specifically in AB 1594. It is absolutely required that you not use the current disposal method and that we find something that will give us diversion. As a matter of fact, when my annual report is due in August of this year, I must tell them what I'm now doing with that waste that used to be ADC.

Correct. Accountability. So for those reasons, I don't think that it necessarily will occur that we're going to be fined because waste management has been paying all these fines on their own, and we have not been fined all this calendar year. We're six months or so into this. That's not to say that looking forward, we shouldn't try to be helpful. But long story short, I support a shorter extension of B or maybe even C, but item A, my colleagues, you're more than welcome to support it, but I can't support option A at this time.

All right, thank you. So there's no sub-motion. May I go down? Yes, sir. Go ahead, Mr. Mayor.

Yes, thank you very much. Look, this is a complicated one. However, I really don't see the state coming in right now and fining us. I really don't. And I do think from a timing standpoint, it's just a really, really, really bad time. You know, we have more cases in the city right now than ever in terms of the pandemic. We're almost at 2,000 cases now. You know, people are still struggling to pay their rent. And I know we're trying to open up as a society and business and all, but a lot of people still have a lot of pain out there right now.

And it doesn't matter how we explain it to them.

An increase is an increase.

I think we should engage our lobbyists in Sacramento, our state representatives, both our senator and our assemblyman, and seek a dialogue. I don't know if it's a short extension or what it is, but some type of relief from this potential situation. uh waste management has been a responsible holler with us they've been here for many many many years they've earned and made many millions of dollars uh you know from this contract i'm sure they would

like to preserve the contract and i i just think we need to be more aggressive so i think it's either B or C. I just don't, I think A in a way kind of checks all the boxes, but it just places a tremendous burden on some of our committee right now that I just believe the timing doesn't work. So I know there's a motion. I suggest maybe we vote on that. If it fails, maybe we can get an amended motion and go from there. That would be my suggestion, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

so is there a sub motion okay we'll just vote on this time if I might if we might just want to get the city clerk to read the review the motion so everyone has fresh in their head what that motion is thank you so yeah so what I have

recorded as the motion is moved by councilmember Mendoza seconded by mayor Pro Tempiegas on option A. That is what I have on the table. That's correct. Okay. Very good. Council Member Becerra? No. Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa? No. Council Member Sarmiento? No. Council Member Soloria? No. Mayor Pro Tempiegas? Yes. Mayor

Thank you very much. We're going to move on to the next item.

You need some direction on this, so what I was going to suggest is another motion to adopt option B. So that would be my motion.

We have a first and a second.

Councilmember Vassar?

Yes.

Councilmember Mendoza?

For option B.

I'm considering.

She's thinking, too, I think it's important to go back to the clarifying question of, B, if it means, as some staff is suggesting that we're going to get big fines because we don't have immunity, then B, we should not do. If maybe our city attorney can also let us know whether we think that we can work together with waste so that we don't have to be subject to those fees, I'd be okay with a year extension, but not if it means that we're going to be not compliant and that the city has to pay all the fees. So I want that clarified. If that's okay, that means then we keep the same rates,

and the tradeoff is just we're giving the existing contractor another year, which I think is fair, but it's not fair if we're going to be subject to all the fees.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Well, I think for the reasons that were discussed this evening, both because of the timing, because of COVID, because of some of the state relief that we've seen, and also as our staff testified this evening, when we have seen enforcement action by the state, They have allowed us to work with them, and they have allowed us to work out some solutions. So I think in that year, I can't predict. I don't have a crystal ball, but I do think we would at least be able to put up an administrative defense to the fines that they would file.

And then that gives us time to do some of the lobbying that our mayor and city manager have been working on. So with that clarification that we're not liable on the hook, I do support it. Thank you.

That was my hesitation is that I didn't want the city to be assessed $10,000 a day. So if that is not going to be the case, then I do support the motion. Yes.

Continue with the roll.

Council Member Peñalosa.

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento.

Yes.

Council Member Soloria.

Yes.

Mayor Patan-Viegas.

Yes.

Mayor Pulido.

Yeah.

Motion passes.

Okay, very good. Option B passes. Move on to the next item, 65A.

Review the proposed charter amendments from the ad hoc charter review committee and provide direction to staff.

So, Mayor Pro Tem, we do have an updated presentation on this item.

Very good.

So, Daniel Soto from the city manager's office.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council members.

At the June 2, 2020 City Council meeting, the City Manager provided a brief presentation to the City Council, which outlined 17 proposed charter amendments, along with five discussion topic areas for additional charter amendments to be discussed and proposed by the entire City Council. At the meeting, the City Council motioned to continue the item for two weeks. During the two-week period, staff met with the additional council members who did not serve on the ad hoc committee to review in detail the proposed charter amendments.

The draft charter amendment language is included to the staff report as Exhibit 1, and the changes are redlined. In addition, at the request of a majority of the ad hoc committee, staff shared a Nixle message to the community to seek public input regarding the proposed charter amendments. Over the weekend, the city did receive six suggestions from the public. The public was able to submit comments to a web form survey that we submitted online. Five of the submissions were from residents and one was from a non-resident.

Generally, we received the following comments to the question, what problem are you trying to solve? The feedback was general, such as fixing typos, addressing influence from employee bargaining groups and the makeup of the City Council. The second part of the survey was a prompt that says ideate share your ideas. Generally the comments included campaign contribution limits, term limits, City Council makeup, and employee relations. As was presented at the June 2nd City Council meeting there are some options that the City Council may consider regarding this item. One is to concur with the Ad Hoc Charter Review Committee regarding

their proposed Charter Amendments 1 through 17 or review the proposed Charter Amendments 1 through 17 and direct staff to prepare revised proposed Charter Amendments as discussed tonight. Item 2 is to review the proposed Charter Amendment topics A through E and direct staff to prepare proposed Charter Amendments as discussed tonight. And item 3 is to direct the City Attorney and the Clerk of the Council to prepare necessary documents to take place or excuse me to place any of the proposed charter amendments on the ballot for the November 3rd election if you'd like I'm available for questions and I can walk you through the proposed

charter amendments one more time in addition to the five topic areas thank

you any questions or comments council members

council member Solorio just any initial question just to get this started I know we had talked in our ad hoc committee that I'm on also so I don't know if we were able to do it at the tail end of that or maybe as part of this process but most of these items don't really cost the city money to implement some of my thing do cost money or staffing has the city manager of the budget office had any time to review which items might cost money and if we were to do all this from a cost and staffing standpoint what that would be and if we haven't done it now we could do it later on that would be the only

thing that would inform me because again given COVID and budget and everything else I do have some concern about items that may be expensive or too much staff I think a lot of the staff oriented recommendations are really just simple streamlining that will make government work better so I don't have you know too many issues or questions with those and a lot of those are also saying rather than putting something in the charter to take that concept and do year-to-year changes if needed via ordinance or resolution by the council. So maybe a response to that question, and then my colleagues I'm sure have other

questions. Thank you, Council Members Valorio. While some of the proposed charter amendments may have a fiscal impact, I have not had an opportunity to evaluate the fiscal impact. I would need to conduct that analysis and return to the City Council with that information okay thank you councilmember sir thank you mayor pro tem

Phil BacerraItem —

Daniel thank you for the presentation job well done so from a timeline standpoint just so that we all hear the same thing where are we at as far as when do we as a council need to take an action to put any of these amendments onto the ballot.

Thank you, Council Member. If we are to follow the regular schedule of the City Council meetings, the City Council has until the July 21st City Council meeting to approve charter amendments to be taken to the voters for the November 3rd election.

Phil BacerraItem —

Okay. But that would be the absolute cutoff date.

We need to go ahead and say up or down if we're going to put these on and which ones we're going to put on.

Phil BacerraItem —

And then another question I know that might come up is cost so I think last meeting we talked about potentially 65,000 in addition to the the cost for the regular scheduled November election so this would be kind of like a piggyback on to that election and we're not really it's not that we're paying 65 for each of these items we're not seeing some astronomical cost it would really be more of a one-time correct okay yeah so

So if the charter question comes in as one ballot measure, then it's just the $65,000 as one question for each question, essentially.

David PenalozaItem —

Perfect. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor Platton, may I? Go ahead. Council Member Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, sir. And thank you, Council Member Becerra, for bringing that up, because I'm also, I figured that the question of costs would come up, or the question of any potential administrative costs that this would cause if we were to implement these charter amendments, which I know would be minor. But I don't want to dwell too much on that cost, and I don't see it as being a costly thing to the city, because I see it as an investment into our city to promote good governance, equity, and transparency in our local government, which to me is worth every penny. And if we're able to

David PenalozaItem —

consolidate a lot of these 17 amendment proposed charter amendments into let's say three ballot questions um yeah that doesn't tell the cost to each one but the savings in just good governance throughout the next three decades is again worth every penny and to me seen as an investment so um thank you daniel for that additional presentation i'm glad that that outreach was done even though it was minor. But these are important things that we need to consider in regards to our city charter and for the public that's listening and hasn't

David PenalozaItem —

really had a chance to go through the amendment charters. You know, I'm talking, when I say good governance, I'm talking lifetime bans for elected officials, code of ethics, policy, and procedures, require additional campaign contribution disclosures to increase transparency, and replace all gender-specific language with gender-neutral terms. I don't see as any of those having any additional cost, aside from an additional form that the clerk's office has to request when candidates are running for office or developers are going through the planning process. I think it's minor,

David PenalozaItem —

and I think it's just going to really make our entire system more transparent and efficient in the long run, which is more than we could ever ask for. So those are my comments.

Thank you. I have a comment. Council Member Sarmiento, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I know I said no, and then I said yes. So, yeah, that happens every once in a while. But I'll keep it brief. The only comment I would make is that, number one, I want to thank the ad hoc members that took the time because it's going through a charter review and just reading the charter. I'm sure that was real exciting for you guys, and I know that probably kept you guys up at night. But I know it's challenging because a lot of our language and a lot of our provisions are very dated. So having to go through that, you can almost go through an entire revise.

But, you know, I'm glad you guys were able to pull out areas that I think are really sensitive, especially when it comes to campaign finance. That has been a problem, and it's been a problem for other agencies and other government bodies. But one of the things I know that when we've looked at this in the past, and I think the city attorney has been with us for a few years, when we've tackled this, I know we've always referenced what does the public want, right? And so I think the last time we went to the public for Citizens Advisory Committee, I believe, was in 2005, if I'm not mistaken.

And so that was a pretty robust effort to bring people into the community and have them discuss this. And that's my only, I think, sort of shortcoming on this is that it would have been a good idea to maybe have them do that. And given the conditions, I mean, who would have thought we'd be dealing with a pandemic and that just being very challenging to do? So we're 15 years out from when that Citizens Advisory Committee took place. And I know that I think as you all were looking at this, you guys brought their comments in and considered those. So that's a good thing. And I just know that priorities change over a 15-year period.

So had the conditions not been as they were, I'm sure that we would have been able to deploy one as well. But, look, at least there was a good effort. But that is, I think, one of the limiting elements of this. But thank you all.

Thank you. Council Member Mendoza?

In 2005, I was part of the Citizen Advisory Committee for the Charter Review. And one of the things that we recommended was for the term limits, and it didn't pass. So it's a tough issue. My question for the current proposed changes is what would be the benefit if we did a lifetime ban for council members that you couldn't serve again once you've been out for, I think it's like 12 years, and you let it take, is it eight years break?

Is this going to prohibit someone from coming back? And the other question is, I believe that we need to maintain continuity with the Mayor Pro Tem position and keep it at two years because the Mayor's position is two years. So it's logical to have that person, the Mayor Pro Tem, stay those two years so that you know at one year you're just getting into the you're just learning the position you're just getting comfortable with it so it wouldn't benefit us as council people to to to translate to to to reduce it to

the one-year term limits so I recommend we we accept the other changes but maybe take a look at those term limit issues thank you my comment is that so there was a nixel

uh notification from the city that went out and on thursday afternoon about four o'clock or or such in the afternoon and uh you know i was looking at well where's the city where's the public input regarding this item where's the because we're talking about the city charter we're talking about you know the laws that govern the city and you know we had this nixle that went out for four days and I got a little thing here that says we had six people reply and I think one of them or so wasn't from the wasn't a resident but they care about the city and they replied you know and that's fine thank

you very much but usually you know if we're gonna do something like this we're going to you know change the charter or try to better it I understand the ad hoc the intention of the ad hoc is a good one but where's the public input on this you know what does the public like council member sarmiento said what do they want where's where's that input at i mean you give them four days on an email that probably didn't go to everyone and to me you know this seems council driven doesn't seem like it's driven from the public where they would want to

change where's their input where's their request i would like to see a request from them what would they like to change and so that's why I'm not comfortable with this right now because look at the look the public is the boss they're the ones that say how it goes so when you engage them you're gonna hear from them then we can apply some of the things that we want to make changes and we can also work with them to recommend whatever the changes should be so that was my concern

council member uh salario has a comment yeah a question and uh comments slash option i'm on the ad hoc committee and i know because of covid and i do have a full-time job as well uh so i missed pieces here there i don't remember the ad hoc committee in our meetings discussing a survey and i know i never saw a draft or commented on it and i do a lot of survey work I would have appreciated seeing what the question options were, the length of time. You know, boy, I mean, some of these surveys that we're getting from others, they're getting hundreds of responses on one item.

This is something we've worked on collectively for two, three months, I think, and it would be nice to get more outreach. I don't want to see all this work go to waste. I mean, one option might be that we divide it in half and we consider all the administrative stuff that were the staff led things that are efficiencies and then maybe separately we can speak we can consider other items that are that are new reforms you know good reforms but that might be one way to think about it but can staff speak a little bit to to the survey of how many questions were there what were all the responses was it

discussed in the meeting or we emailed something and I just missed it or can you talk a little bit more about that and I don't know if there's additional results other than this question but yeah I just see one where I guess we did an Excel survey and we asked them who they are but other than that I don't see

what they commented Thank You council members Elorio in mid-march I created a webpage on our city website and on the webpage I embedded a web form hosted by Google, which has a two-part survey. The first asked folks what their suggestions, or I apologize, what problem are you trying to solve as it relates to the charter? And the second question was ideate, share your ideas. It was a free form response from the public to submit their general comments, and it was set up as a prototype. And if I recall correctly, I shared the prototype with

the ad hoc committee members via email the same day that the webpage was created

in mid-march but so we never really like reviewed it or approved it or the

survey was not discussed during the ad hoc committee well that's unfortunate

because I mean here it's front and center one of the first things and this just let me the information again that's not to say that we shouldn't do survey I believe in it but I think it needs to be robust transparent mythology methodology needs to be good and then you know maybe not a representative sample on something like this because we're getting broad base but you know 20 is the norm and anything beneath that is problematic and again maybe one thought is just to divide it up administrative versus the other type of options thank you if I may

make a suggestion council member what we can do is we can go back and we can try to do some estimated cost associated with them we can organize them in the groupings that you had mentioned and bring it back to you at the very next meeting and get further direction and you would still have one more meeting to

take final action and I think the related question which is an important one that we didn't really have time to go into a net hoc is of the grouping so I know I don't think this needs to be 17 questions on the ballot I think it It could be maybe two or three, so that reduces costs, but I don't know that we've done that intellectual, legal thinking of how many questions are we talking about, and so I think it's part of the costing out thing if we could figure out what the natural groupings would be.

Thank you.

Okay, great, and so I just wanted to finish my comment. I called on you because you were kind of anxious to speak up, and thank you, Council Member Solorio, for that. You know, and like, again, there's six people that contacted, six responses that we got. I don't even know if it's the same person. Who knows? But, you know, it was a little disappointing to see that there wasn't a process out there where we're asking, because we're asking for the public to change the charter of all things. I mean, you've got to really get out there and talk to them. I understand the conditions.

that's why i questioned this thing from the beginning because the the covid environment right now is kind of is this really necessary at the moment by the way i could support all the you know the cleanup language on the he she and the city clerk and uh uh all that language i i get that and that's the good intention and i understand we want to clean it up but at the same time all the other things they look like they're council driven and i understand you know the the intention to the council with good heart and goodwill,

but I haven't seen anything from the public that they want to put on here. That's what bothers me. So anyway, I'm going to hold for right now. Councilmember Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem —

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. A couple of things. When we're talking about public input, I'd like to ask the city clerk, so on item 60B, where we talk about increasing curbside rate, curbside cart refuse rates, How many comments did we get today? Did we get 20, 30, 50? Today. Or at least since the last meeting. I assume it was a land site of comments, right?

And just to be clear, Council Member, on your question, are you asking by e-comment how many emails we received?

Phil BacerraItem —

I'm saying 60B, the item that we had already discussed here. Not to open up the item just for sake of discussion on this item. How many comments? How many callers called in? How many comments came in on this one? because what was before us two weeks ago was one proposal. This here had 60B and it had options A or B or C. So that means the community saw these three options between, what, Thursday and today.

Right, yeah.

Phil BacerraItem —

How many?

No, so we received some emails. How many? Let me get a quick look.

I'm asking. receive yeah we did receive quite a few on this on the 60b item so between Thursday and we received another two on 60b and then on this particular item no

Phil BacerraItem —

no no I'm just just it's fine yeah what I'm trying to make additional two what I'm trying to make the point of is we didn't receive a landslide of comments but we still went ahead and took a vote and the reality is a lot of the items on our agendas we don't have Google surveys I mean we don't have Google surveys on purchasing trucks and all these other items but you know what we were elected to come up here and represent our community and take make big decisions that's what we were elected to do on behalf of our community when we talk about council driven items as far as charter amendments these don't

Phil BacerraItem —

come or at least I could speak for myself and I'll let my colleagues that were on the ad hoc speak to it as well but these weren't items that we looked at as just holistically what can be done well not holistically myopically be done I think these were items that we looked at as what could improve the function of city government now we don't get to ultimately decide that who gets to decide that are the voters so these are proposals and if we're wrong and we're misguided and we're going in the wrong direction the voters will inform us so I don't think that you know we should try to say well the community didn't provide enough input

Phil BacerraItem —

at the very beginning therefore don't put them out there i think that you know in addition to a lot of cleanup items that are in here whether it's the gender neutral language and just other efficiencies that we can implement into the charter i think it's important that we put it out there to just say that well we didn't get enough comments on the front end don't do it i think that kind of cuts it short you know our ad hoc met 11 times and why do i bring that up because there was a lot of thought put into it we had a very robust discussions in fact it was so

Phil BacerraItem —

robust out of all the items that are before us today there's 17 items that we had some pretty good consensus on and five that we wanted to bring back to the council for more discussion one thing I'd like to ask my colleagues to entertain as we further discuss this is you know I think we've already talked about from the city manager's suggestion that you know maybe we group these up or we kind of you know look at the cost etc but the fact that we've got 17 that at least three of the seven of us seem pretty comfortable with i would like to at some point just maybe we

Phil BacerraItem —

just methodically go through them i mean we got to at some point and maybe it's not this meeting maybe it's the next meeting but just go through them you know if there's any hiccups or concerns i know one of my colleagues already brought up the mayor pro tem item maybe there's something that might need to be amended there but as far as the other five items i think we'll have a lengthier discussion and i think it's important that we really seriously think about how we're going to approach it I asked staff to guide us maybe at our next meeting and if we do continue this to our next meeting what that would mean is this

Phil BacerraItem —

would be the third meeting the third opportunity for the community to provide input and I think that is way more than what we typically have afforded on some of the items that directly impact them day in and day out rate increases etc so

those are my comments thank you mr. mayor do you have any comments thank you Councilmember Becerra. Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, I've been waiting.

Mr. Mayor? I'll take the committee member, then I'll speak.

Okay. Any other comments? Yeah. Councilmember Peñalosa. Thank you,

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. And I just wanted to also address some of the, and thank you Councilmember Becerra for some clarifications. I wanted to address some of the comments that were already made. Councilmember Mendoza, you asked, what benefit does a lifetime ban have? have? Well, the benefit is that we take out career politicians. Just to put into perspective, the people running for mayor in this November's election, and yourself actually, first appeared on the ballot when I was in junior high. Secondly, that's the intent from this, to be honest, is to keep career politicians out of office, and this is what that's going to do.

David PenalozaItem —

I know that my colleague brought up the question of also, you know, there hasn't been any public input. Well, these go to the voters. This is going to be on the November ballot for the public to vote on. None of this gets approved by the council. The public has to vote on it in order to get approved. If I recall, in 2018, the mayor pro tem and some of the other colleagues on here added Measure X onto the ballot without public input. The public input wasn't addressed until it was already a measure that was voted on to be on the ballot. That was a tax increase. There was no question about that. We let the voters decide.

David PenalozaItem —

That is the public input that you're looking for. A lot of the things that the public, you know, I do communicate with them throughout the day, hundreds of them daily, and the things that they want, they want to remove the third term for council members. And I agree. Nobody needs to be up here for 12 years. but see those are the things that I've been listening to as this process has gone on they want to reduce the term limits for mayor I also agree again a clean democracy requires limited years sir the mayor pro-tem question it's you know it it's comparable to other cities in the county and in the state mayor

David PenalozaItem —

pro-tem usually appointed every year so those are things that we were looking at There was no, it was, in order to move forward, it was to clean up our process and our city. And like I said, make it more transparent, good governance, and make it equitable throughout the city. So I say that the public input is at the ballot box where we let the voters decide. And that is the whole intent of this.

By the way, let me correct you on that measure X. our city manager at the time Raul Godinez and our assistant city manager Robert Cortez at the time both of them I remember them going every night out to do presentations if you can Sonia Madam City Attorney you can attest to this that they went out every single night to every single meeting you're not in your head every time there's Jose not in his head also to correct to put it out there before it went out to educate the public because they had six months

to do it and these guys worked so hard to let the public know what was going on right before it went to the voters so talk about transparency and putting out there and explaining what the measure x was i mean these guys did a fantastic job of letting everyone know and then the voters decide because we have to respect that so i'm with you on that and like i said if there's a clean if there's cleanup language i understand that but for me these you know you're saying well we're going to let the public know and you know this you guys have been working on this you had 11 meetings

that's great but how come you didn't have a meeting with the public to ask them what they wanted well we can't right now because of covet so that's why i'm saying the circumstances are kind of you know they're a little funny right now because you know this kind of thing could wait for a moment while we handle other things because we have other issues within the city that we need to address you know our parks are not open and all this and we're worried about the charter no one's ever died from the charter by the way i think at the last meeting you know the uh our city

attorney confirmed it's the ordinances and the resolutions which are the fine print of the city They're the ones that rule. The charter is a footprint. It's the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. The spirit of the law, this is the charter, this is what we're doing for those people that don't understand. That the voters get to decide on. The voters will decide on that. But you have to, you know, if we're going to ask them of that, you've got to put it out there quite a bit. And that's my take on it, with all respect. Who had the, Mr. Mayor, you wanted to speak, sir?

David PenalozaItem —

And I agree 100% that we should make that outreach out to the voters. You know, and we have three months to do it. We have all of August. We have all of September. We have all of October to educate the voters what is on their ballot, which is when the outreach for Measure X was done. You know, that was only two years ago. There was no outreach done before the question was voted on by this council to be put on the ballot. The outreach was done afterwards in the months following, which was August, September, and October.

David PenalozaItem —

That's when the outreach at all the neighborhood meetings was done by the city manager, Raul Godinas, to put that measure on, to what the measure meant.

I understand this is apples and oranges. One thing is that we were trying to ask them about a tax measure that we needed. As you know, it's helping a great deal because without that, we'd be in dire straits right now. So you've got to thank those two gentlemen that went out every night and the staff. and the other thing is that this is something a change that there's no dire need right now that we need to do this where is the the you know exigent circumstance that we need to have this done at the moment you know this is like I said and then we have we bothered to ask what they want so we can discuss it

with them with the public that's what I'm saying they decided the ballot box

mr. mayor go ahead sir yes thank you mayor for the time look I believe that a charter amendment is completely different than whether or not we take any measure to deal with a refuge increase. That we're elected into office to make those type of decisions. This is something that's changing the very constitution, if you will, of the city. And I just don't think that it's something to be taking lightly or something that's analogous.

I also think that many of these suggestions from the committee, from what I hear, look, they're opinions. And we should all respect opinions, but we need to be careful because you can put a lot of things before voters, and at that point it becomes really a campaign. and you got to really think you know what is the motive where is it going what is one attempting to do and and that's part of what we're elected to discern so I I just think this is the wrong time

for most of this I'd be willing to go for the cleanup language that the staff came up with but everything else I lead with I agree with other comments by council members like council member you know Mendoza talking about what is the need to change of the mayor vote down from a two-year appointment to a one-year appointment there is no need there's there's different opinions is there an emergency it's something we have to absolutely do right now in my opinion no and I you know given the opportunity, I would just vote against all that. So I don't know if there's, if there's a motion, maybe there's a motion,

maybe there's a substitute motion, maybe we can see where we go. But in general, I'm a no. I will go for the, you know, the, the amendments that are technical and nature staff driven, but everything else I think is just, you know, political agendas. and I don't think this is the time really to be focusing all this effort on that. Those are my comments, Mr. Mayor Fotem.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and my apologies. We have one person on the line who would like to make a comment. Three people on the line. So I think because there's technical difficulties, I'm glad they waited a little bit because now they're hearing the conversation. Go ahead, Madam Clerk.

Caller, if you'd like to speak on Item 65A, Dow Star 9. For the record, please clearly state your name, whether you are in support or in opposition to the item. You have three minutes from the time that you've been unmuted.

Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, if you want to speak on item 65A, you may proceed.

No, I'm on hold to talk to 65B.

Okay, thank you. We'll put you on hold until that item. Caller, if you'd like to speak on item 65A, you've been unmuted.

proceed with your comment. Hi there, good evening council members and Mayor Pellillo. This is Ty San. As you all know I am a Planning Commissioner but I am here in my personal capacity. My day job is I'm an attorney. What I do is I read charters or an instance resolutions every day. And so I did go through these charter charter amendments and i had a couple comments the first is regarding 401.01 term limits i understand there's a lot of conversation regarding term limits and whether it should be this

hard 20 years or the cooling off period but you know frankly the city of santa anna is the youngest city in the county our median age is 32. i'm 32. but allowing someone to serve for 20 years mean for the vast majority of my life. I'm not seeing a change in the council. We appreciate the public service of our council members and our mayor, but we need to make room for new leaders and new ideas and new perspectives. This is why I support a strict term limit of 20 years with no cooling off period. It turns out council member or mayor can be a commissioner, a neighborhood leader, an activist, members of Comlink,

or be involved in myriad other ways in the city. You don't have to be an elected council member or mayor to do your public service. You know, your wisdom, your experience, all the service, it would still be welcomed by the council members. It would still be welcomed by the commissioners. But we need to make room for the next generation of public servants. We're not getting that opportunity because the same people run all the time. The same people have the same name recognition. And I think that it's really time for us to make room for others. and regarding measure X and saying you know we need more public input and all

of that stuff frankly them going out every single day saying that measure X was there to you know pay for parks or roadways and you know use services frankly we know the vast majority of that money did not go to those you know services so let's not pretend that with every single important or large item in In fact, today, item 20B, I believe, was $311,000. This charter amendment could be $65,000. In fact, all those cars, if we didn't pay for that, we could have three charter amendments. So really, I hope that you at least consider these changes and maybe bring it back next time

and have staff go out and do a presentation like we did with the strategic plan. But make sure to get it on the ballot. I really think that, you know, the city, residents, youth are ready. We're ready for this ballot change on this charter amendment. We're ready to vote on it in November, and I really hope that you make that change for the rest of us.

Thank you.

Thank you, caller. If you would like to speak on item 65A, dial star 9. For the record, please clearly state your name and whether you're in support and opposition to the item. You have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello.

Please speak on item 65A.

My name is Steve Gallegos. I do actually want to essentially vote yes or however you guys are doing this for that charter review. To be quite honest with you, what the AGAS is saying right now, to me it sounds like gaslighting, especially when you're saying that it's council driven but if you actually see what the council changes are uh it's essentially saying you know there are going to be term limits for elected officials and in reality it's almost like if phil vasera or uh david penaloza they're shooting themselves in the feet because you know essentially their term limits are now reduced to two someone

who actually wants to do something for the city is willing to do it within the time that they're given so if eight years is the full amount that they can be in the city they're going to work really hard to try to make that change happen within those eight years if you want to be a career politician you're unfortunately the reason why you don't see all these people answering these calls to surveys and whatnot is because there's pretty much a lack of confidence within the government you know the you constantly see how it's possible that all of this measure x

money it was being touted as oh we're going to fix your guys's streets we're going to fix this we're going to fix that they never actually were really going out there saying hey you know what the vast majority of this measure is going to go to police so that's why there's distrust from the citizens to the government and that's why you get people who are not going to fill out your survey because again it just feels like for what so please please do not pretend um that you guys are oh man it should you know it should be up to the citizen because at the end of

the day we do get to vote on it is up to us but the changes need to be just the same way you guys said oh you know what we need to actually act the city we elect you or the citizens we elect you so you guys should make all these little fine details that I myself can't look at every single day because I have other things that I have to do but when it comes to stuff like this definitely you guys should you know present something to us and then allow us to vote on it It's as simple as that. So, and if you guys are really worried about surveys and whatnot, that whole notion of spending $236,000 on five police cars, you guys,

I didn't hear any survey about that. You guys passed it so quickly. And it was like, you left two seconds for the people online to essentially dial the number, put in the Zoom code, and then just hopefully oppose it or, you know, approve it. It was just, it just seems like a bunch of gaslighting, to be honest with you.

Okay, that's the last caller. Thank you very much. Council Member Solorio.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor Portima. I know this isn't an 85B item, but now that I'm looking at it, it's kind of structured very similar to the 85Bs where it's to provide really direction to the staff. So I think the staff has gotten a lot of direction from the council and the public. The way I see it, I think there's clearly more support for doing all the administrative cleanups and i think for the remainder it's kind of their support for some not for others i know on the whole it is to make it harder for incumbents to run again but you know in in full transparency disclosure for example one of the items that i

wasn't supportive of in here even though there's a pre-election campaign report that candidates have to fill out like a week and a half or two before the november election the majority of the ad hoc committee wants to have another pre-filing campaign report the Friday before the Tuesday election haven't been a candidate myself before it's in everyone's best interest that candidates keep doing outreach rather than filing another report during the last you know 10 days or whatever it is also if there are large contributions there's daily reporting requirements and for some

things there are weekly reporting requirements and that's one where yeah maybe it's not a lot of extra staff costs but you know the city clerk has to amend the process to say another report is due she has to accept them she has to coordinate with other regional and state agencies that also receive our reports she has to update the database answer questions about all of it and again the friday before a tuesday election and how much additional value is there to find out that somebody got a hundred dollar contribution on a on a saturday or you know or the Monday before the Tuesday, I think it's limited.

And that, for example, is one item where I don't think it's necessary. And it's good for incumbents. You know, for me, that doesn't bother me. I have a professional treasurer. I don't need to do much other than, you know, review and sign the document and ask questions. Everybody else, everyone who had been here before, it's a lot of work putting those reports together, especially if it's volunteers or people on your local team. That's all.

Phil BacerraItem —

councilmember Becerra a little confused councilman Solora so on one end we don't need to do these reporting uh documents you know it's unnecessary but on the other side you've got a professional treasurer that's going to do it I'm a little confused because if you've got a professional treasurer then you let them take care of it I got to tell you because your mom-and-pop shop

but because your local candidates don't have a professional treasurer they can't pay a hundred dollars an hour and so it costs them money and time I I think everybody that's sitting

Phil BacerraItem —

on this dice right now has used a treasurer and i think those that don't run afoul into or potentially run afoul into the complicated laws of the fppc what we've discussed in our ad hoc was simply adding one more disclosure closer to the election and that's right before and i think and i think that additional sunshine on the process is not a bad thing and i in fact i'd be willing to let the voters decide if it's a bad thing to be very honest with you but to kind of wrap up this discussion because I know we've got just a couple of more items on the agenda this

Phil BacerraItem —

evening. I would like to ask my colleagues to indulge that we all go ahead and make a motion that we continue this item to next week with staff coming back with any sort of cost assessments on any of the items that are relevant and for staff to prescribe a way for us to methodically go through these items because we're hearing generic classifications or qualifications as to clean up items versus this. I think it's just appropriate for staff to bring it to us and have us go through it and we can as a body decide maybe we like 14 of the 17. Maybe we only like five of them. And

Phil BacerraItem —

then as far as the five bigger discussion topics, I think we really need to make sure that we're able to really go through it and if I think staff can help lead us through that discussion because I think there's a lot of great points being made on the dice tonight, but I think we really need to kind of hone in and focus and get through this because we did put a lot of items before us tonight so i would just hope that we can bring it back in two weeks and one other item i would like to add is for um staff to send out some nixal alerts uh social media posts to really inform

Phil BacerraItem —

the community that we are going to be continuing this discussion at the next uh council meeting

that's my motion council member sarmiento thank you mr mr at the cost of beating this dead horse and really killing it um i'll just make another brief comment so i want to make sure that the ad hoc members understand that from my perspective i really don't have a problem with the merits or the substance of the amendments recommended i think they're fine i think i don't really see a problem with those at all for me it's more procedural and this is sort of a classic question that i know were asked whether we're Madisonians or whether we're Jeffersonians, right? So Jeffersonians, you know, in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson,

always thought that it was better to go to the public and have the public determine what it is that we should be promulgating and considering. Madison said, look, we're voted in by, you know, the residents or the voters. we get to decide because they've anointed us with that responsibility and we need to take it on their behalf. So look it's a classic case that goes back to the founding of this country right how which way we should tackle these things. I think that there's been a lot of work placed into this. I just again have you know some question about the process because this isn't like another agenda

item. This is an agenda item that could carry some consequences because it is a charter. It it has heavier weight to it. So I think it needs to be taken seriously. And I agree with the fact that, look, a lot of these things, you know, one of the amendments, I think, Charter Amendment number seven is a significant departure from where we are right now. To me, that's probably the most significant change, which is going from a super majority vote on an appropriation to a simple majority. That is a very, very significant change and departure from what

what we've been doing so to me that's the one that gives me a lot of um uh pause because i want to make sure i we get it right because that means that um if you're in the minority well all you need is four folks to be able to adopt something and so there could be some good merit to that i just haven't been able to get the public to to um to maybe advise me a little bit better because i tend to be more of a of a jeffersonian but i do see that um you know the school district and maybe we need to work on this on how we get the public better engaged with what we're doing because

i know they had a survey and like 11 000 people responded to a survey that they had on whether they should reopen or not and maybe because that was such a compelling question and you know when you ask somebody about a charter hard to get excited about a charter but you know as important as it is to your average person that's working and busy it just isn't as compelling so you know i hope that the the ad hoc members understand look i don't have a problem with this because um the merits I think you guys took a lot of time to study them and so you represent the residents but again those are just that's just kind of the way we've always

taken at least I've always taken the charter as a serious element where the the public needs to have a role but that's those are just my two cents.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I'm just Mayor Pro Tem I just wanted to remind the City Council that the recommended action on the staff report is just to give staff direction doesn't require a formal vote I think staff has carefully been taking notes as I have been taking notes as well we have a sense of what you want to do and if your direction is to bring

it back then staff will bring it back to you did you get the jeffersonian and madisonian

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

notes for sure we'll add that to the charter councilman peñalosa thank you mr mayor pro

David PenalozaItem —

tem i want to thank councilmember sarmiento for bringing that up um in regards to that particular change and and that's and that was the intent of bringing it to the full council for us to go through all these and say you know what this one doesn't work this one is a little heavier than then you know others let's let's not move forward with that one and that's the whole purpose of us having this conversation uh with that one just for some background on that it was uh mostly staff driven and the idea behind is that we we need four council members to approve a nearly 700 million

David PenalozaItem —

dollar budget but we need five council members to to transfer ten thousand dollars from one department to another. So when somebody just from a procedural point is looking at that saying why do I need four people to approve a 700 million dollar budget but I need five to transfer over ten thousand dollars. It becomes very political as we've seen throughout these very small mostly small items that we come before us with appropriations. So that was the intent but again that's why we need to have these discussions to say is that worth taking a look at is that worth

David PenalozaItem —

sending it to the voters so the voters could ultimately decide and that was the whole purpose I want to make sure that we have that community outreach because the clock is ticking we only have until the second meeting in July to put any of these questions to the voters who will decide and that will give us the ultimate community input is by them voting. And this election is expecting a huge turnout. So again, it would be a majority of the city that will decide what these charter changes should be and which ones they're okay with and which ones they're not. We've seen things get voted down. We've seen things get approved.

David PenalozaItem —

I just want to remind the public and my colleagues that the public will decide ultimately on what gets approved. And all these were just, our intent was really to just clean up the process at City Hall, make it more transparent, you know, and in regards to public input, you know, I just want to address this, you know, because just last month, after weeks and weeks of me asking the city clerk to open up the live comment feature for every agenda item, she said, put it on the agenda because there's no consensus from your colleagues.

David PenalozaItem —

so to me that was you know this council trying to suppress the public from speaking and commenting on every agenda item but now all of a sudden we're concerned about public input for these changes to move forward so those are my comments I want to see this community outreach done madam city manager in the next week or two preferably the next week let's have let's schedule emergency emergency zoom meetings with the neighborhood associations I've had a couple over the last month that I know we can't you know we're not trying to meet in public so we

David PenalozaItem —

need to really bring that forward and I want to make sure that if my colleagues have any more suggestions on any of these to say them now because two weeks ago it was I haven't seen it and now it's well what about public input you know two weeks from now when it comes back again it's going to be another thing so if we have some issue with it please let us know now because that's why we wanted to have these meetings uh to have this conversation and that's the only way we're going to get through it and remember the voters get to decide at the end of it all

my final comment uh before we move on and i have we have direction um at least from one council member um council the when we were doing the willowick ad hoc we were having we were coming back to uh the council and we were having them briefed on what was going on and that wasn't happening at the Hadcock by the way you know where we were you had 11 meetings and no one ever came back and briefed us on or some kind of memo on what the things were being changed so like I said when you're when you're touching the charter you got to be really careful with that and you know that is my

comment is there any other direction is everyone are we are we good with Mr. Mayor Pro Tem Mr. Mayor go ahead Go ahead, Mr. Mayor.

I know we're all just commenting here. I just want to reiterate my input, which is I believe we ought to focus on the technical improvements, and that's it. Everything else is going to cost money. It's all political in nature. I'm certainly not a vote that's saying go out there and do 100 surveys. I do believe in Jeffersonian democracy, and I believe we're elected to make these decisions. And, you know, the city has run well for 150 years. We don't need a whole bunch of political makeovers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And you're right.

David PenalozaItem —

The ad hoc for Willowick was reporting, and I was on the ad hoc committee. But I was also really left out of most of those meetings. I never met. I would just get phone calls from the mayor and say, hey, we did this, this, and that. I'm like, oh, great. I was part of the committee too, but thanks for the invite. So I just want to remind you that even on that, I was left out and not included in the conversation.

Every time I was there, you were there, so I'm with you on that. I was never there. No, I'm saying in the meetings that we did have with Garden Grove.

Just one more. All right.

Last comment from Council Member Mendoza.

I just want the residents to know that none of us here are career politicians, and I understand the need to have term limits. But in defense of myself, I just came in two weeks ago, and my colleagues have just been here. This is their second year for the majority of them, and there are several years. and several of the seats are up for re-election in November, so we have brand new and fresh colleagues coming in, and we keep this city.

Our intent is to bring ideas and to benefit our communities. I don't think anyone here, including the mayor, has been here for our own benefit. This is a lot of work. This is not a high-paying. it's more like a volunteer position. We get a stipend, and the benefits that we get are not comparable to the hours that we put into it. So it's just a little offensive that some people refer to us as career politicians. We are actually community-oriented residents. We're here

representing our respective communities and so I'm all I approve and I am favor of term limits but we need to be here for some time so that we could you know make a difference we can't make a dent in the issues in just two years or three years you know it needs to be something that is adequate not too long but again and definitely term limits are appropriate in some situations, but that's my opinion,

and I hope that my colleagues are with me on this because we see how hardworking we are. We see each other at different meetings throughout the month, and believe me, it's a lot of hours many hours while you're comfortably sleeping away we're still trying to make the city better for you so so to our residents we are here

for you thank you very much so is the staff clear on the direction yes sir

David PenalozaItem —

okay great we will continue the discussion can can they repeat the direction for the sure ma'am city manager can you repeat what certainly

council members so my understanding is we will return with the item at the very next council meeting in the interim we will thoroughly encourage community input on all of the the charter recommendations that they have comments that they've made on the staff agenda reports that have already been presented in the agenda item when we bring it back to you we will have them grouped and we will give you some cost estimates associated with each one of the actions

David PenalozaItem —

And you'll have those Zoom meetings with the neighborhood meeting?

Yes, we can reach out to Comlink and try at least to get one scheduled for sure between now and the next meeting.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay, make sure you include the school district on there, see if they can help with some of the outreach into their network. Because they also have a large network of 50,000 plus kids and families. So that would be good.

Certainly. Moving on to item 65B, approve a two year operational agreement with eight one year renewal options. Will the Moon Nation Foundation operate a year round homeless navigation center and recuperative care facility at 1815 Carnegie Avenue in the amount not to exceed $38,099,351. and authorize the city manager to execute the future funding-related agreements. Is there any speakers?

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem, we do have several speakers.

Several speakers. Yes. Very good.

Caller, if you would please speak. If you would like to speak on item 65B, dial star 9. For the record, please clearly state your name, whether you're in support or in opposition to the item. You have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, we are on item 65B. If you would like to speak on this item, please proceed.

Okay, we'll go to the next caller. Caller, if you would like to speak on item 65B, please state your name for the record and whether you're in support or opposition to the item. You have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. please proceed with your comment.

Hi, I just have a general comment that you guys are talking about public input, and I submitted something as a mechanical engineer about material specifications for 29A, and you guys didn't?

So if you submitted it by email, that...

Oh, I think your call dropped. but if you submitted any of your comments by email, that is posted on the city's website, and the council members have also received that.

Caller, if you would like to speak on item 65B, for the record, please clearly state your name and whether you're in support or in opposition to the item. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Okay, we have no other callers? Oh, excuse me. So, caller, if you would like to speak on item 65B, dial star 9 for the record, please clearly state your name for the record. And you have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.

Yes, my name is Jarvis Jennings. I'm here again. And for 65B, before I can sit there and say I'm opposed or for this, my question is, is this going to replace the Yale Street homeless shelter that was being talked about? I've read what your report said, that it's not near any schools or anything like that, which I'm glad to see that. It's more in an industrial area. However, my biggest concern here is that you're wanting also to be a recovery for people who have surgery who are homeless and things like that. I understand that.

It also refers to replacing the LINC, which is a 200-bed homeless center. And so the biggest question I have is, A, is it replacing the Yale proposal that is still out there?

B, why is this coming up now when this was beginning, I believe your report said that this was previously discussed in 2018-2019, so why is this one coming up now as another homeless area for them to be around? And it's also a year-round facility that's going to have security and everything, but I'm just not sure at all the facts about this when it comes to the Yale Center still. and then also I noticed you are one of the other ones you had a airport land lease or discussion earlier why can this not either be on Tufts itself where to

be even push further away from individuals or why are we not also pushing this towards South County again to have more homeless you know facilities built you know in the South County and not in Santa Ana again I know we've done a lot with Santa Ana we don't really want it to be in Santa Ana you know I know that the link may be run down and everything and I know that you would rather have another center open before you close the link but I think you're better off just closing the link down if it's that run that badly and it's that damage repair that facility okay and then you're not adding any new

facilities in okay for a minimum of a year because I'm worried that if you do open a new one and say you're going to close the link in a year you may end up leaving the link open and then you're adding another facility for Santa Ana well I believe it should actually be somewhere else in the county so please explain yourselves more and I was really like a yes or no answer if it's replacing the Yale Center or not. I don't need a story behind it. I just need a simple yes or no answer from the city council. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Madam Clerk. Next caller.

Caller, please state your name for the record on item 65B. Whether you're in support or opposition to the item, you have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, we are on item 65B. If you would like to proceed with your comment, you have three minutes.

Okay, next caller. If you would like to speak on item 65B, please select dial star 9. You have three minutes. Please clearly state your name for the record. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello?

Yes, we're on item 65B.

Yes, thank you.

I'm a resident of Anaheim, first of all, and I am familiar with Illumination Foundation, and so I just wanted to share with counsel, please don't make the same mistakes Anaheim has done. I'm a homeless advocate. I have helped almost individuals sue Illumination Foundation because of how they're being treated as a property destruction. I've been in contact with many of the residents that are in Elimination Foundation and they're

complaining about either getting uncooked you know like almost raw chicken or they're not getting enough food the point is please do some vetting I know that they're arguably the nation's largest i know that they've got you know judge carter's support i know that they've you know they've got a quote unquote a name but they have no oversight and when you get down into the weeds you find out that they're not doing what good city councils are paying millions and

millions of dollars to have them do they're not doing their job if the City Council's goal is to make homelessness indivisible then I guess you could put them anywhere but if the City Council's goal is to help people in need that are suffering from abject poverty and living on the streets then please do more vetting I think there's other entities that could do a far better job there's so much more I could say but but the bottom line is if

you're going to approve this then demand some oversight whether you provide the oversight or whether the public is involved in providing the oversight and And because the public is the one that's giving you the tax money to do this, they really should have a say in the oversight of how their job is being done. And right now, they're closed doors. And people are dying. People are harmed by it. Even with the COVID-19 and Operation Room Key, they still haven't filled those rooms.

Fifteen seconds left.

So again, please do some more due diligence and some more vetting. Thank you.

Caller, if you would like to speak on item 65B, dial star 9. For the record, please clearly state your name, whether you're in support or in opposition to the item. You have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment. Hello? Yes.

My name is Selena Gallegos, and I want to call about the topic because I feel like for the longest time, Santa Ana has become an essential dumping ground for homeless and all. And there hasn't been much resolution to it except for let's build another shelter. Let's build, you know, let's push them out this way or whatnot.

And the issue is that a lot of these homeless were released from county jail for drug charges and petty things when they said that the prisons and the jails were getting too overpopulated, right? So once they came out, they kind of came out to nothing. and instead of being helped and rehabilitated, the city and the county just kind of said, you know, here you go, we're going to put them over here down in Civic Center where, you know, they keep an eye on them and all that, but we're not really going to do much to help them.

And that's the issue here because you guys keep rebuilding, you know, saying you're going to shut places down and rebuild new ones or just continue to rebuild them and not really take into consideration that, you know, these are human beings. These are people who just because they made mistakes or they have a past doesn't mean that they don't deserve to be rehabilitated. And just like the previous caller was saying, you know, that you open up these shelters and you kind of just dump them there and just let them be for themselves, that's not right. That's totally not right to do.

and as a resident of Santana being born and raised here, it hurts to see that you guys allow that to happen because if that were ever to happen to some of whom I'm, you know, one of my relatives or not, I would be extremely upset. And I would be extremely upset with the way Santana and Candelina, you know, the council members, the board. It's not something that it's just an open and shut chapter. It's something that really needs to be looked into. And I hope that when you guys open this shelter, that you're really overseeing it.

And you're overseeing the problems that come with it, you know. And that not only don't just invest in these shelters, invest in rehabilitation programs for them. Invest, you know, I know personally, you know, people who have been homeless, who have been released and everything. and they say all the time, oh, here's the number to, you know, this program or here's the number to this person. And every time they try to reach out, they can't reach anyone. They can't reach out to a person or they say, oh, you know what, you don't meet the qualifications because this, this, and that.

When they were already previously told by, you know, people in Orange County that are working the offices, they've already been told that they were going to get help. and there hasn't been help. And the only thing that I keep hearing is that you guys just want to build these new shelters.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there any more speakers?

Yes. We have one more? Yes. Okay. Caller, we're on item 65B. For the record, please clearly state your name. You have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can hear you. okay this is michelle um i just wanted to make a statement um i don't know if you guys have looked into the money that is provided to orange county through mhsa um they're taking about i think a little over a quarter billion dollars and if everyone's going to leave this as santa anna's problem i think that we should get a bigger portion of the money so that we can handle all of the homeless and mental health issues.

All right. Well, thank you for the comment. Is there another caller?

Yes, we have someone who just virtually raised their hand.

We're on item 65B. For the record, please clearly state your name. You have three minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.

I'm Scott Williamson. I'm a business and property owner at 1901 Carnegie, barely 1,000 feet from your proposed 1815 location. Currently, I'm opposed in that in your previous measure, you kept talking about community outreach. And obviously, after viewing your presentation, this has been in the planning for some time. And yet I've just become aware of it. I've been there for 35 years at the same location.

I've been involved with city council meetings, with city planning commission meetings, and yet I received no notification and only just became aware of this proposal by having missed a meeting on Wednesday at the location. and i think that the immediate neighborhood deserves uh community outreach to get further opinion on whether this can be a benefit or a detriment to our current homeless condition

which exists in our area on the railroad tracks the current link facility at the rico property Red Hill Warner is in operation, and yet there's still homeless all over the railroad tracks and around the Motel 6 property, just around the corner. So I would have to be somewhat more assured that this location and its operation would facilitate a remediation of the homeless that are still out and about.

I've been told by some of your representatives that it usually comes with better situations and higher policing. Also, in line item number three from recommended actions, determined that this project would be exempt from environmental conditions, that this location at 1815 is sitting right on top of a current groundwater contamination remediation. that's in process now, and I'm curious as to why that would then be held exempt.

So I'm suggesting at least that this be tabled to allow further discussion with the immediate community and to get our input. I really, right now, I would have to stand opposed unless I could be convinced otherwise. Thank you.

Caller, we're on item 65B. For the record, please clearly state your name. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Lucy Solorzano. I'm a longtime resident here at Santa Ana. I'm also speaking on behalf of my job. I'm a social worker with Orange County Social Services. and the reason I'd like to talk in regards to this topic, one, I'm very familiar with the link. I think it's a secure homeless shelter, so I don't have an issue in regards to another one that's similar to that type of facility being created.

I know that our city is mandated to create a 200 plus bed shelter for our city. I do oppose the jail shelter, as I have mentioned in the past, because I think we just, like many callers have mentioned, become a dumping ground for the county of Orange. Many of our career politicians have allowed that to happen with making deals in regards to just creating shelters in regards to that.

But the reason why I'm calling is because I want to make sure that monies that were set aside for youth there's an eight percent budgetary set aside for youth to be a part of the homeless shelter agency or dynamics and so i want to make sure that santa ana is making sure that they're utilizing eight percent of the monies that they're receiving from the state from the a homeless housing assistance and prevention program that they're setting aside. So I would love to know that 8%

and that's just the minimum, that's not the cap that is being set aside for youth homelessness. Also in regards to that, I really wanna say thank you to the HUD, the Santa Ana HUD, because we were recipients of the foster care independence HUD housing vouchers. We were able to house 25 of our current and former foster youth under that program. So I want to say thank you to the city of Santa Ana for reaching out to that,

getting that grant that provided us that opportunity to provide those 25 former and current foster youth had housing for the next three years so I want to just make sure that 8% continues to go to our youth so that they can be serviced as well as just one last comment I would love to see the Orange with foundation become a referring party to that to the shelters as well I know Caller, your time is up.

I know that there are referring agencies, so I would love for the Orange Word Foundation to be one of those referring parties. Thank you very much for your time.

Caller, we're on item 65B. Please state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please proceed with your comment. We're on item 65B. You have three minutes.

Steve Gallegos. I wanted to talk about this whole notion about the homeless kind of situation that we're dealing with. I recently had two, actually three homeless people that were arrested near my house. And when the police actually spoke to them and asked where they were from, one, her last known residence was Elisa Viejo. The other one, I believe, was Huntington Beach. The other one was, I don't remember what other city was. but essentially nobody was from Santa Ana and I just cannot ignore the fact that you know the the city police department is getting just such an enormous portion of the total budget including

the measure x budget because like as I mentioned before when you guys were talking about the measure x budget you guys were saying we're going to fix this street we're going to do everything it's the police department that got it now the thing is is that it hasn't addressed any of the homeless situation you they're still bringing people over from the other cities and i don't see any real pushback from anybody um with the exception of i heard david penaloza really push back because to be honest with you him and so far at least from this council meeting

i've heard some pushback from phil waserra it's just amazing to me that there is not more urgency in this. When I hear, and forgive me, I don't know everything about you guys, but from what I hear, it just sounds like, you know, Villegas and even Pulido, you guys sound so unexcited to do anything about this. Whether you have or haven't, forgive me, I'm not totally sure about your entire career through this. This is also coming from Nelida Mendoza, you saying, you know, there's no such being as career politicians or whatnot but look at mayor pulido i mean he's literally on your

council so uh it's just funny there's so many things that you guys say you want to fix but

there's color we're on 65 we're on item 65b did you have did you have any correct correct correct

yes so yeah so what i'm saying we need the caller is that essentially trying to address this homeless issue but you guys always backpedal so i was trying to make uh essentially all these different types of examples so if you guys are really going to do something do something that's evident do something that's obvious to us so at any rate i i really hope that you guys as other gentlemen said that you guys really vet this program that you guys really um also not just put in another shelter but talk to the other cities and find out not why the homeless people

are coming here but how they are being brought here because if someone comes I guarantee you they don't have enough money to buy a car and pay for the guts to get here so that's it caller we're

on item 65b please clearly state your name for the record you have three minutes please proceed

with your comment this is Dan Escamilla I just wanted to bring to the council's attention that the environmental impact survey raised by the other caller concerning homeless shelter is a good point and it was a point that was overlooked when a mobile meal exchange program was approved and in the case of county of orange versus county department of public health Superior Court of San Diego case number 37-2018-0039176.

There was a ruling that the mobile needle exchange program was illegally approved based on the failure to follow the CEQA guidelines. And I just want to caution the council that before $38 million is spent on a contract that they ought to determine whether a CEQA review is appropriate to protect that groundwater issue that's on the site of the proposed homeless shelter. That concludes my comments on this issue.

Caller, we're on item 65B. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

My name is Guadalupe Miranda. I live in Santa Ana. i've been here for 30 years i don't approve of the shelter um that just came up which is

the new one that's coming up 1815 carrage carrage avenue in san anna um we haven't even finished dealing with the one on yale street which um i don't want that either for my for my kids So can we ask South County to step in and help out? Like Irvine, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, South County, because everything is in Santa Ana. And every day there's more homeless from South County. That's it.

Thank you caller. We're on item 65B. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi. Can you hear me?

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

I'm calling from Ward 3 and I would like to say that I also don't agree and I support everyone else's comments about the shelter being built. in Santa Ana, definitely because it doesn't seem like enough time has been given to vet it. But specifically towards all the comments leaning towards location

and that it really should be in a city like Huntington Beach or Lista Viejo, or any city that really isn't as densely populated right now. I think like the general idea behind that is it doesn't make sense to keep putting more people in such densely populated areas where there aren't services to help them, like everybody's been saying health-wise. And I also think that it should not be there because any homeless shelter that's going to be built in – Sorry. In this exact moment.

Goodness.

So definitely consider –

We hope you're okay.

So definitely consider a shelter that is going to be very far away from the police being involved. I think we need to consider what is happening right now in the world and that police being close to homeless people is completely contradictory to the idea of helping their health improve. And I think if there are police in different cities that have a lot more time on their hands and completely different funding,

that would be a better place to put them if people want their police to be involved in homeless shelters. But I think a lot of residents of Santa Ana would probably agree that once they look at all the facts, that's just not helpful for any of it. And that concludes my comment. Thank you.

Caller, would you please state your name for the record?

Okay. So, caller, we're on item 65B. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, we're on item 65B. Please clearly state your name for the record. Please proceed with your comment.

Okay, next caller, we're on item 65B. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Madam Clark, I know our translator isn't here real time. Maybe he's on the way, but just quickly, I think that last lady mentioned that why don't other cities shelter their homeless? Why does Santa Ana need to do the bulk of the heavy lifting on it?

Hello?

Yes. Caller, please state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Please proceed with your comment. This is me, right, just to clarify?

We're on item 65B.

It says, am I unmuted? You are unmuted. Okay, sorry about that. Thank you. Hi, my name is Elena Riola. I am a resident of Ward 1. And this is in reference to 65B. And I just think that we need to reanalyze how we approach this situation because even if it's a matter of addressing the homelessness in our city, we do have to embrace the fact that other cities are practically dumping them as if they weren't human beings into our community. And I think we just have, like, a moral responsibility to protect the people that are in our community.

I have personally been homeless myself a lot with my family. and I know that a lot of we have a 20% poverty rate in our city and we continue to tax our constituents and even our constituents are becoming homeless and if we have the means to have a shelter for these homeless folks, why do we have so much money to like not even question funding police cars, New Tahoe because they can't have their fort and I just think that it's really ignorant and these people are human beings and I see them get harassed by the police right behind my backyard in the train tracks.

I live on Orange and Adam Street, and it's very sad. These people, you know, they're my mom's friends. They're people that I know, and they just want to get better. They want to get rehabilitated from their drug addiction. They want to go back to live with their families. And I just think that if we have the means to do it, then we should participate. And I'm sorry for everybody in the community who doesn't want them in their backyards, but you know what? They're in all of ours, and if we can help them, then we should. Thank you. That was all. And again, this is Elena Riola from Ward 1. Thank you.

Thank you. And then we have our translator who's going to translate for the previous comment.

My name is Maria Guadalupe Miranda, and I've lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years, and we do not need any more homeless shelters in Santa Ana.

Thank you very much. Is there any other callers, Madam Clerk?

We do not have any other comments.

Seeing that there's no more callers, we have a staff presentation.

We do, Mayor Pro Tem. We have a staff presentation from Executive Director Steven Mendoza. And we are also joined tonight by a representative from Illumination Foundation, Paul Leon. And in the audience, we also have a rep from Colony Asset Management. So they are available to answer any questions as well. And I will ask you Steve to the extent that you can answer some of the questions that came through in the public comments certainly will

Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor and Council tonight. I'm introducing the Santa Ana homeless navigation and recuperative care center. It is Part of a settlement with OC Catholic workers case as you know We were required to have a 200 bed shelter that is scalable up to 250 beds right now for consideration tonight it's 200 beds but these beds would replace 200 existing beds around the corner at the link which is on the corner of Redhill and Warner as we all can remember the link was designed to be a temporary shelter to solve a temporary need and it was constructed as such to remain compliant with the settlement the

city sought a partner for a permanent shelter via an RFP process again the Link Shelter is around the corner at 2320 Red Hill. It's been very successful. As we know and as the data has shown on our dashboard that we post on our website, over 70 people have virtually graduated from the Link Shelter into permanent supportive housing. The Link has dedicated office meeting spaces and offers amazing services. It's, again, designed as a two-year shelter, and it closes mid-october unless extended for a small overlap period with the new shelter

the permanent shelter rfp we received two proposals the first proposal was spread out among three different locations the second proposal had all beds within a single industrial building within the existing sb2 zoning which is the zoning in our city that allows for homeless shelters illumination foundations proposal tonight is for 150 beds of shelter beds and then 50 recuperative beds funded by Cal Optima the end it'll be for individuals couples and children transitional aged youth and special needs population who are homeless in the city of Santa Ana it also has

the scalability at a later date of being going up to 250 beds that again is not in today's contract but just to inform the City Council that it is scalable up to the 250 beds it's on a 1.7 acre site an industrial area at 1815 Carnegie has been stated earlier today near the intersections of the 55 freeway Warner Redhill and Dyer the cost for the proposal will be four million five hundred and ninety one thousand dollars for tenant improvements structural work and startup costs and

and then $3,155,367 a year, but that will graduate at 1.5% per year for the annual cost.

There's no residential within a half mile of the location. Again the length of stay goal for this facility is 120 days or fewer. Like I said before, we've had a great graduation success at the link and we hope to continue that under illumination foundation. It has comprehensive support services and again is a referral only with managed access in and out. They will have intake, case management, housing navigation, behavior health, employment services, and medical care coordination. Here's a floor plan of the ground floor which includes 82 beds for the navigation and 50 recuperative beds, a medical clinic, and case management offices.

The second floor will have 68 navigational beds and volunteer training, case management, and offices. Illumination Foundation's budget is split into, their proposal is split into two different segments. One that will be the city's responsibility of financing, and the other will be the CalOptima-funded one, and then the total consolidated budget is on the right. One of the things about this project, it comes out to a per diem cost, per person per day, of $58 to house the homeless. Again, the recuperative beds are 50 of those beds. They're for stable discharge plan of somebody leaving a hospital.

And they can also enter our facility if they meet the criteria of medical. And they can be cleared directly for intake through Illumination Foundation. So what we were worried about before is that the police would have to go to the county the county would then have to get somebody into these recuperative care beds. We've ironed that out and Illumination Foundation will be able to get people directly from the police department into the recuperative care beds. The funding that the city has available you'll notice on this it's a spreadsheet for 10 years out of the funding that's available

And the true cost of providing the service you'll notice that there is no general fund that's used in this project Nor is there any inclusionary housing included in this project inclusionary housing funding I should say You'll see a schedule it is a fast track schedule from tonight all the way to November 15th where construction is completed Min Ties promised me he will be able to meet that calendar and I'm not putting any pressure on him today the scalability again the option for future consideration is a bridge type housing in the back of the property to create a

transition from homeless to these individual capacity beds and rooms with that I want to address some of the questions that came up from the speakers also if there's any questions you may have of Illumination Foundation Paul Leon is in the in the in the house today and I'd also like to thank mr. Ryan Hodge from our city attorney's office who did some of the heavy lifting and negotiating a lot of the language in the agreements and I want to thank him you know there is some discretion of having two shelters open at once and also of the Yale property the old property is not operated by the city it doesn't help

us meet our settlement agreement with it. The link was a tool for us to settle our Catholic workers case, and with the link closing down, we need to replace that facility, and that would be the Yale. Our dream is to have the two open at one day and then close down, but we may have about a two-week to a one-month overlap of the two facilities. There were some CEQA questions regarding CEQA we are confident that the appropriate CEQA was was incorporated with this project when the SP2 zoning was approved for this area as you know

SP2 zoning was changed to facilitate one facility in our city of 200 beds and this does meet that criteria by not having this and the link open at the same time we won't be violating that compliance of a CEQA so we are confident about our secret determination in in this also you may see that later in the evening there was a comment letter regarding our secret determination from the city of tustin and again it made no reference to the sb2 zoning which we're relying upon for this project and i want to thank them for providing that um some of the other calls were um

um where the the city's a dumping ground and the city is doing a very good job we've contracted with various services not just police but we also have city net in our streets to assist us in managing our homeless population and getting them admitted into our current shelter and then graduating from the shelter into the permanent supportive housing lately we've been graduating them into the county's hotel program due to the covid situation with that i think that is

pretty much it about the public there will be future public outreach done by illumination foundation i want to make that very clear that we did one initial meeting with the industrial property owners and last week on Wednesday some of you were there we had four attendees come to get more information about the facility but again illumination the outreach doesn't stop there illumination will be doing their own outreach with this project and getting their team on board to knock the pavement pay pay pound the pavement in the area with that if you have any questions or concerns of staff we're here we also have two gentlemen in the

pack. Thank you very much. Questions from Council Member Becerra? Thank you Mayor

Phil BacerraItem —

Pro Tem. So just to clarify we need to have a city run shelter in the city in order to be compliant with the settlement correct? Correct. The county can't settle our case. We have to settle our case. So regardless of what the county does so the county is proposing the Yale Street shelter that's a completely separate item but what we're talking about here today is a replacement for the amount of beds that will eventually go away that we need to have in order to be compliant with the settlement with under Judge Carter. That is correct sir. Okay and so so just to clarify so the link is run by the

Phil BacerraItem —

city not the county this new facility would be run or you know with the Illumination Foundation but a city shelter not a county shelter. Correct. So So when we see that catastrophe out on the Civic Center, that's the county, not the city.

That is correct.

Phil BacerraItem —

I just want to make sure that we make that abundantly clear that that's what we've got going on here. I just wanted to thank staff, though, for identifying this location. When I first became a council member, the first thing I told our city manager was make it east of the 55, and I wasn't looking at the map and looking at my colleague, I swear. But in all seriousness, I think that the Lynx location has been a good location. From my understanding, talking with staff, we've had minimal concerns with that location. And if this site is approved, I think we would have a similar success.

Phil BacerraItem —

And then as far as the layout, you had shown the layout. I just want to clarify or confirm that the layout is reflective of social distancing standards. Because I think what we're hearing in a lot of the county-run shelters is that there's a concern that COVID is spreading. I just want to make sure that we are taking the precautions in city shelters to make sure that we're doing everything we can to limit that from happening.

We have. We thinned out the link substantially through the county's motel program and also our trailers at the link. We've done a really good job. If you remember, the state provided us with 22 trailers of which to house people separately from the link. and also during the we received the RFP first came in February March but that's when COVID hit so illumination foundation was able to go back to the the go back to the drawing board redesign this floor plan to address COVID and also CDC guidelines of course the cost went up a bit but you'll see these floor plans do reflect that social distancing distancing so they were

Phil BacerraItem —

able to accommodate what we need for social distancing and still help us be compliant with the settlement under judge card correct great thank you very much you're welcome

council member sarmiento yes thank you mr mayor pro tem and and ward one was was selected once again because we were so successful with the link that we realized that is a good place to put it and i think that's um you know within our sb2 zone but i you know all kidding aside i do want to thank thank staff for moving as quickly as they've been able to because it's not easy to identify a site. I want to thank Mr. Taramina and Mr. Leon as well for being here and for them working so closely with our staff because we really are compelled to do this. This really isn't a choice.

We are parties to a lawsuit that is overseen by Federal District Court Judge Carter that is very familiar with conditions here in Santa Ana. So really this is sort of the result of also a Ninth Circuit case called Jones, right, which prevents cities from being able to control their homeless population, not enforce anti-camping laws without having beds available to house folks. So in other words, if we have homeless people out on the street in Santa Ana and they need help, we can't do anything for them or with them unless we have shelter beds.

So by us having not only the temporary site but now a permanent site, we will be able to go ahead and address the homeless problem that a lot of our city is facing, but also provide services and help these folks transition into a better way of life. And that's where Wednesday when we went to the site, and I think I was joined by Council Member Mendoza and I think Council Member Solorio as well, I spent some time talking to representatives from Illumination Foundation and Mr. Taramina. And really what I was moved by is their passion for helping. And that's what we need.

And I think, to your point, what the city's done with their temporary shelter at the link is so different from what the county's done at the courtyard, which is unfortunate because it's right in the middle of our city. So that's what people have seen as a shelter. and that's the only standard that they've been able to sort of base their opinion on. If they were to see the link in comparison to the courtyard, very, very different delivery service there. But just if you can, Mr. Mendoza, can you tell me, have there been any problems at the link?

No, there have been no documented problems or complaints that come into the city regarding the link. The link has been a success, not just a hopeful success when we approved it, But when you look back on its 17 months maybe it's been open, we would still say it's a success. Our staff monitors the link closely. We are there closely. We are putting out, you know, we are enforcing agreements, and we are making sure they abide by agreements. We have worked closely with them since COVID hit them and been a partner with them in giving them the PPE that they need and allowing them to expand their services to address that.

We continue to be a partner. We didn't approve a document and send them on their way. We consider it our facility and we consider it our responsibility to monitor very closely and work with them as partners.

And as far as impacts to neighboring properties or neighbors to either side of that site, have you seen any problems?

No, we look for the bicyclists. We look for the wanderers. We do, and we don't see them in this area. Yeah. We've done a really good job of making sure it is not a drop-in facility.

Right. So somebody has to actually be transported there, right?

Correct, yes. And that will be the same rule for this one.

Excellent. So the final thing is I know there was a comment about the Yale site, and I think we've spoken to that, that it's a county-proposed site in the city. And Madam City Attorney, I think, if I'm not mistaken, we have a very aggressive lawsuit against the county.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

correct? Yes, we have a lawsuit filed and as the council may recall and maybe the public may recall, the city council has engaged a top-notch litigation firm who is evaluating further challenges to that site to ensure that it doesn't interfere with the neighborhood.

Great. So, you know, I think very different from the experiences that we've had at the courtyard and hopefully this will be more an extension of what we've seen at the link as opposed to what we see across the street at the courtyard. So, again, thank you to staff and thank you to all involved and to Mr. Taramina and to Mr. Leon. Thank you. We certainly have very high hopes and expectations of you, and we certainly are looking forward to the partnership. We know it's going to be a good one. Thank you.

Councilmember Peñalosa followed by Councilmember Solorio.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Before I comment on that side, I just want to go back to what the city attorney just mentioned. You said that the aggressive lawsuit that we have towards the county is to assure that the Yale site doesn't affect the nearby neighborhoods. I was hoping that it was to just completely shut down the Yale site and stop it from even opening its doors. Can you clarify to that?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes. And, Councilmember, as you may recall, that is one of the items that that law firm is looking at and evaluating and has spoken to the council about the measures it plans to take to make that not happen.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. Thank you. Just needed to clarify. And in regards to the Carnegie site, I'm very familiar with the work the Illumination Foundation does. I volunteered at their Children's Resource Center a couple years ago for a couple of years and know the impact that they have in not just addressing people already that are homeless, but stopping people from becoming homeless and helping in their education and outreach efforts to curving that and not allowing people to become homeless, which is a great thing that they already do.

David PenalozaItem —

So very happy that they're involved. And I just wanted to address some of the comments that were also mentioned by the speakers. I have to agree. We are the dumping side of the county, and it's unfortunate that the county takes advantage of Santa Ana because we see it every day. And someone asked as well, how do the number of homeless individuals that appear in our city that are from cities like Aliso Viejo and Mission Viejo and San Clemente, how do they end up here? And it's simple. You know, they're arrested in South Orange County by the Sheriff's Department and brought to the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana for minor offenses,

David PenalozaItem —

and they're released a couple hours later or the next day into Santa Ana streets. And that's the cycle that we've seen daily, and I've tried to personally stop it. I don't know how we can block it from happening. How can we address that? I know they've changed their hours, but the problem is that they're still being released onto our streets. and that's the loophole that South County and other more affluent cities have in the county that keep arresting individuals and having them released onto our streets. So that's why we see more and more every day, regardless of how many more shelters we build.

David PenalozaItem —

With enforcing of our anti-camping laws, I wanted to, because I know it's a department-wide effort that involves CDA, Public Works, the Police Department. I wanted to not just you, Executive Director Mendoza, but also hear from the Chief of Police and the Executive Director of Public Works, and hear their commitment to their staff and how they're going to be able to help in addressing and enforcing the anti-camping laws and making sure that those cleanup efforts are out there, and the outreach from various departments and how you're going to work collaboratively

David PenalozaItem —

to address the situation to really get a control of this if that's possible.

It's a little bit off topic, Councilmember, but we certainly can ask him. I would say just the Chief of Police as opposed to Public Works as well. And you do have a budget presentation which each one of the department heads is going to talk about and many of those departments do have goals and highlights in that area as well.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay, thank you. That's fine. One last question. So I know that this was part of a settlement that we all agreed to with the lawsuit. We were being sued. Our settlement was to open up our city-owned shelter. I know that other cities also have similar settlements. I'm not exactly sure who settled and who hasn't, but it just still feels that Santa Ana is the only one that is quick to settle and build a shelter while I don't hear its crickets from every other city, aside from the

David PenalozaItem —

centrally localized cities, to open up additional shelters. Can you talk a little bit about that? Madam City Manager or Executive Director Mendoza on why we're not seeing these

shelters open in other cities? Certainly councilmember I do know that in the when you talked about north and central you're referring to the service planning areas that the County of Orange divided our county into and both in the central and in the north there has been substantial additions of homeless shelters Anaheim, Buena Park, Placentia, Stanton so there there is other cities that are doing as much as Santa is. In regards to South County, as to why there's not shelters being built there, I really can't speak to that, but that definitely is something that in the litigation,

that is a matter that we're looking into as to the fair distribution of that under the county's control.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Madam City Manager. And for the public listening, you could thank Lisa Bartlett for that. So please email the Board of Supervisors and hold them accountable to holding their cities and their respective districts accountable down at the county because this is a problem that we see daily in Santa Ana, and they take advantage of us, they continue dumping, and it's problematic because we have a community that suffers. So with that said, those are my comments, and that's it, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Salorio.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, and thank you to the staff, City Manager Ridge, and Director Mendoza, I know you spent many months on this, and I think the product is good and I know at the end you gave us some options too for if the relation doesn't work out how can they or we you know change courses and I think you did that very well there I think the story overall is a positive story but I do have a little bit of a you know homework assignment and exercises for our staff fairly consistent with what I think a councilmember was talking about the positive story is we try to do things

right on this one. We did an RFP. We had some bids. Staff vetted them, negotiated to do something that was workable, made improvements to both sides. We're going to be receiving some federal and state and other funds to pay for much of this. So that's positive. As Councilmember Sarmiento was saying and others, almost no issues of real concern at the current link. and this place is you know very close to it so I feel very good about that I know there were some comments about you know we're not using using measure X for

streets that we're using measure X for you know police work and other work well as a councilmember mayor Patim Villegas well remembers if folks believe that which I don't necessarily do it's actually good because if you go back and look at that measure it said to do things to reduce 911 response times to improve public safety and a variety of other things including homeless services not that that all needs to be done by police work either but if folks think that you know measure X dollars are going those areas I think that would be on

point with what the voters approved in addition to it being part of the settlement with the judge I think it was important for us to have that shelter because based on the federal law that Councilmember Sarmiento mentioned and that the judge would tell us was, if we didn't have our own shelter, we couldn't do enforcement. We couldn't enforce our anti-camping laws. And that's where my homework assignment is to our city manager and the departments that report to her. In this case, most notably the police department and public works. But we have a lot of homeless in town because our city lets them be in town.

We do very, very little proactive, ongoing enforcement of anti-camping and related laws. I brought this up before, and I know different folks feel differently about how much enforcement we do or don't do. But if you go look at Main Street, if you go look at Santiago Creek and other areas, we still have significant issues. Going forward, the assignment is we need to do a little better job on reporting, on how many citations and such. we're doing and not just by the quality of life team because I think they're doing a blessed job you know that the quality of life team which is a the best

practice in our city is you have not just people from PD but mental health folks or County folks parks and recs folks public works folks that do a fantastic job that all was staffed initially with just you know one police officer it got I think at some point doubled to two out of you know 300 plus officers and we could do more I've been for about a month trying to get from our city staff a stat on how many citations warrants arrests etc were being done by both quality of life team versus non quality of life team and I'm here about three weeks later to tell you that I still do not have that you know thank

goodness for our city manager and our city attorney have started to get some summary level information but it's important for us to know what the problem is I'm a big believer that you can't manage what you can't what you don't measure and so I want to know what kinds of things we're seeing now in the field do we need more police officers doing that do we need more public works people more PSOs I think for some a lot of that work you don't need to send out to the homeless two three cop cars or officers with guns you know PSOs might be fine or or just not not so hardened I also strongly believe that part of the

homework assignment is reporting out better other than just the show what we do at the link for housing and treatment we want these folks off the streets not just because we don't want to see them but because we really do care about their lives we care about their humanity and at the end of the day it's about housing and treatment for again for that for the link they do an outstanding job there's a real-time dashboard that even for the county or other to say oh it's too hard to do that data it's right there and I think our police department and other agencies can do that I've been talking some time about you know open

data including on you know on all these areas of services I know we can do better we'll do better and the better we understand what the needs and resources allocation and the type of work and who's doing the work will all be doing better by this but I'll close with this thing that it it makes no sense for us to be spending millions and millions of dollars for a shelter if one of the biggest reasons why we agreed to that was so we could enforce our anti-camping laws our panhandling laws etc many of these are in hot spots and I know one response I got back from the PD was it's too hard to try to figure out how to cite somebody

for panhandling on some of the codes, but there are other codes that say, look, it's just generally not safe to be in the median of a Main and MacArthur or a 17th and 5 Freeway that there are codes where it's as obvious as day. And with most of these individuals, if you tell them, hey, it's not safe for you, please get off of that center median, it's unsafe for you and motorists, they would leave. And you just need to drive by and roll down the window and say that. I do believe we can do better. I know that we're trying to instill that idea. I know we did an amazing job last year hiring 50 officers.

We reduced major crimes. We reduced gang homicides, regular homicides. But on the homeless front, we can do better. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We started using that three-minute rule, so everyone on notice. And any other comments from council members or questions for staff? Move the item. We have a motion to approve. Is there a second?

Second.

Second. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll?

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

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempiegas?

Yes.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor Pulido? And I just wanted to indicate for the record that the mayor had earlier abstained and did not participate in a closed session discussion regarding this item. He has stated a conflict due to campaign contributions involving, I believe, the property owner, and he did not participate in this discussion tonight.

Very good. So the mayor abstains and motion passes.

Madam Clerk, what item?

We're at the public hearing 75A1.

75A1, this is the time and place to open a public hearing and consider ordinance. Let's see, to adopt a fiscal year 2021 budget.

And...

Good, let's see here.

To approve the changes of the city basic classification and compensation plan, adopt the five year strategic plan and a seven year capital improvement plan.

Is there a staff available for that?

Absolutely, Mayor Pro Tem. So this item, as you mentioned, is to introduce the ordinance for the adoption of the upcoming fiscal year budget and the related actions. and we have a presentation with our finance director kicking it off with the general information and then you'll have the opportunity to hear from each one of your operating departments on their individual budgets along with their highlights of what they have accomplished, the current fiscal year, and some of the goals they hope to achieve in the upcoming year. Catherine?

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. tonight's agenda includes a summary of the numbers highlights from each department and information regarding cares act funding cares act dollars this is a comparison of our general fund revenue for the current year and the new budget year overall we expect overall general fund revenue which can be used for any purpose is expected to decrease by $8.4 million, largely due to the COVID-19 impact on sales tax. Other reductions are expected for business tax and permit revenue, which is in

the other category at the bottom of the chart. We do expect some increases in revenue for both UUT and property tax, UUT being utility users tax. The property tax increase that we're expecting is driven from activity that occurred prior to the pandemic.

This chart compares our general fund expenditures for the current year and the new budget year. Overall, our expenditures are increasing by $10 million, or 3%.

In addition to showing our expenditures by department or function, we have presented them here by cost category so you can see that labor accounts for about 60% of our general fund budget and this provides services to the public such as policing library and code enforcement contractual services accounts for more than one-quarter of the budget and provide services to the public such as fire protection and ambulance service if we look at the budget for all funds we see that the general fund accounts for nearly half of the budget our enterprise

funds include water and sewer and our restricted funds include federal housing money grants such as CDBG as well as gas tax so for this part of the presentation we're going to hand it off to each department so they can briefly present some highlights the first three departments to present I will go ahead and advance your slides for you while you discuss okay I'm sorry I didn't realize Daisy was presenting for CM's office good evening mayor and City Council my name is Daisy Perez and I'll be giving a overview of the city

manager's office budget proposal so as you can see in the org chart our our budget for our department includes 10 funded positions and this includes two existing vacancies in our administration division that includes the assistant city manager and assistant to the city manager positions as you can see our department of 10 makes up a very small piece of the city's overall budget with 0.3% and then if you look at the bottom of the slide you'll see that all 2

million of our proposed budget is general fund dollars with no additional support but i did want to note that legislative services is under our office and so we work to advocate for grants of all levels not only to support our office but to support all of the other city departments as well

under the leadership and direction of the city manager there has been a lot that has been accomplished over the last year and i wanted to take a minute to highlight some of those as you will see as part of the item tonight we have finalized the development of a new five-year strategic plan we have hired several positions including two directors in our new pio we've also done a lot of work in terms of communications and homelessness we created a homeless action plan this was as a result following a lot of the discussion that we had

back in October and the COVID crisis communication team that was formed to communicate all of the various changes that took place and are still taking place during the existing pandemic

looking into the future the goals that we have outlined are very overarching so first is to continue to provide research and advice to the council and effectively implement city council's policies and priorities again to continue to provide leadership to all other operating departments for the implementation of the strategic plan and long-term fiscal viability to complete a comprehensive protocol and communications plan. And lastly, as I mentioned earlier, to continue to advocate for legislation as outlined in the legislative platform, which you all approved earlier today, including pursuing new grants.

And that's all I have, and I'll pass it on to the City Attorney's Office. Thank you very much, Daisy. So now I can go through your slides here.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Thank you, Daisy, very much. I'll do a brief presentation on the City Attorney's Office, as you can see from our organizational chart. We have 11 full-time people in our department. I want to thank the city council for allowing us to add one additional person this past fiscal year in the code enforcement area that was funded through cannabis revenues. We have also this year been able to establish a formal legal advisor to the police department. That's one of our full-time positions. In our litigation and code enforcement area, we have five full-time individuals, and on the transactional side, we also have five individuals.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Our budget accounts for about one-half of one percent of the city budget, and with that money, we serve every single department in the city. We also serve members of the public when they sometimes have inquiries. We'd like to highlight for you some of the things that we accomplished this past fiscal year. We were involved in negotiating the settlement with the Orange County Catholic worker as we've discussed this evening And that case allowed us to now enforce our city's anti-camping and other quality of life citations That wasn't just one case. There were a number of shoot-offs from that case that kept our staff very busy

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We were able to complete the Municipal Master Facilities License Agreement for the use of city streetlights by cell phones We were very involved in some of the city's technology goals We also completed the lease agreement with the Santa Ana Unified School District for the Centennial Park Education Center, which has been another goal for the community over the last several years. We defended many, many lawsuits in the area where city employees were involved, where we had tort litigation. We had a lot of election activity and election lawsuits this past year, surplus land act and CEQA cases.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We've been handling more of those cases in-house, which saves the city significantly. We also assisted with the preparation of resolutions, executive orders during this COVID crisis, and other matters related to the emergency. We responded to over 1,200 requests for legal services from all the various departments, and we provided training for city staff. In addition to that, one thing that's not listed here is that we actually prosecuted over 1,700 municipal code violations in the courthouse.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

And again, I want to thank the council for that additional staff person, which allowed us to significantly increase the number of cases that we've prosecuted. So our goals for this next year are to continue to provide reliable and extraordinary services to the city and all the departments in the city. We also serve the various commissions. We want to provide an assessment regarding the areas of potential modernization of the Santa Ana Municipal Code. We want to assist where appropriate with the streamlining of city services making suggestions where we can help for example

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We plan to bring to you at the next meeting what we are calling the omnium omnibus contract Staff report which will based on a budget that you adopt Have all the departments come forward to you with the major city contracts all at one time rather than you seeing these dribble in over time We are beginning to implement a cost recovery system to make certain that where we can we can recover costs for the in-house legal services Maybe this is where we've been working with developers and we've been successful or where we get some of our Receivership cases to reimburse the city

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We also are planning to implement a new community improvement enforcement task force to address our highest priority nuisance cases in the city and I might add that this involves a strategy to address the vacant properties that the City Council asked us to address as well as to protect historic resources so that they are not demolished by neglect. And with that, I'll hand it off to the city clerk. Daisy.

Thank you. So in our office, we have our organization has currently we have a total of five positions. And what I did was I think I'm doing a reallocation of two full-time positions that are currently vacant to delegate the duties and responsibilities to lower classification of three office specialists. So that way we have that delegation of services rather than trying to depend on the few.

Our budget accounts for $1.4 million, and this is primarily impacted by the election. Our functionality of our office are supporting internal services and meeting all the legal deadlines.

And some of the highlights was collaborating with the registrar voters to design the plan and election infrastructure, most notably the new vote centers and vote-by-mail drop boxes. And currently I'm working with them to add some additional locations on the south side of the city. Managed two elections to fill a vacancy in Ward 4 and a successful recall election in Ward 6. The preliminary processing of three recalls, one referendum, a citizen-driven initiative, and the charter amendments from the recommended ad hoc charter committee.

And then there's continued expansion of transparency efforts by using existing software like Granicus or YouTube to post recordings of all active government boards, including city council virtual meetings via Zoom teleconferencing. streamline online forms for filings such as boards and commission applications ethics training and public records diligently negotiated with various vendors to have these services for services that were not rendered or were not used in 1920 they were actually waived I was able to work with a couple

of vendors for that. And then our goals is with hopes of not having a high volume of election activity, I intend to integrate an innovative agenda management system and software modules to mitigate adverse workload impacts associated with the legislative processes and public comments, implement the digital voting system in the council chamber, which the council has been loudly crying for. Update the conflict of interest code and for with the biennial conflict of interest code required by FPPC and the campaign

committees as required by law. Update and digitize citywide records and work with the city attorney and staff to revise the proposed board and commission ordinance which was removed from the charter in 2018 as section 901. And those are all the items I have sending this off to community development agency

thank you Daisy thank you City Council for the opportunity to speak to you about what we have the opportunity to do we get to do some really cool things this is our organizational chart of the employees that we have in their operating their administrative arm economic development homeless services and housing you'll see that the whole administrative arm is large because we deal with a lot of federal and state money and we need to know it we need to audit and we need to make sure that we're not penalized for using it you'll see that 13% of our we're 13% of the city's budget which seems a little high

but you'll notice in this budget there's a lot of non general fund revenue in our budget you'll see general fund enterprise restricted funds internal services funds and capital funds we are will in July 1 we will start doing the downtown parking structure and lot management of the operations of parking so we'll have both parking meters as well as the parking structures under our department we're planning for a homeless shelter as you well are aware and we're utilizing the CARES Act funding. Now here's where the opportunities shine has really existed for my

department. In this past couple of months while many people were busy with COVID-19 my staff gave up nights and weekends in order to provide rental assistance, homeless shelter services, COVID testing, and employment and training services for all of those Santa Ana residents in need. I'm really proud of the work they've done at the same time Judson's been busy getting those housing developments up both Aqua Housing Tiny Tim and soon to be the Arts Collective some of our goals for next year is to continue our outstanding work and providing services related to COVID-19 resources that come

into our department finalizing the third and Broadway parking structure project and the disposition and development agreement that will run parallel with that as they go for their entitlements through the planning and building agency of course we will be advancing future affordable housing projects and we'll be working on the disposition of the YMCA with that I will turn it over to human resources my friend Stephen Pham thank you good evening council thank Thank you for the opportunity. I'm Stephen Pham, Director of HR. I want to make sure I push the right button here.

Oops. Okay, here we go.

The HR department has 24 full-time positions and three part-time employees. We are responsible for all internal services, similar to the City Attorney's Office, Finance, and IT. Our job is to support our staff from within. We have three divisions. One is HR operations, where we conduct all recruitments and training. We have benefits and compensation, which we administer a great deal of programs internally, and we have a risk management division.

Our budget is about 7% of the citywide budget, but our general fund budget is only about 1%. The majority of our budget is in internal service fund, which consists of risk management and benefits administration. When we reach contract with bargaining groups, that's where we have to administer benefits such as health insurance and liability in such area.

Last year, we are pleased to report that we conducted over 185 recruitments. We process over 16,000 applications. These are just outside candidates, not including internal candidates. And we place a large part, which I'm very pleased to report, in working with PD and help secure, hire. We hired 15 new police officers last year. We also manage all of our benefits to over 1,300 employees. We also process over 700 claims and related costs, which resulted in a lot of savings to the city last year.

We also take the lead role in providing a safe work environment to deal with the COVID-19 response. We develop policy, we manage policies, and we administer a great deal of FMLA requests due to people that got sick. and we took the lead role in providing shields and protections throughout the workplace in order for the employees to return to work. One thing I forgot to mention up here is that through the support of the city manager, we successfully completed all negotiations with all of our bargaining groups late last year.

Finally, I'm very pleased to report that we implemented the return to work program through our risk management program, which allow us to bring injured employees back to work rather than hit them sitting home. By doing so, we actually improved productivities in some of our departments that needed help. For our goal next year, we want to revamp the citywide performance review system. This is something that the city manager has mentioned. For city of all size, we have over nine review performance review system. My goal is to bring that down into half and make it more effective and relevant to what we do.

We are implementing a citywide employee's wellness program, which in turn will reduce the risk of injuries and return our employees back to work sooner. We are, by law, will have to comply with the new employee orientation program. We will continue to provide leadership role in mitigating COVID-19 problems in the workplace, and we will provide educational system to the departments. Finally, we will focus on leadership and supervisory development throughout the city, and that's our goal for next year. Now I'd like to turn this over to our IT department. Thank you.

Good evening, Council. Jack Chula, Information Technology Director.

The Information Technology Department consists of two divisions, Infrastructure and Applications, in addition to myself and my two admin staff. The Infrastructure Division is broken up into two sections, Network and Data Center and Telecom, and Tech Support, which is the Help Desk and Desktop. top applications is broken up into three sections enterprise systems specialized systems and GIS systems we have a total of 24 FTE and seven consultants and right now we have four vacancies

that are not backfilled our citywide budget is just two percent and it's all consists of internal internal service funds. Highlights, in addition to what's up there, our current year highlights include launching the new Santa Ana, My Santa Ana mobile app, upgrading the HR payroll system with the Financial Management Department, implementing a new budgeting system with the Financial Management Department, replacing all of our networking equipment, increasing increasing our networking internal speed by 1,000 percent, and increasing our network

bandwidth by 400 percent, and reducing cost by 66 percent. These items up here are one-time items that are included in the proposed budget in the coming year that are coming out of the fund balance from the IT department. One is to replace the antiquated land management system that we have, or get that project started, I should say, because it'll be about a two- to three-year project. Upgrading the data center backup systems, implementing a timekeeping system, additional

cybersecurity protection, and doing infrastructure upgrades. the goals for the department include doing more document management and online forms with multiple departments in order to streamline operations completing the phone system upgrade for the police department which is the only department still remaining to be upgraded starting and selecting and starting the land management system replacement which I mentioned earlier and continuing to replace outdated infrastructure I will now turn it over to the library

okay good evening members of the City Council my name is Brian Sternberg the library services department essentially has four divisions that serve people of all ages that is adult services young adult services or teens youth services and technology and support services we also have a small administration department that consists of myself and a proposed library operations manager for fiscal year 2021 we do have three vacancies that are librarians and one senior librarian we represent a small portion of the budget that's about 0.7

percent of the total citywide budget and about 1.6 percent of the general fund budget or 5.5 million dollars so the library services department is really focused on in this coming fiscal year access and service bringing services out to our community and thinking about how technology can really facilitate that process that's really important for me and the department so how are we doing that well we have a new bookmobile that is has been already been designed and a requisition has been approved and it should launch next fiscal year 2021

and that's really going to focus on again technology that will focus on at our educational needs and per kind of bridging that gap because we only have two facilities that serve the community our main library and our new hope building so the bookmobile will really be able to bring our services to the neighborhoods to schools and to seniors and those who really need it we are also finalizing our upgrades for New Hope library and New Hope is going to become what I would consider a full service library right now with expanded hours at 48 hours per week up from 27 which New Hope has previously operated at we're

also going to get new furniture a media lab with technology again serving the kids and we're doing a whole variety of exterior improvements landscaping concrete pavement work lighting etc so what are our goals for next year well we want to expand the wireless hotspots we have a need for that in the community so I am looking to do that doubling we have 120 wireless hotspots now that we have available to check out through our curbside services at the library and we are going to try to add an additional 120 for next year looking at potentially some SEPA compliant hotspots for the kids as well that offers a little bit of

filtering we also want to increase the library's innovative virtual program offerings offer more streaming programs using zoom YouTube videos we want to explore new ways for technology to improve patron experiences like wireless printing in the library scanning services and we also want to implement a free virtual high school diploma program that will allow adult residents to earn a high school diploma to improve their yet to improve their career opportunities so we received a small grant from that from the California State Library and we will be offering six scholarships for people and so that is it for the library

I would like to turn it over to executive director Rudloff for parks and recreation

David PenalozaItem —

Madams really quick we're gonna I Was trying to understand the process we're gonna have the opportunity to ask questions of each one after everything's done, right?

Yes, sir. Okay, thank you

Very smart Lisa very smart

all right uh thank you parks and recreation lisa rudolph executive director um the parks and recreation department has four divisions in administration parks and facilities recreation and community services and the santa anna zoo we have 79 full-time and 203 part-time positions proposed in the fiscal year 2021 budget of the 79 full-time positions eight positions are currently not currently not filled due to the hiring freeze and 15 are pending per the approval of the budget

there are currently 45 part-time positions that are filled right now of the 203 and we anticipate hiring once covid is lifted the restrictions are lifted we anticipate hiring the others for our programming and things of that nature our budget is about 36.3 million the majority of that is in general fund and that's for our salaries primarily for our salaries and contracts highlights coming for this year is that

we were awarded over $6.8 million of grant funding, and this is through the Proposition 68, where we received $5.2 million, and the State Coastal Conservancy, where we received about $1.4 million. We also have new contract services for maintenance and parks that includes landscaping for ball diamonds, pest control and fertilization. I know that doesn't sound great and fun, but we really want our parks to be clean and safe, and we want to maintain them.

The budget has been cut in previous years, so we're very proud of our efforts to maintain our parks and facilities this year.

Our park safety and security is also going to continue to be a goal. we have included in the budget still the park patrol program which we have seven officers that patrol seven days a week from five or 6 a.m. to midnight and then we also have our park ambassadors that are seven days a week at various different times we saw we also have turned on all of our security lights in our parks and we're keeping those on from dusk till dawn we also have some cameras at some parks and then we're also going to be renovating or replacing

restrooms and making them safer putting them in locations that are not hidden this year we're also going to be creating a roadmap for our parks in our open space and trails our city has never had this before so we're very excited to analyze comprehensively all of our facilities all of our parks all of our trails and and get the input from the community and then come back and have a plan a 10-year plan and lastly we are evaluating service delivery and

financial management to enhance and or sustain services short and long term We're basically doing a study with our Recreation and Community Services Department that analyzes all of our programs and activities and any kind of services that might be duplicated in the community. We're about 70% completed on that, and we will be coming back to the council with a report in the future.

Some of our goals for the year include park renovation and construction of new parks. So those grants that we received will be building two parks at Standard & McFadden and Rayton Myrtle. We'll also be renovating Santiago Park with the money received from the Coastal Conservancy. We also are going to be approaching the project at the zoo, the Santa Ana Zoo Amazon Edge River Otter Habitat Project. We're also going to be installing security lighting and upgrades at Morrison Park and Sandpoint Park.

We're going to be starting on the PE Bike Trail Lighting Phase 2, and that's from Eddinger to Warner. We're going to be finishing up our renovation of the Southwest and the Santa Ana Senior Centers. We're really going inside, cleaning those up, putting in new furniture for the seniors, and that should be done sometime this summer we're going to be installing a synthetic turf at Santa Anita Park we're going to be renovating restrooms at Madison Memorial Adams and Campesino parks and then we're going to be

installing the fitness courts at Dale High Rosita Memorial and also El Salvador

parks we really want our parks to be safe clean and green we know that they are very important to this community we want to make sure that we are providing our community with a safe place and clean and make sure our amenities are upgraded and and really a place for them to go and utilize and enjoy so we're going to be focusing on that we're also going to be focusing on park patrol security program park ambassador program and then we're also going to be proposing a park host program next month I'll be coming back with a pilot park

host program and explaining that we're also going to be implementing a parks master plan that's in the budget the proposed budget this is our 10-year master plan that we will be ready to go out with an RFP in July once once this is approved and then lastly we're completing our recreational services and financial sustainability analysis blah blah blah that is a evaluation of our entire department it's going to come back with a roadmap just like with the general plan like our strategic plan and it will guide us in our recreation and community services and now I'd like to turn it over to planning and building

thank you executive director Rudloff I'll try to pay it forward good evening City Council mayor maya pro tem I'm glad to be representing the planning and building agency name is mint I executive director and you know it's really fortunate that we are while a small department that we're able to be part of the economic engine for the city through our services including building safety code enforcement and planning we have 72 full-time members you know on our team current that is inclusive about 26 position that are on field currently we were able and fortunate to keep

all of our part-time staff during the covet 19 and was able to bring them back they're a very important part of our staff and the services that we provide as part of the city's budget we're about 2% citywide and approximately 4.8% for the general fund budget and that provides all of the services that we do part of the funding we get is through grant from the SQA QMD and that money is money that we used to provide for general plan updates and the effort that we're going towards that hopefully will be adopted at the end at the end of part of this year in terms of

the activities and some of the highlights that we've done we issue over 6500 permits with a total valuation valuation of 350 million dollars and that is significant in terms of going towards contributing to increasing the value of the property thereby directly increasing tax revenue to the city we also upgrade our customer service system for waiting and queuing through QMATIC this was very important critical as part of our COVID-19 process we now have to implement a appointment by appointment system so that would it helps to create the the safety and the measures that we have so we can

continue to provide the quality service for our counter building planning and code for services we also continue to make improvements and update our codes through adopting permanent regulation addressing 80 use code updates that also addresses cyber cafe looking at the health and safety of our community so through those efforts we continue to be a part of bringing the city up to current standards and with best practices as part of our services I mentioned we have

code enforcement, which is a critical function of our department, providing—I say code enforcement is really the Swiss Army knife of our department, and their staff that we have does everything from railroad enforcement to working with the police department on issues such as cyber cafes, illegal gambling's addressing cannabis issues so it's a wide variety of work that they do with the amount of staff that they have looking forward into

2021 we want to continue to be a custom customer service enhancement and be a customer service organization I always share with my staff we are the government we don't necessarily have to act like one so continue to work hard so that we improve core county services to provide to the public in improving our cannabis team to help grow this budding industry that we have that is becoming a good source of revenue for the city through technology and implementation my goal is to be able to bring us into a digital paperless environment but also looking

at how we can work smarter you know streamlining some of our processes and all the while enhancing customer service and really coming up to standard with the industry trying to get our services out to the public in efficient and at time that are accessible to our our community and finally is looking at revenue generation and cost saving this is through a variety of looking at our processes our inspection process our course code enforcement process how we can do that better and be able to work to continue to be cost effective we will

pursue opportunity for workload improvements streamlining process one of the goal that we are looking at is to conduct a seismic retrofitting study in the city to evaluate existing privately owned buildings that are not earthquake retrofitted and this is really looking at how we can help to create resiliency for the city during a potential earthquake or some type of physical disaster and the survivability of our building have a direct impact on how our businesses how our economy can you know start to come back from such a disaster

so with that I will turn this over to our police department and I will pay it forward by cleaning this Mike okay good evening City Council City Manager and everyone listening in at home I'm gonna provide an overview of the your police department we have here's the org chart up there on the screen we have 620 full-time employees

we are divided into five different areas or bureaus of the police department my office the administration bureau which oversees hiring workman's comp training the investigations bureau is has oversight of all criminal investigations the field operations bureau is frontline policing that essentially is everyone and a uniform capacity supporting frontline policing the jail bureau oversees our jail division and so we make up 20% of the city

wide budget going back to staffing of the 620 full-time employees 384 are sworn police officers that is what we are authorized currently as 366 of which are funded and so that ratio is 1.09 per thousand residents and the western states average is 1.8 per thousand some of the areas of accomplishments this

past year and looking at focus areas is to maintain funding for community oriented policing continue engagement activities and programs including cert or sent out a pal but during this covid pandemic we really like every other department and every other government service we've had to shift in how we deliver those services i'm proud to report that our pal program has had significant success in the online deliverables our parent academy has been around for 15 plus years a successful program youth based and also providing critical services for parents and families.

Again, we want to maintain funding for the funded 366 sworn police officers in support of our goal to reduce response times. And that has been a top priority of the police department. And in fact, you have seen reductions in all of the areas of response protocol. We also want to maintain and increase funding for our quality of life team to address community quality of life issues and supporting the city's efforts to address homelessness.

Our quality of life team really, as you know, was put together from a best practice out of the police executive research forum. And we have gone from one full-time police officer, which was mentioned earlier, in 12 months time we will be at one sergeant and eight full-time police officers effective july 5th 2020 so that's uh you know exponential growth in a very short amount of time on one of our highest priorities we also allocated through funding and hiring as we all heard we did hire

50 police officers last year which hasn't happened in over 20 years established a major enforcement team and that is to address proactively respond mitigate and in some instances actually prevent violent violent crime before i get into areas for this next fiscal year we also provided previously a 2019 year-end in review for this council and for the public and has posted on our police department website we concentrated

efforts on social media imprint we are the leader in municipal policing in Orange County when it comes to social media imprint we also at the request and working collaboratively with members of the council and community members prioritized de-escalation training. To date, we have a state-of-the-art platform on simulation training for decision-making for officers and our personnel. We also continue to focus on transparency. If you look at our website today, you'll find data on use of force incidents,

complaints, and also the officer-involved shooting and in custody death protocol that is forward-facing on our website first in Orange County to do that

with that for this next year we want to continue to focus on increasing public safety increase our community engagement with a finite focus on transparency operational excellence efficiency and then once again training you see that again part of that platform is to look at current incidents that occur and then fold those into our training platform so what occurred in minneapolis although we're very clear as to what occurred there fast forward to what recently occurred in atlanta a very different scenario but how does that fold into our training because we want to look to de-escalate incidents and also learn moving

forward and then recruiting branding and succession planning that's that's been a focus of ours our priorities are based from a five-year police department specific strategic plan and that was put together and put in place in 2019 with input by the community by you by folks that make up the police department and so that's our operating platform one other item I want to share is vice operations again not only supported by the hiring from last year but also looking at resources outside of the police department task

forces many of those positions were reallocated back into the police department to support various areas this is one of those areas we had I think we We were down to about two full-time assets in Vice. Today, we're at one sergeant and six detectives full-time. And with that, I will turn it over to Public Works. Mr. Nabil. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council. Nabil Sabah, Executive Director of Public Works Agency. Public Works Agency is divided into five main divisions. Can you speak just a little bit louder? Public Works Agency is divided into five main divisions. Administrative services, which have 19 full-time positions. Engineering services, which has 59 positions. Fleet facility stores and street light maintenance, which has 40 positions, full-time positions.

maintenance services, which the division that takes care of the streets, 39 positions, and water resources, which has 71 full-time positions. In all, the public works agency has 228 positions. However, we do have about 62 vacancies as we speak, which amounts to 27% of our workforce is in vacancies right now.

Our funding, or we make out 32% of the city-wide budget, $250 million. Most of it is in enterprise funds and capital funds. 4% of our revenue comes from the general fund. And that general fund really pays for and helps us maintain maintenance of effort requirement for OCTA compliance.

Looking forward for highlight for next year, we have increased the budget for the homeless services screening activities. We also have partially funded, approved funding for the citywide parking plan and also have increased funding and the budget for the graffiti services contract.

our goals for next year is really to spend down 75 of the cip cdbg expedentials down to draw down and meet the moe requirement by march 2021 we are implementing a citywide concrete concrete sidewalk replacement program we will be conducting an assessment of all city facilities to determine condition and all required work and repairs for all these facilities. We have also, we'll be designing and constructing a new CNG station at the city yard,

and we will be awarding an AMI infrastructure contract and begin the installation of the smart meters, the first thousand of them next year. In addition, we plan to drill our first groundwater well, first in 20 years, I want to say, at the Washington site. We also plan to apply for maximum requests for grants for active transportation programs, highway safety improvement programs, and also the bicycle corridor improvement programs, trying to maximize our grants so we can do more street work.

And that concludes my presentation. I'll turn it to Finance Management Services.

Okay, thank you.

So we provide the core finance services for the city, including budget. We have 62 full-time staff and 21 part-time staff. And of our 62 full-time staff, we have six vacancies that are subject to the hiring freeze. We serve other departments and the public. our Treasury operations are those that you see on the first floor including utility billing and licensing my department accounts for only 1% of the city budget with most of that coming from the general fund in addition to the

core finance services that we provide we provide in financial information to other departments the city council and the public we help the city maintain its accountability to the public and we seek opportunities to modernize and save money our goals for the current year include working with Jack's department to implement a timekeeping system upgrade our utility billing system so that we can accommodate AMI and then presenting you the City Council with a cost reduction strategy for the unfunded pension liability that concludes the

departmental section of this presentation so the next thing that I wanted to touch on was the cares Act spending plan the county contract for a 2.9 million dollar cares allocation to the city is currently being routed for signature the state legislature has passed the state budget including a 28.8 million cares allocation to the city but the government the governor has not yet signed it it's important to remember that cares money is restricted to covid-19 expenditures and cannot be used to backfill

revenue so after the state budget is signed we will we expect to deliver a proposed spending plan to the City Council which could include sanitization and testing activities the table on this slide summarizes our resources for COVID-19 expenses and expected uses so we're receiving federal FEMA money the CESF grant for public safety purchases and the EOC as well as housing and emergency services grant for homeless response to COVID-19, CDBG money for small business grants. We can also use CARES money

for small business, and we actually are receiving another small allocation from the county specifically for that purpose of small business grants.

So our next steps in this process after tonight's public hearing and answering your questions, if the City Council approves the first reading of the budget ordinance it will return to you on July 7th for adoption the city charter requires you to adopt your budget by July 31st more so than ever due to our constantly evolving circumstances staff will closely monitor the budget and propose recommended adjustments to the City Council during this coming fiscal year as as the need

arises. We do pledge to return to you no later than October after we have the sales tax data for the current quarter that we're in, which runs from April 1st to June 30th. That sales tax data is going to be really important for us to know where we're going with our revenue stream during the upcoming fiscal year. So that includes the staff portion of the presentation. We are happy to answer your questions and we're available to do so but from what I understand we have a member of the Measure X citizens oversight committee that will make a short presentation. Thank you the Measure X committee

presentation. Hello council this is Chris Leo I have been selected to present about the uh measure x um oversight committee first of all all the members of the committee wanted to thank you for nominating them and for letting them provide purpose to the residents of santa anna i just wanted to give a brief overview of measure x uh as was earlier mentioned by council member silorio um our role to measure x which was adopted by the voters um measure x was approved

to maintain effective 911 response time, retain firefighters and police officers, address homelessness, fix streets, maintain parks, youth and senior services. We feel a deep sense of duty to the residents and to advocate for the citizens and residents of Santa Ana.

We had some concerns going through the process and we wanted to share those with you. First of all, we weren't able to make any recommendations to the last quarter of last year's budget. So that was a concern. As you all are well aware, without Measure X, expenses exceed revenues for the foreseeable future.

Measure X revenue is temporary, even though it's a long sales tax increase. It is temporary. But contractual commitments have been made that are ongoing. Two-thirds of Measure X revenue was used to balance last year's budget just to maintain existing service levels. And ongoing Measure X revenue is largely keeping the status quo, which many of us are concerned about as we move forward.

And recurring expenses were added to the city budget after Measure X was approved. Our recommendations are preliminary in nature, and we wanted to share them with you so that you have, you think about those and use those as you go about your decisions on the budget. One-time expenses should be favored above permanent additions to expenses when using Measure X revenue, such as one-time construction fees, I mean, construction of parks and other things that can be done and no longer have ongoing expenses. The reserve level should be reassessed, especially in this time of COVID.

The city should provide an inventory of needs for each type of service listed in Measure X. The measure was very clear, and we should figure those out. The oversight committee should recommend spending priorities in alignment with the needs to identify in Measure X.

and I think most of all we'd like to stress that we are looking at quality of life whether it's graffiti removal street repairs those type of things are things that the measure X committee was most focused on to concur with what council member Solora said each department should have a baseline of services and expected outcomes for each year so that residents and the council contract their project that their progress so that projects don't go from year to year they get done in a year or at least you get a progress report each year and finally since two-thirds or

approximately 10 million dollars of the fy 18 19 measure x funds was used to fix a structural deficit the city should work to eliminate that underlying deficit so measure x funds can be used for their intended purpose.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. And I believe we have some callers.

So they won't be waiting very long. We'll reduce it to two minutes instead of three because some of the callers are complaining that the calls are being dropped. So let's see if we can move them along a little bit quicker with that.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members. And I do want to announce that for this item, we did receive 172 correspondence. There was 59 that supported the budget increase for public safety, and they were Santa Ana residents. 113 that responded were not Santa Ana residents. There were also 37 correspondence opposing the budget increase for public safety. 34 of those comments were Santa Ana residents and three of those comments did not distinguish if they were. We received five correspondents supporting Legal Defense Fund to stay at the $200,000.

Three of those comments are Santa Ana residents and two of them were not. We received one correspondence to reallocate to the arts. And we received 13 correspondences in support of reallocating police budget for the community. all 13 of those comments were Santa Ana residents. And with that I will go ahead and open it up to callers and as a reminder if you would like to speak on item 75A-1 dial star 9 for the record please clearly state your name you have three minutes please proceed with your comment. I'm sorry excuse me it was two

minutes. Thank you. My name is Steve Gallegos. I want to talk about the budget. So you guys had just mentioned about who was a resident who wasn't. I think primarily at least from my experience, I didn't know until recently how to get a hold of you. I know that you guys have the city of Santa Ana website and whatnot. But a lot of that, unfortunately, it's not very advertised through social media per se. and a lot of these things kind of fall through the cracks. I definitely would like to get more engaged and I think that a lot of my friends and family,

they also say the same thing, they're like, I want to get involved, I just don't know how. So I think, you know, if you guys can think of creative ways of maybe how can we do like a public outreach and not a conventional way of just using the website. But yeah, I think as far as the budget goes, I definitely don't think that right now is a time for a raise for public safety. You guys are looking at the parks and recs. You guys gave money to them and installed blue lights in some of the bathrooms that were closed because of COVID-19. You know, it can stop a lot of, like, the drug use in there.

Just there's a lot of different ways that the money could work. But yeah, like I said, one of the biggest things that I took issue with is that there's not really anybody out there saying, hey, this is how you can do it. Or even put like a little small committee, like a social media committee saying, hey, let's reach out to the youngest demographic there. So I think that would definitely be beneficial, not just for these issues going on, but also for the constituents to get to know who their council members are. because really I don't know really any of you, and I'd like to, but there's no social media presence.

Nelida, I know you said we can reach out to you, but there is zero way of contacting you. Everybody else, there is some way, but the only one to even respond is Phil Vacerra, David Peñaloza, who are very active. Jose Solorio, sometimes, but everybody else, nothing.

Thank you, caller. You have three minutes. please clearly state your name and proceed with your comment.

Me llamo Venancio Chavez. Excuse me. Soy residente de Santana. ¿Me escuchan?

Sí, ¿puedes esperar un ratito?

Desde hace mucho tiempo he visto deteriorada la calidad de la vida de Santana. En los últimos seis años, las personas que deambulan por nuestras calles tienen más prioridad que los residentes y negocios que pagan impuestos en Santana. I know this is also a problem of the state, but I'm communicating with you because you are my representatives. Yesterday I was attacked by a drug addict. I was attacked by a drug addict. Two times I called the police police to warn the danger that I was in danger.

And the second was when I was brutally attacked. When the officer arrived, in place of search for the suspect, he investigated first. He told me that he could not do anything because it was a case of a minor crime. So, why do we have police and we spend more than $150 million in the department if we can't have basic protection? basic. Today they are talking about the policy and I want to ask you that no one is going to make a person to anyone until we can establish our quality of life in Santa Ana.

The police have to learn to distinguish between a un desamparado common and a un desamparado that no respect the private property violator, drogadicto, ratero, golpeador, etc. All the department of police

We're having the translator come down and he can speak. Do you want to take the next caller?

As a matter of fact, if you can let the gentleman know that he can contact our chief of police, get his info, and we'll have the chief's office get in contact with him.

My name is Venancio Chavez, and I've been a resident of Santa Ana, and I've seen the quality of life in Santa Ana deteriorate greatly. I was, there was a lot of homeless issues. There was this homeless person that attacked me. There's a lot of homeless problems. You are my representatives, so I'm talking to you to see what you can do. I was attacked by a homeless person just yesterday. He followed me home, and when I called the police, I called twice. First, to notify them that I was being followed, and then I called the police again after I was brutally attacked.

The officer, when he showed up, he did not look for any suspect, but rather he investigated me, and he said he couldn't do anything because this was just a lower crime. It wasn't very important. You have over $150 million designated for the police, and you cannot provide basic protection services. So I ask you that you do not give any raises to the police until we get an increase in the quality of life in Santa Ana. And have the police distinguish between a common homeless person and a homeless person that is a criminal, a drug addict, and a person who is committing crimes.

And the police needs to help us improve the quality of life and be concerned with your community. And not only do that when the news crews are here.

Thank you.

Okay. As a reminder, caller, we're on item 75A1. Please clearly state your name. You have two minutes from the time you've been unmuted. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, this is Lisa Gonzalez-Solomon. As you know, I'm the principal of Madison Elementary School, but today I come to you once again as a resident of Santa Ana. I'm here for two reasons. As you review the strategic plan and budget, I want to say thank you for the support that you have provided to our community during COVID and for the support that you've been providing in getting our residents counted for the census. We know this impacts our budget and our strategic plan as well. Secondly, I'm here to once again ask for more. I am asking that you ensure in the strategic plan and budget

that you have included additional support for residents to combat the detriment effects of this pandemic. As the impact of the pandemic has moved from health to economic consequences. I have appreciated how our city has come to support our community with rental assistance and I'm hoping that we can do more. Please continue to look at and include in the strategic plan the following items, mental health services, rental and bill assistance, youth programs. And once again, I come to you asking for citywide Wi-Fi to provide access for all. Thank you to all the council members who talked about this and have supported this.

I'm asking that you look at how funds can be redirected to those areas to support our communities as we face so much as you know it's important that we continue our students education and that we support that system and this will affect our community not just right now but also in the future by reviewing the impact that city-wide wi-fi can have we want you to know that you're going to be providing a lot more i'm asking that you continue to work with the providers and with our school district who has already provided 4 000 hot spots and more than 40,000 Chromebooks to the students in Santa Ana.

I know this is not a simple process, but if we could start planning by connecting with providers, business owners, building owners, bus companies, we'll be able to establish access points and really making sure that we're implementing a Wi-Fi network that will support our whole community. I'm just asking you to please review this once again for our college students, for our residents, and for our entire community.

Thank you. Thank you caller. As a reminder we're on item 75A-1. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi can you hear me? Yes we can hear you. You have two minutes. Hi my name is Indica Lu. I'm a resident of Ward 1 in Sariana and an educator in Orange County. I spoke on this issue at the last City Council meeting on June 2nd and I want to reiterate and expand on liability to the proposed budget as it should should not be passed. I've lived in Santa Ana for over 20 years and as much as I adore the city and its people, I know that Santa Ana is routinely seen as impoverished and ridden with violence because Santa Ana is historically underfunded its residents and overfunded the police.

The numbers in the budget alone show you exactly how. SAPD is set to receive over $140 million in the next difficult year alone. If you added up the entire budget for community development, library, planning and building, public works, and parks and recreation, you get a total of about $57 million. That's only about 40% of what the budget proposes that the police get. In particular, community development is only set to receive $3.6 million. That's 2.5% of what the police are supposed to get. Most people who don't want to defund the police department claim that they're worried about crime in their cities increasing.

I offer the following challenges. According to the FBI crime data collections, property crime in San Ana has been steadily dropping since 2000. Violent crime in San Ana for the last year they had data available, which is 2018, was over 20% lower than in 2015 and continues to trend downward. If crime has been dropping in our city, why are we increasing funding to the police? If we really want to focus on crime and prevent crime in our city, then we must question what causes crime. Why are people incentivized to commit crime? People commit crimes when they need to not be met.

If the residents of the city, my community members, and family members all have safe and adequate shelter, food, and access to health care, access to education, and recreation, what is the incentive for crime? The answer is that there is none. What can the police do within the limitations of their jobs to help people get access to shelter, food, health care, education, and recreation? Nothing. That's not their job. The police, by and large, are a reactionary system that does nothing to prevent crime. And the programs and institutions designed to help people get access have been perennially bled of their budgets

to the point where they cannot effectively help us much longer. The proposed budget does not simply to increase the police budget, it does so while starving.

Thank you. Caller, we're on item 75A1. Please clearly state your name. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Kaylee and I'm calling from Ward 5. I'm calling to oppose the $13.5 million budget increase for the police. I would like to see these funds reallocated to create an expanded rental relief fund as well as an eviction defense fund. Cities like Anaheim have allocated $3 million for their coronavirus rental release funds while Santa Ana only allocated $500,000. and those funds were exhausted in just one week. We also want an eviction defense fund for tenants who will be a part of the tsunami of evictions coming in the following months. I volunteer as a tenant counselor in Santana

and creating this kind of fund would help foster security for residents because most tenants show up to eviction court without legal counsel, whereas the majority of landlords always have legal representation. The call to defund the police, like others have mentioned, is to rethink what actually creates safety for residents. And as we are still in a pandemic and there is an expectation of a resurgence of COVID cases, now more than ever, this is an example of where the police funding is being prioritized over providing funding for things that actually create safety, stopping people from becoming homeless or falling ill.

Tenants make up the majority of the city's population. And what would create public safety would be to minimize the risks tenants face during the incoming wave of evictions by expanding emergency rental relief and creating an eviction

defense fund. Thank you. Thank you caller. We're on item 75A-1. You have two minutes.

Please proceed with your comment. Hello? Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi. Yes. Sorry. My name is I am the legal services director at Immigrant Defenders Law Center and I am submitting a public comment in support of the renewal of the Santa Ana Deportation Defense Fund at its current level of 200,000 to continue providing legal representation to Santa Ana residents facing detention and deportation. Since entering into agreement with Santa Ana in October 2017, we have represented 37 Santa Ana residents, in addition to 35 cases of representation for the children

of these residents as well. The urgency and the need for representation have escalated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are recent reports of ICE transferring detainees out of state with complete disregard to the risk of infection, as well as the first reported death of a person who was detained just south at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, which has the highest number of COVID-19 related cases among ICE detainees. There are ongoing reports of harmful chemicals being used to clean in the Atalanta facility, causing skin and respiratory issues, nosebleeds, and other serious symptoms. We are working with clients and colleagues

to bring light to these issues while also trying to obtain relief. Current numbers at Atalanta facility are at three and are expected to rise as the coronavirus continues to ride the detention centers. Most recently, we were able to secure the release of a Santa Ana resident, Miguel, who was a longtime green card holder in Santa Ana resident,

who suffered for years with undiagnosed schizophrenia and was detained at Adelanto. With the support of his family and our legal team, we were able to secure his release. He's just one example of those who've been able to help with the deportation fund. We are conscious of what is currently taking place in our country and the death and the pain that our black community members have suffered and the Newcomb community have risen in solidarity to support the Black Lives Matter protest. We stand alongside them. And as we draw closer to a decision by the Supreme Court. Caller, your time is up. Thank you, Yaron. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, we are on item 75A-1. Please clearly state your name. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, you have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please state your name for the record. You have two minutes.

okay next caller we're on hi my name is go ahead can you hear me yes yes thank you my name is Kelly Krause Lee I am a resident of Santa Ana and I'm calling today to oppose the proposed budget in the report from the police department just now we learned that Santa Ana Police Department is the leader in the county and social media imprint but I think it's worth mentioning that the Santa Police Department is also the leader in the county and the number of fatal shootings. And also, we give them the largest portion of our budget, and yet they can't even buy their

officers face masks and make them wear them while they're protecting the public. Not only are we facing major losses due to the coronavirus, but the national conversation has shown that we really need more spending on community programming, like libraries, parks and rec, and public works, and not the police. I'm more than happy to pay my property taxes and I purposely shop in Santa Ana over neighboring cities even though we have higher sales taxes because I want to support my city but the spending on police in this city is out of control. Our budget needs to reflect our

priorities and I ask the council to adjust the budget accordingly. Thank you.

Caller, we're on item 75A. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment. Hello? Yes, please clearly state your name for the record.

You have two minutes. Hi, my name is Katie Traverso and I'm calling from the Vera Institute of Justice and I'm calling tonight to urge the city of Santa Ana to fund the Santa Ana and Deportation Defense Fund at its current level of $200,000. We at Vera are proud of the city's participation in Vera's Safety and Fairness for Everyone Network, or the SAFE Network, and Santa Ana is one of our original founding members. We urge you to refund the program for its fourth year at this current level. Recent polling by Vera in Santa Ana found that 79% of respondents supported government-funded lawyers for immigrants facing deportation.

And Vera has also been collecting data on the fund since February 2018. We found that Santa and our residents helped by the fund so far are deeply entrenched members of the community. They have lived in the United States for an average of 10 years. Collectively, they are parents to 41 children under the age of 18, most of whom are U.S. citizens. And well over half of those with families are responsible for the majority of their family's income. So as you finalize the budget, we strongly urge you to include $200,000 funding for the Deportation Defense Fund. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, we're on item 75A-1. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Ashley, and I'm a resident from Ward 5. I'm calling in to oppose the 13.5 budget increase request from the police department. And I'd like to call on the council members to instead reallocate that funding or some of that funding to go to a larger coronavirus emergency rental relief fund. Previously, only $500,000 were allocated for that fund. And those funds were exhausted within a week's time. and we've seen that other cities such as Anaheim allocated up to $3 million.

So we think that Santana could very easily do the same, especially if they're willing to entertain a proposal for a budget increase for the police that already gets the biggest piece of the pie in terms of our city's budget. I'd also like to advocate that the city consider enacting an eviction defense fund that would function much like the universal rep fund, but it would allow tenants to seek legal counsel.

Also, we often find it difficult to connect tenants to legal aid because many legal aid services are tied to federal funding. So then there's restrictions on it. And there is a tsunami of evictions that's about to hit once July comes. And the majority of tenants often have to go to eviction court without legal representation. and it's within the city's means to allocate funding for an eviction defense fund.

I'd also like to uplift a comment that was made earlier about getting internet access for the city of Santana. I attended the school board meeting last week and I heard that it would only cost $9 million.

Thank you caller we're on item 75A-1 please clearly state your name you have two minutes please proceed with your comment. Hello can you hear me? Yes. Good

evening mayor and city council members my name is Hilda Ortiz and I'm speaking on behalf of Latino Health Access on this item to request a revision of the proposed budget to reallocate funds from the Santana police budget toward our community's well-being instead. As a public health organization we work every day to improve the social determinants of health or the conditions in which our community grows and lives in that affect their physical and mental well-being. These include housing, parks, walkable streets, and free programs for youth. Our community's current conditions are a consequence of the lack of investment in

their health. A large portion of our community lives in poverty with a per capital income of $19,000 a year and 63% are spending more than they should on housing and are on the verge of becoming houseless. The need to increase funding and housing parks, youth programming and mental health services amongst others are very clear. Yet the proposed budget does not reflect those priorities. We've been told year after year there isn't money for this, but we see it in the budget every year. The money is there, but it's being invested in police instead. We see that our city leaders prioritize police salaries over spaces for kids to play or

keeping families at home. There's increasing evidence that policing and surveillance are harmful to physical and mental health and that decriminalization reduces police contacts and improves overall health. In fact, the American Public Health Association recommends the reallocation of funds from policing to social determinants of health as an evidence-based strategy to decrease community trauma and improve community health and safety. We ask that our community's wellness as a priority is reflected in the budget by the reallocation of the police department's budget toward our community's wellness instead. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Good evening. My name is Jennifer Rojas and I'm the policy advocate and organizer with the ACLU of Southern California. The ACLU has 600, excuse me, 360 ACLU members in the city of Santa Ana. The ACLU of Southern California underlines the demands set forth by youth, adults, residents, and community-based organizations that the city council and the mayor disinvest from the police. The city requires and residents deserve a budget that invests unparalleled funds into community-based priorities and needs.

For too many years, the city has increased the police department's budget to the detriment of youth programming, supportive housing, and more. A monumental shift is underway in the hearts and minds across the country in recognizing that overspending on law enforcement does not equate to public safety. Instead, communities require an overinvestment in community-based programs and services to meet the needs of young people, people experiencing homelessness, and people living with mental illness. Santa Ana needs services that help and strengthen the community, not increase police spending.

Due to impacts of COVID-19 on the city's tax revenues, we understand deep cuts are expected in next year's budget. Yet public safety spending is increasing by $13.5 million. This discrepancy is unacceptable. We underscored the demand that the city cut SAPD's budget and used the savings to preserve and prop up city programs like libraries, parks, and housing. We need a holistic approach to public safety. Police should not be the first responders for people experiencing homelessness nor people experiencing a mental health crisis.

The city must invest in services that will result in the material safety and wellness of all residents of Santa Ana.

Your time is up, caller. Thank you. Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

um good evening mr mayor and members of the council um hiro cortez i'm a long-time resident of santana and um executive director at chispa um i wanted i i'm calling also to um oppose the the budget for next year as it currently stands. I think we're currently in a moment and you're seeing a lot of residents coming to you after years and decades of not having our priorities straight.

This last month of protests have reminded us that Black and communities of color as a whole need more support, not more surveillance and suppression.

Today and this year is a moment to recognize the errors of the past and try out a new approach and a more effective strategy for community recovery. This begins by not allocating more money to the police department while residents are being asked to sacrifice elsewhere.

And by recognizing that the current moment we are in is calling on you and is calling on us to rethink our approach to safety and rethink our approach to investment.

And so what our communities truly need is investment and things that work. Things like economic and legal assistance, like youth programming, like housing, like education, not more policing and suppression. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Fernando Delgado. And before I begin, just let me say that I realize this is an election year, and many of you are counting on the POA's endorsement and donations to win your races, so I know this may be falling on deaf ears, but I ask that you guys put your political aspirations aside and remember why you became public servants in the first place. Now, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, our country has been experiencing a rare moment of self-reflection with regards to policing and on top of this we're still in the midst of a pandemic and economic collapse whose worst

impacts are yet to come. I'm calling to oppose the 13.5 million dollar increase to police and to ask you our city council to take part in a nationwide moment of reflection by committing to a more effective strategy for community recovery by reprioritizing funds from the senate and the police department and using those funds to invest in what our communities truly need. now i know there's a lot of misinformation about the defund police movement so i just wanted to clarify some of the things that people have been saying no we are not asking for the

complete elimination of police no we are not asking for the city to just ignore all the crime and let people run wild in fact we're very very concerned about the problem of crime and poverty in the community but where we differ from the traditional view that most people have is that we don't believe just putting more police police on the streets is going to fix everything right now the san anna pd is getting about 42 percent of the general fund as was shown in the graph. That's $155 million a year. And they're expected to receive this increase when other

social programs are expected to take cuts. Now, with all that money, our public safety situation should be on point, right? The police are taking care of everything. But instead, we continue to see our community struggle with crime, poverty, homelessness, drug addiction. Police can't and they should not be expected to solve all of our city's problems. So we're calling on you to stop using police as a band-aid for the real problems that our people are facing. Now, with the pandemic and forced shutdown of the economy, we're going to have a lot more people in dire need of support services in the coming year. And unless your

plan is to just throw these desperate people, your constituents, in jail, then our police department is going to have to spread the love and share that piece of the pie that they're getting. Our country is experiencing a transformation right now. You guys know this. Cities across the U.S. are realizing that police are not the answer to our very real problem.

Caller, your time is up. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two

minutes please proceed with your comment um yes my name is jarvis jennings um my comments are for the measure x which is saying that it was you know to fix things around the city but i have a hard time um believing that some of these things are getting done when i'm driving through santa anna more specifically if you go down rate between McFadden and 5th Street, the road is a mess. So if Measure X is supposed to be to fund streets, you know, to fix the streets and, you know, and things like that, that program seems to be seriously lacking.

I'm not going to say it's the funding, but I think whatever you're, whoever you're contracting or using, either they're not doing a good job or no one's paying attention to what's being done. As far as the budget increases for the police department, I hate to say it, but it's a double-edged sword. We need help from them. They need help from us. You know, I am a black resident of Santa Ana, and my culture has gone through many problems. Hispanic culture here in California, Texas, Arizona, other places in the Southwest have many problems with the police department.

But we need their help. They need our help. I'm not going to say they deserve what they're asking for in a budget increase. However, I do believe they are going to be having some serious challenges coming up because, as many callers have stated, we are in an influx of change in our country, hopefully.

but I just wish that you know we just find a way to really spend the money the best way if that means the police department

gets money for things they really need to do

that's fine but if it's just to give pay raises I've got an issue with that you know if it's to help fix up the way they do business and everything I'm okay with that if it's to get them better training you know and hire new officers that's fine as well Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Correct.

Caller? Hello?

Hello?

Please clearly, yes, we can hear you. If you could please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes.

Hi. My name is Selena Gallego.

Caller, we can barely hear you, I believe. If you could please speak up.

Hello? Yes, now we can hear you better.

Oh, I'm sorry.

my name is julie gallego and i'm a resident here in santa ana and i have been for the past 33 years um i actually am calling um first of all to uh i'm not in agreement with uh giving more money to the police um only because i think in all of this we're also forgetting our kids we're forgetting our schools we're forgetting our teachers the ones who are here help helping us be the future and I think that is something really important we are the seventh largest

district in California we have 91 schools and we're only providing or what I see on the plan 1.5 million dollars but we are able to pass 236 thousand dollars for five new suvs for the police and i really don't think that is fair to our kids our community when we have so many other issues and problems and we don't need to have a police surveillancing us what we need to have is investing in our parks so our kids can have somewhere safe somewhere clean our bathrooms are absolutely

disgusting if you have not been to one i suggest you go our school food is not very nutritious at all so we are not supporting who we should be as well as also homelessness i would like to be walking the streets without having to trip on the sidewalk so i don't know exactly where all the money is going, but I believe giving more money to the police is not the best way. There's other resources that we can definitely use that money towards to make them in a better place. Thank you.

Thank you, caller. For the record, please clearly state your name. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Members of the board, my name is Rafael My family and myself have been long-time residents of the City of Santa Ana in Ward 5, and I'm here to discuss how our city can reimagine public safety while investing back into our communities. This is not the first time I've spoken to City Council about this issue. Back in 2013 to 2014, community members, youth, and parents participated in Santa Ana's strategic plan, where you adopted a community safety plan that included developing a restorative justice practices under community safety.

At that time, we also saw the county and San Unified School District implement RGA practices systematically, thus adopting practices that address the needs of everyone impacted by wrongdoings and are assisted with lowering suspensions and expulsions at the district level. But sadly, what emerged from your adoption of restorative justice practices was two presentations to the Public Safety Commission on Restorative Justice, which I see no longer exist as a border commission within our city. Back then, we illustrated the importance to address the incarceration rates of our youth.

As of 2018, Latino youth continue to make up the majority of youth detained in Orange County. They make up 75% of youth filed in the arrest, where Latinos only make up 36% in Orange County. city and our community-based alternatives to non-criminal calls would allow us to limit police and community contact, thus lowering the incarceration rate of our youth and community members. Yes, I have seen the glipses of exemplar projects such as Summer Night Light project at my neighborhood park, El Salvador Park, in 2018 and 2019. But again, this is only a summer project

led by community stakeholders. Much respect to Nati Alvaro, by the way. But imagine using the $104,000 that you pay police officers and repurpose those funds to fund three summer night light events in three parts. Imagine instead of one bookmobile you have five bookmobiles throughout the city to serve families. Imagine that reach. Imagine the community building that would take place versus the surveillance and racial profiling police officers participate in our communities.

Caller your time is up. Thank you. Please clearly state your name. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Good evening again, Council Members. Mayor Pulido, this is Tai Fan. I'm calling to ask that you increase the amount of money, or at least keep it at the same level, for the Universal Representation Fund. As we've spoken about before, Santa Ana is a melting pot. But one thing that's clear is that the vast majority of Santa Ana residents are immigrants or in household with immigrants. Legal representation in a deportation proceeding is not a right, but having an attorney is crucial to winning cases and ensuring that folks do not get stuck in prisons indefinitely before the federal government can get them deported.

The universal representation fund helps to protect not just the resident who is being represented, but their families, our neighborhoods, and our community. So I ask that you allocate the $200,000 to the universal representation fund because frankly, it's cheaper than the bus stop trash can containers and benches we just purchased in item 29A. And I also wanted to comment on the raises, the POA raise, the police officer raises. Now, I was here in 2019 to make the argument that measure X funds as projected before COVID-19 wasn't enough to cover the raises and the pension increases.

this. We're talking about fiscal responsibility. And here in 2020, after a once in a lifetime pandemic has clearly showed us that we do not have the money, we have even less money than before to address these raises, we really cannot afford that $13.5 million. And I really do appreciate that the POA discussed a six month delay or deferral. But, you know, frankly, my family and I, we're going through the impacts of COVID-19, the recession, like most families in Santa Anna, we know it's going to take much longer than six months to recover. So the city is going to take longer than six months to recover.

And in six months, we're not going to have the $13.5 million. So I hope that you make the adjustment. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, this is Michelle Toledo. no relation to the mayor. And Albert Einstein once said that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is what insanity is. And if we look historically at what worked pre-Reagan when he was the governor of California, there was way less homelessness until he got into office and closed down all the mental health hospitals. So I would also ask that instead of giving raises to the police that we allocate that money for mental health. And then I also want to say that I did provide an email earlier about 29A

using my mechanical engineering degree. I recommended instead of galvanized steel to use stainless steel so that we get more of our money's worth. But you guys voted on it without even taking into consideration any comments or anything. So I just think that that's wrong. you guys should not be voting on things that you don't even take the public comments on or even read the emails. Like, I did submit an email and you guys didn't even read it. And especially if it's a mechanical engineering, like, insight, it's something that you guys should strongly consider. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello, good evening, Senate and Mayor and City Council and anyone whom this may concern. My name is Elena Riella from Ward 1, and I am calling to not only just oppose the budget that's being proposed, I oppose the increase in funding to the police, but I also want to encourage the defunding of the police and what it already has. it's expected to have like 140.8 million dollars and I just don't we have seen the results of over policing in our communities as it's been said the Orange County juvenile system

is overly represented by black and Latino boys and I just think it's very unfair as a Santa Ana resident myself I have a 17 year old brother and a 15 year old brother who have been like victims of police harassment. My brother was standing outside his old school and he got body searched for standing in front of a school just because of the way he was dressed. And I just don't think that that's fair. We have seen that the police in our community are, why are we funding them? You know, they're saying that they're going to have like de-escalation training. That's our money. We can provide that de-escalation training

to public servants who are going to like volunteer here or we can pay them to do it. You know, just historically, the police is not like there to protect us, like believe it or not. And I'm just thinking in the heart here, you know, and also Councilman Solorio, one of your platforms is increasing public safety and like did the POA sponsor your campaign? You too, Vicente Sanmiento, I really was considering voting for you. I go to UC Berkeley and I really wish you would consider the way

that you're allocating our funds, okay? Please, you're indebted to us. We've lacked resources forever. You used our money to measure X.

Thank you. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes.

please proceed with your comment. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council, and City Manager Ridge. My name is Monica Studer, and on behalf of our Service Employees International Union, Local 721 Santa Ana employees, we have the following comments on tonight's Council Agenda Item Number 75A to support our community, youth, and senior services, youth sports, and dedicated Santa Ana employees and constituents. We respectfully request that the city council not take action on agenda item 75A tonight. For this item, the proposed fiscal year budget for 2021,

it includes several deletions of existing job titles at this time. However, we were not provided a list of the proposed deleted titles. We were provided a list, but not with information explaining the proposed changes to job families or the city's goals regarding modified career ladders. We request that instead these titles remain unfunded, but not deleted, while approving a fiscal year 2021 budget to allow for full transparency and review of proposed job family objectives that have not yet been provided. This is critical to understand in advance of any proposed title deletions.

And we are reiterating our ask that the 176 SEIU Local 721 employees who were suddenly separated effective 522-20-176 be recalled and reinstated. They were already reduced to zero hours due to COVID and filed for unemployment after the shutdown. Essentially, they were furloughed because of the COVID in April and May, but we are still unclear why they actually needed to be separated when they were already getting unemployment. We respectfully ask that the council direct the HR department to immediately take this action to recall and reinstate them and to rescind actions taken that included their separation without proper process.

That Measure X cannabis and CARES Act funding for youth, seniors, and community be utilized to fund and reinstate these 176 long-term part-time workers represented who provide key services for our community, and especially since the Parks and Rec and Youth Services Commissions have not been able to convene for some time. Parks and Rec and library and all these services are the front end of public safety. Okay, thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, I'm Olga Rodriguez Lau from Ward 3. I'm calling to oppose the proposed budget and demand that you implement one that allocates funds from the SAPD into youth programs, health programs, libraries, and housing. Many of you claim that you want to invest in our community and our youth, but you can't do that and continue to fund the police officers who continue to threaten our safety and and peace of mind. Our city has been running at a deficit for years, and you have the opportunity to invest in our community with Measure X, but you have failed to improve our quality of life.

The residents of the city are tired with your continuous mishandling of the budget. To truly invest in the lives and prosperity of Santa Ana residents, you can all start by defunding the SATB. You can claim that Black Lives Matter to you on Facebook and your other social media, but until you actually take power and money away from the system and individuals responsible, you're just aiding in the murders of Black lives. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Yes. Hi, my name is Gina Tiffany, and I'm calling in regards of 75A, and I'm asking that you not only reject the $13.5 million increase to the police department, but instead defund the police. Protests across the country, across our county, and across our cities have been making it urgently clear that not only do black lives matter, but our communities of color need more support and less surveillance. During the recap of the police budget, there was a mention of an asking for an increase to a quality of life department. First of all, I don't even know why the police department is in charge of a quality of life department.

What would be a true quality of life increase would be for you guys to defend the police and instead reallocate those funds to what our community truly needs. Things like housing, health care, economic and legal assistance, youth programs, education, racial healing. You guys have already in your own projections shown a running deficit of next year for $20 million. If you guys return to the 2018 budget for the FAPD, you could save $25 million filling that gap and leaving leftover funds to go towards the community.

We have been defunding education, defunding health, and defunding our community for years. It's time to defund the police. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record.

You have two minutes.

Hello?

Yes. Please state your name for the record. Hi.

My name is Jacqueline Rodriguez, and I was born and raised in Santa Ana, and I'm calling to oppose the $13.5 million budget increase for the Santa Ana Police Department. Over 40% of Santa Ana's budget goes to Santa Ana PD. one of the deadliest police departments in the U.S. They have the highest fatal shootings in all of Orange County. I call on all of you to recognize the errors and try out a new demanding, and we demand that you reinvest the Santa Ana PD allocated funds into the necessary resources for our community. We need to cover relief funds for COVID, affordable housing, education,

access to mental health care and community services and our youth programming. The safest communities don't have the most calm. They have the most resources. We're in a racial justice, health, and budget crisis. Your own projections anticipate the city to be running a deficit of $20 million next year, growing to $35 million annual deficit in just two years. We need to build a better Santa Ana and defend the Santa Ana PD. They are the primary deficit in this budget. They're a corrupt system, killing our black and brown communities and holding our city hostage. They're not interested in the betterment of Santa Ana.

This massive deficit can't be blamed on COVID or shutdown. It's a matter of misplaced priorities and principles. Cutting social programming, raising fees, taxes, and hoping for federal and state bailouts will not get us through this. It's time to defend the police and reinvest our money back into our community. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please clearly. Yes.

Hi. My name is AJ Johnson. I'm speaking in opposition to the budget in its current form. So given the $8.4 million decrease in general fund revenues, the allocation of an additional $9.2 million to the Santa Ana Police Department does not reflect the needs of the community. Residents are facing many hardships, and the police should be defunded to meet the needs of Santa Ana residents through rental relief, mental health services, drug treatment, and many other community-oriented programs. So that's where these funds need to be allocated. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Kelly Shuley. I'm from Ward 3. I'd like to stand in support of defunding or more aptly put divesting from the police department reinvesting in our social programs. I very much oppose $13.5 million raise that the police union is advocating for. I think the six-month deferment is simply not enough. It seems like a PR move waiting for us to be not paying attention in particular in six months from now, but six months from now we will still be in the same economic situation as unrealistic. Think otherwise. It was passed when we couldn't afford it in the past, and we still can't afford it.

If a budget is a moral document, this is an indictment of Santa Ana's leadership. And with that in mind, independent on council's actions, I'd like to remind residents that Ward 1, 3, and 5 will be removed in office if you choose not to vote them in in November. That would be Villegas Solorio, who is running for mayor, as well as Sarmiento. Also, we know that Mayor Polito wants to run for one of our open council seats. So please be mindful of how they decide to vote, because with all the hand-wringing that we heard earlier about public input and how much they valued it,

you would think from people across the board seeming that they want the police defunded that that is the direction that we would go and with that said that is

all I have to say thank you caller please clearly state your name for the record you have two minutes please proceed with your comment

hello yes please proceed with your comment you have two minutes hi my name

is Lyndon Willis I'm a resident in Ward 2 and I am also in favor to reduce the budget for the police department. I don't think that we need the increase that's proposed this year. I think that we could use that money to invest in public safety in other ways. For example, in particular, and this is just one example of many that people have brought up, Measure X has a couple of major goals. One that's retaining emergency response and one to address homelessness. If we look at this, 33% of this Measure X is going towards retaining police officers, while only 1% is going towards addressing homelessness. And if we look at that 1%,

percent then more than half of that one percent is going towards police department over time for addressing homelessness and i don't think that this is an effective way to address homelessness this is not like police on the streets writing tickets to homeless people is not how we effectively in the long term help our you know homeless population so i seriously advocate for the city council to reconsider the budget for this year thank you thank you caller please clearly

state your name for the record you have two minutes please proceed with your

comment hi can you hear me yes hi this is Juan Gonzales from Ward 1 as a master's student of public health and city planning at UC Berkeley I understand the human rights that our city's communities are entitled to in order to ensure a thriving and healthy future equitable access to parks where folks can engage and physical activity, access to the powerful written word that lies in the stacks of a library and access to economic opportunity in the forms of supported small businesses and affordable high quality housing. As such, I call on US city council members to rework the proposed 2021 general fund expenditure

so that SAPD will receive less than 15% of the city's revenues. With the diverted funds going to other truly essential departments, such as parts and rec, by community development and the library. In the context of not only the COVID pandemic, but also the significant financial deficits the city is expecting as a result. It is imperative now more than ever to invest in resources that will set the groundwork for more healthy and financially stable Santana. Investments in the social fabric of our city, especially in youth, are ones that will yield immense returns. As an example, the National Forum

on Early Childhood Policy and Programs found that high quality early childhood programs can yield a four to nine dollar return per one dollar invested on the other hand santana has ranked in the lowest 25 of the most populated u.s city with regards to return on investment of taxpayer dollars spent on police protection the math is simple putting policing first means putting our city's overall stability in jeopardy the santana community and the people within it are where the bulk of our city's budget should be directed not just this fiscal year but every

year going forward all eyes are on this council to decide this city future and to express what we stand for and truly believe it remember from here on in history has its eyes on you black

lives matter thank you thank you caller please clearly state your name for the record you have two minutes please proceed with your comment hi my name is tracy law and i'm a resident in ward one

I waited four hours to make this comment, and I can't believe you all would make residents wait four hours to make a comment on an item as important out of the city budget. As a Vietnamese resident in Santa Ana, I am in solidarity with the National Black Lives Matter movement and with residents who have been calling for police accountability in the city for years. I am opposed to a $13.5 million increase to the Santa Ana Police Department. I call you to defund the police department. These officers have been targeting, harassing, and terrorizing youth and residents in the city for years.

They're the same officers who I saw aim rubber bullets at the heads of young people protesting in solidarity with Black communities just a few weeks ago. And that's a small glimpse of unchecked police brutality that has occurred for years here in the city. Instead, I call on you to reinvest our taxpayer money into our communities for rent relief, housing, education, youth programs, and more. It is unacceptable for the city to even consider increasing public safety spending for $13.5 million during COVID-19 and the economic crisis we're all in.

You all had a 30 to 40-minute robust discussion where you worried about residents paying too much in the water and waste bills. It should not be hard to understand that we do not need a $13.5 million increase to the police budget. Defund the police. Lastly, I urge the city council to renew the Deportation Defense Fund at its current level of $200,000. This fund will continue to provide protection to Santa Ana residents facing detention and deportation, and is an excellent example of how our tax money should be used instead. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Maria Ceja, and I was born and raised in Santa Ana. I oppose the proposed fiscal year 2020-2021 city budget. I strongly oppose the $13.5 million increase for the police department, and I support the call to defund the police. These funds could be more beneficial if they are redirected to our community's well-being. This can be done by allocating these excess funds to tenant protections that would allow for our tenant community to remain housed. More than half of Santa Ana's population are renters. Many of these residents are rent-burdened.

I would like to remind all of you that we are still in the middle of an aggressive pandemic, which we expect to have long-term effects even after this emergency is lifted. I ask that we redirect these funds to the Coronavirus Emergency Rental Relief Fund. This would allow us to financially support the most vulnerable tenants in our community. The City of Anaheim has already done this and allocated $3 million. Meanwhile, we have only allocated $500,000, which were diminished after just one week. Council Member Solodio, earlier you mentioned you care about the humanity of unhoused individuals.

This would be an opportunity to prevent homelessness. This money should be redirected to create an eviction defense fund that would allow for a tenant's right to cancel, which could overcome the predicted tsunami of evictions of residents you represent. We are unable to recommend undocumented and resident organizations like Legal Aid because of their immigration status. Almost all, about 90% of tenants facing evictions show up to court without legal counsel, comparing that to the 90% of landlords that do show up with legal representation. This disparity speaks volumes, and this exemplifies why we need this, especially in these dire

times. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, City Council. As a queer person of color, I just want to acknowledge Pride Month and its radical roots of upending police brutality and police violence. To the baby queers in Santana, never forget your duty to call out the police and those who align themselves with the police union. To SATB, I'm here to remind you that police are not welcome at Pride, with and without your badge. We're there to protest you. This is Roberto with Resilience Orange County. I live on the west end of Santana. This is my fourth year doing budget advocacy in support of universal representation and investment in youth.

We have watched over the years as SAPD has taken the largest share of the general fund at the cost of youth programs and youth investment. We have seen as these cycles of violence lead SAPD to grow larger in their involvement to solve community safety issues. I strongly disagree with the police raises. We need leadership in defunding the police. Police officers are not equipped to respond to nonviolent crisis interventions. I call on you to phase out SAPD. Last summer, I graduated from UCLA's Big Data for Justice Summer Institute. I learned the basics of data analytics around criminal justice issues.

Since then, I've been digging at SAPD's calls for service, publicly available information. More specifically, I look at data from July 2019 to December 2019. The highest number of calls for service were for the downtown, pedestrian, and traffic stops. We cannot talk about gentrification without talking about policing. These two systems of oppression work hand in hand. I caution homeless folks and people of color from walking or driving in the downtown. You're likely to have someone call the cops on you, or you're likely to be pulled over or stopped. The second highest calls for service were for disturbing the peace.

transient subjects music family fight party fireworks parking issues is a fourth highest cost for service more likely than not police are not needed to respond to these nonviolent situations we need crisis intervention workers not operated by SATB to respond to these nonviolent calls for service thank you

caller please state your name for the record you have two minutes please proceed with your comment. Hi can you hear me? Yes we could hear you. Hi my name

is Katie Newman I live in Ward 4 of Santa Ana. I oppose adding anything to the police budget for this upcoming fiscal year and I echo that of every I think every other person that's made a comment thus far this evening that we need to channel and reallocate funds that would go to the PD to community programs. And I just, something I didn't hear mentioned was that in the police chief's budget overview,

one of the goals he mentioned was that he wanted to increase public safety. And it's clear based on the record of our police department that they are incapable of providing public safety. And also, where is the bar set if that's the goal? We just need public safety, period.

And based on Campaign Zero and mappingpoliceviolence.org, we are in the top 100 largest police departments in the United States, and our police department kills black men higher than the national murder rate. and Campaign Zero gives our police department an F. We've only implemented two of their eight dis-harm reduction policies. So defund the police and reallocate funds to our community so that we can actually create public safety. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello. My name is Alondra. I am a San Ana resident. My pronouns are she, her, hers. I'm calling to oppose the $13.5 million raise to police. After reading over Jerry Serrano's statement regarding deferring police raises released last week, I wanted to start off by asking what exactly does it do to defer police raises? City Council, how does that deferment address anything the community is asking of you and has been asking of you? y'all shouldn't be deferring that raise it should be definite if they don't get it and y'all want to emphasize it's a contract a quote-unquote contract to justify what this is

being done but call it for what it is if y'all aren't taking a stance to defund the police then y'all are defending and protecting an entity that has terrorized our community with rampant violence y'all are defending the people that kettled tear gas shot at our youth and threw them down on the pavement for simply kneeling as an act of protest. I'm going to say that again in case you missed it. Y'all are defending the people that kettled, tear gasped, shot at our youth and threw them down on the pavement for simply kneeling as an act of protest. Police violence is never justified and they shouldn't be rewarded for it.

Y'all shouldn't be deferring that raise. They shouldn't get it at all. Investing that money towards housing, investing in creating a rental relief fund, investing in youth programming. Invest it in caring for the community that y'all claim to care about. Being that we are in the middle of a pandemic and that Santa Ana is now reaching 2,000 confirmed COVID cases, you would think city council would have the common sense to want to fund further relief programs to support community members instead. I wish y'all were quick to care for our community as some of y'all are to condemn youth for using their voices. I wish y'all yearn

protect our community and youth more than a year to call them animals hold yourselves accountable

and refund the police now thank you caller please clearly state your name for the record you have two minutes please proceed with your comment

hello city council members and everyone listening at home my name is jesus santana i am a born and and I have been living in our beautiful city all my life. I am calling to oppose agenda item 75A and implore that you divest from our police department and invest more to our community. You talk about prioritizing community safety, but if you ask our community, community safety does not mean putting more police on our streets. It does not mean adding fear and terror in our communities. Believe it or not, many of our community members are scared to even call the police department.

it. Sustainable community safety means investing in our youth, our residents, and our families by investing more in our parks, our homeless community, a rehabilitation center, and our senior centers. And more importantly, investing in our undocumented community who are not able to voice their comments because of language and technological barriers. I urge you to invest in the proposed eviction defense fund by also allocating more funds to the universal representation fund and the immigration defense fund, especially during this time when many of

our residents are struggling to recuperate from our COVID-19 pandemic. Remember, you work for us, the community of Santana. We know what we want for our community and our city, and we will hold you accountable if our voices are not heard. Thank you, and I hope that you take our voices into consideration.

Thank you, caller. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Yosie Mendoza, and I'm a resident in Santana. I'm calling to urge you to defund and reject the 13.5 million increase request for police. We do not create public safety by putting more money to the police department where we invest a staggering 20% of the city budget on almost one-fourth. Reading the words from other folks that have shared today to address the well-being of folks and to truly create safety and trust, we need to commit to investing to our communities, including in housing, public libraries, which comprises only 0.7% of the city budget, nowhere near close to the 20% invested for the police.

Parks and recreation, which only comprises only 5% of the city budget, again, nowhere near close to the 20% of the city budget to police. And of course, resources for folks that are undocumented, including continuing to fund the city's deportation defense fund. In regards to housing, we need to expand and provide more funds to our COVID-19 rental assistance fund and enacted eviction defense fund to ensure tenants will receive civil legal representation for civil cases such as evictions. The effects of COVID-19 will be long-term, and there are many people that are at big

significant risk of being unhoused because folks have lost their jobs or have experienced significant reduction of pay, leaving them with very little means to pay rent and catch on missed rent. As someone that has experienced eviction herself, I understand how devastating it is to lose housing so abruptly, and I can't imagine folks experiencing a loss of housing during a global pandemic. We need to invest and honestly truly start to demonstrate that we actually care in protecting our community from experiencing houselessness and mass displacement.

And we can do this by pushing forward a right to counsel through the Eviction Defense Fund and expanding the COVID-19 rental assistance. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Moises Vazquez. I work with youth and Latino health access. I'm calling to oppose the budget increase for Santa Ana Police Department. There is a history of this investment in youth in Santa Ana. The current youth programming for youth is not nearly enough for the amount of youth that we have in Santa Ana. Let's first invest in youth programming that reaches our youth in their neighborhoods, and let's first invest in youth to prevent criminalizing them and arresting them in the first place. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is David Carvajal. I am a lifetime resident of Santana and community health worker here in the city of Santana. I wanted to call in and express my opposition to item 75A that includes the $13.5 million to the increasing of the police budget. I think that it's important to recognize that we as a community and in particular

the city council needs to prioritize the needs of tenants in Santana we need to reimagine safety and begin looking at housing as safety we need to prioritize the needs the very pressing needs of our community. We know that the pandemic has caused long-term economic challenges to our community. And what we need to is we need to stop investing in the policing of our communities and invest in their health and then their well-being. We need to expand our rental relief fund and our

eviction defense fund and create I'm sorry create an eviction defense fund because we know that eventually we're going to be facing one of the the biggest tsunamis of evictions that our community has experienced due to the pandemic and we also saw how the city of Santana failed its constituents by by by expanding our rent freeze and so we need to prioritize our community and stop investing in the police because we know that it's the eighth most murderous

police department in the country so we need to focus on the needs of our

community thank you caller please clearly state your name for the record You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello, my name is I live in Ward 6. I'm calling because I am outraged by the lack of care, humanity, and respect you have for Santana residents, especially the young people. I've been part of the protesting. And David's saying, you are a disgrace calling us animals. I was with a 13-year-old boy, healing him because he got shot with a rubber bullet in the head, bleeding in the corner. his only backup was our community the only backup there was us i saw two 13 year old boys get shot by rubber bullets by your own police by your own pigs how can you say and stand there that you are

honoring and standing with black lives matter when your own police department is firing in the heads of young people and shooting young boys and on their bodies we had to ice them these young people weren't there to loot and hurt anyone they were there to support black lives matter They were there because they are tired of the injustices of white supremacist country and this county too. They want justice until the police is not until defunded. There will be no more peace until they are totally defunded.

My next demands are defunding the police, cut their budget, and open a youth and family center where communities have access to mental health resources. We have heard it time after time after time during this call. Second, from COVID-19 and after tenant assistance that many have already mentioned, right? We're going to have a tsunami of tenants being displaced because they can't afford paying their rent. We need to do that work afterwards. Y'all need to do that afterwards. Three, continue to support universal representation with 2,000 and more. We are done with the crumbs. They are done with the crumbs. Four, public lands.

Give the land back to the people. rather fund a stupid trolley for gentrifiers who call the cops on us. Give the gardens back to the people. Give parks back to the young people. Give more youth programs for the people. And last in all, all cops are bastards. All cops kill and Black Lives Matter. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

caller please state your name for the record you have two minutes hello yes hi hi my name is

and i'm calling to oppose the um they uh what's it called to give the police um a budget increase because previously earlier you guys have already given them an increase of $236,000 with $215 for five Chevy Tahos, which should have been included in this so-called budget increase. We do not need to increase the budget of a police that does not protect us as a community. There have been multiple instances where the police doesn't show up when they're called.

The police harasses our youth, especially our brown and black young men living here in Santana. There's been instances when we're driving down the street and they flash my car, practically blinding me and causing me to almost crash. And that's not okay for them to do. There's been instances where they pulled me over and five cop cars pull up behind me just simply because they want to see who's driving. They don't ask for an ID. They don't ask for registration. They don't ask for any of that.

It's simply the fact that it's a Latina woman driving down in a black SUV down Fifth Street. So their first notion is this person is trouble. And that's not okay. And we shouldn't be giving them more money to allow them to continue to harass us and not protect us. There have been two marches for the Black Lives Matter and also for the police department to be defunded. And neither one of those were the police in Santa Ana here to protect the Santa Ana residents. What they came in was riot gear. What they came in was with tear gas.

what they came with was rubber bullets harassing the community and standing like this thank you

caller please clearly state your name for the record you have two minutes please proceed with

your comment hi yeah my name is dylan thompson i'm a santa anna resident i'm calling to oppose the increase of funding to the police in this agenda item and i mean because what are they going to do community policing with it i mean in 2016 i volunteered to put on with other people to do these uh community policing forums and we spent our time doing that cared about improving the way the police handle our public safety in a more proactive way in a

way that doesn't need reactive police tech project over the sapd they let it die in the water so So why should I have any confidence that this would be spent in a positive way? Like, I mean, it makes sense that they couldn't do it. During that time, the current police chief was being deposed by a successful campaign by the POA that also got rid of our city manager. And how many lawsuits came in that? Even the former POA president sued during that time. And then we can blink our eyes and pretend like nothing's wrong here. So let's not ignore the elephant in the room. Like, and so let's not ignore the zeitgeist of our time.

We have to rethink how we're going to do this public safety stuff. And it's a giant challenge for you guys. And maybe in the past, we didn't support people who went against the political pressure that exists. And I apologize for that. I'm sad that I didn't support Sal. I didn't support Michelle when they spoke out against this corruption. But now I will support you. I mean, I'll be there for you if you stand up against this. Please, I know it's a giant challenge, but we've got to rethink how we're doing this. When are the excesses going to be too great? When are the contradictions too evident? Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

it hi can you hear me yes we could hear you thank you my name is nathaniel greensides ward five and i oppose this item 13.5 million dollars city council members what would each of you do with that here's a little bit of what i would do i would fund initiatives for community land ownership and stewardship i would ensure that any children who are in my community even if i don't happen to have any of my own can participate in their world without fearing police. I would ensure that our city has safe and solid public transit so that community members never have to destroy our planet

by owning their own gas-guzzling car. I would ensure that those who have killed our community members as law enforcement agents are brought to justice and made examples of so that such police crimes never are committed again. I would ensure that our youth can participate in the technological future that we're going to see whether we like it or not. I would ensure that solid financial business investment is not only brought into Santa Ana, but that those who have been here can receive the proper education and training to fill those roles. I would ensure that everyone

who has to appear before a judge or any high-ranking immigration official has legal representation to ensure a fair trial. I would ensure, just like Anaheim has done with over $2 million of their own budget that tenants have relief funds to pay rent i would ensure that no more people are ever killed or abused by police in our city of santana ever again 13.5 million dollars is a lot of money proposed for the san anna police you all 15 seconds instead of policing

pushing out or killing your constituents, that $13.5 million goes towards our community's dreams. I pray you do that. Thank you.

Thank you, caller.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Aurora Garcia-Valera. I am an Anaheim resident, but I work in Santa Ana. I am here to speak in opposition of additional funds for public safety, measure acts, and generally the passing of this budget until you defund the Santa Ana Police Department and instead invest in the community. The recent protests remind us all that Black and communities of color as a whole need more support, not surveillance and suppression. We call on you to shift your priorities to actually effective strategies for community recovery and I ask that you start by defunding the Santa Ana Police Department now

and use those funds to invest in what our communities truly need, which is housing, economic and legal assistance, mental health programming, youth programming, and racial healing. For decades and decades, we continue to see funding go into ineffective policing and incarceration measures and strategies and so-called reforms that cost us precious funding that could be going into programs that can effectively work towards the safety and well-being of our communities. Measure X is an example of this inefficient use of funding and leadership. After more than a decade of this failed approach that hasn't made our community safer,

all while burning through our taxes, your city's leadership would know, I would think they would know better. You have to recognize that you can't balance your budget long term without defunding the police. And this is all before COVID, which we also know continues to have a negative financial impact for this city to recover and must defund the Santa Ana Police Department who is also one of the deadliest police departments in the country and invest in the needs of the community as others have mentioned we're in a racial justice health and budget crisis we need to defund the Santa Ana

Police Department we need to add minimum return to the budget to its 2018 levels pre-measure X which would create savings of nearly 25 million which is enough to fill this year's budget gap with enough left over to adequately fund alternative community safety measures such as youth programming. We need to defund the Santa Ana Police Department now. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Isuri Ramos. I am a long-term resident of Santana. I, too, am calling in opposition to the proposed $13.5 million raise to our city's police department. During the budget presentation, the police chief claimed that their department takes 20% of the city budget. We know that this is a gross representation of what is true, and you know that, too. I ask that you request the correct information once these comments end so the public can hear the truth. The police does not need a $13.5 million raise. These $13.5 million need to be invested to meet our community's existing needs.

Needs that will be much greater as we resolve the pandemic we are currently facing. We need to see investment in our residents that are at risk of displacement. The city's emergency rental assistance program received over 1,700 applications in a week, and they were only able to provide assistance to 300 households. This program needs to be refunded. We need to continue to fund the university representation program. We need to invest in you. Now more than ever, it is necessary that you invest in safety net programs and not the police. The fiscally responsible thing to do is to retract this proposed $13.5 million raise.

Please do that.

Thank you, caller. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, my name is Cynthia, and I'm a lifelong resident of Santana. As the council reviews the proposed city budget, I ask that you act in a way that reflects the community's needs. This means you will not approve the proposed $3.5 million budget increase for public safety, and will begin the process of defending the Santa Ana Police Department. And we're investing that much to give money into our community. Black and communities of color need resources that need their needs. Honestly, what is black in the face it is to residents to instead give them increased policing? The city has an established pattern of prioritizing policing

at the expense of residents' well-being. Since the 2008 recession, there have been deficits that resulted in cuts or minimal allocation of funds to departments that provide vital community resources. During the same time, the city found the money to increase funding for so-called public safety. Measure X was an opportunity to six years of deficit Let's strip the community of vital resources. Yet again, the city prioritized funding, public safety. And here we are again today with the city ready to prioritize the police once again, by increasing their budget by $13.5 million, even though we're in a health and financial crisis

due to COVID-19. By the city's own projections, the city anticipates running a deficit of $20 million next year, growing to a $35 million annual deficit in just two years. COVID-19 only exacerbated the problem cost by years of intentional and continuous misallocation of city funds. I am still at a loss as to how the city even considered giving the police millions and increases, even though they disproportionately received the largest allocation of the budget, and while at the same time admitting that we're in a period of acute financial distress

for the city and individual residents, especially lower-income folks, which are the majority of folks in Santana. Santana is the hardest-hit city in the county by COVID-19, with the largest number of confirmed cases, a number that is likely higher given the limited access to health resources of many of our residents. Funds are urgently needed to help residents now. The problems highlighted for COVID-19 are compounded by years of violent community disinvestment by the city. Resident after resident have come to the point for demanding the new cement. They asked for youth programs

urgently needed tenant protections among other communities only to receive minimal funds. They have asked for the public lands to use for community benefit but the city claims it does not have the money to invest public lands like Willowick and other city owned property. For quality green spaces like parks and community gardens or to maintain existing green spaces at quality level. Instead, the city says the lands need to be prioritized for economic development because the city does not have money. Somehow the city never has the money to meet these community needs, but it always has the money to fund so-called public safety.

In order to weather this economic crisis and to build a better... Caller, your time is up. The city must expand the police department and reinvest in much-needed communities.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Dulce, and I'm with the Blanchard County and also a resident of Ward 5. And I just want to say that I oppose funding for the police department. Santana actually needs to defend the police. Santana is one of the youngest cities. However, Santana has failed young people. The city spends around $12,770 on youth arrests and only spending about $152 for youth ages 10-24 on health youth development. This is according to the Advancement Project's report in 2017 on the status of young people.

Through community advocacy these last couple years, young people have been able to get funding through the cannabis revenue, which is barely a commitment that the city is doing. youth need definitely commitment from the general fund measure X because police is getting money from those revenue sources. I just also want to highlight that the youth commissioners that were given the project to figure out what to do with this money from the cannabis revenue have been silenced. A lot of these young people have been able to share really, really good ideas and

proposed solutions, programs, and just resources for other young people in Santana. However, the city has not been able to take direction from these young folks, and it's about time that folks start listening to them. We need to make sure that the city has a larger vision for what we will provide young people. Young people were not excluded from the impacts of COVID and police violence, so we need to make sure that they're included in this vision of recovery. I demand that the city start working towards creating a youth strategic plan. We're aided vision of young

people being part of the process. We ask that folks in the city are able to evaluate the current programs that the city provides which is almost nothing like it's only under parks rec and um shoe services um there's master plans for bikes there's master plans for roads there's master plans for police departments but there's not one for youth it's about time that we do this long beach is currently working on one and we know that we can do one of these that is inclusive of all young people including formerly incarcerated young people young people that have been kicked out of

schools um young people that are going through different learning abilities and teen moms all these services and we need to provide a wraparound service for young people.

Caller please clearly state your name for the record you have two minutes please proceed with your comment. Hi City Council my name is Kyle Ettinger I'm a

resident in Ward 2 urging you against housing and budget as is. So most of what I have to say has been spoken on by other callers. So I've decided to offer a suggestion with my time. If you're looking for something specific and decisive to do in support of us that opposed nearly half the budget going towards the police department, I believe it's not unreasonable to renegotiate your contract with the police officers association, which is, according to this budget summary, drawing over $16 million.

That's ludicrous. just under that measure is a three and a half million increase in pension contributions uh so uh i'm trying not to repeat what's already been said but but you know so many so many callers so far have mentioned how severely they've been impacted by the by the pandemic uh and i understand that budget alterations are scary when covid is impacting tax revenues but um as we heard earlier in the presentation uh the police department is growing exponentially and that's irresponsible. Thank you for your

time. Thank you caller. Please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment. Hi can you hear me? Yes we can

hear you. Okay hi my name is Allison. First I want to say it is outrageous that you force residents and constituents to wait for hours to speak on this record critical issue and then reduce our speaking time to two minutes. This is not a matter of convenience. It is a matter of participation in a democratic process. Second, there is a major discrepancy between the current budget that is printed and published in the city's budget summary for the fiscal year 2020 to 2021 and what has just been presented to the public by a representative of

the police department. Funding allocation for the police department in the city budget summary states it is 48 percent, while the police representative said their budget only makes up 20 percent. This is irresponsible and it is a blatant lie and slap in the face of people. The Santa Ana Police Department needs to be due funded and that money needs to go back to reinvesting in our communities. It is undeniable that there is something wrong with our government when there are blatantly visible differences between how polished and pristine police stations look compared to the deteriorating conditions of public schools in Santa Ana.

It is unacceptable for the city to even consider increasing public safety and spending by $13.5 million during COVID-19 and an economic crisis. There is a reason why youth and young people are adamantly protesting in the streets, demanding that Black people, Black lives, and Black humanity be recognized and to see justice be actualized. They see, they know through experience the violence brought by the hands of police and the policing system. And they're justifiably angry at the visible and material ways their lives are structured by legal and law enforcement systems that are used to track, survey, criminalize, and detain them.

This historic moment in the U.S. and in our local community makes clear that our community protests physically, metaphorically, this abject normalization of criminalizing and murdering of black people, youth, people of color, poor people, unhoused people, and immigrants. All of these issues are interconnected because we see and know how police are used to carry out these violent and serious crimes against community members that claim to have sworn to protect themselves. This is why in addition to imposing the $32.5 million increase, I'm calling on you to support

the renewal of the Deportation Defense Fund at its current level of $200,000 to continue providing... Caller, your time is up.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello. My name is Jason Chimbitas. I'm a lifetime resident of Santa Ana, 22 years old. I want to say I oppose the current budget plan that we have to increase funding for the police. I think that's just a bunch of bull because being raised in Santa Ana, going through the education system, I didn't learn anything. I didn't learn how to write a freaking paragraph or a freaking essay till college. That's pretty sad. The police do not need more money. They don't need more bodies there. They don't deserve that money.

We need to defund the police. We need to invest more into the community. Parks and Rec totally needs more money. We need to invest more into downtown events. There are so many artistic people in Santa Ana that you guys ignore. And they need to be, their voices need to be heard.

and that's all I had to say thank you thank you caller please clearly state your name for the record you have two minutes please proceed with your comment

hello my name is Christopher Forden I'm the project director of Santa Ana active streets we're an organization that advocates for active transportation in the city SAS strongly opposes of the current budget proposal. We stand with Black Lives Matter's condemnation of the police brutalization of black communities, indigenous communities, and people of color. We stand with Black Lives Matter's demand for local governments, and in this case, the city of Santa Ana, to defund the police and reinvest in our communities to ensure our communities not only survive but thrive.

Investments that are needed include affordable housing, health care, crisis intervention services, social workers, mental health services, homeless services, libraries, workforce development, food, youth programming, access child care, and racial healing. We have also advocated for decriminalizing traffic stops. We have pushed this in the city-approved active transportation plan, but what remains is interactions with a police department that is the leader in the county in fatal shootings. Walking, riding a bike, or driving in our community should not lead to harassment or brutalization by the police department.

We have members who have been involved with SAS who have been questioned, ended up in handcuffs, and let go, but ultimately were stopped in the first place for no more than living in their skin or living on their block. Our community should not experience criminalization for solely being. Police reform is not enough as protests in the city and nationwide has shown. Police reform is not enough also with what our city history has shown. This is not a case of our police department is not like that. Police departments nationwide are infected with the

disease and it's called systemic racism. New ideas are needed, not increased police spending, investing in things like housing, health care, mental health parks and parks is exactly how you reimagine neighborhoods we are not abandoning our communities to violence by saying defund the police we don't want to just close police departments we want to make them obsolete

the process that happened in our city show that many people are ready to embrace a different vision of safety and justice and we need the courage of our city leaders to embrace this vision as well do not miss this moment we oppose the current budget and call on city council to defund the police department and invest in communities Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello?

Hello? Please clearly state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.

Hi. Good evening. My name is Luis Sarmiento. I am a resident of Santana, opposed to the budget as it is presented today. I join community groups and youth throughout Santana, demanding a significant shift in public spending away from the police department and in favor of the following. youth programs, including mental health counselors, youth re-entry programs, and others. Maintain funding for the universal representation program, worker cooperative incentive programs, expand rental assistance, and support the proposed eviction defense fund,

create a fund for projects on public land that will address public needs, and increase city staff time to support community land trust efforts, youth programming and across the board for city agencies that provide essential services other than law enforcement. I would also like to direct the city to community organizations who are ready to provide research case studies and guidance on these programs and services. This includes the Santana People's Budget Work Group, the Invest in Youth Work Group, the Santana Building Healthy Communities Initiative, Tenancy United Santana, and Thrive Santana.

The city spends over $12,000 on each youth at arrests, while only spending $152 per resident ages 10 to 24 on youth development programs and services. We cannot continue to pour millions of dollars into law enforcement and expect our low-income neighborhoods to thrive without programs for youth, without economic opportunities, without adequate housing opportunities. We have made some progress, but we are moving too slowly. 15 seconds. The burden is not on our community groups to work harder. Rather, the burden is on our public institutions, on our elected officials to leverage public resources

to respond to the needs that we have been naming for years. Thank you.

Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, please speak. Hi, good evening. My name is Omar Dominguez. I live in Ward 1. I'm calling in opposition to the proposed budget. I feel that police should not get a raise. They should not have over 40% of our city budget. More funding should be given to other needs in our city, not the police. Defend the police. Thank you. Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your

name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment. Hello? Caller, please state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment. Hi,

Hi, my name is Maria Gallegos. I'm a property owner resident for 36 years of Santa Ana. I'm a mother and a grandmother that opposes the increase to the police. I think the money should be invested in our community, our next generation, which are our children, parks and recreation, youth programs, schools, community services, school supplies. I believe that pencils, paper, books, just the basics should be given to our kids instead of more assault weapons to the police.

We need to invest in our future generation. Do what needs to be done to address the homeless situation. We need leadership in Santa Ana. I haven't seen much change or leadership in our community. We need leaders. People that really care about the Santa Ana community. I want to ask you tonight to ask yourself, do you really care about the Santa Ana community? Do you want to try your best to do what it takes to be a leader for Santa Ana? Or are you simply an audience? Just warming up the seat.

Because if you are, it's time to give up your seat to leave it to a real leader. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Caller, you have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Okay, next caller. Caller, please state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

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

Hi, this is Cecilia Iglesias. I am calling to oppose the $13.5 million to the police department in raises. I want to request the city council and the mayor to focus on our community's priorities. Not only are we facing major losses due to the coronavirus,

but we can't afford more taxes and fees that you guys are already approving for us to pay more like into the disposal and the water fees that's very unacceptable we postponed we need to invest we need to invest more on parks libraries youth services and senior services Measure X money was never intended to give police staff raises. I don't support the complete defunding of the police department. However, I strongly support that no more general fund money should be going to the police department.

The pensions of the police department will bankrupt our city. We have a lot of underfunded programs like parks, youth services, and senior services. In order to save money, I would recommend that some of the responsibilities of the police department can be assigned to civilian employees. I also would like to say that the one responsible for all of this division and also bankrupting our city is the corrupt police union. and their leadership. Jerry Serrano is giving good police officers a bad reputation. He protects the

bad cops and takes away the money from our families to pay for his $504,000 salary and benefits. I urge you to vote no on the $13.5 million raise to the police department and please save Santa Ana. Thank you.

How many speakers do we have left? Madam Clerk.

Four. We have four callers left.

Four callers left? Okay, and we're going to close the public comment after that.

Okay. Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello. Can you all hear me there?

Yes, we can hear you.

Thank you. So, hello. I'm Manny Escamilla over in Council Ward No. 4. Thank you, Mayor, and Council for having this discussion. I know it's a really big issue. So just a few observations on the budget. Number one, definitely an agreement with the supportive inclusion of the Legal Defense Fund. I think it's a great program at a relatively low cost that protects Santa Ana residents and their families. Number two, also an agreement with our fellow brothers in labor over at SEIU to bring back the members that were let go from the city.

You know, even as just a symbolic gesture of making sure that the city doesn't abandon people that have committed their lives to working here in the city and have committed to helping out their fellow residents, I think it would be a great symbolic act on your part to get those folks back on the payroll, even if only furloughed. And the third observation is an agreement with the majority of the callers that, in fact, I think all the callers have been calling in so far, that we really need to take a look at the way that we're deploying our public safety dollars.

You know, quite honestly, I think it's in the middle of a pandemic, having a six-month delay when, you know, in six months we're going to really be in a budget crisis, I think is just a little bit short-sighted. The 4% raises are still going to be there, so nothing in the agreement currently or the much touted reduction in the immediate raises for the POA. That's still going to impact us six months from now. So this is an opportunity to be fiscally responsible, responding and rising to the occasion.

Quite honestly, at this point, there are going to be very few people and few electeds that will ever have the opportunity in a historic moment like this to do the right thing, to challenge existing assumptions as to what public safety is and to do things in a way that makes our communities more resilient, more responsive to the modern needs of policing. So, you know, really this, you know, the policing, as we know it in the United States, grew out of a war on drugs, a war in which, you know, a city like ours had more jails or the same number of jails than libraries. Oh, libraries? Okay.

Just looking to, you know, really rethink this public safety matter. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello, my name is Jessica Henriquez-Garcia. I'm in Ward 2. I'm calling an agreement with the previous callers to oppose the budget increase of $13.5 million and reallocate funds for the community and invest in our community. I, too, like one of the previous callers, noticed the discrepancy in the budget that was presented today as opposed to the one that is online. So I urge you guys to be, you know, full disclosure for the community. And that is all. I yield my time. Thank you.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. Please proceed with your comment. You have two minutes.

Hello? Hi.

Hello? Please proceed with your comment. You have two minutes. Please state your name for the record.

Hi, this is Leslie, a resident of Santa Ana. I also oppose a budget increase with Santa Ana PD. It's insulting that you would waste money on more afforded explorers or wages for the police to frankly pull over people or shuffle around the homeless between the jails, filthy shelters, and the streets, while working-class families suffer with one of the highest rates of COVID in Orange County. And they also suffer with the burden of water prices and bill tax increases. It just doesn't make sense to invest in an institution that criminalizes and entrenches homelessness and poverty,

rather than preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place. When I drive home at night, I don't want to see any more ambulances by the homeless tents on Santa Ana Boulevard, thinking another homeless person has died, or police standing over a citizen with their faces on the dirty concrete of their own city. Gary Serrano and the police union won't get their way. And as youth continue to march despite police shooting at them with rubber bullets and tear-casing them, divest from the police, invest in families, education, health care, transportation, and housing. Thank you.

The last caller, Madam Clerk.

Caller, please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Carla Juarez. I'm a long-time resident in Santa Ana, and I'm also a tenant counselor. I also want to let you guys know that in the Spanish line, you guys have other callers also waiting.

JUST A COUPLE THINGS. I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED THAT YOU GUYS CUT THE TIME FROM THREE MINUTES TO TWO MINUTES. I THINK IT'S VERY IMPORTANT FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, FOR PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO TALK TO YOUR COUNCIL. AND ALSO JUST THE FACT THAT YOU CUT IT, IT'S JUST MENTAL, LIKE A MENTAL HEALTH. IT ALLOWS PEOPLE TO TELL YOU HOW THEY FEEL. You guys might have enough money for mental health that a lot of people in Santa Ana don't. That's a privilege to have, to be able to go to somewhere to speak your thoughts or your feelings out, which also brings me, I wanted to let you know that I do oppose the budget increase.

And mental health would be one of the good things that you guys could put this money in. I mean, let alone education, like parks, like seniors. I mean, there's so many other good things that you could put this money into. And I also want to say, bring to your attention that the discrepancy in the budget is also something that a lot of us notice. Looking at the budget online, and it clearly states that it's 43%, which is $140.8 million to go to the police. So there's definitely a discrepancy. i want to ask you guys clear it as in posting like the real budget so we can understand what's going

on and that it's very it's very sad concerning i'm like i'm already stressed i'm in the like brink of breaking down because i don't know what else to do and it's not okay for you guys to do this to people like we live together we're in the city together we have to thrive together and unless we're in this together, then we're not going to survive this. This is only going to get worse. Not just even talking about... Caller, your time is up.

Madam Clerk, is that all the English-speaking callers that we have? If we have Spanish speakers on the line, then we'll take those six, and then we're going to close the hearing.

Call, there's no way for me to know if they're Spanish or English speaker until they begin to speak. But we can go ahead and allow them to speak, and that's the only way we'll know.

So there's six? Four left. Okay. I'm going to take the four, and then we're going to close the public hearing. Okay.

Caller, if you can please clearly state your name for the record. You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

There's no way for me to know if they're Spanish speakers or not.

Caller.

Caller, you may be muted. You may have your phone muted. If you want to speak, please unmute your phone.

Hola, ¿me pueden oír?

caller we cannot hear you if you would like to communicate to us you can unmute your phone because it appears where we have you unmuted on our side

okay we'll proceed with the next caller caller please clearly state your name for the record You have two minutes. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello?