Read the May 19 meeting.

Mayor McCann she roll call yes one moment mayor I'm waiting for the the IT in the back to open up the line one second please

okay we're alive now councilmember Becerra here councilmember Iglesias

Here. Councilmember Peñalosa?

Here.

Councilmember Sarmiento?

Here.

Councilmember Solorio?

Here.

Mayor Potem-Viegas?

Here.

Mayor Pulido?

Here.

Okay, we have a quorum.

so with that um why don't we go ahead and we just had the roll call um there's nothing to report out of closed session we had no closed session um why don't we if it's appropriate let's stand up wherever we are and let's do the pledge of allegiance please

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

Madam Clerk, do we have an invocation? yes we do Bob Keller is here well thank you what a privilege it is to be here this evening and so it's all about our heads and have a word of prayer shall we let's do that father in heaven we thank you for the opportunity to be here and or I'm most grateful to to be among people especially the city council and the mayor and everyone else because Lord my wife and I've been cooped up in our house now for two months and this has really been the first time that we have gotten out other than going to the store and lord perhaps maybe some of our folks here feel the same way but lord we do

pray for this meeting we pray that you would give the mayor and the city council members wisdom as they make the decisions that they need to make father that we would sense your presence and that soon that you would allow the COVID-19 pandemic to be lifted and that we would be able to go back to work and do the things that we enjoy doing. Pray that that would happen soon and I know, I don't know Lord, I guess I don't know, but perhaps maybe some of those decisions are up to the mayor and others and the powers that be, I'm not sure. But I do pray that the pandemic would

in very, very soon. And Lord, I don't want to forget about our police officers. I know that it's been a couple months since we've been able to serve them and be there for them. But Lord, I know that you've never left them, nor have you forsaken them. We pray that you would continue to keep them safe as they protect the city, the city, the wonderful city of Santa Ana. So we look forward to what you're going to do tonight. We thank you for what you have done. And Lord, now unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly of all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.

For we pray in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you, our police chaplain. Madam Clerk, why don't you at this time provide information to the public as to how they can access the meeting this evening, please.

The meeting is live streamed through YouTube and it can be found on our website. If you go to the santa-shanna.org city meetings website and all comments can be sent to e-comments at santa-shanna.org. All the public hearing items, work study session and non-agenda items will be open to the public to speak. A call in number will be provided on our website and it will also be open on the YouTube live feed. The phone number is 669-900-9128, entering the meeting ID 315-965-149-POUND.

And when the item is present, when Council opens the item for discussion, you can dial star 6.

Thank you. and then i know counselor peña-losa has an item on and i intend to support it to kind of open this up i know it'll mean for longer meetings but we'll open it up to everybody so they can you know speak on any item um so uh right now why don't we go to uh presentations um uh i don't want to say a whole lot other than what because it's already you're here on the agenda and all but I guess this is the week for a national Public Works week May 17 through May

23rd and I know we have a wonderful you know Public Works Department this is the 60 60th annual National Public Works week sponsored by the American Public works association and the canadian public works association and all i would ask is because we've got the old naphtha and new naphtha what happened to the mexican public works association maybe we can contact them and add them on for next year um but with that let me keep the meeting going

why don't we go on to the next item i'll turn it over to the city manager or whomever is appropriate it but before i do that i know there's a request to bring the budget on early that discussion um i know a few of you mentioned that to me when would you like to do it do you want to do it before consent calendar items or even before presentations what is the pleasure of the council i'm willing to accommodate

well hearing no one let's just go yes I would be forced before consent would be good all right

counselor I think you were requesting something on this as well are you there yes and I'd be

Phil BacerraItem —

willing to support the idea of doing it before consent as well. All right all

right so let's we'll do that so then right now let's go just go ahead with the presentation then I'll turn over our city manager a special presentation on wireless telecommunication facilities. Madam City Manager. Thank you Mayor we

have our Public Works Director Nabil Saba who is going to do the presentation

for you. Nabil? Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council. Tonight, I will present to you the Wireless Communication Facility presentation background and guidelines. I will go over the backgrounds of the presentation here. We'll talk a little bit on the design standards and guidelines, the antenna placement options, the application process, and finally, we will discuss a little bit on the undergrounding of utilities. The regulatory body for the small cell is the Federal Communication Commission, the FCC.

The FCC is an independent government agency that oversees by the Congress. It is responsible for the implementation and the enforcement of America's communication law and regulations. The City of Santa Ana also have its own requirement, but we're also required to comply with the FCC. The legislative authority is the Telecommunication Act of 1996, Section 707. The City of Santa Ana Telecommunication Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way Ordinance. We have our own ordinance that regulates these facilities, too.

and in addition the Federal Communication Commission the FCC order 18 133 does play a big role in regulating the small cell installation in the city of Santa Ana I would like to read out to you the telecommunication act of 1996 which states no state or local government or instrumentally thereof may regulate the placement construction and modification of personal wireless service facilities on the basis

of environmental effects and off-radio frequency emissions in addition to the to this rule or regulation the Federal Communication Commission order 1830 133 limits the time that's allowed for the review of the applications for small cell to 60 days if no action was taken on this application within 60 days the application will be deemed complete and construction will commence other factors in the small cell is the

availability of city-owned street lights and the increased demand for capacity and the improvement of the 5G technologies. The city has established standards and guidelines which are shown here for the small cell installation. We have worked with the city attorney's office and also other cities and our consultants to establish those guidelines. Our guidelines actually are used to prevent situations like you see here.

The until-em-placement options, there is four of options that the small cell provider can use. They can use a utility pole for their installation, street lights or they can build their own standalone pole or they can install those antennas on strands mounted on the wires. We'll talk about the utility poles first. This is a typical cross-section of a utility pole. Please notice the three main sections of the pole itself. We have the primary, the secondary, those are

reserved for power and then the communication which is third from bottom that's reserved for communication and then the last level is for just the public nothing goes there

the utility poles are regulated and owned in city of Sanana by Southern California Edison. Edison and the small cell providers have or are in a Southern California Joint Poll Committee. The placement of the cells, small cells is regulated by the PUC under the order 95, GO 95, and also Southern California Edison does regulate clearances, markings, design, support elements, climbing space, steppings,

cables, and cable mounts on their poles. The city has also requirements and we require that all the equipment be concealed. We allow for top of pole mounting. We also allow for side and cross-mounted antennas. We limit the size of each antenna to be 3 cubic feet, the maximum antenna volume of 9 cubic feet per pole. We require the minimum height of 8 feet above ground, and we also require that the equipment be matched in color with the pole.

We require that the shroud be facing away from approaching traffic. The maximum cross arm length is regulated at 60 inches. The maximum antenna height is regulated at 48 inches. The maximum position height in residential zone is 35 feet. That is how high or the highest where an antenna can be. And the maximum height in other areas is 60 feet. That's how high an antenna can be in non-residential area. The maximum horizontal distance between antennas is 300 feet. This is a typical

or those two examples are typical of installation in the city of Santa Ana. So I took those pictures in Santa Ana. That's how they look like.

The other option that small cell companies have available to them right now is the streetlights and those are examples of 5G antennas on streetlights. Now we do have one company or one provider which is Verizon that has signed an agreement with the city of Santa Ana to be able to use our streetlights to install these antennas. We are waiting on council approval for two additional agreements with AT&T and Crown Castle.

Yes, yes. The third option is for the small cell provider to build their own pole just like that. We don't favor this option because it crowds the sidewalk and we would rather that they use our street light for that. The fourth option is to mount the antennas on a stringed wire like that. Not popular but I've seen few in Santa Ana. The application process for small cell it starts with the provider

submits an application and pay the fees. The city acknowledges the application status within 10 days. That's an FCC shot clock requirement. If the application is complete, the city and the provider proceed with the plan check. Concurrently, the provider sends notification to residents within 150 foot radius along with the neighborhood association leadership. That notice is sent to all the residents within that sphere of 300 feet diameter. And also we send those notices to the neighborhood association leaderships the city and the provider

respond to the resident and the community comments and we've been getting comments and so we reach out to both the community and residents to discuss the issues staff works with the application or the applicant to determine whether the the location and design and is our technology technologically feasible if possible the provider makes changes and resubmit the plans the city provides and the city and the provider proceed with the permit issuance and construction now there was also a questioning about overhead utilities and undergrounding

the undergrounding of utilities is governed by the PUC Public Utilities Commission there is three type of rules that apply to undergroundings rule 20 a 20B and 20C and they are basically a way how undergrounding is funded. 20A is for the utility to pay for the undergrounding. 20B requires that city pays 80% of the cost of undergrounding and 20C is for the city to pay 100% of the undergrounding cost. Undergrounding of a distribution type system costs

about $650 per foot. For a mile it's $3.4 million. If it's a transmission type grounding then the cost is $2,200 per foot. One mile would be $11.6 million.

Now the city has some funds for grounding that has been allocated to the Warner widening project. We have 3.7 million dollars and we plan to borrow from the future a location to make that happen. The grounding at Warner will be from Maine to Oak and it was approved by council on October 16, 2018. That concludes my presentation I'm open for questions any questions from council

David PenalozaItem —

members yes mr. mayor this is councilmember Penaloza I have a few questions go ahead thank you for the presentation Nabil that was a very informative and I'm sure the a lot of neighborhoods in the city appreciate it so thank you with that said is this a method that's being used in numerous cities throughout the the county the state or how exactly the do utility companies or wireless service providers like Verizon and AT&T identify

David PenalozaItem —

areas within cities of where to you put these antennas I believe it is based on

coverage and their needs we have been approached by three different providers Verizon AT&T and Crown Castle. Crown Castle does the infrastructure building for others like Sprint and T-Mobile and others so we have been approached by all three and all three are in the city of Santa Ana because they are partnering with South in California Edison they have been going to the Edison poles to put their infrastructure on. We permit those, we plan check them, we look at the the way they are constructed, pay fees and inspection and such, but we can't

prevent the small cell companies from going on the power poles. What we can do is make incentivize them to be on our streetlights.

David PenalozaItem —

sorry does that answer your question uh sort of and so so that's here in Santa Ana what about are do they exist in other cities in the county I believe so I've seen similar installations and

the city I live in Placentia and I've seen some installations also in Huntington Beach okay now

David PenalozaItem —

would it be possible to reach out to these service providers and say hey I know you you were saying that you want to discourage or you can't force someone someone to use the power utility poles is that correct yes so but is that option on the table for them like let's say they would want to reach out because I know those are usually behind homes not visible as much from the public right-of-way and that's what what concerns me is that the the poles being used are along the public right away so it is visible to anyone driving by or walking by right but if they were to reach out to individual homes in

David PenalozaItem —

certain neighborhoods and and ask if that would be a possibility to install those behind their homes is that is that a thought is that possible the

financial incentive for them is to go on existing poles so if if Edison has a pole next to on the right of way then they're going to go after that pole unless the we have been in our negotiation with Verizon AT&T and Crown Castle we have been asking them continuously to consider our street

David PenalozaItem —

lights rather than power poles well I understand that but I mean the power poles that are directly behind homes hidden away from the public right away those are still power poles that belong to Southern California Edison what would they be willing to use those is that an option I believe so I think it's an

option but what I haven't seen applications where they're going behind homes I've seen applications coming into where the street is like flower a long flower flower that's what do you see the applications coming in not behind homes I haven't seen that but I'll have to check with staff that would be a good

David PenalozaItem —

question to ask just I mean I know that I wouldn't want to force these behind anyone's home but I'm saying if they were to make the outreach to that person's home and as case as possible or would you allow us to do this it would keep it I'm sure there's somebody out there that would say yeah I don't care

that way it's not visible I will review the applications that we have pending and if there's any of them and behind homes I will we'll discuss that with the provider and try to convince them to go other ways okay and if there's room and

David PenalozaItem —

and this is just my personal suggestion, if there's room to further add more guidelines to the way these cell towers look, I'm not sure if that needs an amending of the current ordinance that we have that you mentioned that added these design guidelines. Sure. If there's room to improve on these guidelines, I would be very happy to...

I think that's something we can add in our guidelines. It is a working document, and we can modify it from time to time because we do have these I mean beautiful

David PenalozaItem —

historic neighborhoods throughout the city that are seeing these come in and they're just not aesthetically pleasing even with the guidelines that we already have and they don't match the just the character of the neighborhood I mean you're driving down this beautiful street all over in Wilshire Square specifically which is close to me and you're driving and all of a sudden you see these these antennas sticking out like an eyesore and it'd be that would just be my request if we could look more into possibly just strengthening the guidelines that we already have in place in regards to design that's what I ask

David PenalozaItem —

and and that's pretty much it but thank you for answering those questions that we emailed sure yesterday evening thank you for that I mean those that's it mr.

mayor all right um any other questions if not i have a comment uh mr mayor councilmember becerra

Phil BacerraItem —

go ahead go ahead thank you mr mayor uh nabil i just want to make sure i understood so on slide 14 of your presentation uh carrier-owned standalone polls did i hear you correctly when you said that you and your department discourages the installation of these yes we do okay and that's because that encroaches within the the right-of-way

correct yeah it may cause crowdliness in the in the sidewalk itself because you will have a possibly a power pole and then this and maybe a street light so we would rather that they go either on a street well we'd rather than going on a

Phil BacerraItem —

streetlight if that is available. Okay. And I want to ask, so in relation to the right-of-way, especially along sidewalks, you know, there are plenty of places in Santa Ana where long before any of our time, you saw these utility boxes. It's like someone blindly just slapped them in the middle of the sidewalk. And it's very difficult to get by. And I imagine under today's ADA standards, it would never fly. Do our city standards prevent those sorts of utility box placements from happening today?

As it relates to the small cell?

Phil BacerraItem —

Well, just in general, I want to understand, as far as utility box placements on a sidewalk, are those, is there standards to keep them out of the sidewalks right away?

I believe so. We take really good care on trying to locate those utility boxes to keep ADA compliance and to take them out of the way and make them visually attractive. But we do. We have standards for that.

Phil BacerraItem —

Okay. And, you know, I really, as I look at these pictures, especially like on page 12 along the utility poles, I mean, they look awful. There's no other way to put it. They look awful. They stand out. I think if there's any way to encourage them to be on streetlights rather than the utility poles. I think that's the best way. I mean, even the pictures that you show on slide 12, those power poles or those utility poles, eventually there are streetlights or at least standalone streetlight poles like what you see on page or slide 13. And that looks so much better. I mean, compared to what we see on utility poles,

Phil BacerraItem —

I just want to voice my opinion that I would love to see our public works staff really push for the installation of this infrastructure more on streetlights rather than these utility pole extensions I completely agree with you alrighty that's all I have mr. mayor thank you mr. mayor this is a councilman

slurry about just a couple of things that number one on the idea of putting it behind people's homes I think those cases where behind the home is also next to a public street so that there's accessibility I just worried that

sometimes we have provide easements sometimes they have easement along the

the back and sure if there's easements I could see how that worked but in general having utilities behind people's homes is problematic I know even some years ago we actually had two mutual water companies and San Ana pumps and other things were in the back in the backyards and it created a lot of issues and you know access and late night and then people work in you know in people's homes that late-night industrial but again if it's on the backside near an easement near public access that might be one way to go if not we just want ease of access and good maintenance a good service and then the other question

I had was with the street lights that we purchased and the new infrastructure there I know that they were purchased with the idea that we might be able to add Wi-Fi to them so that we can have little Wi-Fi hotspots around them if you will can you talk about that a little bit more in terms of what was that done and like if we did want to add a Wi-Fi element to one of these how much would it cost how much surface area does that does it cover in terms of reach or maybe could come back to us later if you don't have enough but I know that we discussed

that we can quite a look into that for you and come up with a report to you yeah

that would be good you know given you know kovat people being at home and distance learning and people on zoom and all that there's a big demand and you know when we you know purchase that that kind of was one of the selling points that we were gonna have that capability so if you can you know give us some feedback on that that'd be fantastic thank you so much yeah mr. mayor this is

uh sarmiento go ahead just a couple of councilor samuel go ahead thank you um let me start by congratulating uh director sabah on public works week so um this is good timing uh good work nabil i know you've been working very hard um and never anticipated working through a pandemic right right or was that something you expected my first month listen i i i just i'm a little confused so this presentation is this just generally on sort of background on telecommunications and the wireless infrastructure we have this isn't responsive to the 85 I forget

what letter it was at the last meeting where we were talking about Wi-Fi service

and coverage to maybe those households that we have been Edison but Verizon it's been pretty active right now and trying to build these small small cell facilities and there's been a lot of notices going to residents so we wanted to let you know what we're trying to do here and how we work with got it we'll

have that other discussion I guess later if I may add you're correct council member Sarmiento this actually came about because on your last agenda you had a master lease agreement with the cell phone company that was continued and a request by councilmember Penaloza to get more information on the topic that's really what this presentation was about got it thank you and I agree with

the comments that were made about obviously the preferences streetlights because aesthetically they just make more sense and I think just structurally they make more sense the only caveat would be in those neighborhoods where you don't have service and you don't have these streetlights as available yeah we may have to show just for purposes of making sure everybody is connected we may have to use those poles. I know that years back when we were doing these cell towers in parks, we had some neighborhoods that pushed back on the impact of radiation and whether or not it was

going to have some consequence. And so the science and the data is kind of mixed out there. I think most realize that you get more radiation through your cell phone or a microwave. Nonetheless, I think you know having it right behind a home to the extent that maybe that's not the most preferred use unless there is no weather option obviously undergrounding is the preference and if we're doing things like on 4th Street where we're Putting in a light rail system and through the rest of the alignment if things could be underground while construction is taking place when we're You know going through

Asphalting on different streets to the extent we can take advantage of undergrounding some some conduit and and some infrastructure that makes sense. But when you come back to us, maybe I guess my conversations with the folks at Verizon, and I think they have 170 small cells, and they're really busy and a good staff, and I know they've been working with your staff really well, as well as AT&T and Charter Spectrum and T-Mobile. I think all of them are looking at that same question. What's the gap? Where is the gap? so I know that they sometimes look at their own service area or their

quadrants and maybe what we could do is assemble their data and come up with a more comprehensive overview of where are where are those spots in the city that don't have service and whether it's due to infrastructure whether it's due to just you know economics or whether it's due to just delays that that would be helpful when you bring this back to us not in the bill but but thank you for the presentation it's really really helpful thank you

anybody else mr mayor real quick go ahead sissy yes mayor pro tem go ahead

and then i'll let council member glasses go first

thank you go ahead council member thank you okay um nabil thank you for this presentation i have a couple of questions for you i know that um back in i think it was 2015 or maybe 2014 here in um ward six we were trying to uh there was this um owner that wanted to put i guess one of the cell towers in his um in his location and one of the questions that came up from the residents um was that are these cell towers only for santa anna residents or other cities are able to tap into these um these cell towers to provide services to their residents in other cities

like where we live right here in Ward 6, we're very close to Fountain Valley. So anything that is, if I recall correctly, anything that's within the radius of the coverage that they have, Fountain Valley was also able to have access to that. So I don't know if this is the type of same towers that we're looking at. if you could give me some clarification that would be very helpful.

Sure. These antennas are what we call small cell antennas, and they are being built to provide 4 and 5G coverage. Now, the 4 and 5G coverage, the type of transmission is pretty fast, but it doesn't go a long way. So like I mentioned in my slide, the distance between the different antennas cannot be, we recommend there be more than 300 feet. But if you go beyond 300, 500, 1,000 feet, the signal gets a lot weaker.

So they need so many of these antennas all throughout to have good coverage. So to answer your question on who will be using the service that these antennas will provide, I would say most likely will be citizens in Santa Ana because those antennas don't go too far. The signal doesn't go too far. It's pretty fast, but it doesn't go too far.

So then we don't have any that other cities are able to partake, I would say, like in our resources here in Santa Ana?

You know, if we're talking about the macro cells, which is the ones that are on trees, and we have some on the elevated tower, the water tower, you know, those do serve a much bigger area, and it can, it's feasible that they are serving areas outside of Santa Ana. But what we're talking about here, a small cell for the 5G is kind of limited.

Okay. But I agree with Councilmember Sarmiento then having more a bigger presentation of what, you know, the services that we provide through these cells, you know, being these and the ones that you just described. That would be very helpful.

Sure.

Okay. And then the other, you know, Councilmember Sarmiento brought it up about the 5G. I know there's a lot of individuals who are concerned about the radiation and the effects that it has on us as humans here. What is the data that says whether they're harmful or not?

Council member, I'm not really qualified to answer on the health effects of the 5G. It is regulated by the FCC, and they have studies that show it is safe. but that's all I can tell you.

Okay. So for me, in the future, if you could give me, maybe just send it to me, but where you would find that, because constituents are asking and they're very concerned, so we could either have this maybe on our website or something about what the 5G and the effects that it has, because it's been something that has been a conversation, topic of conversation, within our constituents here, especially where I live in Ward 6.

Sure. What I can do is add links to the FCC, the Federal Communication Commission, on their studies and their findings. Would that be okay with you?

That's a start, and I'm pretty sure we'll have other questions so we can update it as we go along. But thank you very much.

Sure.

Thank you, Mayor.

Mr. Mayor, I'm okay. I'm going to wait for another presentation.

so if you want to go ahead conclude yeah let me just a couple comments um i i think i'd like to see a bigger picture uh of you know what happens to us when we go into other cities because i know you know throughout orange county people travel so you know you know we all need service and especially with the pandemic and going beyond the pandemic. I just want to do a shout out to Verizon because I know Randall Hernandez has been contacting the city and trying to figure out are there ways that we can serve our youth

and especially the distance learning and all that that entails. So I see this as ultimately an aggregate system. I also would like to have staff may look at other cities and what have they done with their design standards and how they handled it. We're not the only city in Southern California with these issues. So are there some best practices that we can potentially emulate? I'd like to find that out as well. and on the 5G question I just think that one

is complicated because there's a lot of opinions and you know more and more folks, scientists and others that are coming out with you know what happens you know to us and I think in many cases we don't know and by the time the studies all come in and the years pass sometimes we learn things after the fact. On the other hand, you know, we have to balance all these different factors. So I think this obviously is a topic with lots of relevance, lots of interest,

and something we need to continue to work on. So with that, if I may, that was supposed to be, I thought, not going to take too much time. But why don't we now just suspend the rest of the calendar for a moment and let's get into the uh the budget presentation please so i'd now like to

turn things over to our city manager okay thank you mayor this is a work study session covering the preparation of our draft operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year this has been a difficult budget cycle with many unknown variables as the impacts to our local economy from the pandemic are not yet fully known. Despite those challenges and through the hard work of our finance team under the leadership of our finance director, we have a presentation on a draft operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year, including our revenue outlooks and trends.

It's important to note that the draft budget prepared incorporates reductions in expenditures in reaction to the reduced projected revenues at the time of preparation. However, as of today, we received additional information on our forecasted sales and use tax revenue that projects a further decline in this largest general fund revenue stream. As a result, you will hear from the finance director recommendations to seek further reduction measures that have not yet been incorporated in the numbers you're going to see but are described in the presentation.

We do fully anticipate some revenue flowing our way for reimbursement for COVID-19 expenses, but understand the revenue currently anticipated is quite restricted in use. We will continue to monitor and make adjustments if needed to the draft budget as more information emerges. And with that, I will turn the presentation over to our Finance Director, Downs.

Thank you, Madam City Manager, and thank you, Council and Mayor, for allowing this presentation.

so the purpose of this presentation or this work session is to present an overview of our draft budget and obtain feedback from you you can direct us to make changes during this presentation we will return on June 2nd with a draft document for your public hearing the items to cover this evening include community input the revenue outlook supplemental requests from each department an overview of the draft general fund budget a heads up on a few non-general fund items and a quick look at capital improvement spending in

addition to this presentation your agenda packet included recommendations from the measure X citizens oversight committee actual community comments and questions gathered during the public input process proposed workforce changes and proposed fee changes even though we were not able to conduct in person meetings with the public we still received a fair amount of public input during the budget or during the public input process detailed comments and questions were attached to the agenda but we've summarized the common themes of

the community input here the community is concerned about the impact of coronavirus on the city's budget and the ability to provide services there continues to be a great deal of interest in serving the city's youth and addressing homelessness we also saw continued interest in improving park safety and parks in general as well as street improvements programming for senior citizens and jail operations I'd like to take a closer look at our general fund revenue next these are the revenue sources impacted by coronavirus

during the current fiscal year our current year estimates have not significantly changed from the report that you received on April 21st the hiring freeze and one-time correction of franchise fee revenue are expected to offset the current year revenue loss of 12.3 million on April 21st we provided our initial estimate of the coronavirus impact on revenue for next fiscal year the original version of the presentation that you see up on the screen reflects our estimates as of last week overnight I received an update of our sales tax

estimate based on the governor's may revised version of the state budget released on Thursday oh oh oh no we've got the wrong presentation up

I'm so sorry.

Can I just pull it up from here?

Okay.

Sorry about that. Bear with us for just a second. We had made some updates on the PowerPoint presentation last minute because of the information that we received overnight.

Isn't that the timestamp?

One more.

Yep.

there it is okay great we're back on track sorry about that okay so the original version of our presentation reflected our estimates of the last week so what we have here is the breaking information I'll have more information about the sales tax estimate in just a couple of slides but what we have here is that 104 million it doesn't show up on your screen terribly well there but 104 million 104.2 million that number is updated as well as the estimated revenue loss for next year of 19.5 million those new numbers are 98 million

for the sales tax which is six six million less than the information that we had last week and our new estimated loss of revenue is up to 25.6 million

this is a summary of our sales tax revenue assumptions which resulted in an estimated 13% decrease of Bradley burns for next year we now that's the original 1% sales tax allocation by the way we now expect a 17.6% decrease which is in line with the governor's proposed budget so for Bradley burns tax from online sales goes into the county pool and then is distributed out to the cities based on a pro rata share of total sales tax collected in the county but however for measure X though the taxes from those online sales go

directly to the city so for this reason measure X X has a better capture of online sales taxes than the Bradley burns does so that's why we have a little bit different assumption for both so again we're now estimating Bradley burns decreasing by 17.6% and measure X decreasing by 9.8% so again this is the original presentation here okay and we have some updated figures for you here

so our latest update you can see the breakdown there between the Bradley burns and the measure X and you can see that additional six million dollar

erosion of our estimates what do our estimates come from muni services or the County of Orange or do we get these estimates from thank you we have a sales

tax consultant formerly known as muni services they did change their name to Avenue insights Avenue insights yes but they have been providing sales tax consulting for many years in the state to many different cities and they're they're one of the leaders in this industry yes so again this was the this right here is a trend line from before the Great Recession so you can kind of get an idea of what might happen to our sales tax we don't have the same kind of data for measure X because it just became effective on April 1st of last year but this is our Bradley Burns allocation and that's been updated for a

further decrease and then property tax is our second largest revenue source and you can see here that we are not expecting a decrease for fiscal year 2021 which is the upcoming fiscal year because the activity that drove that revenue has largely already taken place but we do expect a decrease for the following fiscal year so we've reflected that in this chart here we've added on fiscal year 21 22 so that you can see what that might look like and you can

also see what happened before the Great Recession to make a comparison so next we'd like to run through the significant supplemental budget requests that were included in the draft budget for each department we did receive supplemental requests totaling 41 million dollars from the departments for the general fund 41 million only about 5 million are recommended to be in the draft budget due to the necessity of the items to continue the service levels and to

support the city's goals so for the clerk of the council we just have a the November election cost we refer to it as one time because it doesn't happen every year for community development agency we would like to increase the outreach to the homeless and fund an economic development manager by deleting two specialist positions which results in a net savings to the city for my own department we'd like to upgrade our payroll system and keep up with our payroll workload at the same time so we need some temporary staffing to

accomplish that goal for information technology we have multiple projects that we would like to fund this year the good news is that these will be funded with the accumulated balance in the in the IT internal service fund not the general fund directly so we do have that accumulated balance the SAP and replacement would eliminate some of our manual processes and improve our permitting services direct to chula would like to improve defense of the IT system with backup fire suppression and cybersecurity and we currently do not

have a timekeeping system this is one of our payroll upgrades that I just referred to to manage city staff time and reduce audit comments the library needs a manager to oversee daily operations parks recreation and community services would like to have a master plan for parks that's something that we heard from public input as well and they have some additions to staff the good news is those additions to staff can be funded with the cannabis revenue set aside because these are directly for youth services and youth programs and we do

have a proposed reduction of the part-time budget which would fund other positions such as the zookeeper planning and building needs some contract services for complex development projects the police department would like to increase the budget for the Family Justice Center and the quality of life team our 1920 budget included 2 million of one-time money for field operations over time the proposed budget includes a portion of that allocation five hundred thousand of it as a recurring cost and we have a couple

necessary jail cost increases the Public Works Agency would like an increase also for their quality of life quality of life team contractors direct to Saba would also like many for sidewalk replacement graffiti removal and street lights and they want to prepare a citywide parking plan and there's eight additional positions proposed mostly funded with restricted money next up is a walk through the overall draft general fund budget this

is our snapshot of our key general fund revenues the presentation includes both the current year and the next year for comparison purposes the expected increases in property tax utility users tax jail revenue for opening the third module and adult use cannabis tax will help offset some of the expected losses in sales tax hotel visitors tax and business license tax when we layer in the latest sales tax information the overall estimate decreases to 307

million general fund expenditures are summarized here by department we again we have both the current year and the next year draft in for comparison purposes and both columns do reflect the hiring freeze we have expected increases in the unfunded pension liability contribution and the fire contract and the police department increase that you see there includes scheduled increases to employee compensation that were negotiated and the full funding for the additional 18 officers authorized in December our primary strategies to

balance the next year's budget are listed here some have already been included in the draft budget that's the top half of the slide that's such as the hiring freeze and use of the general fund balance in excess of the reserve policy but it also includes additional strategies if needed and based on the information that we received overnight it looks like we're gonna have to pursue some of those the the refinancing the yeah refinancing the pension debt is a long-term strategy it's supported by a comprehensive analysis that takes time

and we have market volatility right now so that's not going to be something that we're going to be able to take advantage of in the short term but we can work through that throughout the year work towards that goal I should say so really what we're looking at next is seeking labor concessions where service organization and labor costs comprise roughly two-thirds of the general fund

budget so this is a snapshot of the general fund balance including our annual activity and a comparison to the reserve policy the middle column which is the fiscal year 1920 that includes the hiring freeze and the franchise fee revenue correction that we talked about with the April 21st report so we have the ending balance there at 67.8 million which includes your operating reserve of 16.67 percent of revenue and your economic uncertainty reserve which is kind of cut off there but it's 1% also of your general fund revenue so this the

draft budget column will be updated with not only the new information that we received overnight for sales tax but also any decisions our direction that you provide us tonight and we'll be able to update that column for you next we'd like to touch on several non-general fund items as reported on April 21st we expect a reduction in our gas tax revenue and our measure act measure m2 revenue we're still awaiting good updated estimates from both the state and OCTA

prior to the pandemic the council approved a strategy to put the parking enterprise back into balance you may remember that we increased parking rates and moved towards automated garages but due to the pandemic our parking revenue is decreased and the parking enterprise is back out of balance so here's just a quick snapshot of a few funds that we are tracking very closely because we are concerned about them the parking enterprise costs exceed the revenue they include their costs include the downtown contributions for the clean and safe and merchants fund so we plan on monitoring the revenue and we expect to bring back

another proposal during the year to bring the enterprise back into balance much like we did this last year as reported at mid-year our SAR tech costs that's the transit center costs exceed revenues our draft budget includes a 1.1 million dollar general fund subsidy we may adjust that but that is still not quite enough to bring the enterprise back into balance and then our self insurance balances for general liability and workers comp are not sufficient for the actuarial liabilities so we need to develop a long-term strategy to decrease

claims liabilities and increase funding for those self-insurance funds finally we're going to take a quick look at capital project funding the current year budget includes a hundred and ninety one million dollars of appropriations 97 percent of this funding is from restricted money many of these projects are multi-year and it is completely normal to carry over unspent appropriations to finish the projects in future periods the purpose of this particular slide is to give you a heads up that a request for carryovers will

be forthcoming either in late August or early September so in addition to the carryovers from expected from this year we have new money totaling seventy five point three million again this is restricted funding where we would add some projects with the 2021 budget and these proposed projects include the street and traffic improvements park and bike trail lighting more funding for the rid of river otter habitat at the zoo as well as sewer water and storm drain improvements our next steps is to bring back an updated draft budget document

for your public hearing on June 2nd and this would include the budget this the capital improvement plan the fees and the personnel resolutions the plan is to have your second reading and adoption on June 16th with the next fiscal year beginning on July 1st so that concludes my oral presentation and we're happy to take questions there are direction at this time can I have a copy I'll go

first mr. mayor a quick question to the staff if I get a copy of that particular our presentation because it's not equivalent to this and I like the little

notes you put on there so thank you absolutely and it was updated to our website last minute I apologize for that but yes no worries you just email it I

guess to the council would be great go ahead mr. mayor other questions council

members.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor,

this is Council Member Palomoza.

David PenalozaItem —

Going off the timeline under the next step slides, Catherine, if you could, June 2nd is listed as the first reading of budget capital improvements plan personnel resolutions. Would that be

at, I'm not sure,

David PenalozaItem —

that's the oh yeah that is a council meeting correct so we would be able to that week prior meet with you and staff and and get ideas of what we could possibly do to have something on the agenda for june 2nd absolutely and that involves concessions and and uh all the other uh different

improvements and capital improvement adjustments yes and keep in mind that labor concessions do need to be negotiated with the bargaining groups so would that be prior

David PenalozaItem —

to June 2nd or or after June 2nd we would certainly be seeking concession

negotiations to transpire prior to the adoption of the budget and prior to the start of the fiscal year but you do have a unique ability here to not have your budget approved until the end of July for the fiscal year so there is some room should the negotiations take a significant amount of time all right

Thank you. Mr. Mayor?

Yes, Mayor Prokow.

All right, thank you, sir. I want to thank Councilmember Penaulosa for bringing that up. Great point that we need to have some conversation about, because none of us know what the future holds, and we don't know what's going to happen with the pandemic. You know, we get a second wave. I know we're trying to roll out, open up the city, open up the country, but we have no idea what lies ahead. And nobody could have projected that this was going to hit us in speaking about the virus. And so we need to be very careful, be cautious. We want everyone to be employed. We want everyone to stay.

We want things to be like they were before. And I worry about our part-time employees. I know there's, you know, some furloughs going on, and I wish we could do more. I would like for the staff, if you would, to please look at seeing what we can do to bring some of them back, because a lot of them are Santa Ana residents. and a lot of them have been here for years and they have connections with the community because they are from the community. And so if we could have, if you could just look and see what positions are available

or where we're going to need some help to bring some of these folks back because, you know, they're our family. Just because they're part-time doesn't mean that they're not important. They're very important. And these are tough calls to make. And I appreciate the leadership from the city manager's office. And all I'm asking is if we could just look. We have to continue to look because they have families too. And I want to thank everyone for the hard work that they're doing. All of the staff, the city manager on this. And these conversations are tough.

and I remember Vince Sarmiento, Council Member Sarmiento here speaking about the last time they had to make some cuts. I don't know what year that was, but 2008. So, yeah, you've been there, and we appreciate your leadership on this too, Council Member. And those are my comments, Mr. Mayor. And, of course, you were there also, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you. Additional comments.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, this is, oh, go ahead, Council Member.

okay thank you um councilmember Sarmiento this is um councilmember Cecilia Iglesias um I have a couple of questions for you um Catherine on page 24 you were talking about the general fund expenditures for fiscal year 2021

and um I see you know you have fiscal year 1920 you have fiscal year 2021 proposed budget But I see an increase in like four line items that, you know, I question, which is the unfunded pension liability. It's going from $37 million to $40,910,000, almost $41 million.

So is that based on the projections of what we're liable for right now based on our current employees?

So is that everybody or is that just certain departments?

Yes, your unfunded liability is a result of the accrued benefits, the benefits that have already been earned as compared to the market value of your assets in the plan. So what that means is that even if we were to shut down City Hall and lay off everybody, we would still be liable for this liability here, and we would still have to make payments on it. And the increase is mandated by CalPERS. They're the ones who set the contribution amounts for us. So this wasn't elective on our behalf.

So that's just something that's been mandated pretty much?

Yes.

Okay. So then I have another question for the, I think it's the, let me see, the police department?

Yes.

It goes from $131 million to $140 million, almost $141 million, almost $10 million.

Yes.

Why is that?

Roughly $4 million of that is due to negotiated scheduled compensation increases. another couple million is due to the full funding for the 18 officers that were authorized in December and the rest of it is pretty much detailed on slide

slide 20 which includes some additional money for the Family Justice Center increased funding for quality of life team field operations over time and some

minor jail increases. So that's about 1.2 million for the rest. Yes. So basically the biggest. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So I said, so basically the biggest chunk is where there are their races that were negotiated last year. So you said about 4.7 million dollars in that. It's roughly about 4 million okay so then that's something you mentioned about maybe going into the labor agreements and trying to renegotiate some concessions would that

be something that we can we can negotiate that is that is certainly

something for the city manager and the the human resources director to seek out

at the will of the council okay so it's the will of the council then so if there's four of us that say yes and that's something that could that could potentially happen

correct council member yes yes okay so then i have another question when it's uh on that same slide catherine it's also for the fire department yes i see that it goes from 45 million 640,000 to 49 what it's almost like four million dollars why is that yeah it's a

4.5 million or 4.5 percent increase to the contract as well as some increases for facility improvements and equipment contributions okay to the contract is

automatically that's something that is that something that we can also renegotiate with them or is that something an automatic that it's just

mandated on us well the the mayor pretend may be able to provide more information on that but as part of the JPA for Orange County fire I think that you would need agreement from a majority of the cities to renegotiate anything

there. If I may, that contract renewed in June of, what, a couple years ago now? So, and it renews every 10 years. So, we're kind of locked in. And I think we're back at the point where we're paying the same amount if we were to have our own fire department. But we've saved about, what, 10 years now. Saved money for about 10 years or so. So we'll have to see. The cost goes up. It's been a while.

Then again, we're locked in for 10 years. If I were to go back and try to renegotiate, they would have to meet us at the table on this. If not, if I try to get something else done,

it's going to take 14 people to vote on that board to make a change on anything and that's the trouble of being on the board when you got 25 other members on there it's it's a little tough but the the fire department has been doing a great job we do own the land we do own the buildings we do own a lot of the equipment but there's a lot of repairs that are needed here on all of our fire stations because they're used 24 hours seven days a week and that costs money. And of course, with time, everything else, all the expenses go up. And that's where we're at at the moment. And there's a current freeze right now

on all of the pay raises for everyone all the way to the top.

Okay. Well, thank you for that clarification, Mayor McCam. Okay, and then just one more question, Catherine. For public works, I see that it goes, actually that's the one that decreases a lot it goes from 17 million 234 thousand to 13 million 498 white why is the decline it's very drastic there was there

was some one-time adjustments that were approved for the current year budget including 2.5 million recently for street improvements and then close to a million not long before that so at least 3.5 million of one-time street improvements are included in the current year budget that are not included in the

draft budget for next year okay oh but it has nothing to do like with reducing staff because if anything I believe that we need more staff especially for code enforcement because that that's a very critical component in our community especially with what's going on with COVID right now. I see a lot of businesses and sites being neglected, and it would be very beneficial upon us to have more code enforcement officers out there helping us out.

And the short answer to your question is no, it does not reflect a decrease in staffing.

And to clarify, Council Member, code enforcement is in the community development agency. I mean, I'm sorry, planning. Planning and building agency is where code enforcement is located.

Okay, I'm sorry. For some reason, I was thinking public works. I'm sorry about that. But I know that we have a lot of – so then in planning, it pretty much stays the same. So are we thinking of hiring any more code enforcement?

That is –

I know we have a – go ahead.

You did. During the current year, you actually did enhance your code enforcement services.

okay okay well um let me see I think that's pretty much it and so this comes back like councilmember Piniello's has said it comes back to us and um in June for us to look at it again for the first meeting right that is correct for your

David PenalozaItem —

public hearing thank you very much mr. mayor mr. mayor can yes who wants to go next I just wanted to I just wanted to add something to thank councilman Iglesias she brought up an excellent point with the Public Works Agency. What I'm trying to understand, Catherine, with the Public Works Agency amount, how it decreased for about four million, I know you explained it but in the PowerPoint under Public Works Agency, you're saying that Public Works Agency is requesting an addition of eight positions, if I'm reading this correctly?

Yeah, not funded by the general fund. Okay. General fund expenditures.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay, so this is just general fund. That's right. And that would be, okay, that makes sense. I was thinking, how do we decrease $4 million and add eight positions? But thank you. Thank you for clarifying.

Yep. Mr. Mayor, I think I was in the queue. I think I gave Council Member... Go ahead, you were. And I'll be brief. And I just wanted to echo just a couple of things that were said, so I won't repeat what Mayor Pro Tem mentioned. Obviously, it goes without saying that we're very concerned about the separation of some of our employees, and I know we've had that conversation here publicly. So to the extent that I know you're working hard, Mr. Mayor, on trying to make sure we recover some of those federal monies that are intended for cities and local communities to come here.

And I know Congress is working on a fourth stimulus bill, the HEROES Act, and who knows what version we're going to have of this. But if my math is correct, just based on what we had as a revenue outlook on the 21st of April to what we're looking at today, there's an approximate $6 to $7 million disparity to the bad. 6.1.

6.1.

To the bad. So, you know, we don't know. This is such a fluid environment that we're in. This is a snapshot. This is today's snapshot that shows our estimated loss at $19.5 million. Another moment in time snapshot may be something more drastic or better. We don't know. Depending on how quickly this county is going to mobilize to reopen and maybe get some businesses and some industries online, this may change. And so I guess the question that was asked on the timing is really critical.

right because between now and you know the next meeting there may be changes but definitely before the end of the fiscal year when we have to turn this budget in we're talking about the end of july so i really appreciate staff giving us that time that we may have to push out a little bit because we're you know i was working on you know april 21st numbers the staff was and then today's numbers come in and they're different and you know tomorrow who knows but just for us to be able to be to be able to give good quality responses and and and direction i think we may have to digest

some of this today so it may push back hopefully not but maybe it may push back that start time for the first reading but to the extent many of my colleagues and i can speak with staff in the interim you know hopefully we keep that timeline as as close as possible but i just think you know we're just in such flux. So I like the next steps that were recommended. I think we have to exhaust all those. I just really am puzzled by some of the monies that were intended for cities and the fact that we're in a situation where we have to wait for those funds to come to us and practically

have to beg another agency to you know help us because it won't help us in in what we're hoping for which is you know directly for employees but if it fills another hole then maybe it frees up some funding for them so that is the hope is right certainly council member and we we did receive an

allocation from the state for 28 million there are restrictions on it it has to be covid related but there's a lot of expenses that we've incurred that are COVID related that will help somewhat with the budget. A lot of the expenses we've incurred, though, were not a part of our original budget, so it doesn't help us in that area. We are working, the mayor can speak to it better than I can, but he's been working very hard with the Orange County, all city mayors, and sending requests into the county. They did at their Board of Supervisors meeting this morning, discussed the item at great length.

They have agreed to open up at least $26 million for cities to get reimbursement, but they didn't take any action on another $75 million that they were contemplating giving the cities. At the federal level, which would be the most beneficial legislation, if it's passed, the current bill actually does provide funding for cities that can be used to make up for revenue loss.

Right. So we're crossing our fingers there, and hopefully that's good news that we receive. and, again, it may adjust some of the decision-making that we have up here. Just one point on your first bullet point under additional strategies, refinancing unfunded pension liabilities. I thought we had given direction on that previously. I know we had spoken about the rates being very attractive some time back.

Yes. The City Council provided direction for us to go ahead and pursue the analysis and return with it, so we've been working on it. But it's not something that can be prepared overnight. night it goes through a lot of iterations a lot of discussions a lot of research a lot of number crunching and we want to get it right we don't want to bring back a sloppy work product that

was thrown together very hastily understood so to wrap up I guess you know what I would say is there's some non quantifiable decisions we could make to accelerate the opening and maybe improve the sales numbers i know that um you know for a fact i think long the city of long beach is considering um adjusting their outdoor space accessibility for some of their dining uh you know for their restaurants and to the extent that we can do that in places where it's appropriate where we can provide for folks to open up their restaurants and maybe the apron their sidewalk is

big enough and complies with ADA rules and laws, if we can do that to provide for those businesses that can open up safely and have them outdoors, and that continues to hopefully reduce that loss that we're experiencing from them, I think those things we need to look at, and those are obviously not in the budget. They're not fiscal decisions. They're more, I guess, planning decisions and land use decisions that we could use to hopefully accelerate those businesses to come online and and I know that we you know we have done some very business friendly efforts and you know I know

trying to get people to continue with their applications and I understand from our director of planning that those applications are still there and so you know the good thing is that people still want to continue to do business and invest in the city I would just say you know let's let's consider flexing on some of these things because we um we normally would be a lot more careful on having outdoor dining but you know to the extent that that's something that we may want to consider doing a little quicker uh and slower that would be something for us to to think about so in any

event i'm sure we'll have more discussions on this so thank you for the presentation

Phil BacerraItem —

mr mayor yes go ahead councilman thank you mr mayor um i i would even though this isn't directly related to the budget i would like to uh echo kelsey member sarmiento's comments in regards to flexibility in regards to our dining establishments i think uh saniana is known for having quite the culinary scene and i think that to help that industry is i would say i would go so far as to say essential and i think that we should be looking to work with the abc and public works because obviously these will be encroachments in the public right away like on the second street

Phil BacerraItem —

promenade different sidewalk dining options you know like laguna beach and long beach are looking at closures of certain streets where it makes the most sense i think we should definitely look at that speaking of planning and getting back purely onto the budget i had a couple of questions for staff as far as one of the items I saw was about talking about potentially adding funds for contractors to assist with planning on complex projects I wanted to know on some of these projects especially especially the larger ones

Phil BacerraItem —

are we not billing time specifically to the projects I know sometimes like for instance if you're applying for a CEP you pay your fees upfront but in the sense of say a larger project a massive scale the staff that's working on that are they not billing their time specifically to the project and coming up with like a cost recovery on those projects they are billing their time is

From what I understand, the request has to do with specialties required by the complex projects that are in the pipeline.

Phil BacerraItem —

Specialties. What does that mean? Like, are we talking about, like, for instance, an air quality consultant, a traffic consultant?

Exactly. Things that we may not, I don't know specifically, but yes, that's the right idea. Things that we may not have special expertise in. that is correct i'm sorry thank you man hi sir and uh catherine is correct it's for planning

Phil BacerraItem —

services for specialty services that we don't have in-house and we wouldn't recoup the cost of those uh specialty consultants from the applicants themselves some may be but some may not

if we do a pass-through for a sequel for a specific project we're able to pass that through but if it's an in-house type project then that would be a cost that's bored by the city okay

Phil BacerraItem —

i want to thank you for that clarification and then my next question is one of the items was for it it was the replacement of the land management system the sapin is that somehow related to like a land use and zoning um gis program or is that something completely different council member that

is correct as well that is correct as well that is a land management system where we can use it to basically manage entitlements projects basically committing for building as well as code enforcement and with the vision of incorporating gis and hopefully in the future a finance module it also has the ability to potentially link up with public works so the goal is to have a automated project management system that upgrades our current savings system which really is just

Phil BacerraItem —

for building and planning purposes okay and and so with this uh system as as you envision it would this also be accessible to the public so if i wanted to look at a particular property I can find out the zoning, the general plan designation, any other pertinent information that public works, building, et cetera, would provide?

Our goal is to be able to do exactly many of those features that you speak about. As much as we can provide the public, we would like to make it available online.

Phil BacerraItem —

Okay, perfect. And what's the timeline on that in your estimation?

In working with IT, we're looking, this is as a multi-year project. Jack, if you're there, I think the last time we spoke, correct me if I'm wrong, we're looking at about a two-year process.

Director Min, Jack is here, so he can answer that question.

Yes, Jack Chul, the director of IT. We are currently evaluating systems right now, working with both planning and building and public works, and we're hoping to be able to make a decision in the next several months to hopefully bring the item to the council to approve but min is correct it is about a two-year implementation

Phil BacerraItem —

project okay wonderful i i think that you know especially what we've all experienced under this pandemic you know these sorts of systems will be essential for how we function and so the efficiencies that we're realizing during this time, I think, are invaluable. So I'm glad to see that we are going to be investing in this. I think it will just be essential as we go forward. One other, not one other, another issue or question I have is in regards to continued outreach and engagement services for our homeless at $75,000 in additional fees and funds, and then

Phil BacerraItem —

also the increase to the Colt team to address the homeless. You know, I think it kind of hits on a frustration that many residents have, which is that Santa Ana disproportionately spends so much on addressing the homeless. And I would like to know that if the $75,000 that's being put into our budget, that there are some monies coming in to backfill that. because i think that you know we're we're really concerned right now as a collective community you know that we're not able to provide some of the basic services to our residents and i see

Phil BacerraItem —

increases in these services um does a staff could you uh answer that are we looking to see any increases in outside um funds to backfill these increases for the homeless yes council

member we have received additional funding that can be used for many homeless purposes but the item that you're referring to the addition of 75 000 that was to actually increase general fund spending and that was a result of the community input both for the budget process as well as for the strategic plan that you'll hear about a little bit later we do know that the pandemic has set us back a little bit in addressing homeless so when able to do we really want to supplement and add additional resources to tackle that issue in our city.

Phil BacerraItem —

Well, I appreciate that, Madam City Manager. And I know that it's an issue that is of, I would say, almost primary concern to many residents because of the impact that the homeless have had on our city. I guess where I'm having some concern is just the fact that we, out of the 34 cities of Orange County, I think we are probably spending exponentially more than any other when it comes to handling the homeless. So that's just, I guess, an express frustration of mine. I do want to say that I appreciate seeing that the citywide parking plan was an item highlighted in your presentation

Phil BacerraItem —

because I think that that is another huge concern for many of our residents. And we keep punting and punting how to address parking. So I appreciate that we're finally, you know, even in a time like this, that we're committing to trying to formulate a plan to address citywide parking. And I want to say I do not envy staff at this point for having to come up with some of these recommendations. And I want to be clear, at least for myself, and I know I've heard this from other colleagues of mine, but when we talk about seeking concessions from our city's employee bargaining groups, I don't think anybody is left off the table.

Phil BacerraItem —

So I don't I would hate to have somebody believe that somebody is a sacred cow and protected. And the reality is, you know, we need to live within our means. We need to do what we can. And, you know, that brings me to my appreciation of the Measure X committee. I want to thank them for their work and their recommendations. I hope that staff really took to heart many of the items that they have highlighted and suggested. I think that we really need to be appreciative of the fact that we do have this increased revenue. I, you know, I've said this publicly many times, I did not support Measure X. But the fact is, we do have it.

Phil BacerraItem —

And it is keeping, you know, our budget together at this point. But what I think we really, really need to focus on is, you know, we're going to be making a lot of tough choices. And it isn't going to be focused in any one segment of the budget or of our services. And so, again, I do not envy staff in bringing us your recommendations. But I just want to say that, you know, at least from my standpoint, I appreciate your creativity and your openness because we really need to keep all of our options open to make sure that we continue to provide at least the basic level of services for our residents.

Phil BacerraItem —

That's all I have to say, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments? Council members?

Mr. Mayor, I just want to say a few things. Go ahead, Councilor. Go ahead. Q&As don't necessarily need to be today. I want to compliment the staff. I think this budget presentation is much more tailored to the community's needs and the council's input from this past year. I think that's a testament to a lot of our executive management team members being in sand in a little bit longer in particular city manager who she's a little bit over a year so uh you know much better handle i think on what the overall needs are regarding the reserve use

i think you know that's all on point and just for background for everybody else we had previously sent money back to the reserve because we didn't need it and so it's almost just kind of you know saying we do need some of those dollars again appreciate uh extra efforts and resources for debris removal because alongside all the homelessness needs is a lot of you know just hauling away of stuff and and dealing with that on the homelessness front you know measure X and again I too you know did not support it but it was quite clear that it was supposed to be used for

homelessness reducing 911 response time parks and a few other things and I think you know we actually see you know more homeless targeted dollars this year than we did last year so I'm glad that we are beefing that area up I agree with the council members I mentioned that pension stabilization fund I'm hoping just because interest rates are low that you know as a barring mechanism now actually may be a good time to go do that on deferred maintenance even though it wasn't overly highlighted I think when you whenever you're dealing with tough budget years like this maximizing one-time expenditures particularly in those

things that could be liabilities I think is important so maybe we could take another look to see if we're missing anything particularly on the park side that are so well used and after everybody kind of being you know hold up in their home so long I think there's going to be an increased appreciation for our our parks services and amenities so I think that's you know very important continue to support very much so the staffs proposed parks master plan something that we almost need a mini master plan on that we haven't taken a good look at I don't think is seniors I know you know some years ago we even had

a senior services directory and to the extent that we could do more for our seniors at least map out what the what the needs and programs are I think that would be good and and in this area and and now with so much stuff being online and COVID I think there are more and more resources for seniors as well so I think this is a good time to segregate programs and opportunities for seniors ditto to what councilmember Becerra said on a parking citywide plan because we did start that effort three years ago with it with a pilot that I and others had encouraged. I was glad to see that going forward. I know somewhere I did mention,

I did see mention of a survey in the PD area to see how the community is receiving services and getting their input on how to do what we do. So I think that is very good. Some questions, not necessarily for now, but that maybe you could report on for me later. On the jail and the anticipated increase in revenue, I think that's good, but I think you all know that for the past about three years, we've been chasing that same last module that will be used with the same potential user. So some of us, I think, are a little bit skeptical on whether that's going to land or not.

I know that continuously has been pushed back, and maybe we can still get it at the end of this fiscal year, which was late. But nonetheless, it is worthwhile chasing that. The liability fund, I do have questions about how we, what assumptions we make to know how much to put in it, as well as what type of known costs we anticipate already. Because I almost sense that we kind of put it in there for, you know, lawsuits or claims that some of our other insurance pools can't fund.

And so, you know, $11 million is quite an amount, but I don't know if there are kind of pre-spent amounts, if you will, or allocations. So more information on that would be good.

I know there's been talks for some time of business license reforms. And although that, you know, by and large would be revenue neutral, I do know that many of our small business persons and others for some time have been wanting that streamlined as well as a lot of classifications have changed particularly in this gig economy so i think that is a very worthwhile goal and then lastly for today lastly for the cip program for this current year i did see that the the spin-through rate isn't very high and i think it's for a number of reasons we know what some of those are

but as we move forward I'm also fine with if some of the other projects that we thought we should do aren't important anymore or needed that we ought to go back and and look at that and revisit that related but separate that sometimes some of those programs have have connections with use it or lose it type of funds and so we also need to kind of identify are there some of those projects now that may not be fully doable or that for those same reasons we may want to move into the future so those are my you know comments and

questions for now again responses to the questions could come later in writing or through our city manager but if there are any questions that you feel like you want to answer now feel free but no need you know on the whole you know much better budget and yeah we do have some shortfalls but quite honestly I was expecting them to be much higher. And, you know, fortunately, this pandemic hit us pretty late in the fiscal year. So that's part of it as well. And, again, thanks to everybody.

Thank you. If there's no other comments, I'd like to make a few comments, if I may.

First of all, I want to thank staff. I think they've worked very hard. They've put together a solid budget. But no matter how hard you work, nobody has a crystal ball. And right now, there's just so much uncertainty about the long-term revenue. And so I think we have to be as fiscally prudent as we can right now, and at the same time, be focused on cost recovery where we can, and also generating additional monies where we can.

on the prudent, and I know several council members mentioned, you know, labor agreements and such. I think that as we, you know, continue to work these next few days on the budget, we do need to look at all our labor agreements and not, you know, ask the question, can we fund them right now? But ask the question, will we, or we certainly can fund them a year from now or a year and a half from now? And if that answer is, well, no, because, you know, we don't know enough information to make projections that we ought to potentially consider

rolling things over for a year. And if we have pay increases that are coming up in July, as painful as it is to say, look, we just need a one-year breather. We need an extension. We need something to buy us enough time so that we're budgeting, you know, from a further knowledge base than what we're able to have right now. The pandemic is relatively recent, certainly the economic pandemic. I think there's two. I think there's a biological and economic. and we need to get rid of both in order to be healthy.

But in order to get our budget in order, I think we have to be looking again beyond the immediate past because the immediate past was absolutely fantastic. We had the lowest unemployment. We had more businesses than ever. We were ahead of revenues. who's city manager was balancing the budget in her sleep. It was so, she's so good and it was so easy. But right now, they're sleepless nights. Right now, it's like, what do we not know that we don't know?

And how do we govern effectively in that reality?

so talking about that reality there are some things that were there before but right now I think revenue becomes even more important and I know I've said this other years but I really think we need to look at it and that is public works one of the most common complaints I get and this is before the pandemic is that we're short-staffed in the public works department and as we try to get projects approved and people are just going through the regular you know development process you know it's not building and planning that's that's the hold up

it's public works because we don't have enough bodies in there they're out in the field doing inspections you know they're trying to catch up right now of course it's worse because of the pandemic. But even again, without it, we need more bodies. So I think we ought to look at, you know, how do we make sacrifices elsewhere, possibly in order to shore up the public works staff in order to cut down those turnaround times in order to get more projects out there? Because as we do come out of this economic pandemic and we and we begin to open up, you know, there's going to be lots of jobs, there's going to be activity,

confidence in the city, you know, residents can see, you know, that we're alive and well and getting stronger. And that in turn, I think will generate more revenue for the city, not just in all the fees, which are millions and millions of dollars, but in the jobs and the overall health of our city and our county. And then that brings me to, you know, another point, and that is that, you know, right now we do have an opportunity to try to wrestle this pandemic to the ground.

You know, it's worse in Santa Ana. We're worse than any other city in Orange County. And if you add the jails, which I claim are here in Santa Ana, and that, you know, through, you know uh you know food service and and and and and our own people that are in the jails and the county jails that the virus is getting out that it's not airtight nobody has a patent yet on on how to really lock it up and make it disappear um and so when you add that to

our regular numbers we're over a thousand cases right now in the city um there's a report that I recently got through the assistance of the city manager. And that is, you know, speaking to the dean of the, you know, school at UC Irvine, the public school of public health. And it's a pretty scary report. It basically says, you know, our, you know, because of our density and our, you know, socioeconomic conditions, and, and, and, and frankly, just having so many people

so close together. Remember, we are the fourth densest city in the country. And so we haven't, you know, had really, you know, the tremendous numbers that I think, unfortunately, we're capable of. So we need to really make a strong effort to wrestle that to the ground ASAP. I'm talking about contact tracing. I'm talking about, you know, just teams of people that are on top of this much, much, much, much faster than what the county is doing. Unfortunately,

the county received $554 million so that, you know, as a whole, this could be addressed. Let me suffice by saying that as of today, they still had not taken action on appropriating the money it's been sitting in a bank account for over a month um and they haven't even decided you know well what do we have to do if we're going to start using it um and if any of you have an opportunity i asked our our city manager to please have our pio go over the county meeting

today because at the end of the day um other than supervisor uh wagner and still trying to really move on behalf of cities, everybody else got caught up in trying to decide how do we define a small business? How do we set up more red tapes to make it harder for cities to get money? How do we keep money away from cities? Because we, the county, know better how to spend it. So this is a deeper problem. I think we all need to give it much, much more thought.

but suffice it to say thank god the governor is listening um there are 28 million dollars coming to the city to be used for you know uh you know coronavirus related expenses um but you know that again that money is going to come and go we have to make the most and best use out of it um but But we ought to be thinking about how to use it effectively and quickly. But also there's other areas where I think we might be able to be aggressive and address issues such as the homeless along with the pandemic.

Because there are dollars, even though the county's not spending them yet, but there are dollars that can be used to address the homeless, especially homeless that are involved with the pandemic. And at least theoretically, potentially, once the dust settles, maybe we can be in a stronger position than we went going into it. It might be wishful Pollyannish thinking, but I think we need to be aggressive and we need to be thinking, you know, longer term. You know, don't solve, you know, yesterday's problem or the problem this minute. try to solve tomorrow's problem and maybe a longer term problem because I think we have that

opportunity. So with that, I again want to thank staff. I know this is a very difficult assignment where we're giving staff where we're just, you know, throwing so many issues on something that should have been so easy. But right now, you know, we can argue back and forth about the, you know, biological pandemic and, you know, or 88 deaths in a county of 3 million people over a four-month period. Is that a reason to panic? I would say no, but I would all say we're

not out of it yet. But the economic pandemic and what's going on with our people, our, you know, our jobs, our restaurants, the basic fabric of society, that's in danger right now. We're going to start seeing your crime go up and and and you know domestic violence and child abuse and you name it it's going to be a problem if we don't open up and and get that to work and you know try to get everybody rolls and to that extent the final thought is i want you all to please look as much as you can there are interesting things that are going on around the world

There are several sizable countries that are already completely out of it, mainly because they tested early and they had a very good game plan that unfortunately we have lacked. But I think we can learn some lessons from them. One of them are spray booths. In Japan, the kids are going to start going back to school and they just go through a little disinfectant spray booth. also i i would note that i saw one of those spray boots down in mexico i saw it on tv but they're using it nogales because instantly enough the way mexico got the pandemic was really

mexican immigrants that were you know lost jobs here so they said okay well we're going to go you know home with a family and as they entered mexico you know through the airports through the bus through the train, through cars, they infected the country. And now Mexico's got the, you know, coronavirus for real, you know, with big numbers, you're going to see those numbers spike up in a in a big, big way. But now what they're trying to do is they're trying to test everybody that comes into the country. And if they test positive, they're trying to quarantine them right away.

And they're also trying to, again, disinfect people. So, you know, more to come, but maybe enough for now on the budget. Let me thank all my colleagues and know that, you know, we are working extremely hard. I've never seen such a tough assignment as what this assignment is doing to all of government. And I can tell you there's a lot of good people, a lot of good people in government, a lot of people trying to do the right thing, and we just have to use all our wits about us to get us to move forward as successfully as possible.

So with that, Madam City Manager, would you like to add anything in closing?

Certainly, sir. Thank you, Mayor. We will take all of your direction and attempt to answer all the questions and modify the budget, as well as seek those additional saving measures. And I will keep you updated on the revenues as they change and also the receipt of any revenue as well.

Thank you for that. With that, Madam Clerk, I believe we're going to go on to the consent calendar. That's our item now.

We do have public comment. Speakers that are waiting. Mayor.

All right, let's go ahead and hear from them. Go ahead.

And before I do open up the call to unmute them, I did receive one, or the city council did receive one correspondence. Measure X member spoke in advocating the use of Measure X on public safety, homelessness, parks, senior and youth services. And for the caller who has been waiting.

Go ahead, open it up.

Okay. If you could please dial star nine if you would like to speak. You have been unmuted. Please state your name for the record.

Hi, my name is Nathaniel Greensides. I'm a Ward 5 resident. And regarding this work study session, I just wanted to ask how it was offered by one of the other council members. How more money, maybe one or two actually, how much more money, is there any more way that we can be giving more money to code enforcement and community education as to how they can make use of code enforcement in landlord-tenant issues so that they can feel safe in doing so. I just want to quote real quick, actually, a Santa Ana high school student who's graduating, who was actually asked to speak on a national level recently.

And in her speech, which she spoke along with Obama and a few other celebrities nationally, she said, I also wanted to recognize the hardworking community that I live in. People here work day and night for what they have. And the results of COVID won't just be felt at the city level. it'll be felt most by our residents who are still unemployed. And then once they regain their employment, they're going to have to try and catch up. And they deserve to feel that the city has their back to remain in their safe and stable housing here in the city of Santa Ana. And another

point that I'd like to bring up and ask about is where are the youth in all of these conversations and all these budget proposals in determining how all these funds are being used on their behalf As I just mentioned, you know, we have a lot of really talented and smart students and youth here in Santa Ana who should be included in these conversations and decisions, not just talked about as concepts.

In addition to all of that, just that I want to offer that other community operated groups and associations, I think also need to be included in some of these discussions as to the decreased revenues that the city is going to be experiencing as a result of COVID. That's it. Thank you.

That's all the public comment we received, Mayor.

Okay, so with that, let's go to the consent calendar. Anybody want to pull any items on the consent calendar?

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Penaloza. I'd like to pull, and I want to apologize in advance, 20B, 20C, 23A, and 25C.

And you want to apologize because there were so many or why?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes, sir.

All right. Apology accepted. Who else wants to pull items?

Mr. Mayor, just to help them out, I'll pull 25C. So maybe that goes into another column. But 25C and then 25E that I'm going to vote no on. So I don't necessarily have a question or comment. Just not ready to support that item yet.

Thank you. we'll just note on no vote on that thank you councilor iglesias any items to be

pulled yes I have 19 e and then you've already called 25 C thank you

Phil BacerraItem —

councilor is any of yes councilor Becerra I was gonna pull 19 e as well and 25c as well i'm going to add to the mix 20b okay can i entertain a motion on the balance if we have

no additional items mr mr mayor juan viegas just wanted to join on the 20b

all right can you also second the motion on the balance i will second the motion on the balance Thank you. Any other questions on the balance?

Those roll call vote on the balance of the consent calendar, please, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Iglesias? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Plotan-Viegas?

yes mayor polido yes it's 7-0 motion carries all right let's go on who was the first person on the items that got pulled 19e 19e go ahead council member

um council member iglesias um the reason i pulled this um item is just to thank staff thank um Lisa with her department and her staff were working on this. And I know the recommendation is for it to be out for an RFP after, you know, the COVID situation that we're facing. But, you know, this is a great start to start mobilizing the use of our open space. And I believe Lisa has a good understanding of where we can take this. And, you know, starting with the six different, I mean, six different vendors, you know, because of the six different wards, I believe it's a great idea.

And it's something that I want to commend Lisa for helping me work through this, because I know it's something that I've always wanted to have something like this in the park so we can, our residents can better utilize our, you know, resources in our parks. and also to invite others to come and enjoy our parks. And while they're enjoying it, they could also contribute to our economy. So I just want to thank Lisa for doing this. And I know the proposal is going to be inviting individuals to see if they're interested. So when that comes to you.

Would you like to make a motion?

Yeah, I would like to make a motion. but I just want to ask her when it comes to the RSP, Lisa, when will that take place? And how is that going to happen?

Is she available?

She should be. Hello?

Director Redlef, are you on the phone? Can you?

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, yes, hello? Okay. um council member iglesias i think the first item we need to take care of and we're going to be working on that right now is amending the santa anna municipal code and then simultaneously we can be working on an rfp and just as soon as the covid restrictions are lifted then we can go out with an rfp at that point and i'm not sure what when that will be but we don't want to do it ahead of time. We want to make sure we have the timing correct. So just as soon as the COVID restrictions

are lifted, we'll go ahead and get that RFP out on the streets. Okay, great. And then are you going

to be taking community input on how, you know, how this RFP is going to be taken out to the vendors,

or is it something that you're going to do it in health? We'll go ahead and prepare the RFP, but certainly we can seek some community input on on their thoughts prior to that and

yes absolutely we can do that okay thank you um lisa i truly appreciate it so with that mr mayor i like i said i support this all right is there a second yeah mr mayor mr mayor the council

Phil BacerraItem —

i also asked to pull this item because i had a question on it so i think i it's partially answered in the sense that we're not proceeding forward with this until the pandemic subsides is that correct um lisa yes that is correct and then as far as the uh code amendments my understanding and proceeding with this was we were looking at trying this out and seeing if it works amending the code seems like a much more permanent uh approach so would it really necessitate amending the code this quickly i figured we would be trying to see if this worked in a park setting first and

Phil BacerraItem —

if we were comfortable with it then memorializing it via a code amendment

i understand maybe we can make this a pilot project and try it out like you say and then come back with an evaluation after perhaps six to six months to a year and then make a more permanent to the municipal code. So we will bring this back to the council once we have all of our information together to make sure that we're all on the same page.

Phil BacerraItem —

I appreciate that. Thank you, Lisa. Okay, you bet.

Roll call vote. Yeah, Mr. Mayor.

This is Councilman. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, you know, I agree, I think, with what was said earlier about making this pilot project. I think that's what staff had intended originally. As we look at this as a pilot project and we look at just generating revenue, there are a lot of vacant, dormant parking lots that are privately held, and I know other cities have activated those lots to be able to put lunch truck vendors and lunch trucks on those. And I always wondered why we didn't, and I know we have a municipal code that prevents us from having the vendors on private property.

But if you look at it, we have them on the public right-of-way. So if there was ever a trip and fall or some accident that happens to anybody visiting or patronizing the lunch trucks, the city would be liable for any accidents or any dangerous conditions on that public right-of-way. So if this change were to be made available or this were to be allowed to have some of these vendors to be on private property, that risk liability shifts to the private property owner, and that may help us. I don't think we've had too many yet, but look, there's enough dangerous conditions out there that somebody at some point will fall.

But I know that the City of LA has the ability and has in their municipal code that you can have your lunch truck vendors on privately held properties. There's a place called King Taco in LA, pretty well known. They have a brick-and-mortar restaurant, but they also have their lunch truck on the property. For whatever reason, that lunch truck is busier than their brick-and-mortar shop. People just like kind of buying their food there.

And I know in the past we've looked at doing even sort of a food court style vending truck setting where you have open spaces, an open space, and you put a bunch of vendors there, and, you know, it turns into an outdoor food court. And given what we're experiencing right now, it may be exactly what we want to consider. So not to deviate from what's before us tonight because I'm supportive, but maybe something for us to look at down the line and maybe not too far down the line because, you know, our lunch truck vendors are not going away. They're going to be here with us and they provide a vital service.

And to the extent that we can provide them some options of not just parking on the public right-of-way, we might be able to work with them and their industry and some of these private property owners that would, I think, love to have them. since a lot of their shops are closed these days and be able to have them operate on their on their property so just something to and I know I've had this conversation with the city manager and just to look at other cities like Los Angeles again Long Beach does this they do the outdoor lunch truck vending food court so something for us to look at as we're looking at ways to generate

revenue thank you mr. mayor for yeah go ahead probably more for the benefit of the public but about a year ago the city actually did do an RFP for these type of vendors for variety of various including private lots as I recall I don't think there was a lot of applications or interest at a time maybe we can get a little update on on how that went but you know no reason why we can't continue to do similar efforts related I know there was a lot of staff work and interest in on the streets maybe electrifying their stops that they have a

plug-in that would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and noise and other things so these various programs kind of all go together you know that these these food truck islands as well as electrification of food booths on the streets that by the way the food truck owners are more than willing to pay a monthly amount to to be parked there and use the electricity so a lot of a lot of similar programs and yes there's a lot of interest in that community and be great to keep trying more things think thank you for that let me just add a

quick comment then we'll bring it back for consideration and that is that it's been very interesting but because of the pandemic staff Julie Gester in particular has been bringing them together and I've had several calls with many of the members in their association and of course they've been very concerned about best practices and you know talk about the front lines and not only in the front lines they often travel in and they're in many communities you know, throughout Orange County and beyond yet, you know, there's about 500 of them that originate

here in Santa Ana. And so we've done things such as, you know, through the police department, we gave out masks, you know, hundreds of masks, you know, so that they could have masks. And, you know, we've also gotten hand sanitizer and gloves. And they've been, you know, very appreciative and very essential. They can get the parts of, you know, workers on job sites, you know, in the inner city where maybe you don't have access to food readily available. They've been there.

So I think this is a very, you know, convenient time to, you know, try to work with them even more and strengthen our understanding of how essential they are and what they do. So with that, Madam Clerk, I thought, did we have a motion and I was going to call for the question or where were we?

I got a motion, but I did not get a second.

I'll second. All right, roll call vote, please.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Iglesias? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Councilmember Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Potem-Viegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

7-0.

Thank you. Our next item, Madam Clerk.

20B by Councilmember Peñalosa. And we did receive one communication just requesting for naming of the park El Refugio Adobe.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 20B is to approve an appropriation adjustment for the construction of new parks at Standard, McFadden, and Ray and Myrtle. I just want to take the opportunity to thank Lisa Rudloff, our Parks and Rec Director, and Ron Ono, along with all the staff that support them. They have been the ultimate team in securing these grants for the funding of these two new parks in much-needed areas of our city, Ray and Myrtle, and Standard, and McFadden. Of course, none of this would have come to fruition without the community organizers that got us here. So thank you all.

David PenalozaItem —

Madam City Manager, I know we received some correspondence regarding the history of one of these sites, which was really interesting to read, and I'd like staff to go over it, and you yourself as well, Madam City Manager, to look over the archives really closely and keep the recommendation regarding the name in mind. And of course, I'm open to all suggestions, so just food for thought there. but it'd be great to pay homage to the city's history. With that said, I do have concerns regarding the restrooms as part of this design. As we all are aware, the restrooms at our parks

David PenalozaItem —

are for the most part unusable due to the vagrancy that we see every day. Will we get a chance at a future date to discuss possible security designs and or scrapping of restrooms entirely? I don't if you want to handle that madam city manager or if you want to let our parks and rec director

handle that question we can certainly look for your two part questions on the first one you do have a municipal code that dictates the protocol for naming a park and historical resource or reference is permitted under a municipal code so we will look at that and bring that back with recommendations for the name you said permitted right it's permitted yes a reference to a historical site so that is a permitted under your current code in regard to the design i mean the design has been conceptually done so we certainly have an opportunity to revisit design

of the restrooms implementing security measures okay and the reason i asked that is because i know

David PenalozaItem —

that um one of the capital improvement items that i also pulled was regarding the the restrooms at Dale Hyde Park and how they're being ripped out and installed with new ones. I know that, and bringing them closer to the street, I know that this in particular park at Raiden Myrtle, the restroom, the conceptual design that we've all seen, the restroom is centrally located from what I believe, if I'm not mistaken, if I'm looking at it the right way, which brings security concerns to that neighborhood. You know a lot of times like we've seen in Pacific Electric Park It's used for a lot of bad activity

David PenalozaItem —

Because of how it's kind of stuck in the back or centrally located and away from the public's view That's driving by so with the restroom at Raiden Myrtle. We still have a chance to Tinker with the design of it is I know it goes to the Planning Commission as well, but how does that? work, Madam City Manager? I'm going to defer to

Lisa to comment on how far along she is with the actual plans.

Yes, Council Member Penaloza. First of all, let me say that the design of these restrooms now, a lot of our restrooms are up to 70 years old. And so what we're doing is we're making sure that we don't have any screening of the front doors of the restrooms. We're installing motion lighting in the stalls to help with security. We're also

cutting a four inch four inches off the door which is elevated so that helps with security and maintenance. We're also installing the sink and the water fountains outside the restroom to prevent the misuse of sometimes people wash their clothes or they bathe. And then what we'll do is we'll shut the water off. We'll put it on a timer and shut it off when the park is closed. And then also we're going to add some automatic locking doors. So we will absolutely look at all of those things in our new restrooms that we install, as well as the location to make sure it's not in the back or

hidden where the activities that we don't like happening happen. And so we'll absolutely take

David PenalozaItem —

look at that and make sure that we have it in the right place thank you for that uh lisa uh with the self-locking doors uh i know that we've had prior discussions about it now i mean i could if i would so walk in there and just you know before they lock let's say they lock at 10 p.m when the park closes and i know that would somebody just be able to walk in and now they're locked inside not so much i mean get first get get okay so they're not locked inside good but um just being

able to stay there overnight um well that's the the concept of cutting the four inches at the bottom of the door so when our park patrol or park ambassadors go by there's going to be motion sensor lighting uh in there uh and so we'll be able to see if somebody is in there uh plus we'll have them checking the doors and making sure no one is is in there the automatic door

David PenalozaItem —

locks are not foolproof but they do help okay so I guess that would that would work um now there were have there will have to be some some additional I guess thinking and brainstorming when it comes to that because from what I understand our Park Patrol officers security guard isn't allowed to or aren't allowed or they're discouraged from exiting the vehicle when patrolling parks at night from what i've been told so um i guess that would just mean park patrol sees that the lights are on and they would have

David PenalozaItem —

to notify pd or are they knocking on the door and and clearing it out yeah we'll have to work that

out with our park security patrol um and um obviously with the santa anna police department So we'll make sure that I wasn't actually aware that they're not getting out of their vehicles at night. I know that when it gets dark and in some some parks, sometimes they'll just drive by. And if they have issues, like you say, they'll call Santa Ana Police Department. But we can certainly work that out with our park patrol. So we may have to have two people in the vehicle in the evening time. And so we can change around their schedules and add additional folks if we need to.

David PenalozaItem —

okay thank you so much for that Lisa that was pretty much answered all the questions I had but with that I will make the motion to approve item 20 B

thank you for that is there a second or any other questions yeah I'll second

with comment mr. mayor that I just wanted to echo what what the council member said about the great work on behalf of our parks and rec staff these are substantial grant monies that were acquired and you know the the rate and Myrtle Park has an interesting history so I really want us to pay attention to that when that was brought to our attention but the standard McFadden lot has a more recent history and you probably remember that Mr. Mayor it was an old abandoned well kind of an attractive nuisance it was privately held by a gentleman by the name of Vinnie Tran and it wasn't it was sitting

there people would dump old furniture and trash and debris and became a very ugly site on that intersection corner. And then we turned it into a temporary park, which turned into about a six-year period where the city didn't have to pay a nickel. And it worked with the Mariner's Lighthouse Church, with CNC development, and the neighborhood there. But there was one person who was pretty active at that time and her name was Victoria Saragossa. And Victoria, when I first came on the council in 2007, approached me and said, you know, we have kids playing on the railroad tracks there on Minnie

Street. She said they have no place to play, no park. And so that was sort of the genesis and the reason why we approached this private property owner there on the corner and told him, look, it was during the recession, his property wasn't moving, nothing was happening, and we just said, can we use your lot if somebody secures it and clears it and works with you to monitor it. And he acquiesced and agreed. And so six years later, we use it, and eventually the city acquires it for park space, and now it's going to be part of the park system. But Victoria was the one who kind of brought this to my attention.

She is not doing very well these days. She's actually very ill. but I know many of the neighbors there at Cornerstone Mini said when the time comes when we start looking at putting a name on this park site, we may want to consider that one as well. I know that sometimes we do things when we do it posthumously, but maybe there's something for us to consider here. but there certainly is a very grateful group of neighbors and active neighbors there in Cornerstone, many that remember the whole past that this corner had. So when time comes,

you know, Madam City Manager and colleagues, let's recall that interesting history that we had. And I remember you told me, Mr. Mayor, let's not, let's, we were kind of worried because we figured, you know, we're going to let the community use it. And then I remember you admonished me and said you know they may get used to it too much and what happens when we have to take it back and the private property owner says look I'm gonna sell this and I need to develop it but you know thanks to a lot of the leadership here on the on the council we were able to have it acquired and we were able to we're now

able to deliver it to that neighborhood as a very very nice place for people to

to play and families to be at so I'll second it is wonderful and I I do recall saying, you know, we need to have a long-term plan because we knew it was going to get a lot of use. The only thing I would add is maybe we can somehow enhance the fencing because it's still not, you know, as quality as it could be. And now that it's permanent, we're talking about potentially naming it after Vicki and Victoria. By the way, I know it was not her, but I saw a sighting of her, this woman that looked just like uh victoria and that reminded me of of the whole nine yards i

think these look likes exist out there uh sometimes and i i believe i saw one that i know it was not vicky but it looked like she looked maybe you know 10 15 years ago um so anyways um any other comments by council members quick comment mr mayor uh just one of you yeah i just want to

thank the constituent who wrote in regarding the name for the parks great suggestion great idea and thank you for doing the research absolutely and kudos

to our state lobbyists as well right no just kudos to our state lobbyists who is out there working hard along with our parks and rec staff and Lisa and everybody else that that this is is this is huge both of these grants so that's

All right. Madam Clerk, do we have a motion on this one?

Yes, we have a motion and a second.

Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Iglesias?

I think she's absent. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Vegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

6-1 with Council Member Iglesias absent.

Next item.

20-C, also called by Council Member Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem —

That was also me, Mr. Mayor. 20-C, approve appropriation adjustment and agreement accepting Bureau of Reclamation Water Smart grant funds for the advanced water meter infrastructure. Madam City Manager, I just wanted to get a better idea of when can we expect this citywide project of smart water meters to be completed. I know this comes with a roughly $14 million price tag and have noticed that the grants we're receiving are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is great, but still a far cry from $14 million. dollars second question the recent water rate increase I'm just asking can and is

David PenalozaItem —

any of that money be being applied here or used for these water smart grants or is that just for other needed infrastructure repair thank you council

member I'm gonna defer to our Public Works director the bill are you still

here? I'm here. Did you hear the two questions? Yes. To answer your question is, this is a receiving of a grant of $300,000 from the Bureau of Reclamation for the AMI project. The project will cost for estimated cost of $14.4 million. Right now, we are in the process of upgrading our inquesta, which is our billing system. And in the same time, we have received proposals from AMI vendors that we are evaluating the technology.

And because of COVID, that took a delay a little bit, but we are in the process of, like I mentioned, evaluating these bids. and very soon we'll be ready to award the AMI project to implementation. The duration of the project will be from three to five year period. So it will not happen right away, but it will be a phased approach to upgrade all these meters. So we cannot do all the meters in one year. We have to do them incrementally over a five year period for now.

and other oh go ahead no no go ahead I'm sorry I what's the other question you

David PenalozaItem —

had another question I was just basically you go ahead Christine the the

other question was is any of the new rate increase going towards funding the advanced metering project versus the other money you've received you know

When we did the water rates and the water system needs, the cost of AMI was included in the water rate studies. So those grant money that we are receiving will offset the cost and will not require us to make any adjustment to the rates. The rates will stay the same.

David PenalozaItem —

Oh, no, I'm not saying whether the rates would increase again. I was asking if the part of that rate increase monies, would that be able to, is that going to be used for this project at all?

Yes. Yes, that is a project that was included in our needs for adjusting the rates.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. All right. So we are looking at five years approximately for completion?

Yes.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. That is it, Nabil. Thank you so much. With that said, I'd like to make a motion to approve 20C.

I'll second that. I'll just add to the other benefit to these AMI systems are that then later on you don't need to pay for meter readers. so there's you know upfront capital you know cost which should where the grants really help but they reduce city staff expenditures because you don't need a do meter read anymore and easier to find me like leaks yeah any other comments

council members I believe we have a motion roll call vote councilmember

Councilmember Becerra?

Yes.

Councilmember Iglesias? Still absent. Councilmember Peñalosa? Yes. Councilmember Sarmiento?

Yes.

Councilmember Soloria?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempigas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

6-1 with Councilmember Iglesias absent.

Next item.

20E?

I'm sorry, 20D. Yes, D.

Phil BacerraItem —

Did you say 20D?

20D, yes. Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem —

Yes, thank you. So I pulled this item because it says here that this item is asking the council to authorize the reallocation of $62,482 in unspent Measure M2 local fair share funds from the bike lane project, development projects to this traffic signal project here at Euclid and Hazard in order to complete the project's funding requirement. So I had a few questions for our public works director. My first question is, why do we have $62,000 in unspent funds

Phil BacerraItem —

in the bike lane project development funds? I will have to get back to you on this one here

because there is money occasionally projects gets completed with some contingencies that that has not been spent. So that money will need to be repurposed and used in other projects. And that's what we're trying to do.

Phil BacerraItem —

I appreciate your explanation on that. And I understand that if you're not using money in one other place, you'll move it over. I guess what I'm concerned with is that there are projects that I believe are in the CIP and elsewhere where we're showing future proposed bike infrastructure projects. And so for 62,000 to not make it to continuing to build that infrastructure troubles me a little bit, and especially to take it from the bikes to then put it into a traffic signal to serve automobiles. I just, for me, and I understand we need our traffic signals for our automobiles,

Phil BacerraItem —

but I think it's important, especially for the dangers that our residents who ride their bikes throughout our city face, it's important to really enhance this infrastructure. So I'm just a little concerned that we have 62,000 that's being taken out of bike lane projects to be put towards a traffic signal.

If I could add something, Council Member and Public Works Director, please correct me if I'm wrong, but i believe the 62 000 is from completed projects from past years and when we did a cleanup of the cip we did find some funds that were left over from completed projects and if you look on page four of the staff report you can see where the amounts came from so 44 000 of it was from a project back from seven fiscal year 17 18 and the remainder of the 17 000 was from a former project

Phil BacerraItem —

from 1819. Thank you for that clarification and so as we see with a lot of these transportation projects usually there are strings attached that they remain within certain modes so we're we're pretty clear then that the 62,000 doesn't have any strings attached to it that would prevent it from being moved over to the traffic signal project on our agenda. Correct sir it's measure M2

local fair share and it's for improvements other than buildings okay uh can you take over for about

uh five ten minutes for me please mayor pro tem no problem mr mayor thank you so i i was just

Phil BacerraItem —

going to say i on this one i just want to emphasize that i really believe that we need to enhance our bicycle infrastructure in our city. All you gotta do is open your eyes and look around you and you see many folks on their bikes. And I think we need to do what we can to make sure that it's a safe mode to use in our city. So I'll make a motion to approve this. But going forward, I just don't like to see funds moved from bikes to automobiles, especially given that we do have so much dedicated to the automobile mode already. But again, with that, I'll go ahead and make the motion to approve this item.

All right, we have a motion from Becerra. Is there a second? Second. Second by Solorio. Madam Clerk, roll call.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Iglesias? Still absent. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempiegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido? Absent.

He's absent, okay.

5-2 with Council Member Iglesias and Mayor Pulido absent.

Very good. Madam Clerk, if you can take us to the next item.

23-A. Pulled by Council Member Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem —

23-A, it was approved amendments to the capital improvement program. I also pulled it because I had similar concerns and questions over the restrooms at our parks, but those were answered. So I'd like to make a motion to approve 23-8.

Second.

We have a first and a second. Madam Clerk.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Alessias? Still absent. Council Member Peñalosa?

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido still absent.

Very good. Madam Clerk?

Motion carries 5-2 with Council Member Iglesias absent and Mayor Pulido absent. 25C pulled by Council Member Solorio.

I think it was a few of us on this helicopter one. The one question I have, I know we used to operate some of these services, and then we went over to the county.

It looks like year to year the amount's been stable. It's 365 hours. I just know that we have a lot of residents that are always calling me or texting me or emailing me saying, there's a helicopter up in the sky. It's been there for a while. What are they doing? Because people are worried. They think it's a security threat, and sometimes it is. I know over the past few days there was you know a bomb scare you know in the north part of town and you know there was a lot of concern so I do think that whether it's the helicopter or PD stuff we do need to get better about letting the public know what's going on

or what areas to stay away from or at a minimum who can we on the council other call from staff or or the county to say what's going on with a hot with a helicopters since we're on that as well as you know obviously if it's the county one we also pay for that so from just cost oversight it would be good to know

more about that um thank you sir we certainly can look into that oftentimes they are flying over our city in response to a county issue as opposed to a city issue but to the extent that we can provide better alerts and maybe even

follow-up reports we certainly will do that or maybe it's a monthly or two reports of year what did our helicopter work on for us i know they do very important things no question about it just it doesn't the information doesn't trickle down okay thank you

David PenalozaItem —

very good do we have a motion um i also i also have concerns you have a comment yeah go ahead and and it was a similar to what council member salario said uh madam city manager the reason i pulled the item is just as well for additional information and to include my request as part of the public record that similar what council member salario said over the last couple of months the residents of san anna have seen and heard an increase in the usage of helicopters and so have i i am talking multiple times a day and all hours of the day and night

David PenalozaItem —

it is a nuisance and it's disturbing and it's affecting the quality of life i know a san anna skyline is not complete without fireworks april through september and the presence of a helicopter but at what expense? The couple of questions that I have, not sure if you want to answer or try to defer to the chief of police, but is along the same lines as what my colleague mentioned. Weekly, how many times on average is a helicopter used to assist SAPD? What is the average time the helicopter is usually used? At what time is a helicopter most frequently used? On average,

David PenalozaItem —

how many crimes is a helicopter successful in solving or leads to an arrest, would you be able to provide bi-weekly or monthly reports stating how many times a helicopter was used to assist SAPD and for what kinds of crimes? It is important we make this information available to the public because we're depriving them of sleep. I know that in the agreement in Section 4.3 of the staff report, It says that the county will provide the city with a monthly flying hour report detailing assigned call time, patrol time, and countywide service time spent over the city's jurisdiction as provided by Sheriff Aircrews.

David PenalozaItem —

The city shall notify the Sheriff's Special Enforcement Bureau within 10 days of receipt of the monthly flying hour report of any disputed call times. So I know that the report is provided to the Santa Ana Police Department and to the city. I would like to include as part of this contract, or not contract with them because that would be on our end, to make that report public for the public to see why is this helicopter being used a dozen times a day, every day, at every hour. Because it is disturbing. It's affecting our quality of life.

David PenalozaItem —

Just the things going through the contract I'm not comfortable with. I trust you wholeheartedly, Madam City Manager, but just also delegating the authority to the City Manager to execute subsequent amendments, especially since it has a 10% added on for additional usage possibility. It's something that concerns me because it just seems like the, I don't know who's calling the shots, the Sheriff's Department or our Police Department. I mean, it just seems like this helicopter is just over my house, rattling windows daily. And nobody knows why.

David PenalozaItem —

We receive the police significant response emails, and I never see a mention of a helicopter. So it's just concerning. And I like to just see more information on why this helicopter is used constantly.

Certainly, Councilmember, you brought a lot of good questions up. The aviation support typically helps us in observing incidents from above. They utilize technology such as high definition and infrared cameras. They provide real-time updates of suspect activities, and they do increase our officer safety during vehicle pursuits and removing some of the burden from the ground units. I can tell you for calendar year 2019, the OCSD helicopter crews assisted us with 1,193 incidents in the city of Santa Ana. and of those incidents, 500 resulted in arrest. 399 of those were felony arrests.

As to the monthly report, you're absolutely correct. Within the contract, there is a requirement for a monthly report. I will work with the police department on ensuring that everything in there can be released to the public and provide that to the full council.

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, if that could be made public and put on our website every month as it's made available, I think that would help because a lot of it's every night I see hundreds of people asking on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, why is there a helicopter hovering over my house at 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning, 5 in the morning, noon, 3 p.m. Like it just never ends. So it'd be nice for us to know why this helicopter is being used and what the outcome of that was. because if it's just, I mean, I am happy to see that out of the about 1,100, you know, it resulted in over 400 felony arrests. That is good.

David PenalozaItem —

But it's just, you know, it's a lot of information. I mean, it's a lot of money. And I just would want the public to know why this helicopter is hovering. And I know that there's also, you mentioned in our earlier conversations, you mentioned OC Vector Control also uses a helicopter. and the county uses a helicopter not necessarily to assist SAPD, but for other county-wide services that do happen to hover over our airspace. So whatever information is available, because of the amount of times we see a helicopter in our city,

David PenalozaItem —

I'd like to see if we could include those from those different agencies as part of this report.

Definitely, I'll look into that, but you're correct. There's lots of other agencies with helicopters flying over our city, and some of them we don't have a contractual relationship with, which I may not be able to get the information on those. I will say for OC Vector Control, they have a fabulous alert system. So if you're a resident and you want to know if there's going to be any activity from OC Vector, you can sign up for an alert, and you'll be notified in advance. And they do spraying via the air as well as truck-mounted units, so they do have aircraft.

David PenalozaItem —

Now, and that would also, I mean, the spraying alone, because I see on Nextdoor, on Facebook, a lot of people say, hey, I saw a helicopter spraying something at midnight. And that's concerning. If we don't know about it as a public and as residents, we should OC vector control, and I'm sure they do. They probably put it under a news alert on their website and to whoever subscribed to it. But we should, you know, having a PIO, we should be on top of those things and notify the public, hey, OC Vector Control is going to be spraying something in the air that's not harmful to you or to the public because people do get concerned.

David PenalozaItem —

And for good reason. I would if I saw somebody spraying something from the air. So those are my concerns, Madam City Manager. I know I also brought up, and I know it sounds like a far-fetched idea, but because of how much money this is, I know you mentioned that a helicopter has a cost of about $3 million, three to six. I mean, if there are grants available, it would, I mean, in the long run, it would benefit us to just get our own versus looking. But that's, like I said, far-fetched idea. It'd be important to look at the numbers and see if it's possible.

David PenalozaItem —

obviously not now because of the circumstances but maybe in the next two three years with that said those are my comments all right thank you we have

Phil BacerraItem —

councilmember Becerra thank you my question was in the staff report it indicated that our PD would provide a full-time sworn pilot to this operation if staff could tell me why we would be providing personnel if this is a sheriff

helicopter so with that question councilmember I am going to have to defer to deputy chief Gaminski our chief is not on the line with us tonight

deputy chief are you there good evening councilmember can you hear me yes I can

so for the entire time that we've been involved with airborne law enforcement The department has partnered with that agency and provided what's called a tactical flight officer. Every time the helicopter is up, it has actually two law enforcement personnel in it. One's a pilot. One's the tactical flight officer. The TFO is responsible for radio traffic and communications as well as coordination of navigation, coordination of the radio with other units on the ground as well as other air traffic in the air.

So the tactical flight officer is how we usually engage with these other entities. Over time, the department has found that it's actually more economical to also have that agency send our tactical flight officer to pilot school. and then in that partnership with the agency the agency whose helicopter it is gets to use our asset as a pilot and we get a reduced cost and actually more airtime over our city based

Phil BacerraItem —

on that commitment okay i appreciate that thank you uh kind of echoing some of what council member pillows i think i believe was alluding to uh you know i think that another item of the staff report for me that jumped out was uh the line that said due to the inherent unknown nature of providing airborne law enforcement services the county will reevaluate the cost of this service annually so there's an allowance of hours of use of the helicopter per the contract and it does make me wonder if there would be a cost savings if our city had its own helicopter. Right now,

Phil BacerraItem —

as we're looking for cost savings under every nook and cranny, this is something that I definitely would like to see us explore. I don't want to hold up the item for tonight, but I think it's something that I would prefer if staff could come back to us at a future meeting with at least a breakdown or analysis of what that could look like. I know in my ride-alongs with PD, I know how valuable the sheriff's helicopter is, especially when it comes to keeping up with some of these criminals that are trying to evade arrest. So I see and know the value, you know, firsthand and

Phil BacerraItem —

witnessing how the sheriff's helicopter provides such a vital assistance and service to our officers. But with that, I hope that staff can come back to us to let us know what that feasibility would be for us to go on our own. I know that we've historically partnered with other cities like Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. But again, if it does seem like a economically feasible means to go, I think that would be something we should look at.

Phil BacerraItem —

And given my colleagues concerns over information about the helicopter, I think it would be a lot easier to get that information if it was under one umbrella in house.

Understood, council member. Also, just to let you know, over the past three years, we entered into that agreement with the sheriffs. the difference between year one and year two was a 5% increase. The difference between year two and three was a 0% increase. So in total, over the past three years, the contract has increased by 5%. The 10% wording is put into the contract, so it's not to exceed. However, both the Sheriff's Department and the Police Department worked very closely to try to keep these costs down.

The other thing to consider as well, when you talk about money,

the police department contracts for that 390, 360 hours, 365 hours a year. However, based on the report that we received at the end of 2019, the sheriff's helicopter was actually over the city of Santa Ana for a total of 656.6 hours or about 26.49% of all the time that the Orange County Sheriff's Department helicopter was in the air. It was over the city of Santa Ana in support of Santa Ana

Phil BacerraItem —

police operations or necessities. Sounds like an awful lot of time. I think that even furthers the case that we should definitely look at if there are any potential cost savings. I initially had thought about the idea of asking us to approve the fiscal year 2021 and having staff come back to us with a report on feasibility, but I'm okay with, you know, because this is going to be a contract that has to be renewed each year, I would be okay with um just adding to the motion to approve this that staff come back to us and say 90 days with um an

Phil BacerraItem —

update on uh assessing the uh feasibility of the city of san diego and having its own helicopter

David PenalozaItem —

can i can i add to that mr mayor pro tem go ahead um councilmember becerra also um maybe including including the reports that are given to the police department on behalf of the sheriffs, including the reports more sooner rather than later.

Okay, is there any other comments by council members on this? If not, we have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

We have a second. Madam Clerk.

Council member Becerra.

Yes.

Council Member Iglesias still absent. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Potem-Viegas?

Yes. And for the record, the mayor will not be joining us for the rest of the meeting, so I will run the meeting. And Madam Clerk, if you can give me a hand, what's the next item?

Yes. It's business item 55B.

and before we proceed I just want to make sure that the council is aware that there was eight correspondence received on 25C in opposition to the item.

Okay so where are we? 55B? 55B as in boy? Yes 55B as in boy.

Okay we have a motion to move and a second by Sarmiento. Madam Clerk?

Phil BacerraItem —

i'm sorry i'm sorry mr mayor pro tem go ahead go ahead council member uh who who is the maker of the motion solorio okay i i would actually real quick before we move forward on it uh i understand there's a motion second i'd like to ask the maker and the second of the motion uh in looking at um item 55b uh there was language uh that talked about allowing somebody to provide a lease or rental agreement uh improving their um eligibility to run uh if it was less than 30 days as long as

Phil BacerraItem —

the candidate provided proof um that they you know pinky swear or promise that they're going to reside within the ward after that date i feel like that kind of leaves the door open for uh somebody to come in in less than 30 days and you know we need to stop trying to give everybody wiggle room to come in if you're a resident of the ward then you're a resident of the ward and you then should be eligible to run but all this games of moving around and trying to figure out ways to do it i want to applaud the clerk and staff for putting together a real solid resolution that was just my

Phil BacerraItem —

only hang up on this one was just that last language it was in the last paragraph of section 3 subsection 1 on page 55b-6 and would the maker and the second of the motion be willing to ask for that language to be stricken from the resolution you know i i noticed that too maybe

staff could explain why it was written that way i don't know if it was for what it intends to be or I know like the filing period itself is not completely a month, but it's more than a couple of weeks, so I don't know if it's kind of meant to assume that that extra time gets them to 30, but maybe if somebody on staff can explain why it was written the way it was for that section.

Due to the fact that in Charter Section 401, one, it does talk about referring to anyone who is providing any, showing any residency. It'll be at least a minimum of 30 days prior to issuing the nomination paper. So indicating on here if the residence is rented or leased by the candidate, that they have to be at that specified address at least 30 days prior to issuing the nomination paper. And so my understanding is if you want to remove that, I was trying to do it just to be clear and match that, but we could definitely remove that. There's no issue with that.

Phil BacerraItem —

Madam City Clerk, that language says, and this I'm quoting it, however, if the lease or rental agreement expiration date is less than 30 days from the date the nomination paper is issued. So that's not consistent with the Charter Section 401, which says at least 30 days from the time that the nomination papers are issued.

This is for the situation if the person is moving within the district to another resident's address, but they're still showing the transitional information saying that they have lived at a certain address at least 30 days within the district, and they're moving to another resident's address within the same district. So that very last sentence where they're going to reside within the ward after that date, that's that portion that was supposed to capture that maybe if that's the case

we can ask them for that second lease document or or something else that has that second address I think you're getting at they may live in a certain area they may move and so maybe we can ask for that documentation as well that would be one way to approach it councilmember Becerra any other thoughts would that be okay to you i think just the issue is it's it wouldn't have both uh leases but if you have both leases uh and it's 30 plus maybe that might be okay i i you know it's just it's

Phil BacerraItem —

funny that you know when you think about people that should be serving on council i'm just going to be blunt you do want people that are stable and i understand there are people in the city that are transient and i have no i mean no disrespect to them but the reality is if you're serving on the council you would expect some stability and moving around is definitely something that raises eyebrows so the fact that we're accommodating this much I mean it should just be cut and dry you have documentation that shows that you are within you know out of residence within

Phil BacerraItem —

the ward that you're choosing to run in at least 30 days prior to seeking the nomination papers from the clerk so I mean having all these little what if they move what if there are couch surfing today and then they bought a house tomorrow or what if they win the lottery I mean let's just try and make it cut and dry because I think I I'll say from my intent with this resolution was to make it simple for the clerk not to provide more questions and and other opportunities for people to you know on game the system so I I would really prefer that we don't have any of these items that start talking about you know

Phil BacerraItem —

if you're you know 15 days at one place and 15 days at another it should just be simple you if you want to run for office live in the ward your resident of the ward for 30 days from an address you know show it prove it to the clerk and you get your nomination papers yeah i'm open either

way but i think it's also important though to do policy where you're not uh kind of harming somebody else i mean you may have an instance we have a lot of renters in town you may have somebody that's live somewhere for 20 years and they finally can afford a home in that same area or maybe even the same place and to say that they can't run I don't know that that's even legal so that's just the only kind of hiccup that that I have as well as there's other multiple documents which is the reason why I don't necessarily mind it too much because they could show other things proving the

30 days but i do think that you know face value you know if a judge would say that if somebody moves from one door to the next door that they're ineligible to run based off that that's that's a

tough standard i think you know what i'm going to go ahead and that's a little run councilmember

Phil BacerraItem —

i'm going to go ahead i want to be i want to be clear that i'm saying is that for the sake of the clerk being able to accept paperwork or some sort of proof that they have been residents of the ward for more than 30 days I think you just said Councilman Flora if we if they can't you know for some reason this this portion with the lease or rental agreement is somehow some way too complicated to provide then there you know and I appreciate what staff has written into this proposed resolution where you have other options they can show us bills they can show us you know

Phil BacerraItem —

they can have a signed affidavit so there are other items I just don't like the idea of us talking about things that in here that start talking about less than 30 days because that is in conflict with the charter and in fact i would like to also point out one other section this was section four on page 55b-8 where it talks about verification no earlier than the beginning date of the nomination period and no later than the closing date of the nomination period and that is inconsistent with our our charter section 401 that talks about at the time nomination papers are

Phil BacerraItem —

issued so i think there's a little inconsistency there so my my ask of the maker of the motion and the second would be if we can eliminate that line from um the second to the last paragraph of section section 3, subsection 1, and then also to have this language in section 4 on page 55B8 be consistent with section 401 of our charter.

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and we're going to hear from other council members. Council member Sarmiento.

Yeah, thank you Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. And so my questions were more directed to the city attorney if she's on the line.

Yes, I'm here.

Thank you, Madam City Attorney. And I appreciate why this is before us. And I think it was Council Member Becerra and Peñalosa who brought this for us. And I think the intent was to be more predictable and to make sure that we have clear criteria rather than abstract or vague language that the election code is riddled with.

So Sonia, I guess my concern is that as you know I've seen case law in sort of the election law area talk about you know residency and how you establish residency, it seems like case law goes the other direction that we're trying to go in, right? And I just want to make sure we reconcile the two because I think the intent is a good one here. but are we, you know, is case law being maybe more flexible on the definition of residency when it comes to, you know, folks being homeless, right, and not having a physical address, and I know I've seen some pretty interesting opinions written by judges,

but I just wanted to get your thoughts on how this is, you know, which direction this is taking.

Okay, so that's an excellent point. And we did take a quick look at it. As we know, we would have to live with any changes in case law, which redefines residency, which, as you know, gets into issues of domicile and intent, where you intend to reside. I think what this resolution was proposed to do is to simply give the city clerk direction on determining when someone shows this is my intent as to where I'm going to reside, it would at least give us some direction and some interpretation of what the city clerk should accept.

It would establish some criteria that she could use rather than having to solely rely on these definitions under case law, which, as you've mentioned, can not only change, but sometimes are not the easiest to interpret. So this resolution would not change case law. It would just be really a form of communication to let everyone know if you're going to come pull papers to be nominated for a seat on the city council, then these are the things we would expect you to be able to demonstrate at the lowest threshold

in order for us to verify that you do have this residency and you satisfy the city charter requirement.

Got it. So I think because this is a resolution as well, this is not binding, but I think it's more instructive and guidance that we're providing for those that are going to be intending to run and for them to have some clarity and for the city clerk to be able to also have some additional criteria to determine what eligibility for residency is. So I'm fine with the adjustments. I appreciate the effort. I know that this is like a moving target sometimes. So how you define domicile and residency, it's a difficult term. So I'm fine with the adjustments that were recommended.

Okay, so... Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Go ahead, Council Member Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, this is, thank you. I just wanted to also say that I'm supportive of the recommendations made by Councilmember Becerra. I also agree that the intent of this is, I mean, really, you know, our city clerk, as we've all seen, hasn't had any guidelines to go by when issuing nomination papers. So this really just makes it, like Councilmember Becerra said, cut and dry what exactly is required of the candidate. And it should be simple. We need to stop with the crazy headlines and the controversy, and this is going to help clean that up and protect the integrity of our elections as well.

David PenalozaItem —

So with that said, those are my only comments, but I am supportive of making those changes that Councilmember Becerra recommended.

Okay, so we have a first and a second, and you'll accept the Councilmember Becerra's?

Okay, very good. Okay, Madam Clerk, if you can do a roll.

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Iglesias still absent. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio? Yes. Mayor Pro Temp-Viegas?

Yes.

Motion carries 5-2 with Council Member Iglesias absent and Mayor Pulido.

Okay, very good. The next item is? We did 68, correct?

Yes.

No, we didn't? Okay, we have a presentation. You can go ahead, Madam Clerk, and read it.

Item 60A, introduce the draft of the City of Santa Ana fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2425 strategic plan and receive any additional direction from the City Council.

Okay.

Madam City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I do have a brief presentation to highlight the major components of our new proposed strategic plan that will cover the next five fiscal years. The plan is before you tonight merely for an introduction and will return at a later date for formal adoption along with the budget. I'll only be covering major aspects of it, so I would refer you to your agenda report and the attachment for the entirety of the plan with all of the details in it. So why do we have a strategic plan?

Part of the Sunshine Ordinance adopted several years ago added a city code section that requires Santa Ana to develop a strategic plan every five years. A strategic plan is a best practice for all organizations, public and private, and ours is intended to set the direction and focus for the next five years. Obviously, a plan covering five years must be flexible and nimble, something that has certainly been reinforced by the current pandemic and the drastic changes that we've had to continue to make.

I believe you will find that this plan has been built with that in mind by providing overarching strategic priorities that allow for annual initiatives based upon available resources. The development of this plan started a few months ago with the selection of a consultant, interviews of council members, a staff survey, two very lengthy planning sessions with executive managers, two citizen workshops, all virtually held, an online community service, and from all of this input the proposed strategic plan was created. While it may seem in light of the pandemic a difficult time to go through strategic

planning, it actually assisted us. Over the past couple of months we've had certainly to rethink the way that we do business and change very quickly in the process and as such we've become much more aware of some of our weaknesses and better ways of doing business. This insight definitely contributed to the plans priorities and initiatives. The development of this plan started a few months ago oh wait I did so on the next slide it shows the community input that we received we did have we used some incredible technology to achieve this and we actually had participation of over 3,500 residents on the slide you

will see word cloud and that was done we're using text messages from the participants so we asked them what did they want to see the future of their city look like and this is the word cloud that was created if the word is actually bigger that meant that it was that word was text in more times than the other words they also mentioned some community priorities and you will see a lot of the mentioned priorities were also taken into consideration when we put before you that the draft proposed budget and that includes safety and homelessness parks open space and recreation for the proposed strategic

plan we are not recommending any changes to our mission statement or our guiding principles the existing mission statement still very effectively captures the priority and answers the questions why we exist likewise the guiding principles remain very relevant as well the plan starts with a vision statement basically what does success look like in five years and the new vision that we're proposing is basically by 2025 Santa Ana honors its rich cultural history as it becomes a thriving urban center with welcoming green spaces and world-class amenities services and infrastructure the efficient and financially stable

city government will further diversify Santa Ana's housing and economy increase the community's safety and support programs and services that enhance residents quality of life in order to guide us towards that future we've developed five strategic priorities. Those are listed on the bottom of the slide, and I'm going to go through them in a little more detail, but not too much detail. So these priorities serve as the framework for the strategic plan, keeping us focused on the vision. The five strategic priorities have their own goals and measures of success to further guide us. So starting with the first one, financial stability.

We need to protect and enhance our revenue streams, maintain a healthy balance so we can provide for the expenditures in support of our future visions. Goals for this priority would include items such as a balanced budget, increased revenue, and streamlining of existing costs. Measures of success would include items such as revenue performance, reserves, and budget projection accuracy.

The second strategic priority, and these are in no particular order. It's not as if they were prioritized. they're just all equally important, is community safety. And it's all about providing a safe environment for everyone by reducing crime and addressing homelessness. Goals include reduced homeless on the streets, reduced response time, and crime prevention programs. Measures would include things like the number of youth programs, community engagement, and a decrease in response times. The third strategic priority is modern facilities and infrastructure.

And this is about maintaining and preserving the condition of all of our city facilities, which includes park amenities, our streets, our sidewalks. Goals include developing a master plan for our parks and park amenities, along with master plans to systemically maintain our infrastructure. And when I say infrastructure, I do mean sidewalks, curbs, and gutters, and streets. Measures would include things like the pavement conditions of our streets, the number of new amenities we've had, and the number of sidewalks that we've repaired throughout

the city. The next one is efficient city services, and this is about streamlining the methods we provide services to make it easier for our customers. The required change of our way of doing business during the pandemic gave us a greater awareness, and we've already implemented and a number of programs to try to get more friendly and have a lot more activity online. Goals for this area include modernization of our technology. You saw a little bit of that in the ask for the IT department, reduced processing times, and enhanced communication. Measures would include things like the response time

and the turnaround time for the services that we offer and an increase of the services that we offer online. Economic diversity and expansion. This is about enhancing our city's economic vitality, which will help us grow revenue streams, provide for jobs, and also desired amenities for our residents. Goals include addressing the impact of homeless also present on our business community, attracting quality jobs, and remaining proactive with the business community. Measures of success would include things such as improving our unemployment rate and reducing our commercial vacancy rate. So the next steps.

For each of the goals presented, staff has already prepared initiatives for the upcoming fiscal year. By preparing initiatives annually during the five-year plan, we can remain flexible to a changing environment. These recommended initiatives are included in the report with your agenda package. No action is required from you tonight. This was an introduction. I'm happy to entertain any questions or receive direction, either tonight or individually. You can communicate with me over the next couple of weeks. The final plan is scheduled to be presented at the time that we present the proposed budget for your adoption. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam City Manager. I'm going to go down the list here of Council Members and see if they have any comments for the City Manager. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem —

Thank you, Mr. Pro Tem. Thank you, staff, for that presentation. I like what I heard and I'll definitely come to you over the next couple of weeks if there's anything I can think of. But from what I've seen tonight, it looked fantastic. So again, thank you for your work on this. I know it was long overdue. I know we were due for an update on this. So thank you for bringing it to us at this time.

Great. Thank you. And the next, Councilmember Iglesias? Okay. No answer. Councilmember Peñalosa?

Not here. Okay, any comment, Council Member? No comments, very good. We're going to move on to Council Member Sarmiento.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I just wanted to thank staff, and I think our consultant did a good job, I think, as well, about scouring us for our opinions and also reaching out to the community. You know, I think a strategic plan is what we make it. You know, it could be just another, you know, sort of, you know, plan that gets shelved and collects dust, or we can make it a really dynamic instrument that we use to kind of guide us for the next five years, and we use it as sort of a path or a roadmap. So as we speak to you, hopefully, you know, big vision as we get out of this.

I mean, I don't want us to lose sight because we just spoke about a really dismal budget, but we will get out of it. I've seen us get out of other things like our, you know, like a very difficult recession. We will get out of this pandemic. We're going to be stronger for it. So I just want us to not lose sight of the fact that we're looking at 2025, possibly, and we're not going to be in this moment in time for much longer. I just want us to have this strong vision of optimism and of opportunity and really looking at things that sometimes we don't look at with an open lens and with an open mind

because we really do have some incredible things to offer here in the city, I just don't want to sell a short and use this as another plan that we just kind of check the box on. Because I think, you know, with your direction, Madam City Manager, and the staff that we have, and, you know, the residents that we have here, I think, you know, big things lay ahead of us. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Council Member Solorio.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor Portima Villegas. I remember that a little bit over a year ago, I broke the news to Christine that she needed to update the strategic plan that there that there were requirements for what and how that should be done for a year thank you sir uh and she um she she listened she i think did some due diligence on it and then followed up with some of the organizations and communities that that we work with and she came up with this you know plan to do this work in this format and this timing and so uh that worked out uh well allowed her to work on many other things and here we are a year later and the

consultant team and fairly quick order they did some nice surveying I think of the community and council members as well and I could tell from the final report that they that they incorporated that input well so thank you so much City Manager and the rest of the staff for putting this together very good

thank you to the staff we're gonna move on to item 75A is that correct madam

clerk okay this is a public hearing so this is a time and a place to open a public hearing adopt the resolution approving mitigated negative declaration and the mitigation monitoring and reporting program for well 32 improvements non-general fund does the city manager have a presentation?

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem. Our Public Works Director has a very brief presentation on this hearing.

Very good.

Actually, we don't have a presentation, but I'm open for any questions.

Okay, very good. We're going to, I'll go down the list again and see if anyone has any questions regarding this item. Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem —

No, thank you, Mayor Pro Temp.

Council Member Iglesias. Council Member Peñalosa. No questions. Council Member Sarmiento.

I'm good.

Council Member Solorio.

No.

Okay, and our Mayor is not with us, so we don't have a presentation. the council members don't have

is there any members of the public?

There are no members of the public.

Do you want to wish to speak on this item? Okay, Madam Clerk.

Okay, can you do the roll call please?

Do we have any?

Okay, I need to close the public hearing. And

for a motion.

Is there a motion to move? We have a motion from Solorio, a second from Sarmiento. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Peñalosa?

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio? Yes. Mayor Plotin-Viegas? Yes. Council Member Iglesias and Mayor Pulido absent, 5-2.

Very good. We're going to move on to item 85A.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. 85A, I believe was my item, was discussed and considered directing the clerk of the council to increase transparency and accessibility to the public during virtual city council meetings by opening up the live phone-in comments to every item on the agenda, not just public hearings. Given all the unknowns about how much longer we will have to virtually hold public meetings with limited public input, it was important for me to bring this item forward. Under the current virtual meeting format due to COVID-19, the public can only make live comments during public hearings and public comment.

David PenalozaItem —

A comment on any other item requires you to submit one before 5 p.m. the day of the meeting. Since the public can no longer attend in person, I felt it was important to allow live phoning comments on all agenda items like we previously did. It is no secret that government agencies across the state are taking advantage of the situation and limiting transparency and put an accessibility to the public. Just because we can does not mean we should. A couple recommendations that I would like to make to the clerk's office, the mayor, and my colleagues is that we open the live comment option for every item on the agenda.

David PenalozaItem —

This will give the public an opportunity to have a say and provide input. It is the least we can do to really be transparent and open. If that is not possible, I would like the council to entertain the idea of at least moving the public common portion of the agenda to the beginning of the meeting and not at 10.30 p.m. like it usually is. So those are my comments, and that is why I wanted to bring this item forward. I'm not sure what comments my colleagues might have in regards to doing this. I know that the mayor mentioned early in the meeting that he was supportive of it, but, of course, majority rules.

David PenalozaItem —

So if my colleagues have any comments, I'd like to hear them, please.

Thank you, Council Member. Is there any other comments from anyone else? You did give your comments to the clerk. Council Member Sarmiento.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. No, thank you, Council Member, for bringing this before us. So the more open and accessible we are to the public, the better. and it's important. It's difficult to do under these conditions, and I know it's tough to just listen to us on audio and people want to say things, and they're trying to reach out to us using unconventional ways when they can't get through just sort of normal protocols. So yeah, the more open we make that available and hopefully have them here soon. One of the things I wanted to say is that maybe we, and I think, Madam City Manager,

you're working on this on how you can get the seven of us back here at some point. You know, I've seen other boards and committees and commissions that are holding public hearings. What they've done is they've put some plexiglass between seats, and it's a kind of cost-effective way to be able to also have us here because it's a little goofy. I think, you know, it'd be nice to at least be able to project a live meeting to folks and having us speak to them rather than an image and just audio behind it is kind of difficult. So I think that's been helpful.

It seems like it's been working in other places, and this is a large enough dais where we're not really too crunched in here. But just something to think about, again, other steps to be able to just make ourselves more accessible, more transparent, and more open to the public. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments from Councilmembers?

Phil BacerraItem —

councilman becerra any comment well i just want to uh thank councilmember penaloza for bringing this forward and uh yeah no it's been something that i think many people over the years have you know fretted over that the public comments portion of our council meetings were all the way at the end and you know since my time being on the council we've done not just a couple of items that have gone into the late hours of the night if not the early hours of the next morning and i think that's terribly unfair for our our community to have to wait that long to express themselves to us in person when it could be something that they can

Phil BacerraItem —

quickly address or address to us at the beginning of the meeting so thank you councilmember Penaloza for bringing it forward and I support it all right thank

you very much so there would the staff have direction correct and I think that's

David PenalozaItem —

Would we agree to open up the live phone-in option for every item? Because that's my request. Is there a request?

Is that a motion?

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, but can we make a motion on an 85 item?

For an 85, you typically just discuss it, and we determine what the majority support is. Okay, very good.

Very good. So I was saying if the staff had direction, then that would be the comeback.

I have majority direction.

Okay, very good. So we're going to get information back?

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, that's good. Now, would the public be able to make public comments at all for the remaining of the meeting? Or is this still a public comment section? Because I know that earlier we had comments, was it for the report? Or was that just public comment?

Well, any time I saw the attendee virtually raise their hand, I actually announced it. So, for instance, in this item, we do have one person who virtually raised their hand, so we can allow them to speak.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

And in addition, I have the city council did receive nine correspondents in favor of this item.

Okay, very good. So, real quick, before we go to the public, Council Member Solorio has a comment.

Thank you.

I've given some thought, but, you know, it's just kind of hard to envision, you know, what's going to happen tomorrow or the next week on all this COVID stuff. But my main thing is it would be nice to not change formats too many times between now and, you know, early next year because that also creates confusion. for me I'm more interested just in trying to figure out how with social distancing and plexiglass or other things just how we could be functional here because there is going to be you know increased interest in just participating the way we normally do the idea of maybe public comments at the

front for Colin might be workable I worry just a little bit on cost throughout because another jurisdictions because no technology is completely foolproof there have been incidents with inappropriate you know activities and um shenanigans so i do worry a little bit about uh how we might want to how we you know could control that or or not but uh you know the state's opening up and i think there's going to be increased anxiety about just getting back to normal rather than uh other things so those are

my only comments my my quick comment would be that if we did put partitions here the plastic and we were up here, we probably wouldn't be able to hear each other because we have this barrier. You know, like you speaking over there, you have to speak in the mic, and hopefully I can hear it. I've got three layers of glass between you and I. I'm not really in favor of that. I'm not sure if it would work, but we'll see.

You've got to find the right model.

Okay, and if we can go ahead and go to the member of the public that wishes to speak on this item.

You have three minutes. You've been unmuted.

please clearly state your name for the record hi my name is Kaylee and I am a

resident of Santa Ana and I was just calling to support and I am glad to hear that the council is in favor of this item I think that both moving the general comment to the beginning of the meeting and being able to speak on each agenda item would make participation more accessible. So I'm just expressing that. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Madam. Is there any other? Do we have any more speakers? We do not have any. We do not have any more speakers. Okay. Let me go back to council member.

David PenalozaItem —

Peñalosa. Peñalosa. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify. You mentioned, I believe you said star six and

and star nine. Star nine. Yes, star nine. Thank you.

Okay, so your motion is to go ahead and have them.

David PenalozaItem —

No motion, just, I guess.

Okay, come back. Very good. We're gonna move on to item, thank you very much. We'll move on to item 85B, which you and Council Member Becerra are on this. Council Member Becerra, you wanna go ahead, 85B?

Phil BacerraItem —

Sure, yes, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I brought this item forward. You know, unfortunately, the timing came as we were watching, well, not watching, having watched a 107-year-old Presbyterian church in our downtown burn to the ground. And it was done because this building was neglected. It was allowed to essentially be left open for vagrants and folks to go in there. eventually a fire was started and we watched this beautiful building that many of us have

Phil BacerraItem —

remembered for years burned to the ground we've seen countless amounts of resources out there tending to this fire and while that was happening there were definitely many thoughts that went through my mind and through other people's mind you know my wife and i were married at the Episcopal Church of Messiah which is literally immediately to the north of that building And that itself is over a century in age. And we have plenty of other beautiful historical structures in our downtown. Now, fortunately, the Episcopal Church of the Messiah is the oldest religious building in Orange County that is still in continuous use.

Phil BacerraItem —

But we have other gyms that are not in continuous use, such as the YMCA building, the old funeral parlor, most recently a bank at the southwest corner of Santa Ana Boulevard and Broadway. And so we also in our town, we have buildings that may not have that historical significance that are also not being kept up and they become nuisances and they become eyesores.

Phil BacerraItem —

And I've worked with plenty of folks over the years who have come into properties that are underutilized and they apply for entitlements and they eventually demolish what was there or in some cases, adaptively reuse a building and move forward with the project. But what ends up happening in between that beginning of the process with the city and the time that they can actually pull building permits and start swinging hammers and getting to work is you end up having a building where the owner will just very minimally oversee the property.

Phil BacerraItem —

So you take, for instance, the first American title site, which recently Toll Brothers had entitlements approved to do a project on that site. They had one security guard there for a very large complex. And if you knew that there were individuals trespassing into the property and you didn't know what kind of weapons they had, would you really go in there unarmed?

Phil BacerraItem —

We have another property on the north end of town. In fact, I'll just say it, 2525, where you had a security guard that drove by the site once every two hours, but not necessarily get out, not necessarily open the door and go in and poke around and clear out any trespassers that have made it in. Just simply drive by it. And that has for way too long been accepted as, you know, overseeing a property and maintaining it when it's not in use. I think that that is completely irrefensible.

Phil BacerraItem —

I think it's something that for us as a city, you know, we always talk about demanding more for projects as, you know, they come through the council and to be approved. But we should be demanding more from property owners for properties, especially our historic gems. I mean, that church burning down was a terrible site. It was a horrible site. And I received many calls and texts and emails from folks in our community that just couldn't believe their eyes what they saw. But what they also saw was neglect. And they saw an abandonment of that building that allowed for what happened to take place.

Phil BacerraItem —

So what I'm asking my colleagues to do is support asking staff to come back to us in 30 days with requirements that we can incorporate into our municipal code that really takes it up a notch when it comes to security, preventing trespassing and maintaining clean appearances. And so what I mean with that is, so for instance, I already touched on with security. I think having a rental cop come by and just flashes flashlight at the property and then drive off for two hours is beyond unacceptable. I think we need to ramp it up.

Phil BacerraItem —

I think we need to require armed security for these sites, especially if they are over a certain size, if they're not just a storefront, but rather a larger building like a 2525 North Main Street. we need to prevent the trespassing as we've seen with the presbyterian church people get in there and things happen that could ultimately lead to the destruction of some of our treasured buildings here in town and maintaining a clean appearance so not every vacant property has a structure on it but what we've seen in parts of town where you've got chain link fences that are just

Phil BacerraItem —

completely neglected. They're halfway falling over. You've got weeds that are growing three, four feet tall, which just allows and invites vermin to fester on the property. Those things are not acceptable in the capital of Orange County, or at least they shouldn't be. And so we've seen it for far too long. And I think it's time that we get serious with it. And I asked for it to come back to us in 30 days. I know that's a tall order, but the reason I asked for it is there are a lot of people in town from all different parts of the city that don't want

Phil BacerraItem —

to see us lose any more of our historic gems. And it's codifying these protections that we hope will help make sure that we don't lose any more. So I ask my colleagues to support this and so that we can all band together and make sure that we don't lose any more gems and that we also don't allow for nuisances to fester near our community there any other comments councilmember peña losa yeah

David PenalozaItem —

thank you mr mayor pro tem i just wanted to pretty much echo what my colleague councillor ambassador said in regards to uh what's going on throughout our city not just in our downtown but throughout um it's uh it's important for us to to look at all these different lots and areas and And just the goal here is to really activate them and bring life and light into these numerous, numerous lots and buildings that are just sitting there vacant. So I'm in agreement, and let's get this moving.

Councilmember Solorio.

Thank you. Three things on this item. I want to thank Councilmembers Becerra and Peñalosa for bringing this forward. I know probably not long ago we had changed our foreclosure cleanup policies because when we had a lot of foreclosures a lot of abandonment and a lot of code enforcement work and we had put a provision in there that any dollar seized from it would go to the code enforcement department so they could do more of it because if not what happens is we keep our code enforcement officers busy but we never really grow it so they just get more and more responsibilities added to

their list of things to do without more resources or staffing and so if Steph could kind of look at that and see if there's any monies owed there that we can give them to help because foreclosure properties not as many now but we still have some similarly we have abandoned properties and maybe we can also put a similar policy in there because part of this too is fee-for-service recovery and any fines so that we can you know fund the cleanups and and anything else so I would ask for those two things to be looked at I raised the issue just of abandoned properties as well not just it's not always neglect

but we have a lot of out-of-town property owners that just sit on the property because it gains value and you know I'm driving by a lot of these all the time and it is a little frustrating and they have fences they have trash or we need to have staff clean the areas from time to time so I do think it is very appropriate to try to do things to to to shore that up especially with all these are growing maintenance and cleanliness and homelessness cost that we have citywide thank you great councilmember

sorry about a bientot thank you mr. mayor pro tem it's been a long night already I know it's yeah it's a lot of my mind a lot of information thank you for that just a few things here I think I think this certainly is something that we need to revisit. I think there's probably some things already maybe on the books that we could kind of tighten up that we have with respect to just identifying properties that have fallen into decay and have been neglected. So I know that code enforcement tries to keep up. But yeah, it was very unfortunate that what the fire at the church really brought to light was that

we unfortunately have a very active homeless population that's finding these spaces that, you know, whether they're enclosures, whether they're buildings, whether there's encampments that, you know, really dangerous things could happen. And, you know, it was very fortunate that we didn't find any bodies in that building. It very well could have been a much different story. So, you know, thank you to OCFA and RPD for scouring that property for that. But one of of the things I was going to mention is that we also want to be careful as we go down this path

to not be so punitive or onerous on maybe some building owners and property owners that are trying to process maybe their applications and their permitting to improve their conditions. And they might be delayed because there might be a queue or there might be some

some staff responses that they may need. So I would say let's distinguish between those, I guess, good actors and bad actors. And the bad actors are the ones that just aren't anywhere in sight. They're not responsive. They let their properties fall into decay. And then there's other property owners who are really trying to make a good go of it and trying to get their processing through. So that would be important. The other one is what some other cities have done and what they're doing now as there's more vacant sites is they allow for pop-ups in their downtowns for incubators and different uses that are creative.

And we certainly have a really creative community in the city. So to the extent that we can entertain something like that, I know that we have some incubator sites already in the downtown for both culinary and other arts. but just something that I know I had a conversation with our representatives from Downtown Inc. and the Santa Ana Business Council and they were very at the same time saddened by seeing a lot of properties fail and go dormant and vacant at the same time some opportunities to be able to activate some of those spaces

so just wanted to put that out there in case that's something that we might want to consider looking at. Thank you for that.

Very good. I believe Council Member Iglesias is back. Is there any comment on this item, Council Member Iglesias, 85B?

Yeah, thank you. I wanted to echo what Council Member Sarmiento was saying, you know, about being punitive to all the property owners, because there are some that want to do the right thing, but unfortunately, because of the permit process is quite lengthy. then that's, you know, what's really kind of ties their hands. So, and I was wondering with this, if we could also, you know, not just the vacant properties for us to look at, but is there also a process that we can either incorporate into this

about those that are also open up for business, but sometimes they're not maintained the way that they should be. And I know that's a code enforcement thing, but if we could focus on ramping up those efforts, that would be something that I would be supportive of and thinking that, you know, because Santa Ana needs to be,

they need to be like that clean city, you know, because sometimes, you know, we have these property owners that even though they're the ones that are leasing the spaces to others but you know ultimately it falls on the owner of that property so you know I just want to thank the council members that put this on the agenda but I believe it goes beyond the vacant laws I think it we should be focusing on all of the all of the properties that are within our city

great thank you so go ahead councilmember Becerra I can hear you

Phil BacerraItem —

well i i didn't have anything to say but i i uh but i'll just take the opportunity to say uh council member iglesias i don't know how long you were on during this item but the the idea of this is to tackle any properties in town and i i just also want to clarify that this isn't really about good actors and bad actors i know that you know especially as we're facing this pandemic and the economic crisis in front of us you know really at the end of the day this is just purely as a property owner you have a responsibility to the community to keep up your property

Phil BacerraItem —

you know not everybody hires a landscaper they sometimes just god forbid mow their own lawn i think that you know especially when it gets to a point where it's such a nuisance i appreciate all the work that our code enforcement officers do and i know that they're operating at a level that's over half less than what they've had say 10 years ago what i hope that staff will come back with with this um with what we'll hopefully codify uh in 30 days is uh will be tools that will enhance what our code enforcement officers can do when it comes to um being able to

Phil BacerraItem —

site property owners that are neglecting the upkeep of their building and leaving their properties open for trespassers and again for the potential to see something happen like what we saw with that um century old church so i appreciate what all my colleagues are saying in regards to this item and i i hope staff will be able to bring us something back within 30 days

great very good and we're moving on to the well madam city manager go ahead um thank you mayor

pro tem i want to clarify just so i understand correctly so what you're seeking is for all All commercial properties that are vacant, you'd like us to explore if there is a temporary use that can be deployed for them, such as a pop-up or incubator. And for those that remain vacant beyond a period of time, you're interested in us implementing by code certain measures that they would need to take to secure it. Of course, that would be if they're vacant for a period of time, because I did hear that if they are in a development application process or waiting on a permit you want we won't implement those am I understanding it

correctly if so I would also like to we will try our best but to research what the best practices would be and to write an ordinance to codify it 30 days is a

pretty tight timetable and you've got our work on a budget and other things as Well, so I think you make a good point. I wanted to add on the thing of For that the putting responsibility on them to improve their property If they don't do it, I know many other similar resolutions will then say the city Will clean it up on their behalf and send them a bill So I just want there to be some kind of fee-for-service or fine component to pay for it and ideally to you know enhance the code enforcement service so we can do actually do the work

Phil BacerraItem —

that's a great idea councilman Florida I appreciate that okay very good so is the

staff satisfied or we have more questions from the staff just council member

Becerra did I correctly state it no that sounded good thank you madam city manager

okay very good we don't have an 85 C correct I don't see it here yeah it's the agenda it's funny i was looking for it i think i lost it somewhere but but i but i know the hour

is late i think i've talked to staff uh since i initially put this on so i just have a question for our city manager or city attorney i just want to make sure that the letter that we received uh did get you know reviewed by our city manager and city attorney and it's my understanding that that information has been shared with the district attorney's office as well we don't have an ethics committee anymore because the council voted to cancel all the committees which is why in past when we used to be on the ethics committee we would try to ensure that every complaint got addressed somehow and this one I know there's

other offices looking at it so I just want assurance for the community and the person that sent the letter that it is that it was reviewed and that it was

forwarded on that is correct councilmember Solario not right away because I didn't receive the letter it was sent to counsel but I don't think all of you even received it and the city attorney but after I was made aware of it we did send it over to the DA thank you so much great madam city manager

madam city attorney if you're listening I'm not comfortable discussing this item at all because it is an active investigation over at the DA's office is inappropriate for this council to discuss anything that has to do with it because it would make it political and it could affect the outcome. So that is my comment. Is there anyone else here that wants to say anything?

Mayor Pro Tem, we do have one person who virtually raised their hand who would like to speak.

We have one public comment on this. They're allowed to speak. Go ahead, Madam Clark.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Villegas. This is Mike Tardif. Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem Villegas and City Council. Council member Solorio has the privilege to add items such as this 85C for discussion to the council agenda. He does not ethically and rightfully have the power to have included in the council agenda. On this item, correspondence, which accuses and falsely names San Ana citizens of unsubstantiated crimes, specifically removing campaign signs.

So L'Oreal could have contacted me and I would have informed him and provided proof that I was out of town for the entire weekend that the alleged incident occurred. The council can certainly discuss the issue of removal of campaign signs and include the letter alleging so, but to include the names of Santa Ana citizens based on a video which shows a person who is clearly not me is a political dirty trick in breach of the Santa Ana Code of Ethics and Conduct and an abuse of power.

For the sake of honesty and fairness, I demand that all names of persons against whom allegations have been made in this letter be redacted from correspondence provided to the council and therefore to the public as well. Names of innocent Santa Ana residents are not necessary for the council to discuss this issue. This is purely a political dirty trick and abuse of power by Council Member Solorio at the expense of Santa Ana citizens. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Tardif. Madam Clerk, is there any other speakers?

The City Council did receive three correspondents on this, and one was the letter, and then the other two were also in opposition to this item.

Great. Very good. So there's no other comments from Council Members? Okay, we're going to move on to, let's see, the work study. I found the paper, by the way. So the work study is complete, and we're going to move on to City Manager comments then.

Madam City Manager. Thank you Mayor Pro Tem. Based on a request from Santa Ana Unified School District and a couple of the council members, I just want to point out to you that we are honoring the 2020 graduates in our city. The water tower is already illuminated in red and white, the colors of the Santa Ana Unified School District. They wanted red, white, and black, but we were unable to create black because black would just have been a shadow on it. We are also displaying messages to honor all graduates from public and private schools and other school districts that serve our city on our digital marquees and bus shelters.

So congratulations, Class of 2020. We are very proud of you. Also, just to let you know, we have been returning full-time city employees back to work. And this month we will be rolling out additional services for the public as we slowly move into the phase where we are opening various areas of our city. We have a return to work guideline with very detailed precautionary measures that we're taking to help ensure we do not spread COVID-19 and protect our employees and also members of the public that need to do business with us.

We have the rental assistance program that began taking new applications just yesterday, and we already have had an overwhelming response to that. We also have our small business grant programs where we've also received a large number of those grants. And finally, I would just like to do a shout out to the Public Works Department, since this is National Public Works Week, and they really do a fabulous job on going the extra mile to keep Santa Ana beautiful and safe. So thank you, Public Works team. And that's all, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Madam City Manager. I'm going to go down the list for the Council Member comments. I'll start with Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem —

councilmember becerra oh sorry about that had the mute on there uh thank you mayor pro tem um i i would like to also uh congratulate the class of 2020 uh from all the schools here in santa anna i mean this is definitely a a difficult time but you persevered and you got through it i also want to especially congratulate Santa Ana Saint Priscilla Arceo for her speech that she gave to a nationwide audience. I think she, I can say she made Santa Ana very proud in her, the delivery of her speech. It was amazing. I also want to echo the sentiment towards our

Phil BacerraItem —

public works staff during this National Public Works Week. We are right in the middle of that week and you know given all the work that they do to help our residents and our businesses I just want to say thank you to them and since we won't be meeting before May 25th I'd like to wish everybody a happy Memorial Day and let's always keep in our hearts and minds our military personnel who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country and our freedoms and with that I'd like to wish

everybody a good night thank you council member iglesias

yes thank you mary patami i just um want to thank staff for their presentations i also want to thank the um uh the city manager for you know following through with the uh celebrations for the for the graduates here in santa anna so i want to congratulate all of the seniors graduating from high school. You guys have made us proud. I know it's a very difficult time to be a senior and graduating at this moment. But, you know, we're very proud of you. And we're with you 100%. Just know that, you know, when you go out there, you know, into college, out into the world, don't forget about Santa Ana.

Come back and serve us here. Because, you know, we want individuals like yourself with leadership skills to come back and serve the great city of Santa Ana so I also want to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day weekend and thank our you know our Armed Forces and our veterans for your service and I just have a quick follow-up for the city manager with that said when are we going to start the I I would say the program of recognizing our veterans and military.

I know that's something that we had requested and I have yet to see it. So do you have any follow-up on that?

I'm sorry, Council Member. I don't have information right now, but I can certainly look into that and provide you an update on a timeline.

Yes, please. That would be nice. I know we've canceled a lot of the events and even the 4th of July event. So it would be nice to have that up and running so we can start recognizing them. So I just want to thank everyone for, you know, for your service. And also I just wanted to thank the students who have been able to pull through, you know, not just from Sanai Unified School District, but also, you know, Garden Grove Unified School District, and you have the individuals and charter schools.

And also I want to thank not only the high school students, but I mean congratulate not only the high school students, but also the graduates from our colleges. It's well deserved. I know there's a lot of individuals that weren't able to go through the commencement ceremonies, you know, graduating from college, from Santa Ana College, and from other universities. So I want to congratulate everyone. So with that said, Mayor Prochent, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity.

Thank you, Council Member. We're going to move on with Council Member Pinaloso.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I as well wanted to take the moment and the opportunity to congratulate the class of 2020. All our high school students here in Santa Ana, we're extremely proud of you and everything that you guys have had to face in the next three months. And you guys are our future. You know, the future depends on the decisions that you guys make in the next couple of years. So I'm very proud of you. Good luck to all of you. I was just thinking in my head that when you guys started, if there's any high school graduate listening,

David PenalozaItem —

when I graduated high school, you guys were starting your academic career as first graders. So it makes me feel really old, but just kind of putting it into perspective for me. So congratulations to all of you. and with that said have a safe Memorial Day and keep our veterans in mind Madam City Manager I know that here in Santa Ana we use it as a kind of like the everywhere the official summer kickoff and fireworks are a big big problem in our city that that come with the summer and Memorial Day

David PenalozaItem —

and Fourth of July so I haven't seen any updates I know last summer we did get an updates of what the police response and plan is going to be and OCFA for fireworks and the increase. I'm already hearing them nightly along with the helicopters. So it's important that we get on top of that and start making that public awareness and outreach to the community of fireworks being illegal in our community. and of course I have to remind all of you about the 2020 census so if you

David PenalozaItem —

haven't already done so please visit www.my2020census.gov and fill it out it's gonna take less than 10 minutes and you're gonna have a huge impact on your community for the next 10 years with that said thank you everybody and good

night thank you councilmember Peñalosa Councilmember Sarmiento.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. So I want to begin as well by saying congratulations to the graduating class of 2020. So I did see the graduation special that was hosted by LeBron James, President Obama, and I didn't realize how big a role that Santa Ana Saint was going to have on that show. 90 seconds in a one-hour show that's telecast, not only nationally, but probably globally. It was very well done. She made us all proud, and it looks like we're doing something good here in this city by being able to produce valedictorians like that. So I guess she spoke on behalf of all the valedictorians in the country.

So well done, and a shout-out to our former colleague, Salatina Harrow, who I know encouraged her to submit that application on behalf of all the valedictorians, and I know he probably had a hand in coaching her because he's a good speech and debate coach. What I did want to also mention is I understand that this rental assistance program has gotten tremendous response. And I was told that there's maybe a couple thousand applications already. And unfortunately, we're only going to be able to provide relief to maybe about 300 families and folks that are applying. So good work there.

I know that we still have some landlords that I guess are a little reluctant to fill out the W-9 forms that are required of them for the process to be able to be effectuated. So that, in addition to letters of notice that the tenants have to provide to the landlords, some landlords are also unwilling to receive those.

And I heard a very nice comment from somebody who was applying who was told by, I believe, CDA staff that in the event a landlord doesn't want to receive those letters of notice by the tenant who is basically saying I can't pay rent because of the pandemic consequences, that the city will receive those letters on their behalf just to have that notice provided. So a good job on behalf of our staff to be able to address that problem. And finally, just something, Madam City Manager, for you to think about as we approach the end of the month and our relief efforts, some of them are going to be expiring.

I know that communities like ours are certainly not ramped up to where they should be. They're still under pretty strict stay-at-home orders. I know Anaheim extended their moratorium on evictions, both residential and commercial, to the end of June. So extending it basically by another 30 days. I know we're still waiting to hear back from the state. But just something for us to think about that our neighboring city of Anaheim, which is just a little larger than we are,

although that's debatable I hear, you know, is making sure that their, you know, folks are kept safe as well. So just something for us to think about. I think that, you know, we still aren't out of the woods here yet, and I know that folks are just very nervous about the end of the month. So just something for us to consider about possibly going another extra 30 days. So with that, I'll wish everybody a great Memorial Day weekend. Thank you.

Councilmember Solorio thank you three three things some of it similar to what my colleagues have said for the small business grants and rental assistance I know both the county and the state are still kind of putting their package together of how they might spend money in those areas to the extent we could use our our our paid lobbyists and you know even all the council members I know we're all involved in in different ways that we can try to get more money for small business grants and rental assistance that would be fantastic because I think Anaheim try to one-up us on the rental assistance I forget if they're doing

like one two or three million in rental assistance so we're doing a 500 and so we ought to look at that you know too as the county opens up you know most of our communities there's some that like mask and being covet compliant and some not and i think just in terms of how we handle enforcement and what we can do will do encourage communications along those lines are going to be very important finally uh i myself have i myself have two uh two seniors one in high school and one in college michael saloria and diego salario so i congratulate them uh very

proud of them both students continue to struggle with distance learning tech whatnot I know our staff is looking at ways maybe to help our school districts and then I think the teachers as well because they equally have a tough time in that you know they had essentially no notice to all of a sudden begin doing distance learning and other other formats to teach their children so we support them sympathize with them and want to continue to help and I know the city is still looking at multiple multiple avenues of helping in addition to the to the recognitions of the high school seniors that's all thank you so

much thank you council members and my comments are great job to the staff for lighting up the water tower looks looks beautiful and I also had the pleasure of congratulating valedictorian Priscilla Arceo right after her appearance on national TV. It was great to speak with her. I'm so proud of her. I made sure we gave her a big congratulations on behalf of the mayor and the city council and all of the residents. I'm sure we all feel the same. Very proud of her. She has a bright future ahead of her.

And I also want to say a couple of words about the church fire. I want to thank OCFA for their hard work and the senate police department and public works all of them coming together to contain the fire put it out keep it you know safe while the investigation took place the city manager and i went out after the thing was pretty safe to go out and take a look at the damage that happened and to see what exactly the OCFA USAR unit was doing to go and do the investigation

and search to see if there was any human remains. And thank God there wasn't anything. And so I'm very proud for their work and everyone doing their part. It was just beautiful to see all the agencies come together for a common mission to take care of this, because this was something else. This fire was, you know, as you've seen the film, it's very, very, well, wow, it's just, you know, breathtaking. It's just so, well, it was a lot. And I'm glad no one was hurt.

none of our employees, none of the OCFA personnel. And, well, now we'll have to see what happens next because there's a big pile of debris there. And we are going to, the next meeting is Tuesday, June 2nd, 5 p.m. We are going to adjourn the meeting in the memory of the following individuals. Retired Santa Ana Police Officer Dan Armendariz, badge number 1517. Dan served the Santa Ana community for 30 years with distinction

and retired in good standing as a senior patrol officer and field training officer. Dan worked patrol, directed enforcement. He worked gang suppression, gang homicide unit, career criminal unit, Southeast District Ministry Community Policing Team, and he was a field training officer also.

Dan was loved by his community and respected by so many officers. He mentored and trained to be successful Santa Ana police officers with focus on community-based policing. Dan is survived by his wife Lynn, daughters Jennifer, Veronica, and Vanessa, son Jacob, and several grandchildren. The City of Santa Ana and the Police Department are forever grateful for Officer Dan Armendariz's service to the community. May he rest in peace.

Also, Evelina Oliver, Commissioner Evelina Oliver, has been a nurse BSN since 1987 and worked as a special education teacher from 1997 to 2014, teaching U.S. history at Santa Ana High School. Since 2013, she has been volunteering for a jail ministry at the women's jail here in Santa Ana. She started this school year as a volunteer for Christian release time education at Martin Luther Elementary School through Calvary Chapel and Pastor Cota.

Commissioner Oliver grew up and attended school in Laguna Beach from 1st through 12th grade and has lived in Santa Ana for 55 years. She is married and has six adult children. May they both rest in peace. This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.