Read the May 5 meeting.

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Councilmember Peñalosa?

Here.

Councilmember Sarmiento? Here. Councilmember Solorio?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Vegas?

Here.

Mayor Pulido?

Here.

Okay, we have a farm.

So with that, let's go ahead. Do you want to make any announcement, Madam Clerk, about people that can reach this on YouTube or anything of that nature?

I think the residents already know the process, but for the time of the public hearing item or non-agenda items that are going to be discussed, you may comment by calling the number that's listed on our website, and you would participate at that time, and we'll unmute you and let you know that you have three minutes to speak.

All right. So with that, why don't we let's go ahead and start the Pledge of Allegiance. If you can all stand wherever you are, we're going to do the pledge.

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, individual with liberty and justice for all.

Did that come across, Madam Clerk?

Yes. An invocation.

Is Jack Abilene there, our police chaplain? Is he on the line?

Yes, he is.

Go ahead. If you could do the invocation, please.

Thank you, sir. Father, we're so thankful this afternoon for this way that we can meet together and continue to carry forth certainly important city business. We do pray that, Lord, in these difficult times that you would be with our citizens, that you would be with our council, that you would give them great wisdom, you'd keep them healthy and well, watch over and protect them, and may their decisions tonight honor you and the things that you would have to accomplish with us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you for that. As we go into the consent calendar, I know I got a request from, I believe, Benyaloza and Stacey. We need her on item, I think, 11A, 11B. So we're going to push that towards the end of the consent calendar for the moment. But are there any other items on the consent calendar that people want to pull? Move the balance. Mr. Mayor? Yes.

Council Member Becerra, I'd like to pull item 11B and 19C.

All right. 11B, I was already going to push to the end. I'd entertain, if there are no other items, I'd entertain a motion on the balance of the consent calendar.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, may I please pull 25B?

David PenalozaItem —

Okay.

Any other items? If not, I'll entertain a motion.

So moved. Second.

Roll call vote. There's a motion on the balance in the consent calendar. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll, please?

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Iglesias? Council Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempiegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes. Now, I believe we need Council Member Iglesias for a couple of these items, but there's some we can take on without her. Let's go with those items.

I believe, Councilor Peña-Losa, didn't you have an item that you just pulled?

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I pulled 25B, which is approved municipal facilities license agreement with new singular wireless PCS. And I just had a question for the city manager and maybe the executive director of public works might want to chime in on this. I just had a couple of questions on what other companies we contract out with, or should I say, allow to use our city-owned utility poles.

David PenalozaItem —

I know this contract specifically calls out, or agreement, singular wireless, but I just want to know which other companies we work. because I know I've seen Verizon come across and other entities that I just don't want to keep, you know, with one staff report and one company, it doesn't look like a lot and it looks very minimal. But when you, you know, next month we'll have Verizon come forward again, and then the following month we'll have, so before you know it, we keep seeing these antennas that are not that aesthetically pleasing.

David PenalozaItem —

To the public driving by, you see them. They're huge. They're not small or really much hidden.

David PenalozaItem —

So I want to know what other companies we're doing this for or with, and when is it going to stop. Like, when can we say, you know, that's enough. We've had it with enough of these cell towers on our light poles. I said that at the last meeting, and I'll say it again, that I came in here with the idea to put all our utilities underground. And it just seems like we keep adding more and more at every council meeting. And I receive dozens of emails every week from constituents throughout the city that, you know, these things are ugly. And they are. I see them daily.

David PenalozaItem —

So, Madam City Manager, if anyone or Nabil is out there.

Certainly. Council Member Penalosa. So we expect that we're going to enter into three different MLAs. This is the second one that's before you for approval, so we do anticipate a third one will be coming for your consideration. I will defer to the public works director because he can talk about there are poles that we own that we do enter into these agreements to place equipment on, but there are also infrastructure poles out there that we don't own that they can go directly to the utility provider and also place equipment on those. So, Nabil, if you can speak to the difference between those two, that would be great.

And then maybe give them the names of the one they already approved and the third one that we anticipate.

Sure. We have been negotiating with three main companies that are providing small cell or 5G or 4G, 5G type of cellular service. They are Verizon, which we have an agreement with. AT&T, which is the item before you tonight. We are also in conversation with Crown Castle. That's our third provider that we will be coming forward with soon to be able to install small cell antennas within the city.

Now, providers like Verizon, AT&T, and Crown Castle have two options in installing small cell antenna one option is to use the existing edison power poles to install their antennas on that is controlled by the puc and those providers have agreement with edison to be able to use their poles to install the antenna the agreement before you tonight and the one that we engaged in

with Verizon a month or so ago allows for those providers to use the city-owned light poles to install antennas, which are much aesthetically pleasing antennas than the one you will see on the Edison poles. Those we have control over in terms of location a little bit more than the rest. So once the AT&T and Verizon start applying for the use of our streetlights, we will have a little bit more control on the look and the location.

Can you hear me?

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, I can hear you. So you said we would have more control on the look of it and the location?

uh yes you know the location is these antennas councilman need to be within i want to say 300 feet apart so you will see more of them but again the ones that will be installed on the light poles it will look like a cylinder on top of the wall with similar color and a little bit more kind of hidden, no wiring, no other boxes that are appearing. So the look will be a lot better

David PenalozaItem —

on the light poles. And are pictures of these cylinder antennas available at all? Because I know they weren't in the staff report. And I have seen them previously, in previous staff reports, and those, as much as we can sit here and say they are aesthetically pleasing, I do not believe that they are. Are there pictures available for these in particular?

Yes, we are actually working on a memo for Council on this item to explain to you what they would look like. Yes, they are much better looking than the ones that you've seen and familiar with that are installed on the power poles, the wooden poles. Those are different. The ones that we are engaging in tonight in this agreement with AT&T and Verizon before that would be a lot better looking installations than the one you are familiar with on the Power Pole again.

David PenalozaItem —

So how can we approve an agreement if we do not know what they look like? I mean, you might know, Nabil, but the public, nor I know what they look like.

Yeah, we do have design standards that have been approved by the city or by actually public works here. So we went back and forth and agreed on the looks of these installations. We will share that with you. Like I mentioned, we are working on a presentation to Council and also to the community to let them know about the installations and how they look like.

And I'll share that with you soon.

David PenalozaItem —

And that's great that we're working on that presentation, but we should make that presentation available to the community before these agreements are approved. And we should notify them of a potential antenna coming into their backyard versus letting them know after the fact, hey, by the way, this got put on a pole right behind your house yesterday. Just wanted to make sure you're aware of it. I would.

That's what. There is a process of notification and what you have seen so far is what Verizon has been sending out to the community to let them know about the installation. But again, there is two different types of installations that we have. We have the ones that go on the power pole and the ones that are going on the light pole. so they're different but there is a notification that all providers must provide to the residents before the installation is is done and complete and so there is it is notification process

David PenalozaItem —

that's good and uh you you said that each one of these has to be uh 300 feet apart from one another um can do we allow more than two providers to install antennas on one pole

not in this case no no co-location is not allowed on those there is not enough room

David PenalozaItem —

for more than one provider to be on the pole okay and um there was one more i i know that uh council member uh sarmiento has an item on the agenda uh tonight uh that is something that it is important that we, in regards to citywide or in certain areas, public access, are we in communication with these different providers and entities to be able to use that infrastructure that they're putting into our pools, making our streets look uglier than they already are,

David PenalozaItem —

to provide access to wireless internet? Or is it just for their benefit?

This particular installation are for their benefit. We, during our negotiation, we talked about providing service to the residents here, but that was not a feature that they're willing to provide.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. I guess that's it, Mr. Saba, pertaining to this item. I personally would like to make a motion to move the the or push the item out at least 30 days until we see this presentation and get actual exhibits and and images of what these are going to look like before we can approve an

agreement is that okay madam city manager are we gonna run at any deadline

for anything if we do that a 30-day continuing no mayor you'll be okay on that just to point out though again we've already approved one mla and this is the same type of an mla so but we certainly

can delay it just a 30-day continuance council member we do have at and t in the

i believe that the provider at and t representatives are here to speak on yeah but i think council

member wants a chance to sit down and review things and we're not going to do that right now why don't you just go for 30 days yeah just want to say that I

David PenalozaItem —

appreciate them being on the line thank you for for listening but we still why would still like to see that presentation and what exactly this this is gonna look like and make sure that the community is aware and the presentation that Public Works is putting together for the residents is available before any more of these items are approved so i don't know if we could have the presentation within the next two weeks mr saba and and and push this item out 30 days that would be

my my request and what i'd suggest is any council members instead sit down and we know we can review this and then we put it on the website let the community see everything we're doing so with that we have a motion for a 30-day continuous is there a second i'll second mr mayor councilman becerra okay roll call vote please madam clerk councilmember becerra yes councilmember iglesias

councilmember peña loza yes councilmember sarmiento yes councilmember soloria yes mayor put Tim Villegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido? Yes. Okay that's 6-1 with Councilmember Iglesias absent.

Mr. Mayor I have a general comment.

Mr. Mayor I'm not sure if you could hear me I have some comments because I didn't have the chance

earlier just a quick thing I think at some point moving forward maybe though we can disconnect sharing with the public what our policy is versus approving or not approving some of these vendors in part because we've already approved some as well as I think we approve the master policy right so I don't know why we would do something too different but I do get the point that the council members make in terms of the the public interface side and then maybe staff too in the interim could provide the council kind of the history on on these fees because it was kind of heavily discussed at the statewide level, maybe about three years ago.

And so they came up with a lot of these rules, including fees. And the counterpoint to concerns about making them nicer and other things is ultimately it means more cost to consumers on the cell phone side. And we all know that we have pretty expensive cell phones already, expenses. And so that's, I think, the legislature and the governor's consideration. but I think it'd be helpful for the council and the public as well. That's all.

Thank you for that. So is there any other item we can take on right now? Go ahead.

Yes, Mayor. I believe Council Member Becerra has pulled 19C that we haven't covered yet.

Go ahead. Council Member Becerra.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I pulled this item just because I had a couple of questions for staff. Madam City Manager, is Steven Mendoza available?

Yes, he is, sir.

Okay. I believe this would fall under his umbrella. So I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. First of all, thank you for the report. One of my main things that I'm really encouraged by is seeing that we're getting the applications out to the community for rehabilitation of existing homes. And I noticed in the report, it looks like, let's see, according here, it says due to the coronavirus application processing for the down payment assistance program, single family and mobile home rehabilitation programs are currently on hold. There are currently nine applications for the program. I'm sorry, 13 total for the programs.

Why are those applications on hold in regards to their processing? Certainly, Council Member. This is Stephen Mendoza. Thank you for the question. As you know, our down payment assistance program and our mobile home rehab program and our single family rehab program require inspections of the units to verify the improvements that are necessary to be completed and to verify deficiencies in the unit that will need to be corrected if we are to provide assistance with them. The on-site inspections place the homeowner and our staff at risk of infection due to COVID-19,

and therefore we place these programs on hold until we relax some of our restrictions regarding COVID.

Okay. No, I appreciate that. Thank you. And that's a very, very valid reason not to send our folks out there. another question i have is it looks like 165 applications were sent out for the down payment assistance program and 13 were received which is less than eight percent do you have an idea of why the city is not receiving more completed applications for this program there's some fundamental things that housing cost has never been higher is one of one of the reasons when you see these programs be very successful it's at a time when home prices are

lower so that's when cities beef up their their programs to assist it because assist these families because our money goes further in a down market in a higher market it takes much more of an incentive or should I say subsidy for each homeowner and they are challenged with finding a home that meets the requirements of the program when there's so few homes on the market and so many ones at a reasonable reach. And it's times like this in a high market when they look at condos more so. And that makes sense. And I bring this up because I really would like to see us as a city

really go towards strengthening homeownership. And programs like this, I think, gives our residents, those that have been here, a chance to become homeowners. I mean, these are folks throughout our city that, you know, have been renting, and, you know, they're working multiple jobs, and they're saving up. And, and I agree, Mr. Mendoza, that we see an economy that does not favor a lot of folks that are struggling, but with these sorts of programs that could help them, I would like to see us try to do whatever we can to bolster those. And hopefully, as we

we progress there'll be more opportunities to do that one other oh not one but another question I have is in your report under the rehabilitation program construction progress you mentioned that each homeowner is given a list of contractors that have been screened by staff for license and insurance requirements does that include that list does it include contractors that use union labor? It does. It doesn't exclusively require them to, though it does provide them a list of some with union labor and some without, but it doesn't categorize the contractors. The contractor

is still, yeah, it doesn't categorize the contractors. Well, I appreciate you including some union labor options for our residents because as the report states, obviously the homeowners owners are allowed to select whichever contractor, you know, as long as they meet the license and insurance requirements. So I just appreciate that the union labor folks are being included. As for any other questions at this point, I think I'm good. So thank you, Mr. Mendoza. And thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Any other questions? If not, I entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion to receive and file this report.

David PenalozaItem —

I'll second. Is there a second? Second by Council Member Penaloza. We'll call vote, please, Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Iglesias? Council Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Council Member Solorio? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido?

Yes. Let's just go on. We'll come back to 11 a.m. B. Why don't we just go on and continue on with our agenda for the moment. Is that okay with everybody?

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, this is Councilman Penaloza. I had a question just for the clerk.

Sure, go ahead.

David PenalozaItem —

I noticed that the, are we going, moving forward, are we going to be allowing the public to comment on items that are not public comment or hearings at all?

So for the other agenda items, you mean?

David PenalozaItem —

Not this city council meeting today, but I know last week or last city council meeting I brought up the question of why the public can't comment on every agenda item like we have when it's an open meeting.

They can. They just submitted by e-comment. And you'll see the numbers of e-comments in support and opposition. And then they're all posted on the website. So for the public hearing items and the non-agenda items are the ones that we open up the lines to. So if you're asking for all of the agenda items for the lines to be open to, I could definitely do that. I could talk to the mayor and see if that's something we want to move forward with.

Why don't we talk about it offline and pros and cons, but if we want to open it up, we can. And I just know they're trying to handle the technology and all. And I think we are getting a good number of comments from the public. But why don't we follow up on that, Council Member? We'll come back. Okay, thanks, Mr. Mayor. But I thank you for your question. Thank you.

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, it was just my ask just to provide further input and transparency to the public. Thank you.

And then, Mayor, the closed session report, we did not. We skipped over that section.

All right, let's go ahead and do that now. Madam City Attorney, anything to report out of closed session please?

No, we had several closed session items this evening but there was no

reportable action. All right. So then our next item, would we be out of the consent calendar for now? I know we got to come back to 11 a and b. Yes, so now we

are on business calendar item 60a.

Okay, I know we had a little bit of discussion on this in closed session.

Comments, thoughts?

Mayor, if I could just announce quickly, we did receive a huge number of correspondents. We received 35 that were in opposition to rent freeze and 144 in support of. And that is all available on the website.

Okay. Again, the pleasure of the council. We could simply leave things alone.

I believe it runs out right now at the end of May.

And that's what I would recommend. But I think the city, this is mainly a legal issue, I believe. And I believe the city attorney has spoken to all of us and is very confident that we're well within legal parameters to take the action that we took and empowering the city manager to take the action that she took.

Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Sarmiento. I'll go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll go ahead and move that we affirm the current order as written and directed by the city manager. I did just want to comment for everybody and thank everybody who wrote us. And, you know, again, I think that this was a very unfortunate exercise because I think that the city manager acted responsibly

and within the vested rights that we extended to her to go ahead and promulgate this additional relief and protection measure for our residents. This is primarily a public health and safety measure that she took, knowing that we are living in some very unprecedented times. There are folks that are not only worried about just paying rent, but also paying for food and medicine and just their daily lives.

And we, unfortunately, have many, many families and residents that have to make a choice sometimes between basic needs and rent. So this isn't a rental forgiveness. This isn't an indefinite rent freeze or a prohibition on rent increase. This is a very narrowly tailored measure that was drafted by the city manager at the request of many members of the council and also reviewed by the city attorney.

So although this may be read by others or interpreted by others to be something that it isn't, this is a public health and safety measure. And I think it was very, very narrowly tailored when it was drafted. It has a very clear sunset period. It doesn't go to an indeterminate time. It's not indefinite. It's set to sunset and expire on the 31st of this month, which is in 26 days.

And I know that staff in their report and also verbally have made sure that our friends at the California Apartment Association know that if there are any landlords that have any issues or are impacted or have any contractual obligations that they've extended to some of their tenants that there was a pre-existing agreement to adjust rent, that they're free to contact the city attorney's office, and hopefully she can opine on that. But my understanding is, from my conversations with her, is that her office has made themselves available to address any questions that they have.

And I think because we have a city that is 56% renters and tenants, we have a special responsibility or a more immediate responsibility to try to have protections in place And I was, again, a little offended by some of the suggestions that were made that the city manager acted outside her scope of authority that we granted to her. She certainly is well within her rights to do this. And it is part and parcel of a set and a series of relief measures that this city council took to protect its residents,

including the moratorium on residential and commercial evictions, the no shutoff of utilities, and so on. And so I think that there's been quite a bit of legal analysis from our team, and I think I feel pretty confident, and I know that the landlords that I've had conversations with certainly want to help more than harm or interfere with a person's right to stay at home during this time.

Unfortunately, folks were impacted in many different ways, and us playing with this issue or distorting this issue or using this issue as a political football is something that is really, really unfortunate, because instead of giving people solace, instead of giving people comfort, knowing that we're trying to get them through this moment, we're having to explain and talk about why we shouldn't rescind. And I should just say that this was done, again, after we received an unsolicited message from the California Apartment Association

recommending that we freeze rent and recommending that those that provide households to renters, that they also freeze rent. So I think that the city manager acted extremely responsibly. I'm certainly proud of all the other executive orders that she's issued, and I'm completely supportive of that. And so I just wanted to make a motion to have us affirm this order.

I'll second that Mr. Mayor Madam Clerk can you do a Five minute thing and just talk to us Because we don't have the lights or anything So just warn us if we're going Too long please We have a motion is there a second

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah I'll second it Mr. Mayor This is Councilmember Penaloza And I just wanted to echo what my colleague Councilmember Sarmiento said About the city manager I just wanted to thank her for her leadership Throughout this whole crisis and feel that she was very much in her duty to do this executive order and I appreciate that the key word to remember here is is temporary and and like what was said earlier you know this is a temporary order that has a sunset which is May 31st and so I don't know why we're even having this discussion I

I frankly don't either, but thank you, Councilman. I think there's no chance whatsoever anybody's going to sue us on this. And I think if they do, we'll win. I think we're 100% within our purview. But thank you for making the motion and the second. Other comments?

Mr. Mayor. Go ahead. Well, I think Councilman Peñalosa has to speak first. So go ahead, Councilman, then I'll follow. no that was it those were my comments no no I'm sorry but Sarah Phil Becerra is

wanting to speak thank you Councilman Solorio yeah no I just want to echo the sentiments of my other colleagues here in regards to thanking our city manager you know the council when we adopted our resolution back in March we put quite a bit of responsibility on her shoulders and I for one am very happy with how she has managed the city through this crisis I think she has been prudent yet compassionate in her direction and her orders and i think that this uh executive order uh exemplifies that uh one thing i just want to point out as we are talking about tenants you know

there's one thing that i i do appreciate that the apartment association pointed out and that is that we do have a lot of mom and pop landlords and these are folks that have you know they're not owning a gigantic apartment complexes they're owning duplexes or sometimes maybe just a single unit. And, you know, the good thing I want to remind folks is that our governor, Governor Newsom, back in March 16, requested that banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders implement some sort of moratorium on foreclosures. And less than a week later, the governor was able to announce that

our nation's four largest banks, and nearly 200 state charter banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders stepped forward and provided relief for property owners throughout California, whether it was grace periods on mortgage payments, waiving mortgage-related late fees, not starting any foreclosure sales or evictions. So I just wanted to put that out there that I think there's been some comments that I've received that our protections have been leaning more one way towards another. but I do appreciate my colleagues and our city manager for you know showing the compassion for

our community and our residents by implementing this freeze and I appreciate the way it has been implemented and I'll be supporting the motion as well. Mr. Mayor I'd like to speak if now's a good time.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I do have very mixed feelings on this item. On the one hand, I know that our city manager was just trying to do the right thing and help our residents. But this exercise is a good example of when there isn't good public review, that sometimes there are little flaws or defects left in the policies, and that's what I worry about, what could be financial liability for the city, and the residents themselves including renters just for context because i looked at a variety of the similar ordinances that are out there that that we've been hearing about and really ours is the

most aggressive uh also pretty much all the others exempted out and made reference to costa hawkins and other rent control laws to make sure that there weren't any conflicts with that and all the cities that tend to have those are rent control cities so they have an existing system for staffing it and answering questions and letting letting that the landlords know and and we don't I know references have been made to what we heard from the California Apartment Association and the call to action that they put out to their members the key thing is their call to

action was voluntary not not through regulations and not anything that would be in violation of contracts or laws or other things. I know too there's been made mention that this ends May 31st anyway and that kind of is true but the executive order also says it could be extended under a variety of circumstances especially if some aspects of the governor's executive order is extended. And if we do feel so good about all the legality around this colleagues vote to extend it another year why why why let it why let it sunset I do also just kind of general questions that don't need to be

answered now but maybe separately in writing from our our city manager I mean our city attorney or if she after I speak would like to speak to them why didn't we limit the applicability of this just to residents renters that have an impact related specifically to kovat our prior executive orders and the governor's executive orders are all very tailored on that you know I generally you know believe as you've heard that you know really is through rental assistance if we want to help renters that's the way to do it let's focus more

on that I also do think that the Q&A that's on the city's website there's a Q&A and I'll mention one here for example the question is that my lease agreement has an automatic rental increase provision that takes effect before May 31st and can my rent be increased and it says yes the city's rent freeze is not intended to affect rent increases that take effect pursuant to an existing valid lease agreement or other contractual agreements what that really means is a lot of folks can and will be seeing rent increases. It's my understand that even at some of the affordable housing projects that we have

in our city that they're being allowed to increase rents and maybe that could be another question that could be answered by our city attorney afterwards. So for those reasons I do just worry that even though this might sunset that there is still a statute of limitations and you know landlords or others including the mom-and-pops and we've got many letters from them they could sue and the city would be possibly liable and then I worry that the renters themselves may then also be liable for any rent increases that that they

weren't allowed to implement so those are the reasons why for those legal defects that I believe exist in the executive order that I cannot support just laden it phase out. I think it'd be better to rescind it or to fix it because there's just too many flaws right

now. Thank you. All right. Well, anybody else? If not, let me just say I think that's a matter of opinion. I support our city attorney and what she's doing. I support the city manager. I even told the city manager i'm not sure why this is even on the uh agenda frankly because i think she acted completely within her rights uh and i will be really really surprised if anybody challenges but if they do uh we'll fight it and uh and if we were to extend it for a year then a lot of people would would would uh sue but that's not what we're talking about and the city

The attorney wouldn't recommend that either. I understand that Council Member Iglesias will not be joining us this evening. I was just informed by our city clerk. So with that, if there's no additional comment, we have motion to second. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa? Yes. Council Member Sarmiento? Yes. Council Member Soloria?

No.

Mayor Pro Tem Viegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes. Excuse me, Madam City Clerk, did Council Member Solorio vote? I didn't hear that.

Yes. No. Council Member Solorio did vote and he voted no.

Okay, I didn't catch that. Thank you.

Motion passes 5-1 absent. Council Member Iglesias and Solorio dissented.

Okay, I believe we're on item bound.

David PenalozaItem —

Madam City Clerk, I think you read that backwards. You said...

Motion passes.

David PenalozaItem —

But you said Iglesias said no and...

No, I said Councilmember Iglesias is absent and Councilmember Solorio dissented.

David PenalozaItem —

Got that. Thank you. And is Councilwoman Iglesias not joining us at all for the rest of the evening?

That's correct. Not at all. She's not coming in at all tonight.

David PenalozaItem —

Wow, not surprising.

So let's just continue. Item 60B.

Any comments?

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, I have a comment, Mr. Mayor. This is Councilmember Penaloza. 60B was just to discuss the Orange County Superior Court Commissioner's order to release individuals with prior sexual assault convictions early and into the community. This is in response to, as for those listening out there, we're all aware, the numerous sex offenders that have been released under Commissioner Dane's authority, court order, I believe, over the last couple of weeks, that have now been rearrested again for other crimes, just causing harm in our community.

David PenalozaItem —

And this was put forward because initially I wanted to send a strongly worded letter or by ways of a letter or a resolution or denouncing these decisions that are having a detrimental effect on our community and just causing more harm than anything. We've all read District Attorney Spitzer's press releases and Sheriff Don Barnes' press releases in relation to this. So it's just troubling all around what's happening.

David PenalozaItem —

And the types of people that are being released onto our streets every single day, having the county jail in our city, is troubling and keeps me up at night. And I don't have kids to worry about, and I don't have a personal family that I have to look over. And just the thought of these monsters lurking out on our streets with children and women, it's troubling. And I don't know what we can do legally to, you know, I don't think we could reverse these decisions.

David PenalozaItem —

But just moving forward, whatever options we can do as a city to stand against these numerous different court decisions that are being – which is, again, I don't understand the legality behind it or what we could do. But just wanted to state my strong opposition to these decisions, specifically by Commissioner Dane, appointed court commissioner. Thank you for that.

Any other comments?

Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Yes, go ahead. I just wanted to thank the Santa Ana Police Department for re-arresting one of those individuals that was let loose.

That shouldn't have been freed in the first place, but that's between the commissioner and the governor. And we will stay vigilant here in the city, and I'm sure our police department will continue to do the great job that they're doing trying to protect us. And this is just terrible when these individuals, you know, the commissioner, for example, are being a little reckless, in my opinion, for, you know, for the safety of the public. That's my comment.

Thank you for that. Other council members comment?

Mr. Mayor, Council Member Becerra here. I want to echo the Pro Tems comments in thanking our police department for arresting one of the seven that was released early from jail I could go on about what this particular individual did within 17 days after being released early from only serving 71 days of a 6 month sentence but I think if I did that we'd be beeping out half of the broadcast this particular individual has done some very disturbing and disgusting crimes. And much of what he did was in this community, was in Santa Ana. This isn't somebody that's roamed the county.

He's done it right here. I know Council Member Penaloza sent a letter to Commissioner Dane, and I know, Mayor, thank you as well for doing the same. I sent a letter expressing my disappointment that this person, this commissioner, would do such a thing. and to do it under the guise of a pandemic is just that much more disturbing and i'd just like to close my comments and thanking our district attorney todd spitzer for bringing this solution or solution excuse me the situation to light and to the public's attention and as the pro tem said i

concur that we will stay vigilant uh these sorts of things are just atrocious and we do have to

remain on guard about that thank you thank you um i'd like to request with the council's uh concurrence um i want to go meet with a presiding judge um and echo all of our sentiments to that judge that oversees this commissioner um i really don't think this commissioner is on the right track to ever become a judge and I'd like to put our our letter into his record into his file and again with a formal complaint registered to the

presiding judge I think that'll send a very strong message through the courts and if there's no opposition to that it's something I'd like to suggest that

that I do on behalf of the council. Mr. Mayor this is a council member Sarmiento I know there's also a state commission that oversees judicial conduct so maybe that commission well no that's the appointment committee but there there's a judicial conduct governing agency that oversees again judicial and conduct from the bench so I think if you're if we're going to maybe file something with the presiding judge, it should be copied to the commission as well.

Point me in the, yeah, let's do that, Council Member. Please make sure we're saying it to the right folks. But I think if we do that, that'll send a very strong message to any other judge and commissioner that is engaging in this activity. They don't like to have these type of complaints in their record. And I think this warrants, you know, such a complaint.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Penaloza. If I could add to your request. I am supportive of that. And I would also ask that maybe you having that relationship with the mayors throughout the county, we reach out to the other 34 cities. And because I've seen the negative response that they've had to this commissioner, maybe having them also address it through a letter similar to ours or add their their their signature to a letter. So it could be a unified effort that this is countywide and not just Santa Ana, because these are.

Look, I have a call with them. It's about a pandemic. You know, we're mainly talking about coronavirus, but I have convened all the mayors in the county and at different calls. they've been on there we're speaking once a week so i'll i'll i'll definitely communicate this to them um and let's see how many uh uh join and issue their own letters i bet you we're going to get a lot of letters absolutely we have a lot of good cities here in orange county and we all care about the county and the future of the county and and what's going on and and the

pandemic right now is a problem that we have in common. But this, this one as well with sex offenders. So with that, what any other action? Do we vote on anything? What's the pleasure of the council?

Well, Mr. Mayor, if what you're suggesting is a motion, I would second it. I want to include Council Member Penaloza's suggestion as well.

look just uh let's go ahead and make it uh a motion uh is there a second

i'll second it mr mayor councilman becerra call vote okay okay mayor you're the one who

motioned it is that correct yes okay councilmember becerra i seconded yes Councilmember Peñalosa

Yes

Councilmember Sarmiento

David PenalozaItem —

Yes

Councilmember Solorio Yes Mayor Potem-Viegas Yes Mayor Pulido

Yes

That's 6-1

What's our next item, Madam City Clerk?

So we still have items 11A and 11B from consent and public hearing item 75A

all right let's just do 11 a and b to because we were going to wait for originally really councilman iglesias uh maybe it indicated she wanted to participate but she's not going to be in so no point in waiting any longer so let's go on to item uh 11 a and 11 b we just can we just have a motion on both of them it's just a second uh a second readings yeah i'll make a motion uh

David PenalozaItem —

This is Council Member Pinaloza. I'll make a motion to approve Item A, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Which would be denied.

I'll second the motion for Item 11A.

All right. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Pinaloza?

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio?

Abstaining again. Thank you.

Mayor Potem-Viegas? Yes. And Mayor Polino.

Yes. Same thing. I'll entertain a motion on item 11B.

Motion to approve. Mr. Mayor, well, hold on. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Becerra, I have a question of staff before we go forward, and that is the motion to approve last week for item 11B had two conditions that I added, and it just doesn't seem from the resolution clear. I don't think it would jeopardize the readings by having those included because they were part of the record at the last meeting. So if staff wants to clarify that for me as to their inclusion.

Certainly, sir. If you look on the item and you look on the attachment, those changes that were requested for a number of you at the last meeting are incorporated in the attachment to the staff report.

So I'm looking at the staff report. So it's a 38 page PDF. What page am I going to? Go to 11B-21. 11B-21. Okay. And so just for clarification, why are they down this far versus the first ordinance in this packet? I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure I understand your question. So this 11B-20 has the ordinance, but yet page 11B-1 also has an ordinance that doesn't have the same language for looks like

section F or I'm sorry subsection F of section 1. I think council member what

you're looking at is a red line version versus what was originally submitted so that the public yeah there's two versions so that the public and the council members can see that there were two different versions one red line and

one okay and in regards to the project labor agreement so looking at 11b 20 and 11b 21 see at such meeting I don't see anything in regards to the project labor

agreement I'll ask the planning director to answer that question so the project

labor agreement all the conditions that were added at the previous meeting council member is in the mutual agreement okay and is that mentioned that mutual agreement is that mentioned here in the ordinance yes and can you point out to which section that's that'd be

in the amended section g correct um i'm reading it on 11b-21 of the top paragraph where it talks about the special request and the additional terms are included in the mutual declaration of acknowledgement and acceptance of approved conditions that will need to be signed by the developer and recorded against the property.

Okay, and those, the mutual declaration of acknowledgement and acceptance of approval conditions was, I believe Mr. Tai was what we discussed last time as to where to incorporate those conditions, correct? That's correct. That is correct. Okay, Mr. Mayor, I'm okay then moving the item.

Second. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Solorio. Roll call vote, please.

Before proceeding, I just want to make sure that the council is aware that there was correspondence received on 11B. There were two in opposition and nine in support of the project. Councilmember Becerra?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Councilmember Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Councilmember Sarmiento?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Councilmember Solorio? Yes. Mayor Potem-Viegas? Yes. Mayor Pulido? Yes. Is our next item 75A or what's our next item?

Yes, 75A, which is a public hearing item.

Okay, this is time and place for public hearing item 75A. Let me just ask staff, is there any brief presentation or anything that you would like to add for the record?

Yes, sir. I'm going to ask our executive director of community development just to go over the first few slides, explaining what the item before you is all about. But it will be very brief.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to start on page 7 of the presentation. A consolidated plan is our five-year plan or strategic plan to use three different funding sources of CDBG money, home money, and ESG money from HUD, and that is for the period of July 1, 2020 through June 30th of 2025. five so the consolidated year is a five-year plan it anticipates resources of about eight million dollars a year adding up to forty million dollars over the five-year period it prioritizes needs in the areas of expanding supply of affordable housing preserving the supply of affordable housing access to its

supply of public services increasing access to and supply of homeless services and to promote economic opportunity the strategic plan goals are matched to the funding as you'll see in page 10 of the slide and in your staff report and then the question might come up of what is the 2020 the 2020 to 2021 annual plan well that's required every year so basically every year of the five-year period we come to you with an annual plan and this is the annual plan for that first year of this five-year period and with that i want to thank judson brown and his

staff for doing this they did this in-house this year instead of hiring a consultant were able to get the same input from the public and get this through his commission and did a really good job and saved the city a little bit of money in the process good how much money did we save um about

$60,000. Let's add that to the city manager's list of all the money that she's been saving us lately. I think she finds money every week.

Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers that wish to address this on this item? Yes,

mayor, we do have two speakers who virtually raised their hand. Okay, go

Go ahead.

Please clearly state your name in support or opposition to the item. You have three minutes and you have been unmuted.

Hello.

Hello. You may speak now. You have been unmuted.

Hello.

Hi. You have been unmuted. you have three minutes to speak on item 75A.

Okay.

Oh, okay. Do we have translation if not one of us can do it?

We do have Cesar. He's going to take a moment to walk down here, and we can proceed with the next person. Si puede esperar un momento y vamos...

Espera un segundito. Ahorita le convimos al traductor. Okay. Okay.

Who's next, Madam Clerk?

Hi. Please state your name, and if you're in support or in opposition to the item NY, you have three minutes.

Hi. My name is Luis Armiento. Good evening, everyone. I'm calling on behalf of Thrive Santa Ana, our local community land trust, whom all of you are familiar with.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm in favor or opposed to the item, but I would like to ask for the inclusion of community land trust as a useful tool for the city to meet the objectives outlined in this five-year plan so that we can build housing affordable housing that will be responsive to the local needs to the local income levels that we've identified are most needed clts are also a way of ensuring permanent affordability that will stay

with the land and it's also a smart way of making these public investments in a way where that public investment will be retained in the long term and also you all know that the organizations and residents that have formed thrive santana have a great track record of ensuring community participation and accountability to local residents which we feel is essential in this five-year plan. And so I would like that to be included in this five-year plan.

We know that funds like CDBG, like HUD funds could make a big impact in the way that we do housing in Santana, especially with the use of surplus land and also taking advantage of tenant opportunity to purchase policies, which are being proposed at the state level and potentially at the federal level. So that's my comment.

And if – I don't know if the correct way to proceed would be to request for the inclusion of these of the community land trust in as part of the strategies moving forward otherwise I would say maybe I'm opposed to the item as it stands or if there's a way to include these things moving forward we'd

be happy to work with city staff thank you for your comments Luis do we have friends waiting yet yes he's here now ya puede hablar en pie empiece con su comentario por favor

hola sí mi nombre mi nombre es pausto ramírez estoy viviendo aquí en santana por más de 15 años yo estoy pidiendo que nos apoyen a que no no sin no nos suban o no incrementen las rentas en estos momentos tan difíciles que está ahorita todo porque a veces que no podemos salir la pandemia no los niños en casa el tema ya lo

ya lo tratamos anteriormente ok que nos sigan apoyando igual como siempre no han apoyado y the letter and look at the mentors that it was boy again okay no no see I can

said it okay okay go ahead these are friends I think he's talking on the

wrong item but go ahead yes he's talking about this is Soto Ramirez and I've been a Santa Ana resident for over 15 years and I asked for your support not to increase the rents and these are hard times with the pandemics and there's kids are staying at home so please help keep helping us in this this situation

okay so with that i'm going to go we have one of the public hearings

yes we have one more speaker okay

um please please state your name in support or opposition to the item and why you have three minutes you have been unmuted can you hear me now yes we could hear you perfect um so my name is

nathaniel greensides and i wanted to mirror some of what luis armiento offered about um the community block grants and mirror some of the stuff that he was saying um but also i additionally wish to offer that on this item had a chance to look at the massive document that was prepared for or all these funds that are going to be used here in Santa Ana. And I think these are an excellent way to ensure that there's positive development in our city, especially for areas that are needing it. My only request is that the city work into its plan, because I didn't see anything. Forgive me for not having the time to review the whole document.

I didn't see anything in the plan that ensured that residents and any sort of qualifications for who gets to have say on how these funds are ultimately used in our neighborhoods, just build into the plan that there's direct involvement of residents who are being directly impacted by these funds that are being used, especially for community block development grants. Because if given to the correct hands, I think it has a really big potential to serve as a beacon here in Santa Ana, as many other places have done all around the nation, to ensure that all kinds of community development corporations, as well as community land trusts,

are offering control of the land and the place on which their buildings reside and for future generations for themselves and for their kids. And thank you.

All right. Any other speakers?

We have no other speakers, Mayor.

All right, let me close the public hearing and bring it to Council for consideration.

Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Sarmiento. Go ahead.

And this is more a question for staff, I guess, and I know these documents are more goal-oriented. They're not really – they're more high-level and principles, I guess, for us to move forward on. Would there be any disruption to the whole scheme of different methods of achieving those goals by including a community land trust reference in there since we've already done one? Is that something that would be contrary to any of the objectives that are in there?

no it would be getting maybe a little too specific as you were really alluded to I think they're already included in the process they certainly could already apply for the NOFA's that Judson sends out his RFPs notice of funding availability they certainly are on the list and would be included in that and they would be included on the area of supplying affordable housing just like any other developer would community land trust I think is covered already by some

broad-based principles. Okay. I just think sometimes things get lost and maybe if we footnote it or if we do something to reference that there is going to be an effort to try to also invite them to apply. Again, to make it... I'm sorry. If you remember last year,

we actually adjusted to allow long-term leases in which they were a benefactor of, if you remember for their property.

Right. So I understand that there's nothing to exclude them. I just want to make sure that in the event that we wanted to include language in there, again, we could get real specific and start including a bunch of others, and then it turns into, instead of a 6-inch document, it turns into a 12-inch document. But again, I think because there is such a need for having residents participate in this, this is one vehicle. So just something for us to consider.

Thank you.

Thank you for that. I'd entertain, if no more comments, I'd entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

Is there a second?

Solorio, second.

Thank you. Roll call vote, Madam Clerk, please.

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

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempe Vegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion carries.

So, Madam Clerk, are we on 85A or where are we now?

Yes, we are on 85A. And we did not receive any public comments on that item.

So, I will defer to Council Members Becerra and Peña-Losa, please.

Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This item is a subject matter that I would like for us as a city council to address. There have been instances where members of our council have frankly ducked votes for no stated valid reason. I believe that we have a responsibility to the community to participate in the decisions that are presented to us unless there is an absolute valid reason, a legal reason or something that truly prevents us from participating in a vote. to clarify and enshrine our obligation to participate in votes on matters before us

i would like to ask my colleagues to support directing our staff to draft language for policy that requires all city council members present at a meeting to be required to vote for or against the motion unless a council member is disqualified by either a stated conflict of interest or some other valid legal reason.

Chancellor Member Peñaloza, additional comment?

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say that I agree with what Council Member Serra said. We all took an oath to uphold this office and carry out the duties that come with it and by constantly choosing to abstain from votes. And I think this just requires a bigger conversation because it's not just about abstaining. You know, we should all be present, you know, just period, to take these hard votes that keep us up at night. I mean, I have yet to miss out on a vote as a sitting council member, as we've seen today.

David PenalozaItem —

You know, I've seen from my colleagues just kind of disappear when there is sensitive issues on the agenda that they don't want to go on the record for. That's just plain and simple. And I think it's important that we all carry out the duty that we were elected to do and really be that voice for our constituents, the public, and be present and take vote unless we're not legally allowed to. especially after the city attorney says that we're legally allowed and okay to take a vote I mean there's no reason why people should be abstaining for anything

David PenalozaItem —

I mean if that's the case then then if you're gonna abstain or disappear I mean this you shouldn't be a council member and that's the it's plain and simple I'm not gonna sugarcoat it but that's where I'm at so I am supportive of directing the city manager and staff to come back with a policy that could really just lay this out for us what can we legally do what any possible consequences of abstaining from votes when we're legally okay to vote on it's just unfortunate that we even have to discuss this and that's basically it

mr mayor if i may add yes go ahead thank you i i i just want to also be clear you know while there was an example of it tonight and there have been at least two others since my uh joining of the council i'm not directing this at any one person and i hope that everybody understands that one thing about me is that you know if there's a problem let's tackle it let's solve it and let's move on it you know one time it happens you kind of hope okay it doesn't happen again unfortunately it happened multiple times and you know if we need to have um some sort of

ordained rule in place then that's unfortunately or fortunately the direction that i think we need to go so i i want to thank councilmember pelosa for uh supporting this direction as well and i I, again, hope that my colleagues will support staff coming back to the Council of Policy.

Additional comment, Council Members.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor. Go ahead, Council Member.

You went first. Go ahead, Council Member.

Yeah, this is Sarmiento. So thank you to Council Members Peñalosa and Becerra for bringing this. So this is more directed to our City Attorney. So, Madam City Attorney, I don't know if we can bring back policy on well-settled California law, which talks about conflicts of interest, which creates the necessity for abstentions and recusals. So, to the extent that you reference those laws or those code sections, Sonia, maybe you can as we talk about this.

But I think there are some very clear, again, state law references that we can talk about. You know, when we have a conflict, you know, are they conflicts as a result of an economic interest? Sometimes you can abstain based upon the perceived conflict of interest. So, you know, there is a lot of, you know, unfortunately a lot of literature on this. But to the extent you incorporate that as background, I think if we do take any position that it's consistent with those dictates.

Yes, Council Member, I would absolutely make sure whatever proposal came forward is consistent with state law. And then there may be, as you just mentioned, some further policy decisions for the council to make with respect to when you might want to allow someone to abstain based on a potential. I also see a situation where perhaps someone discovered a potential conflict and did not have enough time to request an FPPC letter. So we might definitely have state exclusions, and then we might want to add a couple for practical exclusions.

No, thanks. And those are my comments. I know the mayor and I have had to, you know, again, abstain, but obviously that abstention requires some explanation. So it can't just be an abstention because you choose not to take a position. I think that abstention or recusal has to be well-founded on some cause or some reason, and that has to be articulated publicly. So I think that's where the policy would be helpful and would give us some guidance and direction.

Correct.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, this is... Additional comments. Yes, go ahead. I just want to thank Councilman Sarmiento for bringing that up. And I want to make sure that we, I'm very aware of that, and yeah, if there is a legal reason why you have to abstain, as we've seen Council Members, or we've seen most of my colleagues do in the past, a lot of the times we do state for the record why we're abstaining from a vote, and that's great. I mean, that's good that we're allowed that if there's any conflict of interest. But in the event that there is no conflict of interest and you just decide to not vote just because, I mean, that is where the issue is.

David PenalozaItem —

And I wanted to make sure that we're clear on the two different reasons. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, this is Councilman Solorio. I do thank my colleagues also for bringing this forward. I think as part of what comes back, definitely we also need to just clarify abstentions versus recusals versus actual legal financial conflicts. because sometimes folks have recused themselves, really for no solid legal reason, but really just abstaining. And I'm not saying it's necessarily a problem, if anything, too. Just as part of this review, if the city attorney's office can look at the attorney general's opinion,

which isn't very old. Kamala Harris a few years ago as AG set up you know the criteria for abstaining at City Councils as well as the League of Cities and others have have a lot of good writing on that and what I found interesting in re-reviewing those things again a key thing with those kinds of things is also who's eligible for quorum purposes as well as you know whether if somebody can stay in the room or not so I think all those practical applications and issues are important as well but I think it's important that we as someone mentioned

earlier that we try to anchor anything and either state law or in or in you know prior opinions and legal case law on this. Thank you. Mr. Mayor Juan

Villegas. Go ahead. So a quick comment. Thank you Mr. Mayor. So one of the things that I want to thank Councilmember Sarmiento for bringing this up on this item. You know his comments and you know I was asking myself so what would be the threshold for a valid legal reason to abstain? You know there's a lot of A lot of times when we recuse ourselves, it's in the abundance of caution. We always say that, and it's very vague. It's a little bit of a gray area. And then again, if we did come up with some kind of policy, but suppose the council member were to abstain anyway.

Even though our colleagues are saying, no, we have a policy, you need to. And he says, no, this is my reason, and you're not going to force me. I'm going to continue to abstain. So those are some of the things I think about and I think there is a lot. I mean, we need to think about this a lot more than just make a decision now. But if the staff wants to look at it and if the city attorney would like to render more an opinion and more information to us, I'd be glad to look at it. And that's my comment.

Thanks for that comment. Additional comment?

David PenalozaItem —

Just really quick, Mr. Mayor, to add to that. Go ahead. And I think that's the whole intention of this item on the agenda, not necessarily to make a firm decision right now, but just to direct staff, including the city attorney, the city manager, the clerk of the council, and all parties involved to look at any area where these policies exist, if they do, and bring them back to us, bring them back in a staff report as an agendized item for further discussion and consideration. If it becomes a receiving file, then with just information, then so be it.

David PenalozaItem —

But just gathering that information to see what other cities have, if they do, I mean that's the whole point of this is to bring back additional information so that we could really dig into it and and have a broader discussion but thank you

those those are my final comments mr. mayor just if I may add one more thing and that is I want to clarify at least from my intention that I would like to see something again you know if it is a receive and file because there's nothing realistic that we can adopt as a council, that's okay. But my intention in bringing this forward is to hopefully bring forth an actionable item, something that would enshrine that unless you have a reason that's somehow ingrained in state law or other case law or something that really is a valid reason that you cannot participate in a vote. I would like to see us have policy that

does as much as possible to require participation, whether we want to call it abstentions or anything else. I mean, really just to cut down to the bone at the end of the day, it's to get full participation on votes from this council. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Look, let's see what

staff, what thoughts they have. And I'd suggest before anything be brought forward, let's, you give them some time to do some uh you know research etc uh you know at the end of the day i think there's we're going to find that there's a lot of law on this already uh it's something the fdpc goes in a great detail um and ultimately it's between you know council members and the voters and and um you know that relationship and that in that trust uh so i don't know that we'll be able to come up with any policy that's going to result in sanctions or fines or things of that nature.

I think that's why we have the FBPC. But look, I think no harm, no foul. I think the intent is clear. Let's give staff some time and let's go from there. So I think that's enough for discussion on this item. I believe we have another item, Madam City Clerk. Yes, 85B and we

did receive a total of two correspondence and both of them, yeah, and both were just indicating comments on the housing opportunity ordinance. Okay,

this is an item brought forward by Councilmember Jose Solari. Why don't you go

ahead councilmember thank you mr. mayor and then i bring this forward really just to tee it up to you know for my colleagues uh i know we have a you know obviously you know the the brown act and um i really am taking this opportunity to give an update on behalf of our ad hoc committee uh on uh reviewing the housing opportunity ordinance uh to put items on the agenda you know you you really you know can't be calling everybody and so I'm always concerned about about perception and not violating the Brown Act but really I'm here to talk on the work of the ad hoc committee and I know mayor pretend Villegas is also on the

committee in case he wants to add anything and the other ad hoc committee member is a councilwoman Iglesias I wanted to bring this forward because really is probably almost a year ago mr. mayor that you created this ad hoc and we did a lot of good work last year all the way into December and after December you know we've been just trying to meet up again but that but that was proving hard so I think staff was gonna just follow up with the work of the committee put the recommendations and policies and some kind of written format and then and bring it to the council.

You know, obviously COVID and other things continue to slow us down, but good progress has been made. And I think, you know, at the end, I'll ask staff to give an update on when something might come back to the full council with review of the committee's work. But the kind of things we were talking about was right now, many people don't know it, but the developers that have to pay this or do this policy is very limited, and there's an interest in maybe having a few more projects and a few more areas be included in this, and that would, over time, bring in more revenue for the funding

that is largely coming from the in-lieu program. And so that is important because there continues to be a need for affordable housing. but we've also have heard including from some stakeholder meetings that staff did last year there's you know a variety of ideas out there and I know too from my colleagues you know ideas about trying to incentivize more for sale affordable as opposed to just renters because there's a lot of value in creating you know folks that can own property rather than that rather than rent all their life I think that's important we also talked about further rehabilitation of substandard

rental units because it's easier to rehab and make affordable existing housing rather than building brand new one. Also in terms of the eligibility of the in-lue fund, you know, sometimes there's interest in the small community center, a little bit more of an open space area, playground for the children, a little bit more parking, and those things should be eligible as well I do also think that given where we're at with with you know kovat and not just the health consequences but the economic consequences that us doing

something to incentivize this program reform it we also heard from some that for certain types of projects the fees are too high and so that might be something to be looked at as well and that we did that review and again staff is putting all those things together I'll just conclude with one question to staff whoever wants to come up and if my colleagues have items fine if not the key question I have for staff is the work of the ad hoc and bringing policy ideas and recommendations forward when the staff envision bringing that back to the council because that would be really an excellent time as well for giving

feedback and by then hopefully in the staff report there'd be some things in

writing to review I'm councilmember staff is currently working on doing the calculations and everything that the ad hoc wanted them to research and we hope to have it back before the full council in the month of June so maybe about 30

days okay earlier may be better but June is fine I know we're working you know on the budget in June and May but that would be fine thank you thank you for

that to council member um if there are no other comments uh let's mr mayor i have a comment this

David PenalozaItem —

is council member penaloso uh my only comment was that if if we're gonna really have this this uh this discussion and we should have it uh uh in regards to the housing opportunity ordinance and any other uh factor for that matter uh any report i would hope that it doesn't come to us until we We are back in full service. We're open to the public. We allow that public input because that's a huge component that we need to take into consideration when amending any of these things is public input. And if we're not gonna have that, if we're gonna allow very minimal comments,

David PenalozaItem —

just e-comments by 5 p.m., that's not appropriate to do. So I would hope that we have this discussion until we're 100% back in service and open to the public.

i i would concur with that that comes from penulosa that um you know right now we're in a you know a semi-functional mode we're doing the best we can but this is uh you know we're under a attack by the covet virus right um and even though you know our instinct is just to continue to try to do everything uh there's some things that are best done uh under normal circumstances let's call them so I I would just echo that and tell staff if you guys need more time it's not

that you need more time to do some of the analysis but as I think we need more time to you know have a more you know robust consideration of all these items so I would continue to you know look towards the city manager to run the city on many levels making a lot of day-to-day decisions some of which maybe we would normally be a part of right now we can't and we understand that um and you know we haven't even spoken about the virus but you know unfortunately our numbers are growing in town

and um uh it's uh it's a big uh you know big issue that uh it's the 800 pound gorilla in the room right now I mean many of us are not even in the room because of that so let me just thank Councilmember Solario for bringing this forward if there are no more other comments Mr. Mayor I'd like to yes go ahead look just

for the record because I know we're trying to give some guidance to staff and that's what these 85 items are normally for I just want to echo what you and Councilmember Peñalosa said I think because we're also kind of operating with the skeletal staff we're mostly performing triage right now just to make sure that our organization can you continues to provide baseline frontline resources and support for our residents yeah to the extent that you know really large items like this are done in the light of day when we have public participation that's going to be thorough and robust.

I just want to echo the sentiment so they hear from one more council member as well on this item. Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Mr. Mayor, just one final thing. I'll say thank all my colleagues for this. And again, it was just meant to be an overall update and hear from staff a little bit. I do like the idea of large projects having real dialogue and debate. and I think in June we also have budget work to do, and maybe that even starts at the second meeting in May. And I know as the governor is beginning to allow the state to open up a little bit more, starting this Friday, that maybe staff can begin to think about whether we might be able to open up in a broader way as soon as the second meeting in May, but at the very least in June,

because one of the most important documents there is is a city budget because that speaks to, you know, our values and our priorities, and that is an item as well that I think we should prioritize for good public dialogue, including housing and other items. Thank you.

All right. I would say to that that I think we right now need to rely on the public health officer and let's see what phase we are within meetings. The last thing we want to do is add to the problem. And I know the city manager has been working very hard on the budget, and certainly that needs full transparency. But I think hopefully in the near future they can place that on the city web site

and at least what we're thinking and continue to get input on that.

But we have two more 85 items. I think we have, is it 85C?

Yes, that's correct.

And then 85D?

That's correct, Mayor. And we did receive one correspondence in support of the free internet Wi-Fi.

All right. That was Councilman Sarmiento, the internet Wi-Fi. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I did want to begin by thanking staff and specifically our Director of Public Works and our City Manager for allowing me the opportunity to talk to some of the service provider and their representatives. So I did have a chance to speak with representatives from AT&T, Spectrum Charter, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

And I think what this COVID pandemic has really demonstrated is that there is a very large divide between those that have access to, you know, Internet and Wi-Fi and all the resources that many of us take for granted and those that don't. And especially because many of our families and students are home now and they're trying to distance learn, without having this really, really basic necessity, we have this disadvantage in those that have and those that don't have.

So we had really good conversations, and I know all of them are doing their share. and I spoke with folks from T-Mobile who said they have 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots and they have those throughout the state. So we spoke about how we can garner some of those here in the city. With Verizon, we recently had about 170 small cell sites reserved for them. And with AT&T, they were doing very good things with not requiring credit card requirements for folks.

For two months of free Wi-Fi, they were charging between $5 and $10 a month, and they were trying to increase their hotspots. So, you know, they are all certainly doing good things in addition to Spectrum that just, you know, I guess expanded their time to provide hotspots. hotspots. And one of the concerns I know that had been rumored out there about Spectrum was that they were extending a 60-day period of free Wi-Fi. And some folks were saying it was because they were requiring those households to contract with them after that 60-day period. And that was a

requisite to the access. And so it was clarified to me by their representative that there was a clear opt-out and there wasn't anything binding them. So that was good to hear and they've now gone beyond their 60 days and extended it beyond that period of time. In short, in summary, is that I know that many of my colleagues and I have received communications from our friends at the school district and just families in general that are in desperate need. And I heard this story and it was an unfortunate one where you had some children trying to access some school material and distance learning

and having to go into somebody's car to do it. And that just doesn't seem something that we should be proud of. It's not really something we did intentionally, but it just shows that whether it's because of lack of infrastructure or because we haven't been able to sit down in earnest with some of our partners and providers, that we do so. So the city manager, the only direction I would give is if she could continue having those conversations with the superintendent, I believe, that have been started and maybe work with the superintendent and his staff to meet with representatives from these carriers.

They all seem like they're willing to help, and I think they all want to do something positive for this. And I was just kind of doing some math, and I know the number of 10,000 households keeps coming up as households that don't have access to Wi-Fi. And let's just use AT&T's example. If they were to charge $5 a month, that's $50,000 for that 60-day period. Actually, maybe it's $50,000.

So, you know, amongst agencies, amongst other resources, maybe some of the funding that we received could be used towards this effort. I don't know, but I guess it's a matter of just thinking creatively. And so, look, I'm not going to say more. I just wanted to make sure that this topic doesn't get away from us because it really does shine. And, unfortunately, this, again, this unfortunate divide between, again, those who have and those who don't. and sometimes it's just a function of where you live, the infrastructure isn't there, or maybe just affordability that folks just don't have money at the end of the day

to be able to pay for this service, and who's suffering are our children. And so that was something I just wanted to present for everybody's consideration tonight. Thank you.

Let me comment on that briefly, and then let's continue to get other comments. I know that the county recently received $554 million to spend on COVID-related expenses. To me, this is certainly one of those expenses. and maybe ultimately maybe we can improve things in such fashion that when we come out of this, that we address this, you know, divide that exists or lack of access.

I know I was talking to OCTA and saying, well, why couldn't we park potentially buses at certain school sites or neighborhoods and, you know, send out, you know, temporary signals to many of the students around those areas because right now I think we're frankly in educational meltdown mode because some students don't have access I think the district is taking the position that they're you know just going to try to figure it out but while they figure it out it's all frozen so you know talking about you know

test scores dropping and kids not performing yet in other parts of the county I know you know maybe the access is better and and you know we're not facing uh you know the loss of really what's going to turn out to be an entire school year so may we take this opportunity to to actually do something what i'd like to request with the concurrence of the councils at the same city manager come back with a plan um let's figure out what a permanent solution looks like um and then see if we can't find some of this COVID money or one time money because I don't think the county is going to spend

all that money and if we could you know address this in some fashion on a permanent basis that would be the best I think you know part of what the virus is doing is it's basically exacerbating and making all sorts of weaknesses that already existed, you know, they're being amplified. And the problems are being grown. And so, again, maybe this is an opportunity to try to figure out, well, what can we address? I know other cities are trying to do this. San Jose is working with several providers.

They're putting a plan together, and they're trying to figure out how to finance it. we can go to Mayor Liccardo and get more information on that. But I think there are certainly examples we can emulate and try to figure out, you know, maybe is there something short-term that we can do, something immediate. Again, we've got a lot of buses at OCTA right now that are not being utilized, and I think they're big enough where you could have all the equipment that you needed to be able to transmit signals. and or vans. We've got a lot of vehicles at OCTA, but also permanent solutions, larger

fixes that are more permanent in nature. Any other thoughts from Councilmembers, please?

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, this is Councilmember Penaloza.

Sure.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you. I just wanted to thank Councilmember Sarmiento, my colleague, for bringing this forward. I kind of I'm kicking myself for not adding my name to it I should have reached out to him sooner but this is something that's very important and much needed in our community and I just want to also remind our city manager to not lose lose sight of this of this task and work closely with the school district because I think that's what that's gonna be the key partnership is with the school district and to really get this internet access to those who need it which is the 50-some thousand children.

David PenalozaItem —

I'm not saying that all of them don't have access to Internet, but a lot of them do. And about 20% of the school district enrollment do not have access to Internet, which is very unfortunate because even just right now during COVID-19, that is how everyone is doing instruction. from what I've heard that's what a lot of school districts this school districts around the country are going to be doing instruction is through online data databases and platforms so it's important that we give this access

David PenalozaItem —

to them but I also want to remind staff to keep in mind that that of the unintended consequences that this could potentially have with the very large transient community that we have in the city and making and that's why I want to put emphasis on close partnership with the school district to really focus and zero in on those children that need it I don't want this to be a case like the like the free cell phones you know great idea unintended consequences the the people living in the railroad tracks setting businesses on fire have a better

David PenalozaItem —

phone than I do and that's the that's the the boat we could potentially see but this is very important I'm all on board let's use the the cell phone providers that want to put cell phone antennas on all our light poles use them to our advantage work out a deal with them just like my colleague mentioned see what what kind of agreement we could come to to provide free or low very low-cost internet service to our residents and that is it thank you again councilmember sarmento for bringing this forward and mayor pulito for the the county fund suggestion which

is also important and uh i'm supportive of mr mayor quick uh thank you for that quick comment thank you mr mayor first off uh thank you councilmember sarmento for bringing it up For the last few years, I've had a couple of meetings with different department heads and people that work in this industry. And for some reason, we could just never get it off the ground. The issue of money always came up. And we were trying to do the underground wiring. Now we've got small sales.

And it's a great point what Councilmember Peñalosa was just saying that regarding the transient community that's out here and all the phones and using up maybe some of the Wi-Fi. If there was some way to come up with a permanent solution where we can target the people that actually really need it and then come up with some kind of plan for them to have it in their home, then that would kind of solve that issue. And I don't know. We're going to have to think about it. But I'm glad this topic's on the table.

I remember speaking to the IT Executive Director not too long ago, and it just, you know, because the school district has been reaching out to all of us, and that issue of money keeps coming up. So I'm glad everyone's on board to try to tackle this. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

You're welcome. Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Solorio.

I thank Council Member Samirinto for bringing this forward, and I think, you know, we've all been active, you know, promoting the Wi-Fi opportunities there are for our community what's interesting is that councilman Villegas and I think about three years ago we had one or two joint use means with the school district and I raised this issue because I it's an issue that I care a lot about and they're all oh we got it covered we have Wi-Fi at RL schools and throughout the city and no problems we don't need your help and okay you know because what the time is councilman Villegas was saying

and we're looking at a smart plan where we might do fiber the way cities like Santa Monica and others have. And the idea there is you're rebuilding streets to put in your own fiber so you can have your own network. That might be something that we ask our public works team to look at again. Similarly, as we were buying the light poles from Edison, the infrastructure that we had with light poles was so that there would be the capacity to add Wi-Fi. from those light poles that we own and so maybe staff can also give us an update on what that means and what that would cost and I also know that the

city's Wi-Fi mobile hotspots have been going well and all used and I know we've been increasing it and this was another example of why we need to keep doing more of it I'll close with with the idea of I think because right now we're seeing that it's children and students that are mainly currently struggling with the situation that we still do have the youth fund from the cannabis dollars where there's some resources there that maybe staff can look at that as a possible area to finance and fund some of these things because there's

probably you know four to five million dollars over there and I know the that the youth commission's been working on on recommendations for us uh and so maybe we could work with our youth commission and staff on on some possible solutions uh out of that with that uh yeah let's keep pushing the service providers and others for more resources so that

more of us can be connected thank you go ahead uh thank you uh i i want to thank uh councilmember Sarmiento for bringing this forward and I think all my colleagues had some very insightful comments regarding this. I think that as a capital city of Orange County in the 21st century, we should definitely do our best to tackle this issue. As we talk about infrastructure and, you know, how to do the physical construct of a network like this, I would also like to ask our

staff to also consider ways to partner with our existing providers to get service to the folks that most likely cannot afford this. Because I think what we have been hearing is that there are folks that, you know, there's a special discount or a deal, but then there might be a bigger commitment. Now, I know that my colleagues have talked to some of the providers to, you know, get past that issue. But I think that there might be a way that our staff, maybe it's something that, again, through a partnership, maybe similar to how we handle trash services or other services where

we have providers come in and we're able to work out some sort of arrangement with them to provide it at a certain level for our residents. And hopefully we can be pioneers in that arena, but whether it's physical infrastructure or whether it ends up being some sort of arrangement that we can work through with the providers. Either way, I appreciate this idea and goal being brought forward to us. So again, thank you. All right. So with that, why don't we go on to the

next item? I believe, go ahead. That's 85D and we did not receive any correspondence on this item.

All right. Is there any opposition to that? I think that's digital messaging coming out from the city to all graduates throughout our city. Is that pretty much it?

Mayor, this is Christine. I'm pretty clear on what she wants, so if there isn't any opposition, I'm prepared to move forward. It's just basically congratulating all of the graduates, the 2020 graduates in our community, via the digital boards that we have access to.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Penaloza. I'm not opposed to it. I think it's a great idea. But I wanted to ask the city manager if this would be the appropriate time for you to talk about any discussions or possibilities you've had with the school district in other ways where the city could recognize the graduating class of 2020. Or if you could want to save them for your manager comments, that's fine.

Just two quick comments. Thank you for asking the question. the superintendent did ask if we could light up the water tower in white and red for the city district school colors. And then the other thing is they are doing a banner program. I don't know if you're aware of it, but the Santa Ana Unified School District, they're selling banners to congratulate the graduates, and they'd like to see them placed around town just to help the kids celebrate this great occasion, and we are looking into acquiring those as well.

David PenalozaItem —

Perfect. And I want to make sure that we clarify, and I'm not sure if you already did, but that it's not yellow and red, or is it white and red?

Initially I heard red and white, but then someone did say yellow and red.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay, because the school district's colors are yellow and red, or gold and red. So I just want to make sure we don't, you know, because I've been told by our wonderful water department the task it is to climb up there, so I want to make sure that we get the colors right. So let's make sure we're communicating with the school district and just double-checking on that color coordination.

I actually heard red, white, yellow, and black.

David PenalozaItem —

Oh, okay.

But I will confirm.

All right, thank you. Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Solorio. I really like and support this idea. I think the more ways that we can collaborate with our school districts, the better. And additionally, I know we have our own cable channel that maybe we can display information there on the graduates. Also, we do have about 6,000 students that attend schools in the Garden Grove Unified School District and Orange Unified.

A few in Tustin, so to the extent that every now and then we can include their colors and logos and students as well, that's important as well because you know they are a big big chunk also of our student population that is an excellent point thank you councilmember

Solori what I want to add if I may was along those lines we also have a lot of students here in our city that go to charter schools and private schools they're a very significant population I think we are happy for all graduates so to the extent you know whether it's osha or modern day or the somali academy or edna vate or you know some of the uh you know other schools the calvary chapel schools it's amazing the number of high schools and schools in general that we have here in town i

also know we have tustin unified in portions of the city you know some of our kids go over to Orange Unified. There's a few areas that are even in Irvine. Just let's figure out how we can, you know, tell them that they're all winners, that we're proud of them all, that we wish them the very, very, very best and try to do whatever we can to overcome this pandemic and the fact that a lot of their celebrations and parties and ceremonies are all being really taken away from

them um and uh again i think the more the merrier let's let's uh task the city manager and and the rest of the city staff to keep coming up with with ideas on how we can uh tell all our graduates how much we appreciate uh all their hard work and their accomplishments so with that uh mr where are we

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor? Yes. And can I add something to that really quick? Just since we're on the topic and the subject, just wanted to also say that I saw on social media today that former President Barack Obama is also doing a graduate together commencement ceremony for all 2020 class across the country. So just wanted to make the public aware to look out for that. be a nice commencement speech by the former president for to include everybody graduating this year and it's graduate together 2020 comm so just for

thank you for information thank you thank you now let me turn our attention if I may I believe we're on the housing authority that's correct oh I'm not I'm going to call the Housing Authority to order. Roll call, please.

Authority Member Becerra? Here. Authority Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Here.

Authority Member Sarmiento?

David PenalozaItem —

Here.

Authority Member Solorio?

Here.

Vice Chair Villegas?

Here.

Chair Pulido?

Here. A question. are we going to do an excused absence for Councilor Iglesias, and if so, should we also include the Housing Authority?

Yes, you may do that at this time for Housing Authority.

And I think if we're going to do it, we should be fair and do the Council as well. In general, that's been our practice.

Yes.

So I would request that and I would now entertain a motion on items 1, 2, and 3 for the housing authority. Would I have a motion?

I make a motion to approve. Second. Villegas.

Roll call vote, please.

Authority Member Becerra? Yes. Authority Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Authority Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Authority Member Solorio?

Yes.

Vice Chair Villegas?

Yes.

Chair Pulido?

Yes.

Motion carries.

I believe we now adjourn that. We go back to public comments on items not on the agenda. Do we have speakers, Madam Clerk?

Yes, we do. And we also received one correspondence from George Collins regarding fireworks. He requests that there be a suspension of sale of fireworks until 2021. And for the two virtual individuals who would like to speak, if you could please state your name and topic and state your issue. You have three minutes.

You have to unmute them.

Yes, hi, my name is Erica Gonzalez. I'm a Santana resident, small business owner, and an organizer. I am commenting in regard to the item 85B. Since we are bringing up in lieu fees, I wanted to bring up a PRA that was submitted to Councilman Solorio back in 2018. It was submitted in request to get transparency and to get more information regarding these in lieu fees. I'm going to go ahead and outline some of those points so maybe we can get those answers tonight. We will be resubmitting this PRA so that we can get these answers in writing as well.

Because if we're going to be revising the whole ad hoc and the in-loop fees and everything, then we want to make sure that there's going to be real transparency and real community input when it comes to these in-loop fees. So according to the PRA that we submitted, we want to get all documents in regards to meeting agendas, meeting notes. Anything relating to how many affordable housing units the city of Santa Ana currently has and is also planning to have. We want to get notes regarding the requirements and maximum occupancy for affordable housing units in Santa Ana.

We want to know how decisions are made to set the income requirements for affordable housing units and who is making these decisions. We want to know, we want to get information regarding or relating to the management of the in-lieu fees that have been paid, the type of account, who oversees it. What is the total amount of in-loop fees that the city currently has? We want information relating to who makes decisions on how in-loop fees are utilized and future protections that will ensure all fees are used for future affordable housing. And we want to know what developers or information regarding developers, investors, bankers,

consultants who have agreed to pay in-loop fees, how much they have paid, and how much is still owed. I don't know if this is in regards to the, I don't know, $35 million that Mike Cara has to pay, the in-loop fees for that 37-story building. You recently approved last meeting. So I don't know if he's trying to get out of those fees. I don't know what you're trying to do here. You're obviously not for the people because you voted Solorio against the rent freeze. Don't think we didn't hear that. Thank you for the other council members who pointed it out. So we know where you stand. You're going to be running for mayor.

We're paying attention. Don't think that we're not. We're paying attention. We're taking receipts. And we're going to force you to be transparent because we want to know what is happening with this money. Where are these fees going? Who's profiting? What community interests are being satisfied? So, like I said, we're going to be resubmitting this PRA. We need answers, and I'd like to have some of those answers tonight. And I'm sure my fellow residents would also like to have some of those answers. Have a good night.

Okay, next speaker.

please clearly state your name and topic you have been unmuted you have three

minutes hi my name is Lisa Gonzalez Solomon as you know I'm the principal of Madison Elementary School but I'm also a resident here in Santa Ana for over 20 years I want to thank the City Council for supporting our district for supporting our schools and for supporting getting citywide Wi-Fi in our throughout our community I'm here speaking not just on behalf of the kids at my school i'm speaking on behalf of residents residents who do need the wi-fi who do need the access we have so many of our kids that have returned back from college and have to work

remotely and we want to continue their education we want to continue supporting them we also have a lot of people who are working remotely who also need that support of the wi-fi as you know our district has been working very hard we've distributed over 40 000 chromebooks to our students we've ordered another 10 000. we've also distributed um hot spots for our students we've ordered another 4 400 hot spots we've given 800 000 meals to our children and i do believe that if we want this to work and we do get city wide wi-fi it's going to be something that we all have

to come together we have to bring property owners in we have to bring bus companies in we have to bring all the providers who do make money off of our communities and we have to bring everybody in and say this is a problem that we need to solve together it's not a time to point fingers or say it's the city's problem or it's the district's problem it's the time that we come together and we solve this together with the county with the state we work with everyone we can to try to provide city-wide wi-fi so we can continue to educate the children of santa anna i do want to

speak from the heart when I tell you thank you. All of those of you who have supported our community and our families, whether you've been out handing out food or handing out hand sanitizer or just making decisions that will really affect our children and our future. Not just the future of the children, but the future of our community and the future of the family. We have one minute left. Now is the time that we will come together for our people. Our world is changing and it would be amazing to see our great city leading the way um we know you already look

out for your citizens and their safety but this would be one more way we can continue to open lines of communication provide access to education to work to health care and to much needed resources and information you will truly be our hero if you can make this happen to have this be the first city to announce the steps that they've taken to ensure our community has access access to education access to resources and also access to information. We do want our kids to continue to graduate. We continue to support them. Our staff and our district has been working night and day to make sure that our kids keep learning.

And I just wanted to say thank you for all of you that supported the citywide Wi-Fi. Thank you for those of you that look out for our families and the rent that they have to pay. We're very, very grateful.

Thank you for your heartfelt comments. I know I speak for the council when we say we appreciate all the hard work that you're doing. With that, Madam Clerk, do we have any other comments?

Yes. Please clearly state your name and topic. You have three minutes and you have been unmuted.

My name is Joselinda and I'm a resident in Ward 2. Thank you for affirming the Renfries on Agenda. item 60a but i'm calling you out to extend it to match the eviction moratorium many of my own family members friends and colleagues and residents over on santana are renters and severely rent burdened many are undocumented undocumented and don't qualify for covid19 relief benefits and many have lost their jobs or have experienced a reduction of work hours leaves them unable to pay rent it would be nearly impossible for folks to deal with rent increases while they are still struggling to pay back the debt they have incurred.

This is particularly true for people that will continue to have no jobs after this pandemic is over. Keeping and extending the referees wouldn't share in lessening the negative impacts of COVID-19 by alleviating financial insecurity, preventing housing displacement, and lowering the risk of the COVID-19 spread. With the acknowledgement of the municipal power you carry and the present needs of the community, you have the power to minimize housing displacement at the risk of being houseless for Santana residents. And I trust that you will make the only decision that is just for our community here in Santana,

which is not only keeping a rent free during the COVID-19 emergency declarations, but also extending it for at least six months thereafter. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Other comments, Madam Clerk?

Yes. Please clearly state your name and topic. You have three minutes. You have not been unmuted.

Hi there. Hi, Derek. My name is Nathaniel Greenside. I spoke a little bit earlier, and I wanted to clarify about the community block grants and how city councils do better to ensure that the folks who aren't developers understand how they can participate in the community block development grants. So to that regard, I wanted to ask that you all do some due diligence and figure out what can be done at that at the city level to ensure that there's um community understanding of how community block development grants works etc and then i want to speak also additionally on the rent

freeze a little bit more aggressively on the rent rent freeze thank you for affirming the rent freeze that was enacted many of the folks who we have spoken to as a part of tenants united tanaana which is a group i am a part of is that they have asked for an extension and the reason being that once the orders are lifted they currently don't have the ability to work and so once the orders are lifted to have a landlord serve them with a rent increase is going to put them further behind when they're already trying to catch up and then then on top of that the way also that you all can do that is that you have the powers to do so

sorry i'm stuck here and the way the agenda is at the on the agenda is an issue because then it it shows that the whoever wanted to put it onto the agenda isn't having the gall to put their name on it and they wanted to ensure that it wasn't brought up on their own name whichever council member was pushing it and so i just wanted to bring up the fact that it wasn't made clear that it was the city council member who may or may not have been pushing it and instead we're trying to employ via the city manager i just don't believe that that's fair and so and from what i'm asking

also is that you all ensure that you use the power that you are granted under state charter during states of emergency and in the interest of the public health and safety that you extend the rent

freeze thank you thank you any other comments madam clerk yes we do please

clearly state your name and topic you have three minutes you have been

unmuted hi my name is Kaylee and I'm speaking on the rent freeze I'm a tenant counselor here in Santana and a resident as well and I would just like to speak in favor of extending the rent freeze to match the repayment period of the moratorium. Right now, I've been hearing, unfortunately, that a lot of landlords are not accepting their letters proving that they would qualify for rent repayment. And I believe that one of the best

things that we can do for renters right now would be to ensure that they are not having to pay rent increases during this time of recovery. The city council has the power to alleviate massive future debt for its constituents by taking this bold action in the midst of a global health and economic emergency. So I just urge you to understand the kind of impacts that tenants are having across the city right now based on my experience speaking to them on a daily basis so thank you very much

thank you other comments madam clerk yes we have one last one um if you could please clearly state your name and topic you have three minutes

hello my name is maria saha and i'm talking on the rent free I am also a Santa Ana native and a Santa Ana tenant counselor here for Tenants United Santana, and I am here in support of extending the rent-free supermass to match the repayment period of the eviction moratorium. I don't find it just that a tenant could potentially face a rent increase while they're paying back the debt they accumulated in the process during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have heard stories of landlords harassing and forcing tenants to pay the repayment plan they constructed without even letting them know of their protections under the eviction moratorium.

And they're not even aware of the rent freeze that's already in place. So I really urge you to protect tenants, put them first because they need it. This is a public health crisis, and it's very unfortunate that we have to even ask for this. I mean, that's just my opinion, but I really, I ask that you consider this. I ask that you take this into account because there are many tenants out there that are suffering, and they deserve to be taken into account and heard. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Madam Clerk, we have one more, or are we done?

We actually did have another one raise their hand. If you could please clearly state your name and topic. You have three minutes. You have been unmuted.

Hi, my name is Fred. I would like to speak regarding the rent freeze. So the pandemic has put the housing stability and health of tenants in Santa Ana at risk. And right now unemployment is a lot of citizens in Santa Ana are unable to make up the income that they are losing so they will be unable to pay their rent after the 31st of next month.

So I think that we need to extend the rent freeze to match with the eviction mark for him.

And I think that if we don't do that, we are at risk of exasperating the current health crisis as well as desesperating the housing crisis which exists in Santa Ana.

Thank you.

Thank you. Was that the last speaker, Madam Clerk?

Yes, that was.

Okay, I believe now do we go to, is it city manager comments?

Yes. Yes, that's correct. Mayor, just a few items tonight. I want to comment that staff has been working diligently behind the scenes. Kudos to our finance department. We are going to be coming before you at the very next council meeting. That's later this month to go over the first, let you see a first look at our proposed budget for your consideration. And not only the budget, but also a brand new strategic plan that we've been working on as well. And then to let you know, as the governor announced today, that the state could be progressing towards stage two, which would entail reopening of other low-risk businesses.

We are putting a plan in place and evaluating how we can slowly bring back city services but still protect the health and welfare of our employees and the public, given that there still is a pandemic out there. And the final thing, I think we have a picture for you on the screen, but after quite a long year in frustration among many residents, under the Broadway and I-5 freeway bridge, there has been a significant trespassing issue, which is we have spent a lot of time, a lot of cleanup in the area, a lot of police officers' time. But I am happy to report there is finally a completion of an installation of a fence

that completely blocks that area off. And this was a result of a lot of hard work in the Public Works Department. And we had to work closely with the state because it is Caltrans property. We are responsible for maintaining the fence, but we did use all of our monies that we had for national pollutant discharge elimination system compliance. As the littering problem that was taking place under there, it was creating stormwater pollution issue. So that is up, and you have lots of happy residents in that area of town. And that's all, sir.

Thank you for that. Councilmember Comments, why don't we go ahead and start with Councilmember Solario.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just two things. First, I do want to thank our city managers and public works director and parks director and community development, everybody that was involved with fencing off what's been called in that community the tunnel to nowhere that was many months and years in the making, so I'm very, very thankful. Second, obviously we continue to be in this COVID situation and the governor slowly is allowing counties and cities to open up.

I know based off of Councilmember Becerra's suggestion, in our first executive order, we mentioned that we as a city council would decide kind of when we reopen up. And so I think at some point we might want to be a staff, figure out what that looks like and when we might need to vote on something. Or I'd be perfectly fine with just having our city manager lead, you know, what things we begin to open up that we previously closed off before. Secondly, even though we're starting to open up,

I know we're getting increasingly more emails and calls about businesses that our residents think shouldn't be open and maybe we be our social media and other channels we can inform the public about our views on that or where to make reports because I do know that there have been some reports and some code enforcement but I know that you know we're really more about compliance rather than finding folks so if staff can can work on those things that would be fantastic thank you

Thank you. Councilor Peñalosa, please.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to thank city staff and the city manager again, and the chief of police, the police department, everyone, for really just holding it together throughout this whole pandemic crisis and keeping the city still operating and all essential services still in full force I'm very thankful for your leadership and just wanted to make sure that you're aware of that with that said of course I need to remind everybody I want to remind you about the 2020 census if you haven't

David PenalozaItem —

already done so please I urge you to visit www.my2020census.gov to fill out the census. There's been an extension by the federal government for the census, but I mean, don't wait. It takes less than 10 minutes. If you haven't done so already and you're listening, please fill it out. And just one last thing, I wanted to wish a very happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there in our city and here at City Hall, our staff, anyone who's a mom,

David PenalozaItem —

happy Mother's Day we got lucky this year Latin Mother's Day falls on the same day which is May 10th and so if people are like my mom that like to be celebrated twice which hey I she deserves all the celebration you know she's my mother and love her dearly so happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there and though that's it mr. mayor thank you thanks for that

And Council Member Becerra, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I too want to thank our staff for all the work that they are doing during this unprecedented time. I really appreciate it, your leadership and just your steady hands steering the ship. Again, it's very appreciated. A couple of items I want to bring up. One is down on the south end of town, we are seeing quite a bit of street racing. And, you know, I was out one night walking my dog and I can it just sounded very intense. You know, cars going down MacArthur, going down Bear.

And it reminded me of what our police recently had put out a release in regards to a person who had actually been arrested after a two year investigation. this person was responsible for a crash on on bear between alton and segerstrom and this person was uh given a reduced bail after he was charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and i want to real quick if the chief is still around i'd like to ask chief valentine trying to maybe put one and one together i hope i'm wrong when i ask this but uh it says that a superior

court commissioner reduced the bail for this person responsible for the two counts of vehicular manslaughter is it the same commissioner that we spoke about earlier this evening

unfortunately it is sir uh well mr mayor i think you have another thing to hopefully bring up to uh the judge when you have a chat with him but uh chief i would just like to bring to your attention the the increase in um street racing not only have i been hearing it but i've also received calls from other residents regarding it so if you know maybe i know you guys are stretched very thin but if there's any way to put a couple more uh personnel down some of these streets because i think they're very attractive to folks now that you have everybody or at least most people

complying with the stay-at-home orders uh the streets are very attractive for racing and uh as we've seen with that accident on bear it could be very dangerous so I appreciate any help you can provide with that other than that I would just like to say while you're staying at home as a councilmember pillows already said if you could please complete the census it takes 10 minutes to have an impact on our city for the next 10 years with that a good evening everybody thank you

thank you for your comment then I'll will add that with my my letter and discussion with the courts. Go ahead. I believe next is it Castle Merceramiento.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to begin by saying happy Cinco de Mayo to everybody. I mean, we all kind of forget these days are blending into each other and hours are blending into each other. It's nice to know it's only 8.35, so that's a good thing. But I did want to thank everybody who commented, sent their comments through YouTube. Thank our staff for all the hard work that they've been doing. But I also want to thank our residents who this must be really, really difficult on. And I think that, you know, I see people biking a lot more, walking a lot more,

but more than anything, they are respecting these really difficult conditions that they're living in. So, you know, big props to them because it isn't a fun thing. And unfortunately, we see rates of depression and anxiety really spiking during these times and and it's unfortunate and mr mayor i wanted to take the chance the time to thank you for your work with the other mayors and one of the things that i think you really have a a compelling argument to make is that you represent a city in this county unlike the 33 other cities that has a very very large community

of color, which has been demonstrated to have even more vulnerabilities to this virus. And, you know, as you know, many of our folks here suffer from hypertension, obesity, and other pre-existing conditions because of just the, you know, their own health problems that they've had as a result of living in an area where they're challenged with, you know, lack of health care. So I think your arguments that you make, I think, are going to really help a lot of folks that, unlike many of our friends in other parts of especially South County,

we really have a lot of residents that don't have a safety net, don't have reserves, don't have savings. So to that point, I know testing has been something that's been really important to you. I see you leading that charge. again I think to the extent you can tie the testing to places that are very vulnerable like our city it would make a very compelling argument and you know as we transition and maybe into phase two of the governor's phased reopening I was going to mention to the city manager that I think all of us have an interest in how we reopen because it's going to be slow it's going to be incremental

but you as chair of the EOC, Madam City Manager of the Emergency Operations Center, if you need or if you think, maybe speak with the mayor and the rest of us putting together an ad hoc, maybe we could provide some recommendations of how we open up. Because really, I'm torn. I think I want to keep folks safe and at home, but at the same time, again, people have a desperate need to work because they don't have any other source of income. many of our residents aren't eligible for federal stimulus dollars. And to the extent we can safely put them in a position where they can get back to work

and do this in a responsible manner, our community is very unique. So I would just say, you know, lean on us. I think we put together ad hocs for other reasons. I can't think of one more important than this one. So I know my colleagues have stepped up in so many other ways. I know we'd step up in this way. And just let us know. And, Mr. Mayor, I'll put that out there for you, but I'll make myself available, but you have plenty of us, I'm sure, that would be willing to serve. And with that, I just want to say happy Mother's Day. Feliz Dia de las Madres a todas las Madres allá, especialmente a la mía,

que estoy bendecido por tenerla todavía en mi vida, y todos los días yo doy gracias. Muchas gracias.

Thank you. Thanks for your kind comments, Councilmember. I'll address them in a moment. But first, Mayor Potem, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First off, I want to start off by thanking everyone who reached out to me in regards to my father passing about 10 days ago. I received a lot of phone calls, emails, text messages, Facebook comments, cards, flowers, and even emails from the public to my city account. And here on the dais waiting for me, there's four cards from constituents here in the city. And I just want to thank you all for reaching out to me and supporting my family and I during this difficult time. And, you know, the work continues.

And even though we were going through this pandemic for the last couple of weeks, I've been on the phone working behind the scenes, calling Washington, D.C. to get support for our applicants here in the city, the ones that are applying for the SBA small business loans. and we made some progress and we're still working on it because I'm trying to get something going and it's just a little difficult. There's so many people asking but I even made phone calls to the White House to get support and they were well received and it's nice to see that they're

supporting us in our ask at the SBA because the small businesses here in Santa Ana really could use the help. There's some folks here who could use some help. They're not up to speed on technology, and I'm glad to see that the city staff has been stepping up to help them to work with the SBA, and I'm just trying to do everything we can to help everyone. And so I thank you again to the staff and to the public for reaching out thank you so much

thank you mayor pro tem um let me just uh say the following that is that um i have been working probably harder than i've worked on virtually anything in my life on this on this virus and we're having a lot of things going on behind the scenes um over the weekend for example when i saw you know the beaches being closed um and for good reason there was too much crowding etc etc but i know that many of those residents are inland residents they're they're they're they're from

santa anna they're from anaheim they're from all over the county and beyond and so i thought it was important to try to reach out to the mayors along the beaches and try to help them out. So I called Mayor Faulkner from San Diego, and he sent me his plan, the plan that they have in San Diego. And of course, you know, those beaches were not closed. And I made those plans available to mayors along the coast here in Orange County. And I suggested to them instead of going to court and fighting. I mean, sometimes you have to go to court and fight. You have no alternative. But other times you can solve things.

And I don't know if you've noticed, but now we've got Huntington, Dana Point, you know, Laguna, and soon others. They're opening up, and they're opening up in sensible ways, and I think that becomes important because we have to give people hope. We have to give them hope and ways of dealing with a pandemic. but but i tell you that i believe that we are under uh great danger uh largely because i don't believe that the county's been uh you know testing aggressively um and if you look at countries around

the world those that are doing best are those that took it very seriously very early um and and and we have in the sense that we've asked everybody to stay at home and residents have been absolutely you know very very very compliant um but it's not enough we we don't know where the virus is we're not doing real contact tracing we're not even doing significant testing um you know today county-wide we had about 2 000 tests which is up from the 80 that we were doing a few weeks ago

and I've been, you know, really trying to alert everybody I could. I finally got a chance to speak to the governor, and governor couldn't believe it, that in a county of 3 million plus people, we're testing 80 people a day. And we've been doing that for a long time. Today, I think we're finally approaching, you know, 40,000 tests countywide since the inception of the virus. but imagine 40,000 tests in a county of 3 million it's very very very little we're not we're barely

over one percent um and so i wanted to consider taking action because i even though we're going to begin to open up and it's important to do so and by the way in opening up i want to share with the council something i'm sharing with mayors across the region that is that mayor garcetti you know looked at uh 50 different cities around the world and how they've come up with plans on opening up and by the way like it or not we're all in this together meaning orange county can't break off from la county and just say well we're going to do our own thing and we don't care at

all about LA. Our people work. They travel. They live in different cities. We have a lady here in Santa Ana that has a catering truck. She gets up in the morning. She goes from Santa Ana to San Juan to Mission Viejo to San Clemente. Then she goes to Downey to Whittier. Then she comes back to Santa Ana. That's one lady in a catering truck. We have to help that lady make sure that she's safe, that she's not infecting others and that she's able to keep her job um so anyways what where i'm getting at and what i'm getting to is i want to i've asked the city manager and city attorney to

look at the possibility of having our own health officer uh it turns out long beach has their own health officer pasadena does there's a few other cities around that do and we ought to give it some thought because this might not be not only not the last pandemic we might not be out of it for longer than we would care to admit and i think as we come out of it we need uh you know folks that are working uh really on our behalf and with uh you know some focus to to our individual city

And by the way, this feeling is felt by many other cities throughout Orange County. It turns out that there's some monies associated with that, so it's not something we'd have to fund from zero necessarily. And I really think we ought to give it some serious consideration, i.e., having in-house our own health officer that would be able to give us suggestions, information, analysis, you know, deploy resources, et cetera. The other thing I think we ought to consider is really studying this reimbursement model.

Part of what L.A. is doing, and the reason they're able to test so much, they're actually getting reimbursed by FEMA. It's not an easy road, but right now all we know is that we have 400-some cases here in the city, We don't know how well they're being tracked. We don't have any idea overall how much has been tested. Many of our businesses, our residents want to be tested. There is no mechanism to do so. In the early days, most of the testing that won in the county was done in South County at LabCorp and Quest Labs,

and they were charging over $1,000 per test. A lot of people can't afford $1,000 a test. They shouldn't have to. Now, thank God, the prices have come way down. But there's other cities like Irvine that are trying to test every resident in their community. You know, the mayor of Carson, he's found a nonprofit that's agreed to test about 1,000 people a day in Carson. they have a population just under 100,000 in about 100 you know in in a in a matter of uh not too many days less than 100 days they're going to have every single person uh in in Carson either

tested or if they don't want to be tested and and and and and they avoid it they avoid it but at least it'll be available to that community um we are very dense remember we're the fourth densest city in the country so you know we are a tumbleweed if it really starts to catch fire we could really catch fire more than other cities um around us we're not there yet but but you know we don't have it under control yet either um and so i think in the dates to come um i'm going to ask city manager and the city attorney who have been working on this to you know share this with with not only

the council but the you know the community but first you know we need to study it we need to give it thought we need to understand what it means um and how it'll help us i believe come out of the pandemic and stages that make sense um in a coordinated fashion we you know we're not an island we have to be working with our neighboring cities and neighboring counties but but we do have to be more aggressive in terms of what we're doing is people call us and they ask us when can we open up when can we go back to work you know when can we walk in a park are schools ever going to open

up they're going to open up how are they going to open up we need to be uh you know aggressively working on these things and and and and and leading as effectively as we possibly can um Because our communities, our society needs us right now. You know, this is a silent enemy, but it's one of the most powerful enemies, I believe, that we've seen. And look, we don't really know. Meaning there are some that I encounter that say, well, maybe the mortality rate is much lower. And maybe it is.

but until we test and we have better information we don't really know what's happening we do know that in new york they figure about 25 of the population has already had it and most of them survived it so maybe it's not as dangerous um as is it would otherwise seem but until you have information everybody's just guessing what we do know is that a lot of people have already died and this is potentially a long way from being done. You know, there's countries like India that I believe have only just begun, even though, you know, it's not penetrated deeply. Once it does, it's going to be very hard to stop in certain environments.

But here we, you know, we're in Santa Ana, middle of Orange County. Believe me, Mayor Seedew is very worried about Disneyland and all the hotels and that whole, the convention center and the economy. you what are they going to do i mean i got a call from the california angels saying you know santa ana is very important community to us a lot of baseball fans here well a lot of angel supporters here what can we do to help you so i think right now as a council we need to be talking more to each other about this issue coming up with more ideas and and figure out how do we work not only

as a city but effectively as a region and right now we're not getting you know strong support uh from from other uh sectors in particular the county they're they're sitting on 554 million dollars and the only reason they have that money the only reason they have that money is because we are 3 million plus people here in Orange County. Now, I would suggest to you all that we're a very odd county in the sense that the county county only has about 135,000 residents, yet there's over 3 million people in the cities.

So I would argue that that money should be going to the cities where the people are. We didn't receive it because we have a lot of bike trails. We received it because we have a lot of people. Most counties have the majority of the county as unincorporated land with some incorporation within it. Orange County is a county at a different moment in time, and we ought to consider what that means. And I think, again, having our own public health official is maybe simply a first step in trying to maybe reorganize the county a little bit and trying to be readier to respond to things such as this pandemic.

So with that, thank you for your kind comments. I will soon get you this plan that Mayor Garcetti has put together. We all gave a little bit of input, but really he did it. you know they look at 50 cities around the world i think he's got a good idea we're trying to coordinate with the governor it's not good when the governor does things that are not in coordination with cities and i think if we stick together as cities we can have a very very loud voice not only here in orange county but across the state and and ultimately beyond but remember this we're

the fifth largest county in the country we're bigger than most states we're bigger than most countries in the world if we were a country we'd be somewhere around 45 and we have a lot of resources we have to assist that they be deployed uh efficiently and correctly so with that um let me just thank you all uh any any final comments from anybody if not uh there are no comments we'll adjourn the meeting. Any final comments?

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor?

Yes, sir.

David PenalozaItem —

The Angels are Los Angeles now. Not California

Angels, I'm sorry. They really should be Anaheim. That's just Arnie Moreno trying to make it the Los Angeles Angels. I know they're not the California Angels, but they really are the Anaheim Angels, but he won't let them use that name.

David PenalozaItem —

They are. Thank you, sir.

All right. Thank you all.

So let's go ahead and adjourn this meeting. And thank you, staff, for all the hard work that you guys are doing. I know it's nonstop. I know, Christine, it's been a year now. Happy anniversary. I know this is probably not what you signed up for. But sometimes we don't know what we're signing up for. But once we sign up, we do a great job. And you're all doing a great job, especially our city manager and all the different roles that she's having to play right now. Thank you all.

All right, this meeting is adjourned.