Read the December 17 meeting.

Madam Clerk, we're going to, I'm going to call the closed session meeting order. Do you see four council members present?

Yes.

Okay. And I have two speaker cards for closed session. Do we have any more?

Correct.

Do we have any more, Madam Clerk? No, that's all. Okay. I love you.

If there were beds available. and I think the latest thing is San Clemente closing their shelter in order to bus people up to the armories. There is no way to enforce that once they're here in the armories that they get back on the bus and go back down to San Clemente. They can get on any bus they want and you know where they're going to end up. That's what San Clemente hopes. I'm hoping that when you go and close Eshin today that you will take strong action and pursue legal action against the County of Orange and particularly maybe other South County cities. Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa, for your comments. Tim Johnson, last speaker.

Hi, good evening. You'll be discussing, like you've discussed in many closed sessions, the Catholic Worker case. I go back to 20 months ago when I was before the same microphone asking you to initiate litigation and came back and initiated that litigation, and unfortunately we chose to not serve the cities that needed to be served, the South County cities that are inappropriately dumping on our city, either voluntarily or involuntarily. 20 months we've been sitting on this, choosing not to do anything from a legal perspective.

We served Anaheim, Orange, Tustin, and the County of Orange. The three cities that we served are out of the litigation. The county, as you know, is still in litigation through the cross-complaint. But all the other cities of Orange County, which this council or the prior council, voted to initiate litigation on, were never served. This is unfortunate. It needs to change. With the recent Boise-Martin, where the Supreme Court decided not to take the appeal up, this is even more important. the amicus brief that was submitted by seven South County cities have forecasted what their strategy is going to be and I guarantee you after the

armory closes they will be purchasing a piece of property in Santa Ana or renting a piece of property in Santa Ana a 30-bed facility in the SP2 zoned area and they will have their homeless folks up here in Santa Ana I'm happy for the homeless folks to be able to get some some needed services but it should not be here in Santa Ana where we are doing as everyone knows more than our fair share I plead with you to to continue with the litigation to serve the others actually serve the other cities we you already voted to do that it's time to serve those other cities and move forward the count the South County

cities are currently as Lisa just mentioned the their strategy is to close their shelters to bus their folks up here to the county armory. Last night, the county's own people indicated that they cannot do anything to stop that. We need to be proactive right now in order to do that. I plead with you. Be proactive. Serve the lawsuits on the South County cities. Take necessary municipal ordinance items to be able to prevent other cities from locating shelters here. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments, Mr. Johnson. Is there any other speaker cards, Madam Clerk?

No, there's none.

Seeing that we have no other speaker cards, we are going to recess in a closed session.

We'll be right back.

Thank you.

Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If you can remain standing, we have our invocation this evening by Bob Barnett, our police chaplain.

Lord God, what a privilege it is to be able to serve you, and we ask that your presence would be here tonight, that you would guide the evening, that wisdom that sought would be easily found. We ask a blessing upon our city council, a blessing upon our mayor. Especially, Lord, we ask a blessing upon our first responders, our firemen, and our police officers, that through this season, that, Lord God, you would keep them safe and very blessed. And, Lord, we thank you for the people tonight that serve our community in every capacity, especially those to be recognized and honored tonight.

and we pray that lord this season our whole city would be overwhelmed by a sense of peace and well-being and that we would show kindnesses every opportunity we get one to another bless this night in the name of the lord amen you may be seated

If I can have Dr. Brad Snyder please join me.

Brad Snyder is the director of educational programs the Department of Catholic School Diocese of Orange and let me say a few things about you and I want to present this but prior to the presentation I'll have you say a few words Dr. Snyder began working as a teacher in the year 2000 at St. Joseph's School here in Santa Ana. And then eight years after that, he became principal. During his tenure, test scores increased by 62%.

And in partnership with the diocese, they contributed over $300,000 in tuition assistance assistance to children attending the school there at St. Joseph's. He also has done many things, including one of his most gratifying works was when he began the Loaves and Fishes program. With the help of a phenomenal team, space resources, and priority, he gave most of the food away to a population at risk, providing meals on premises, groceries twice a week, monthly medical checks,

and it says even haircuts.

Did they trim the beard too if necessary? If necessary. If necessary. I'm kidding. And his role as director for the Diocese of Orange, his primary concern has been that of inclusion. he is continuing to support our community and does so connecting both the student and the parent and sharing he is honoring the community through his service and for his commitment of service here in the city to the youth of Santa Ana and for his devotion to the community I have a certificate of recognition but prior to that I'd like for you to say a few words please

Thank you Mayor Polito Thank you our city council for the service and the first thing I thought was I could name it like that 100 people that really deserve this reward but I'm humbled and grateful for it I didn't start loaves and fishes I supported the people that did and it was a wonderful program feeding 600 people a week and I was blessed to simply be a resource to make that happen there's a saying in Spanish that the devil doesn't know a lot because he's smart but he knows a lot because he's been around a long time and I've learned a couple things in my tenure as as

principal and teacher my first lesson came with Mike Mike was in my seventh grade classroom and Mike couldn't read the word cat and I couldn't help Mike I learned that I needed to be responsible for every kid that comes in the classroom and I was going to create a system that supported that everyone being able to read when they got out of our school I learned to be humble from my parents I'm sitting there with a parent and we're negotiating tuition right we're talking like a hundred bucks a month and and I said it's a hundred

and fifteen and the mom goes 150 and I said no it's a hundred and fifteen and And she goes, that's great. Because I could collect cans for $15, but I couldn't collect enough for $50 a month. And that's what I knew, that people sacrifice for their children. And I also know community. I know that together, we as a community can make a difference. And I know that when we are one, and we're working together with those parents,

and for the betterment of our children that we could do something wonderful and we can make a difference and that difference lasts a lifetime and that $300,000 you raise we do it every single year for that one school in Santa Ana that's been there since 1913 that's a treasure being in Santa Ana has made me a better man the depth of diversity the wealth of compassion and the giving of ours of our citizens has made me want to give and I'd like to thank my wife

Elaine Alvarez because you can't do something good unless you don't hold back and you give everything you got and she gave me the freedom to be there and to do that I'd like to think you know as a community and we don't make a difference unless we're all a community we're all doing it together right sergeant Sergio Enriquez I met him he gave me his card he said Brad if you need me I'm there so I turn it over and there's a cell I call the guy and you know what he was there and he made a difference in the daily lives of all 250

50 of our kids and that's the commitment that we have as a community so I won't read you the whole book but I think that when we stand together and we come together as a community we can change lives and we can make a better future and I am so humble to be able to be a part of that and on behalf of my community I accept this award

Dr. Snyder, I as mayor am humbled to give you this award. You know, your story about the parent that says I can get $15 worth of cans, but I can't do 50. I mean, that's how much you help and how much people are struggling and how what you do changes lives. And I know you've changed many, many lives. And, you know, this award may be small, but it's given with a lot of joy. I know you'll hang it proudly. And it's a certificate of recognition, a recognition of your outstanding contributions to the community for the work that you do every single day.

And especially as we approach the holidays, you know, compassion, community, brotherhood, sisterhood, what you're doing is speaking to those principles. and the Diocese of Orange and the Catholic Church in St. Joseph is very, very lucky to have you. Thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for your 24 years. I really appreciate it.

He just told me he's been here. Let's take a photo. He just told me he's been here 24 years. No, I said thank you for your 24 years. Oh, thank me for my 24 years. It's 25, but you're welcome. How long have you been here? You know, I started in 2000, so that's, what, 19? I actually was married and converted at St. Joseph Church in 1990. The best decision I ever made was asking that girl to marry me. And she said yes. And she still says yes. Let's take a story.

I'm sure your wife could also give us a speech, but we won't ask her to. I believe Mayor Pro Tem Villegas, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. if I can have the recipients of the 2019 City of Santa Ana Historic Preservation Awards join me up front. I'd appreciate it.

I could possibly use a staff member up here too. It'd be great.

What I hear. Thank you.

of Santa Ana Historic Preservations Award. So we have three. The first one, the first recipient, and the first winner is the Pacific Electric Park was awarded the Historic Infill Design Award representing award winners from the Pacific Park neighborhood,

SAHC Alliance, and RJM Design. And if Ms. Diaz can step forward.

Congratulations.

Would you like to share a few words from this project? This went up in 2018, I believe.

Yes. Good evening, everybody, and Council. We are very proud. The Pacific Electric Park was formed by a collaborative of seven neighbors, and the Pacific the who was our a park director and UCI a master planning 40 students of urban design and they came to help us it was the vision the dream of seeing an empty space and what the community deserves Celica was the first to notice that called neighbors in Madison was a rare and Adolfo Sierra who who called Susanna Sandoval across the street from me, who called me. And that's how it grew.

All of us, and then we had people from Henninger,

who lived in Wilshire Square, pastor at the Trinity Lutheran. And we started forming a team. And this is how just neighbors with coffee started having a dream and say, well, let's see how far we can go. We started asking questions, and we did it. Nine years. It took nine years. I'm so proud of the work of all our neighbors and friends. We got four lots. We used our backgrounds to do studies and research and finance and all that. $3 million CDBG grants, guidance from everybody, support. When you have a great vision for something that benefits the community, you can't go wrong. We really don't care about our names.

I drive by and I still tear up to see a permanent legacy. that we will be gone, but our children will keep going. It's like the previous recipient. Your work creates so many things. In Wilshire Square, we have events that create community. It's intended to create community. The workers, we just enjoy that. So we encourage all of you, when you see an opportunity, don't lose it. Team up. Work together. And our councils, we encourage you to work together with our residents because we can have such a great city that it's like, I just get all teary. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. We're going to have a photo here in a minute. The second recipient, second award, actually, real quick, the park is located at 401 East McFadden in case you want to visit it. It's great.

and great part.

The second award goes to the Spurgeon Building,

which was awarded the Restoration Award an Award of Merit. And here to accept the recognition for the Spurgeon Building is owners Scott Ostlin and Jeff Smith. That building is 105 years old, and it was a lot of work put into it to restore it to its original being, and I would like to invite the owner to come forward say a few words

congratulations oh thank you

I was 23 I didn't have a wife and I thought I should get married so I bought a boat I wasn't I if you can't do it on your looks you have to get a little boat and this this this wasn't much bigger than really a rowboat but I had a little motor on it and I I got a date who ended up being my wife I took her out on the ocean And I was feeling, you know, a little bit cool with my new boat. And my friend had a much bigger boat that came around the corner, you know. So whenever you feel good about yourself, you've got to be careful because you always get caught, right, when you have a little bit of hubris in you.

And this time, I mean, this boat was really big, you know. And so I look back at my future wife. Luckily, she didn't judge me just on the boat. But I've got to admit, 30 years, every time that's happened, I always get set back. So I come here today, and I'm feeling pretty good about the Spurgeon. And it's beautiful. and we love it, and I put my heart into fixing this building. But I come and I sit over here next to these three ladies, and I go, you know, what are you here for? And they go, well, we built a park, you know. And I said, my God. I looked at it on Google Earth,

and I felt the exact same way that other big boat came up to me 30 years ago. So what we did is nothing compared to them. They're the heroes, but thank you for our award as well.

Thank you, sir. Congratulations. And here you go.

Thank you.

And the third and final award is the Award of Merit, and it's awarded to the People's History of Orange County, accepting the recognition as Kevin Cabrera, Executive Director of Heritage Museum of Orange County.

A few words, please. I'll be very brief.

At the museum, we have the privilege to really work very closely with a lot of youth in the community. We serve about 20,000 kids a year. And for me, it's really important that we really connect everyone that we work with, all the students and youth, to their community history. And so that's exactly what this program did. This program was exploring the streets of Santa Ana and learning about the diversity, the history, the stories of people who built Santa Ana 150 years ago. So we're really proud of what we're doing, and we thank you for the support.

I will share that about five of the youth who participated in this program last summer with us came back to me after the program and said, we want to do more, Kevin. We want to share all this knowledge that we've learned about Santa Ana this past month. And so they came back in as interns to the museum, and they've actually created a program called the People's Tour of Santa Ana, and they're going to be leading this, high school youth leading a tour of the city

on community, culture, history, everything. So I invite you to come out January 4th, downtown Santa Ana's Art Walk, and they're going to be leading 30-minute presentations. And you'll be able to speak with them directly on the impact of what they've really learned from this experience. So thank you.

Big round of applause for all the recipients.

Thank you.

I think you're next.

I now turn things over to Councilmember Cecilia Iglesias.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here today.

My recognition opportunity comes in recognizing four incredible individuals here in our community.

A little bit of background about myself, by profession, I am a social worker, and I worked with the County of Orange for about 20 years in human services, and I was a supervisor and manager for the Family Self-Sufficiency Program. So when I came here to the city, knowing that the city has the Family Self-Sufficiency Program, I was very excited in the work that our staff is doing in providing these services to recipients that's so much needed and also have been, I would say, a positive role model of how these programs are really effective and how we should continue to support these programs.

because you're a success story in our book. So thank you very much. So I'm just going to tell you a little bit. The Family Self-Sufficiency Program, it's provided through the city and helps families in the Housing Choice Voucher Program, which connects with the public and private resources to increase the earned income, reduce or eliminate the need for welfare assistance, and also make progress toward independence from housing assistance. Upon entry into the program, the family creates goals and objectives and outlines the training and services needed to be successful in those goals.

Additionally, after joining the program, a savings account is established for each family, which with funds from rental assistance deposited as earnings increase. Currently, the city has 130 participants in the program, and today we're going to be recognizing for the individuals who are graduating from the program. So if we could just give them a round of applause.

So I'm just going to say a little bit about, you know, a little intro to who they are, but I would like for them to share more about how the program really has been an impact in your life and also with your family. So here we have Annette Munoz. She completed her bachelor's degree, and she is working full-time position at a local nonprofit organization. Annette plans to continue saving money with the goal of purchasing her own home in the future. Then we have Elizabeth Rodriguez. So with only three courses away from completing her nursing degree, and also works as a nurse's assistant,

her family is now self-sufficient and no longer receives housing assistance. That's awesome.

So Leonardo Sanchez received his high school diploma. Leonardo, and he works here in our community having received a salary increase with every year of employment. His employer has encouraged completion of his education and he has become a better role model for his children because of it. Then we have Rigoberto Gallardo who also received his high school diploma and has a full-time job. The program has enabled him to become a better saver and he looks forward to purchasing a home of his own for his grandchildren to visit one day. So we at the city applaud each and every one of you for your achievement and we

look forward to hearing of your future successes as well and congratulations and thank you for being an example to future graduates.

So Annette this is for you this is in recognition you know it's a small token of our appreciation to you but if you could share a little bit more about how the programs helped you that would really be so thank you hi everyone um

when this when I first heard about this program five years ago my nerves were rattled because how does a adult returning student do it I'm a mom I have my youngest child has special needs and I had a schedule that followed him you know precisely and going back to school was a huge impact for my life but definitely with this program I had the support I had the encouragement from staff and family support to make it through and in five years I have

accomplished receiving my bachelor's of science and human services and I now have the ability I've learned about credit you know helping my credit learning about first-time home buying and that is my definite goal because of the encouragement of this program is I want to have my first home and so my you know purchase my first home so I applaud this program and I welcome anyone who you know needs the help to join and just you know go for it just make that step

it's worth it. Elizabeth Rodriguez. I want to say thank you as well. Being a single mom of three children, I'm able to work full-time and it's been a great journey so thank you now Leonardo Sanchez well this project has been helping me a lot and really pushed me and I really appreciate all the they

done for me and I'm a single parent fight kid so and I'm pushing them up and I had to do this all this for them I would thank the city for all this thank you

First of all, I just want to thank my wife, Jackie, Brenda, for this accomplishment. I don't know. I'll make it short.

I'm very humble thank you very much so it's programs like this that really make a difference in our community so I'm thankful to staff to for encouraging us to continue supporting these programs and for you all to have the motivation to be great examples also for your families so thank you and thank you for being here I really appreciate it so let's take a picture now

Thank you.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I could please have Señor Ublester Ramos up here, please, and the entire Federación de Clubes Guerrerense in California, Inc.

David PenalozaItem —

As they make their way up here, I'll begin by saying that the Federación de Clubes Guerrerense in California, Inc. is a nonprofit organization with the purpose of supporting people of Guerrero through information and guidance here in the United States. Founded by President Ublester Ramos in June of 2006, Federacion de Clubes Guerrerense in California, Inc. has a club membership that has risen to as high as 850 members in its history. With previous locations on Main and First and also on Edinger and Bristol, the club is currently seeking a new location to call home right here in the city of Santa Ana.

David PenalozaItem —

The club bolsters three folkloric dance groups, hosts community events, organizes holiday toy drives, and distributes loans and donations to those in need. On Wednesday, December 18th, the Federacion will be hosting a toy giveaway at Mariscos El Tiburón at 4 p.m. Please join them for this magnificent event. thank you to Mr. Ramos and to your organization for your compassion and kindness towards the community and for offering assistance to those in need

Thank you.

eight years I joined the Federation that is the commander of the commander of the Ramos and this is that then we have tried to bring our traditions, our roots of our Mexico. This is the commander of the Ramos, I have been doing for eight years, they have been doing all their lives. It is to admire that, that is that instead of earning money, they put money in their pocket. So, that's what I mean, it motivates me to continue working with them,

helping them to rescue our traditions, our culture, that we need here. Every year, as said the Mr. Peñalosa, we participate in Los Angeles, and we are going to participate in the Santa Ana,

David PenalozaItem —

And I'll try to translate a little bit of that to the best of my mind.

David PenalozaItem —

not lifetime, but when he, 40 years is what it was. There you go. Someone's paying attention. They've been, you know, he became part of this club in 2000. They created this club in 2006, and he joined them the following years.

And the club basically, you know, focuses on maintaining

David PenalozaItem —

and keeping the traditions of not just the Mexican culture, but the state of Guerrero specifically alive. There's a lot of tradition and culture that's lost through generations. I'm a perfect example. There's a lot of things that my mom grew up with and they immigrated to this country and those traditions are getting lost, whether through its assimilation or to the American culture. So their goal is to keep those alive, whether it's music, food, dancing, everything. They participate in the Independence Day Parade that we have here every year,

David PenalozaItem —

and that's a perfect example of how they showcase the many cultures that exist in the state that they represent of Guerrero, Mexico. So thank you so much. Muchas gracias por todo el trabajo que hacen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm now going to take a couple items out of order. I first want us to vote on the commissioners, because there are some commissioners that are here that we're appointing tonight. So if the appointees could make such a motion. I'll second. So we have a motion and a second to appoint the people that are here to be nominated to the respective positions. Is that clear? Those in favor, please press green.

So motion passes and now if you could administer the oath of office, please Madam Clerk.

If I could ask for Ty Phan, Carl Benninger, Alberta Christie, Janelle Hardy, and Koa Lee to come up front please.

This is kind of like a group wedding or something.

They're all getting sworn in at the same time.

So if I can have you come closer to the mic.

Yeah, nice and loud. So if I could ask everyone to raise your right hand, please, and repeat after me. I, and please state your name for the record.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Carl Benninger.

Kuali. Alberta Kritzi. V. Taifan. Janel Hardy. Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will

that I will bear true faith and allegiance

to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, that I will well and faithfully and faithfully discharge the duties discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter

Thank you.

Now, Mr. Interim City Attorney, would you like to report out, please? Good evening, Mayor and Council. There are several reportable actions tonight from closed session. The City Council voted unanimously to authorize the following actions. First, to bring an action against those cities and counties and any other entities seeking to transport homeless individuals to the Santa Ana Armory.

Second, to bring an action against the Mental Health Association to ensure its operations in the city of Santa Ana are nuisance-free. and third to direct staff to proceed with the existing cross complaint against the county of orange and other orange county cities to address the following the release of jail inmates in santa ana to object to the yale site shelter and to ensure that social service providers contracting with the county do not disproportionately impact the city of santa ana

Thank you for that.

I now want to take another item out of order, and then we'll continue with our consent calendar. It is item 75D, as in David. And this is time and place for a public hearing to amend Chapter 41 to add a definition for the schools and to allow schools as a permitted use in specific development number 82 zoning district at 2601 and 2617 West 5th Street. So I'm going to open up the public hearing, ask for some comment, and then after that close the public hearing and bring it back to council for consideration.

Stan Brawinski, if you could please address us, and then followed by Jeremy Kogan, followed by Oren Williams.

Good evening. My name is Stan Brawinski, and I'm a counsel for Santa Ana Unified School District. Today you received a letter from Santa Ana Unified School District, several letters, one from Santa Ana's district and another from a board member in his personal capacity. The district objects to the approval of this item because the city is evading CEQA review. It's attempting to separate the zoning amendment from the expansion of the Vista Heritage Charter School into two separate projects when it's only actually one.

This constitutes piecemealing and denies the decision makers and the public the opportunity to understand and fully comprehend the environmental consequences of the project. and with that the the project is not exempt from CEQA because the city is attempting to use the so-called common sense exception which says that there that when it can be seen with certainty that there's no environmental impact on the environment it is exempt well that is untrue here because this project is not only a zoning change but also for an expansion over 200 percent in

enrollment and in school facilities for the charter school which undeniably will have environmental impacts and there's also significant environmental impacts under CEQA guidelines section 15378 and defines a project as the whole of the action which has the potential for resulting in either direct physical change in the environment or reasonable foreseeable indirect physical change through the environment the project will cause significant environmental impacts and this has been proven by the traffic report that has been submitted to you by

the district that was prepared by IBI a traffic consultant and this demonstrates that there are numerous significant impacts in terms of traffic as well as safety there are identified for significant site distance impacts that that address safety and that is detailed in the report there's also significant impacts due to queuing that lead into the school site as well as spill out onto the street levels there's also significant impacts from that result from inadequate parking in the area all of this is detailed in the traffic report

which provides a fair argument that there are potential significant impacts and demonstrates that. Given these potential significant impacts, it's incumbent upon the city to require full CEQA environmental review under either a mitigated negative declaration or an environmental impact report. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Jeremy Kogan, followed by Orrin Williams.

good evening mr. mayor members of the city council city manager and staff and guests my name is Jeremy Kogan I'm the director of planning for the Santa Ana Unified School District I'm here to share that the district strongly objects to the approval of zoning ordinance amendment 2019-01 the project is a significant expansion increasing use from 270 students to 900 from 11 classrooms to 38 and from 18,000 square feet to 66,000 this has the effect of tripling the school operation at the site yet attempts to

completely bypass and ignore the California Environmental Quality Act the city can't separate the amendment from the charter school expansion the city is aware of the charter school expansion project it is a foreseeable consequence of the initial of the initial approval moreover the district commissioned a traffic study wherein a traffic engineering analysis has found significant impacts to traffic circulation and safety let me repeat this a professional engineers analysis finds the safety of kids at risk we

shared this 355 page report with the city manager on October 25th and the city has not responded to these concerns in any meaningful way worse we received a response at 421 today stating that the traffic division will analyze the report in advance of the council meeting it is inconceivable to analyze a 355 page report in the hour or so just prior to this meeting in addition noise impacts are another potential impact from the charter school but again the city has

chosen not to evaluate noise impacts for the project the district has already conveyed these objections and others numerous times and the council previously rejected this item we are asking that the city conduct the required environmental review and until then to not approve this project thank you very much for your time and for consideration of the kids of Santa Ana Thank You mr. Cohen or in Williams followed by Don Wilson

greetings Mary Polito mayor pro tem viegas madam city manager I'm Warren Williams and I service the assistant superintendent facilities for the Santa Ana unified school district Santa Ana USD is very concerned about the zoning item before you this evening and the sequel common sense exemption does not apply. The safety of all Santa Ana children is important to SAUSD and I am sure that it is important to the council as well. This school zoning and drop-off should be reviewed by the California Department of Education but as of this point has not been done. An independent traffic study

has been stated before was provided to the city outlining how approval of this severely compromised student this approval of this plan for zoning would severely compromise student and resident safety the exponential growth resulting from this approval without mitigating these impacts would be damaging to the neighborhood and dangerous to the children in all the streets surrounding the Fairview and Fifth Street area we have provided the council's review for the Council's review, detailed correspondence from the District's Council, the 355-page traffic study, correspondence demonstrating

that these concerns are also shared by neighbors of the properties in question. In conclusion, the Santa Ana Unified School District asks that the Council deny this application. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Don Wilson, followed by Mr. Inc. E-I-N-C-K.

Barry good evening honorable mayor Paluto and City Council members my name is Dr. Don Wilson I'm the proud superintendent of Vista charter public schools it is a privilege and honor to speak to you tonight and I apologize for my quiet voice I recently had a surgery and today is the first day I get to speak after two weeks but I couldn't think of a better way to use my voice than for this project before you tonight I've had the opportunity already to speak to you about our successful schools and the students that we serve and I could I could voice permitting speak about that for hours but tonight is really not about

education it's about land use and it's ultimately a vote on land use we believe education is a separate use is a compatible use for the specific development 82 plan has been shown over the years as you are aware an educational use has been operating on the property for over 20 years without any issues land use issues are incredibly important and in reality the foundation of all community projects businesses and nonprofits to come together to transform the lives of community our project will not only serve the currently nearly 500 students enrolled but others who seek a choice in

their educational plan it will serve the community with our policy that will allow for local community groups to use the auditorium for sports and cultural events create a better and more beautiful building for the city bring jobs to Santa Ana and improve land values in the area all of this is at the heart of economic development and growth and one of the reasons we're here tonight not only does our project have the full support from the city planners office and unanimous vote of support from the Planning Commission Templo Calvario has walked hand-in-hand with us knowing that we serve the same

neighborhood and the same families our parents are passionate about their school and have been part of the process from the beginning. Open Gate International, a branch of the Pujol Foundation, is in full support and a partner of the project. We have outreached to the surrounding community, to parents and neighbors, and have overwhelming support from all of them. We have presented and engaged with the Artesia Pilar Neighborhood Association, and we have their full support. I've also met personally multiple times with our immediate neighbors in the business park, and I've spoken individually with all of them and shared our plans,

to which the vast majority are not only supportive, but they're very excited to be our partner. Our schools are out for holiday break, and we don't have the packed house like we did the last time, but as you know, we have over 500 signatures from the people that I've just spoken about. Should you have any questions about our project, land use, designer traffic, we have our full team here tonight to answer those questions. I want to thank you for your time. Don Wilson, thank you for coming out to speak and good luck with your recovery.

Barry followed by Angeline Sanchez.

Hello, my name is Barry Eink and I'm a property owner located in the Civic Center Business Park, which is located within the Specific Development SD82 Vista Heritage Charter School proposal. I'm here tonight to express my opposition to the Vista Heritage rezoning and expansion. I'm also here tonight to hand deliver a petition in opposition from 100% of the other 12 small property owners within the SD82. As just mentioned, just the speaker before me was indicating that he has got people that are behind the project in the park. Absolutely incorrect.

we have a hundred percent signatures and opposition to the proposal from the small business owners in the park the 12 small property owners have many concerns regarding this zoning change but the primary four points of opposition are safety for the children difficulty in obtaining insurance lack of parking and our property values first regarding safety of the children it's hard to believe that you're even considering allowing hundreds of children to be confined in a warehouse industrial complex that was never designed for a large population of children. Kids are playing within feet of commercial

vehicles, forklifts, tow trucks, automotive repair, chemicals, and many more industrial concerns. This is the exact reason why zoning was created centuries ago. We've created commercial zones and residential zones and other types of zones for that exact reason to eliminate this type of potential hazard and danger this school is a complete facade constructed around the confines of a commercial warehouse the parents of these children need to be made aware of the dangers involved in operating a school in a complex in a commercial complex operating inside a commercial warehouse basically you are being asked

to allow a school of almost a thousand kids to be housed in the confines of a warehouse building all of which has the exterior facade of a school current currently there is a parking variance on the property for the temple caverio and that fell several hundred parking spaces short in compliance the parking studies that were completed fall extremely short of required parking for staff and parent parking need needed for this site the size of a school currently it is a struggle to find a parking spot during normal operating hours I can't even imagine how it will be impacted down the road when it is increased with the

number of parents that want to involve be involved in a school on a regular basis thirdly our ability to obtain hazard and liability insurance is a major reason for opposition currently we were turned down by 12 insurance underwriters, and thankfully we are able to secure insurance from only one underwriter at this time. Fourthly, property values are of a great concern to all of us owners. With this property being created as a mixed-use complex brings question to prospective buyers that may be interested in operating

their businesses here. Barry, if you could conclude the light is red. Please conclude. Can I finish? Yeah. Thank you. I've got one more. Let me let me just bring this into perspective. Let's flip the coin for a moment. Theoretically, let me ask you how logically it would be if I were to propose a commercial complex with commercial businesses and 10 automotive repair shops located on the Santa Ana High School property, or better yet, Santa Ana Elementary School property. Obviously, I don't think we would get much support. In closing, the small business

owners that are being affected by this zone change and expansion have retained legal representation due to insufficient reasonable notice. I'm asking for a continuance on this matter to be postponed to a later date before any decision is made. Thank you. Angeline Sanchez followed by David DeLeon.

Good evening. My name is Angelina Sanchez and I'm in the seventh grade at Vista. In just two years, I have had many amazing experiences at Vista, from the small things such as our close relationships with teachers to our annual Vista Olympics and Vista University, where we have the chance to expand our future choices. Something I really appreciate is Eagle Hour. All students have a chance to master new skills in areas where extra attention is needed. I look forward to upcoming experiences in our new and improved building. As a music student, I am very excited for the new music room and recording studio and building plans.

I look forward to enhancing my piano playing skills and creating new memories with classmates in these two new rooms. We hope that everyone here in this room comes together as one big community and support our project. I would like to thank you for your time, Council Members, and I hope as leaders of the community, you all support our idea. Thank you.

David DeLeon.

Please go ahead. Buenas tardes, Council Members. Philip, City Manager, Ms. Gomez. I encourage you guys to postpone this or move this vote back a session or two and have the city do its due diligence in looking at the environmental impacts and looking at the potential impact that this influx of students is going to have on this community on 5th and Fairview. I went to Freedom Elementary, Spurgeon Intermediate, so I know the area. I grew up there. But if you want to put it in context and something to visualize, something easy to visualize, You have Heroes Elementary School on Civic Center right across the police department.

About 650 students. You have Santa Ana High School, the most populous high school in the city of Santa Ana, First and Flower. Imagine putting Santa Ana High School's student body and plopping it right on top of Heroes Elementary. How do you justify increasing the enrollment 500%? The same amount of students at Santa Ana High School at Heroes Elementary just doesn't make sense. how will it not have an impact? It most definitely will have an impact. So I'm not saying vote yes, no. I'm saying let's go back to the drawing board. Let's do our due diligence on behalf of the city. You guys are the stewards of our city.

Let's make sure that we take everybody into account and that we look and think of it on a common sense way, not common sense clause, exemptions. Let's think about it and see how this is going to impact everybody. Thank you.

And I want to call Pastor Danny DeLeon.

I really wasn't prepared to speak tonight, but I do want to speak to the council, and I respect all of you, and I appreciate all the work you do for the community, and that you're careful about decisions that you make. It's going to be affecting the life of our children and our families. Templo Calvario has always had, or for about 20 years, a charter school or another school attending our facilities. We have never had a problem with parking. We've struggled, we've worked it out, everybody's worked with us, and we've been able to do it, and we've never

had accidents or anything of that nature. I think the facilities, they're going to be improved greatly would just enhance what is there now. So my concern is that the idea that some way, somehow, we're creating this situation that's going to be a problem for the city and for the community and for the complex is not to be dealt with, it's not to be considered at all because we've already been there. It's been there for years. And so my recommendation is definitely that Vista would operate there and that we would have a good partner, good friend, good neighbor,

and that all of us would be happy to support it. It's interesting that the owners at one time, 10 of the 12, had sent a letter that said, we support the project. And then the city commission here, staff and all, they said 100%, let's do it. so I'm a little confused this evening hearing that some way somehow we need to postpone this and deal with it again I just think we've had plenty of time to deal with it we've all been in agreement so I would encourage that we carry this project forward Thank you for your comments

With that I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it to council for consideration

One more speaker, go ahead. Sorry, I didn't get a card. Go ahead. I'll reopen the public hearing for your comments.

Bring the microphone.

Our translator, you know, we're going to put the translation services out to bid.

Right?

Here they come.

Oh, now they're running. Okay, this is good. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Buenos noches. Yo soy Rosario Ruiz. Soy mamá de dos niños de Vista Heritage. and Pista Condor. Yo estoy aquí apoyando a la escuela porque le han dado la ayuda que mis hijos necesitan. Mis hijos están, ellos reciben educación especial. Mi hijo tiene autismo y yo estoy apoyando aquí a ellos porque ellos le dieron la ayuda que él necesita.

Anteriormente ellos estaban en el distrito y And me rechazaron in two schools because they didn't have the services that he needed. I didn't have many options to point out to my son in the school that I wanted, because they didn't have the help that he needed. And when they told me that they didn't have the help that he needed. And they were helping me. When I decided to take my children from the district, when they called me, I already have been in Vista Heritage.

And now they are in their school and that's why I'm supporting here, so they approve what they need. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Rosario Reese. I'm a mother of two kids that attend Vista Heritage. I am here to support the school, and the school has helped my kids. My kids are in special needs, and I support them. I support everything they have done. My kids were in the district before, and the district, they didn't provide the help. They told me twice that they couldn't help me because they didn't have what I needed for my children.

However, I enrolled them in VISTA, and they helped me. And when the school did call me and said that they could help me, I had already had my children in Vista. And I'm here to support them because they have helped, and now my children are doing really well. So thank you.

Thank you. Now I'm going to close the public hearing. And we won't put out the services to bid. Not just yet. So with that, I bring it back to Council for comment or consideration.

Mayor Pro Temp? I'd like to speak to the person in charge of the school.

Don Wilson?

Yes, sir.

Don, you're going to get to use your voice again. I hope you're recovering quickly.

Just some simple questions. I think they were already answered, but I'm going to ask anyone. I just want to hear it from him.

So how many, the report says you're going to have a maximum of 870 or you can go to 870?

It can go to 870.

You can go, and it's going to be gradual over five years, correct?

That's correct.

So it's not like something overnight you're going to be evaluating, but you can have up to 870.

Excuse me. My phone started talking.

And how many children do you have that are right now attending the school?

We have 467.

You have 400 kids. In the last five years, how many accidents have you had from the surrounding businesses? Zero. What about 10 years?

None.

Okay. Those are my questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. If anyone else has a question.

Council Member Salorio. Yeah, I have some follow-ups. I don't have many general comments other than I do think that there are impacts on the environment. Do you need them to stand up or they should sit back? No, no, I have questions for them. And impacts on the children, just because so many in one place without any outside activity. On the numbers, just as a follow-up, which is why I wanted to follow up. I asked staff this afternoon how many students you currently have, and I think the max you're supposed to have is 420. I'm hearing now you say you have 487?

So that was an old number. We had a whole other section that was done and cleared by the fire department. And so there is another section that was not in the last hearing.

Well, maybe then as legal issues move forward, you might want to communicate that to the city so they can better understand and coordinate their responses. And then how many students total you think you're requesting via these changes here today?

We have asked for up to 870.

870. I'm not sure if you've read the staff report. The staff report speaks to 960.

I believe the confusion is that the building itself has the capacity to hold that. What we are, our personal cap for ourselves is 870.

Again, maybe that's one more thing you might want to clarify. I don't think it's a confusion. This for me as a whole, I mean, there's other, you know, we're talking about a lot of confusion here and unfortunate situation. And as I mentioned the last time, just as a parent, I feel uncomfortable having a thousand children in one warehouse. We would never do something like this in Irvine, in Orange. I'm all about high-achieving charter schools. I hope you're that, but I do have just very strong reservations on the legislative aspect.

We are high-achieving. We're outpacing all of the schools in Santa Ana.

That place is well, but unfortunately, a lot of confusing numbers and misinformation. Can I just clarify that? No, we'll let the staff just because I think our city manager wanted to

to weigh in on some of those council members Solario in the staff report it states that the expansion will accommodate 870 total students so it it

does match with the number he's providing other sections dimension 960 so is it so everything then should reflect 870 throughout maybe our well somebody needs to clarify but it's there's multiple numbers in here

so the school projected enrollment is their peak is at 870 the zoning code that we are proposing for the SD is 960 cap that cap is higher than the 870 that is being proposed however that is based on a state minimum requirement for square footage per student that we're using so based on the size of the building that they're proposing they could qualify for up to 960 students but if they're

asking for lesser amount maybe we should give a lesser amount who's requesting

the 960 I think that's something that could be considered I don't you know I don't think they have a problem with it but well yeah then I would like to see

changes throughout for 860 if that's the intention and I think the environmental studies I think they studied 8 870 or fewer so that's that was the related piece, which is why I was following up on that. The traffic study did study 870 students. Right. So really that should be the figure. It shouldn't be 960 that. Who knows who picked that number? Those are my comments. Thank you.

Does the applicant have a number if we limit it to the lower number? No, because that is what we are shooting for. All right. When we consider this, I suggest we consider that number. Any additional comments? Yeah, Councillor Becerra and then Councillor.

Phil BacerraItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was looking at your circulation plan and on the northern portion you have a vehicle loading zone. So I imagine this is the area where on the south side you have the bus loading zone, so buses are coming through and then on the north end, this is what I imagine parents are individually dropping off their children at the site. but my question is in looking at it you show it as if it's a counterclockwise rotation they'll go out the same way they came in on the east side of the site my question for you is what would prevent vehicles from going out westward towards Fairview

so we have a plan in place and I apologize I'm only supposed to speak for 10 minutes an hour but we have a plan in place so we have a lot of staff we are highly staffed there will be people outside we are very concerned that there is no traffic that goes where our neighbors are so that that whole area remains clear every single day for them that will never be impacted and then we also have people that will be standing there directing the traffic to go back

Phil BacerraItem —

out that way so this won't be something that we just hope the cars will know no

no this is personal we have we have a full plan and the personnel already available to do that okay thank you additional comment council David Antonio Losa, please.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just had the concerns of one of the speakers brought up the multiple schools as examples. And, you know, I think of what the average student in Santa Ana lives, has to deal with, and lives like in Santa Ana. Limited open space. You know, they have to go home after a long day at school to what's usually a crammed apartment or a crammed household. again with limited open space, limited park space nearby. And the only time they are actually able to have a field to run on is at schools. And that's the only thing that I'm seeing here

David PenalozaItem —

that is lacking is that open space, I know there was some like a handball court and gym aspect to this project, but just the idea of open space, traditional open space is missing, which is a little problematic for me.

David PenalozaItem —

And one of the things, and maybe this is, I guess, just in general for future public hearings, which was just a concern that I had, Madam City Manager and City Attorney, when it comes to the process. I know this was before us back in May, and it was an impasse, but which allows the applicant to come back at a later date. The only thing that I worry about is because it's a public hearing and at the time when we do public hearings for these type of changes we do notify you know residents and and and businesses within 500 feet the only thing i have an issue with is that that

David PenalozaItem —

was done at the time great you know it was heard before us it was an impasse but there was no um what what kind of outreach was done for this uh for for hearing this again today um council member

I'm going to defer to the city attorney because she could talk about what the requirements would be in the case of this public hearing.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Council Member, my understanding in verifying with staff, and we can get that verification from staff, is that notice was mailed as required for the initial application as well as published notice. The reason this matter came back before you is on May 7th when this item was initially heard, there was a 3-3 vote. It was stated publicly at that time that that vote was non-action. It was included within the minutes that the City Council unanimously approved. At that time, the mayor had specifically asked staff if that non-action would allow the applicant to return,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

and the response given at that time was that the applicant could return when they were ready to make that request. Since that was approved by the Council, there was no objection, and the minutes were reflected as no action. The advice to staff was that it could come forward. I have also talked to staff about maybe as we do our general plan and our zoning code updates to make sure that we Modernize our codes and make sure those issues are addressed specifically

David PenalozaItem —

But I don't think the the ability to come back Without any additional application process was part of the motion approved at the time or not approved because it was an impasse But I just worry is that because this was a public hearing and we initially heard it in May we gave due diligence and due notice and this is not just for this specific project but any project which I see happens frequently is that what we will send out the public notice required and we hear it and at the time the people that were concerned or or in support or an opposition of this project could have

David PenalozaItem —

been like okay that's it is what it is you know we're but not have any idea that this was going to be heard again eight months down the line. Was there any outreach done for this specific public hearing today?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I would have to defer to staff to answer that question, but my understanding is it is a public hearing before you this evening and all notice was given to the residents and published notice in the same manner that notice was given for the May 7th hearing. So it was identical notice to everyone. It's a brand, it's a new public hearing. So it was? On December 6th, as noted on the agenda.

David PenalozaItem —

So letters were sent out to businesses and residences within 500 feet, which I think should be 1,000 because we run into a lot of issues with neighborhoods specifically.

That's correct. And it was done on December 6th, 2019.

David PenalozaItem —

On December 6th.

Correct.

David PenalozaItem —

And is that usually the process?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I have to admit to you guys, some of our more modern codes will actually give us very clear direction as what happens when you have a tie vote. Yours doesn't. Your code was drafted in the 1960s. It's silent on this issue. But legally, when there's a 3-3 vote, there was no action taken. So it wasn't like you said, we deny this project. And you confirm that at that meeting, and you confirm that when you address the minutes. And that's where our analysis led us.

But Madam City Manager here, in addition to that, he was just told that notice was reissued.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

That's correct.

David PenalozaItem —

So notice was reissued.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes, and in an abundance of caution, notice was even reissued.

David PenalozaItem —

Because you did say that notice was issued initially with the initial application process.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

And done again.

David PenalozaItem —

So it was done again, and it was done on December 6th? Yes.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

The city clerk is getting done that.

David PenalozaItem —

And that's something that, as we move forward with any charter amendments or whatnot, it's things that we could also, but that's another conversation for another date. But those were my questions for tonight. Thank you.

I can't help you with the second question, but I can definitely address the first question. You know, I had a unique opportunity to adopt a student of mine when he was orphaned at eight years old. He came from the exact kind of home that you talk about. I'm intimately knowledgeable and have a lot of experience with kids from those kinds of homes. And I can tell you right now that as a dad raising that son, outdoor space was important to me, as it is important for our kids. our school will have a 10,000 square foot auditorium that will have an indoor soccer place indoor soccer and basketball court for the kids to play and for the

younger kids will be a separate area for equipment on top of that that's inside I get that we have an MOU with the city of Santa Ana with the recreational and we use the park just a couple of blocks down on a regular basis we use it for PE oftentimes we use it for running we've had soccer matches there on a regular basis we bring our Los Angeles schools up here to compete we use it continuously in addition to that we have an outdoor program that we've set up for our kids to be up in Big Bear so we are outdoor for me is everything and I'm completely in line with you and we are providing that not only are we providing

the space indoor space because not only you can't play outside every day but we also have that outside and it's luckily Santa Ana has beautiful resources and we have an MOU that we have a regular ongoing relationship with the parks

David PenalozaItem —

and recreation and which part do you guys usually use and you're gonna ask me

that I think it's called pioneer Park it's it's on Fifth Avenue and I may be wrong it's it's literally just a couple of blocks from the school pioneer point

Phil BacerraItem —

it's right next to those are staff now is that Spurgeon Park no it's not Spurgeon

David PenalozaItem —

El Salvador.

It's literally just a couple of blocks down on 5th Avenue.

David PenalozaItem —

And do you guys usually just walk there, or how do you transport kids to the park?

We have vans that we're able to transport the kids to there. We have our own buses and our own vans.

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, I don't think we have a Pioneer Park in the...

El Salvador. El Salvador Park. I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. Now, Council Member Iglesias, please.

If I may, I would like to move the motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion, a second. If there's no more discussion.

I just want to say a comment really fast. I just want to thank Vista Heritage for providing this opportunity for our families here in Santa Ana. I know when I was on the school board, a member of the school board, you guys did an amazing job, you know, trying to provide those services to our families. So I commend you, and I want to thank you for the partnership. And I know you'll do a lot of great things for our kids. So I just want to thank you for it. So thank you for being here.

Thank you very much. Thank you. So with that, those in favor, please press green.

Motion carries four to three. So now we're going to go back to our consent calendar.

Does anybody wish to pull any items on our consent calendar? Councilman Reglesias.

20A

20A

25B

25D 25E G and H and 25G and H

Okay, any other items? Councilor Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem —

I'd like to go ahead and pull item 11A

11A, Councilor Becerra Any other items? Make a motion to approve the balance. Okay, we have a motion to approve the balance. I'll second. Those in favor, please press green.

Let's go on with item 11A. Councilor Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Phil BacerraItem —

I've obviously, in the last couple of meetings, I've expressed my opposition to the entitlements that are brought before us, and I continue to have those concerns, and I also believe in the fact that, as I said at the last meeting, that the second reading provides all of us an opportunity to really take into consideration what's before us. And I also know that my colleagues asked for a continuance on this item because there were issues that they wanted to have a better understanding of, and so I just want to afford that opportunity to my colleagues now that we have the additional work provided by our staff.

Can you hold some of your comments? The clerk just handed me about 20 speaker cards. Absolutely. So let's do the speaker cards, hear the input, and then let's go.

Phil BacerraItem —

I just want to thank staff for what they've done.

But sorry about that. I kind of thought this was going to be it. Ellen Kolden, Kenzig, followed by Dimitri Lujan, followed by Ed Murashi.

Ellen, welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Mrs. Ellen Koldaway, your constituent and a voter in Santa Ana. Thank you for pulling this item. I'm here to oppose 2525 North Main Street. And what I would really appreciate your doing is to consider some additional information that I have provided to you in my letter to you recently. Just to highlight some of the additional information that's become available to you. You'll see the staff report that has begun to do some additional good work on the development agreement,

but also since the last council meeting on December 3rd, 2019, I've provided both the citations and copies of some really informative articles by the Orange County Register on our state's housing crisis and the adequacy of the response of local cities and towns to this crisis. These articles have provided comparative housing data showing that Santa Ana has consistently led Orange County in permitting the building of sufficient high-density housing at all income levels to satisfy regional housing needs assessment requirements.

In fact, we're one of only 15 cities to fully comply, and the local media has given this city an A-plus in fulfilling our responsibility. What I think I conclude from this, however, is that based on the data in these articles, as a result of clear leadership, I can't find that there's still a compelling justification for building any more high-density luxury housing based on the collected data. And let me just show you what I'm talking about, and you can see this in the information I provided to you.

The Southern California News Group evaluated each city based on how well it's meeting state-mandated goals to issue housing permits. Santa Ana was supposed to permit 204 homes. For very low-income housing, 45 was the final goal. 241 units were permitted. 32 for low-income housing, 440 units were permitted. For moderate income housing, 37 was the final goal, and 41 units were permitted. For above moderate income housing, 90 was the final goal, and Santa Ana has permitted 1,565.

So under those circumstances, the property at 2525 North Main Street may be desirable for some reasons, but I don't think that you can argue that there's any type of a compelling justification for building any more high-density luxury housing in this particular location. I also would ask you to take a look, now that we have done such a fine job, and I applaud the city's leadership for that, with what should we do? Can you conclude soon, please? I will.

No, no, we don't do that, but just wrap up. I will. Under these circumstances, the California Department of Housing and Community Development says that housing policy rests largely on the effective implementation of local general plans, and that's what we haven't done. That's what we haven't done. Another matter that I think we need to look at as a result of additional development since the last meeting, and I say this with all due respect, is I implore you to please investigate the allegations regarding the integrity of the current public process

that were brought to our attention by Mayor Pro Tem Villegas and Council Member Inglesias at the December 3, 2019 meeting. They've been brought to the attention of the local, state, and federal authorities. And please, let us know that you are satisfied with the integrity of the process before you take the final vote. Thank you. Thank you. Dimitri.

The last, my name's Dimitri Lujan. I live in Santa Ana in San Diego Park. I oppose the program, this project. The last speaker covered everything I was going to talk about to a point. Thank you. Thank you. Ed, called by Mark Rothenberg.

I think you could see why we're proud to have Alan Caldeway as our parliamentarian for the Floral Park Board. She's outstanding. Good evening, City Council. City manager city attorney and staff and mr. mayor I'm Ed Marashi president of the floral park neighborhood association and I want to make it clear that our Neighborhood Association is against this project in its current state of this state For the following reasons number one the project in its current state is just the wrong size It's not appropriate for that location Councilman Iglesias we have over 5,000

developments, apartments that are going on within six blocks of the 2525 development right now in various stages. All approved and some are being constructed. We have enough already.

Councilman Solario, your numbers about the traffic are wrong. I mean, you can guesstimate when you're trying to do one or two developments, but again, within six blocks, we have 10 developments going on and I think the data is going to prove that wrong and Councilman Saramento we've heard from appraisers in the area and they've all said that the you're gonna see a property decrease of at least 20% in that neighborhood in the coming years

Councilman Penaloza you know where you and I first met we first met right outside a comm-linked meeting. Councilman Becerra introduced us and you went on and on and talked about how you were going to fight for the neighborhoods as you were running for City Council and this is your time to step up and do that. That's exactly what we're asking. We're asking you to vote no on the second reading or to postpone the second reading until you resolve the issues that we have with Dale Havoc has brought up with the city and have gone there's nine of them that are

unresolved. Santa Ana is absolutely blessed to have 64 neighborhoods half of which are very active and they're trying to guide their neighborhood and try to guide the city into the future that they want to have. You've heard from a lot of the neighborhood associations they're all against it there's not one neighborhood association that's for this project even Comlink who very rarely takes a stance has come out and publicly said we oppose the project in the state it's at so what I'm asking all of you to do is to listen to the city count and listen to the neighborhood associations in the

neighborhoods and please vote no on the second reading or at least postpone it while you resolve the issues. Become a neighborhood leader. Thank you. Good night.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, good evening. Mark Rothenberg, 2042 North Ross Street. I live in Floral Park. Again, I'm a land use practitioner as well as a professor of land use law over at Chapman Law School. There's been, and this is our second reading, we didn't barnstorm counsel tonight. Frankly, I think that the neighbors were very hopeful that the four of you will change your mind, but I think the expectation is there's going to be a yes vote tonight, and so strategies have obviously shifted. But we thought we would make one last attempt to convince you to at least postpone this vote.

And I think the first thing to take note of is the timing. In addition to the fact the Planning Commission rejected this on multiple occasions, you had first reading just before Thanksgiving, second reading just before Christmas, there was an expansive debate amongst council as to whether or not to have a 15 or a 30 or a 45-day continuance, and begrudgingly, you went with 15 days. And so here we are just a week before Christmas when everyone's out of town, and the thought being that folks aren't paying attention. So at a minimum, there's an enormous amount of smoke with regard to this application.

Of course, Mayor Pro Tem, you took a very courageous stance and said some things at the last council meeting that had us all having our jaws dropped. And Councilwoman Iglesias, you chimed in as well. Even though you still voted for it, you chimed in with regard to the influence of dark money. We've also received confirmation that there's an ongoing investigation with regard to dark money and with regard to development in the city. So at a minimum, take some of the arrows out of our quiver and continue this matter until after the new year. With regard to the development agreement, we raised a number of objections.

Only some of them were addressed. And Councilman Solorio, you said at the last meeting, we should trust our staff. I am prepared to vote tonight. That's what you said at the last meeting. You gave staff two weeks, and in those two weeks, they actually agreed with a number of the comments that Dale Helvick and I and others had made with regard to the development agreement. But there are still substantial issues that have frankly been ignored. One of the things the neighbors have said over and over again is negotiate for a pedestrian bridge crossing Main Street.

If you're going to be shifting, all of those folks going back and forth across Main Street, then get a bridge. It would address a number of the concerns, not all of them, but it would certainly address a number of the concerns. And the only response that we got from staff on that point was, well, it meets the code requirements. The pedestrian crossing meets the code requirements. They're asking you for a general plan amendment. They're asking you for a rezoning. They're not entitled to either. You have absolute discretion to approve or disapprove, and you can certainly, through negotiations, require a pedestrian bridge.

Councilman Salori, you snapped your finger and got a fence. Negotiate with them. Negotiate a better deal. You've given them four years to develop this, and then two years of extension for $100,000. You stand to lose $950,000 and change, yet you're going to let them extend for two years. The staff report said, well, this is a relatively short project, and most other development agreements are for much longer terms. Frankly, in my experience, that's not true. You see long-term development agreements with expansive projects where you're developing hundreds, if not thousands, of homes. That's not the case here.

He should be able to develop this in one to two years, not four, certainly not six. Could you conclude? Absolutely. So again, I've laid out a number of the issues in the development agreement that still haven't been addressed. There are substantive issues. Councilman Becerra, we thank you again for noting the huge discrepancy with regard to mixed use, the parking from the museum being engrafted onto the site, and therefore magically we have mixed use, which makes absolutely no sense. There's also been a notice of intent to litigate so you know the outcome of your decision. We're going to be in litigation.

It's a huge waste of staff time. At the very least, take some arrows out of our quiver and continue this matter until after the new year. Thank you.

Thank you. Karen Iger, followed by Michael Plantamura.

Good evening, council members. I'm Kara Nagar. I live in the Park Santiago neighborhood. In the second reading tonight, you have an opportunity to overturn a questionable decision from the last council meeting. And I listened to the questions that you had for the school with great interest. Councilman Penazzola, you were passionate about public input being so important to the process. You've heard public input on this project on 2525, so you know how the public feels about it. That's important to you. Listen to your heart. Listen to your head when you vote tonight.

You also were very concerned about the safety of the children going to and from the school. Well, as the last speaker just talked about, the children in the crosswalk in that strange location with the 2525 project, it's putting them at risk because the crosswalk is way too close to the freeway exit and to Edgewood. So again, listen to what you're saying. Listen to the things that are important to you and think about that as you're voting tonight. Councilman Solario, you were very concerned about getting the numbers right.

How many students were really going to be at the school? That's really important to you. But throughout this project with 2525, the city staff and the developers have presented different numbers on what the dwelling units per acre were. So just very basic numbers that they haven't gotten right. That's important to you. Listen to yourself. Listen to your head. listen to your heart when you vote tonight. So I really appreciate you guys having the second hearing on this and giving yourselves the opportunity to make a better decision this time. Thank you.

Thank you. Michael followed by Giles Candy.

Good evening Mayor, Council Members. My name is Mike Plannemiro. I live in Park Santiago and I oppose this project and I hope vote against it tonight. My main concern is safety, safety of children, that the new intersections both on both ends of this project are very unsafe, especially the one closest to Edgewood. You have a new entrance to the parking lot that they're going to put, and it's too close to Edgewood, it's too close to the five freeway off-ramp, and it's just waiting for an accident to happen. There wasn't really a very good traffic study done on that, a safety study in my opinion,

and I think you're going to be regretted if you vote for this with the project as it is. The other thing that was brought up was the vandalism of the property and the homeless situation in the park. I'll tell you one thing. When Wells Fargo owned that, the vandalism of that property wasn't apparent. It wasn't there. Even when they left the building, they had a patrol there. I saw them many nights patrolling the area. I don't believe that the developer now has a patrol there. I haven't seen them in a long time. It would be interesting to know if they really still have them patrolling.

They've let that building go to hell just to make a point that, hey, something's got to be done with it.

People mention, well, how come the people of Park Santiago didn't come out and vote against other high-density projects in other areas? we would have if we wanted to, but believe me, two wrongs don't make a right. The homeless situation. People in Park Santiago, they didn't vote against the Aqua Motel conversion, which is going to put homeless people right around the corner from us. We're making sacrifices. We just asked the council to make sacrifices for us. Measure X. You talk about money coming in from the developer. the people of Santa Ana voted for Measure X for that very reason. So you wouldn't have to

wait for money from the developers to make your budget

make ends. In fact, I think this year you have a budget surplus if I'm not mistaken. Mostly because of Measure X. You also have all the marijuana funds coming in as well. So don't use the fact that developers are going to be providing funds to the budget as a reason to vote for a project. Look at what it really means to the city, what it means of the community, what it means to residents of Park Santiago when you make your vote. And finally, I'd like to say Santa Ana is the seventh densest city in the United States. Does that make people proud? I mean, do we want our motto to be, welcome to Santa Ana,

the seventh densest city in the United States in America? I don't think so. We need to start looking at what we're doing to this. Crowding people in into a small area with these high density projects is not the way to go. It's just going to create crime, it's going to create blithe, and it's not what you should be voting for tonight. So I urge you vote no on this project tonight. Thank you.

Giles, followed by Danny Vega.

Good evening, Council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. This evening, to the point Councilman Solario made with respect to the school. The 2525 project has continued for years with a lot of confusion and a lot of change. Accommodating, finding configurations to accommodate 2525's traffic has constantly changed. Today, no engineering drawing has being produced for the latest configuration. I've seen an informal

rendering which offers maybe a suitable configuration for motorcycles but would be very challenging for cars, trucks and buses. Unlike the school however, the Edgewood and Main Junction has multiple accidents every single year and And you know this. If you approve this project tonight, when that accident happens, you'll have approved the project without publishing, to my knowledge, a proper engineering drawing of how the configuration of that junction will be.

Please consider that. Multiple times, the Planning Commission, your Planning Commission, the city's Planning Commission, has voted this project down. The neighbourhood and surrounding neighbourhoods and many communities within Santa Ana have all come to you repeatedly and in large numbers and said they're not behind this project. You're a council that is meant to represent us and you are continually told the community is not behind this project.

You've already discussed internally at the end of the last City Council meeting that if this goes ahead, you'll be in court. You know that. You've said that yourselves. How is it responsible? On what basis would you approve this tonight? This project is not constructive for this parcel. Please, we want to find something constructive for this parcel. As Mike just said, it doesn't look good right now. Please find us a constructive project for this parcel. 2525 as it is today is not the answer. Thank you.

Good evening, council members. My name is Danny Vega. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today. Honestly, I don't have skin in this game. I live in Casa de Santiago, so this project wouldn't really affect me or my neighborhood. Regardless, I come in here in solidarity with my neighbors to oppose this project. As I feel that we all need to stick up for each other in the city. Now, I want you to really think about your vote and the message you're going to send to the rest of Santa Ana. As you know, I run a Facebook page that

has over 3,000 members and according to Facebook statistics, there's over 2,300 active members every day. Now, the only reason why I mention that is that my mission is to get the Santa Ana residents involved in politics that not only affect their lives but the lives of their neighbors. I constantly tell them that the reason why cities in South County have it so well is that they come out to protest whenever the city tries to do something that they deem wrong. As an example, Irvine, when they were trying to build a shelter, I think what 700 people showed up to protest? Now I look around

me and I've seen the past meetings and it's very clear that this community, that they don't want this in their backyard. That alone should be a reason to vote no on this. If you decide to vote yes on this, what you're essentially saying is that our voices don't matter. At the end of the day, it's what the council wants or what the money wants. This counters the message that I have been so desperately trying to tell the Santa Ana residents. neighbors of north santa anna whether you are here or listening i want you to know that i'm

using you guys as a model of how the rest of the city should be acting it makes me proud to see you guys fight so hard for something you feel passionate about and i truly hope the rest of santa anna can learn from you if this passes i want you i want to let you know that you can count not only on me, but the rest of Santa Ana. I will help in whatever possible way I can, using my group online to get the word out and get residents to help in this beautiful city of ours, because at the end of the day, we're all neighbors. Thank you.

Gary Hendricks.

Followed by Santa Claus. And is Santa against 2525? We'll find out. We'll find out in a minute. Go ahead. My name is Gary Hendricks. I live on Spurgeon. My property backs up to the proposed property. There are 11 homes on Spurgeon that back up to 2525. Ten of the 11 homeowners had a series of meetings to discuss changes that would need to be made in order for us to be able to accept the new apartments proposed to be built. In those meetings, there was a list of 11 significant items that would need to be added or changed.

The list was then forwarded to Mr. Dale Hevlig for his comments and suggestions. Dale made only one suggestion, which was implemented in the 11 items. As a group, the 10 homeowners then met with the developers to present our list of proposed changes. Within a very short period of time, the developers had implemented all 11 of the changes that we had requested and admitted their development agreement to reflect those changes. There was nothing asked of the 10 homeowners in order for these changes to be made, and all 10 of the homeowners were in agreement with these changes.

Those are all people that back up to the property. The neighborhood has complained about the building not being secure, overrun by homeless, and a place for crime. If the city would approve the demolition of the building, this would not be an issue. Mr. Schaefer has represented himself as an expert on Park Santiago and has sold more homes than anyone else. He has stated that if the apartments are built, that Park Santiago property values will go down. I do not know who these other experts that they mentioned are. When Mr. Schaefer sold us our house on Spurgeon a little over a year ago,

he disclosed that there was a proposal for an apartment complex to be built on the property, but he never said anything about property values dropping if that proposal was approved when he sold me the house. Typically these meetings are about 100 speakers that you guys have to listen to, sometimes less, many of whom almost all opposed the project. This is less, however, than 10% of Park Santiago residents. Contrary to what these individuals have you believe, this accounts for a minority of homeowners who oppose the project.

The vast majority either support the project or have no opinion at all and never come to these meetings.

Excuse me, I didn't interrupt you. Don't interrupt me.

I hope you will uphold your previous vote, allow the project to go through, and get this over with. You're elected to vote. Peter, go ahead. As a side note, I think it's an abomination of what they're trying to do to you, ma'am. Thank you. Peter Katz.

Don't interrupt me when I'm talking. It's Christmas time, please.

All right, let's start the time on Santa. Go ahead. Merry Christmas on that note. You know, I want to start with a little story. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln appointed a new ambassador to Mexico by the name of Joel Poinsett. Joel Poinsett spent his first winter in Mexico, and he came across this beautiful red flower, and he asked the native Mexicans the lore behind this flower, and he was told the history of the bloodshed of the Virgin Mary and the legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Virgin of Guadalupe. He was so impressed with this flower and this story of a symbol of goodwill,

he sent several dozen to President Lincoln. President Lincoln was so impressed, he decided to name the flower after his ambassador, but he couldn't give him a masculine name, so he changed the ending and gave it the Spanish family name because of its beauty. On that note, what I want to say is we're here arguing about density, traffic, crime, money, but we have an ethics commission. And we need to, this time of year, take a dark look inside of ourselves. I was appalled at the last meeting, the way the city manager and the city attorney were treated.

They were hired to do the best of their ability to run this city at your guidance, direction, and advice. They're not here to be accused of taking dark money, hiding money, playing games. And I was appalled by that. You guys, if you have a disagreement with the staff, do it behind closed doors. Do it before you get here. The City of Los Angeles has gotten so fed up with the way their council is run, they passed a resolution banning all contributions by developers to political campaigns.

So, we just have to take a look at these people are doing their job, and they're working to the best of their ability, working for us. If you have a disagreement with them, before the meeting, before the agenda, you get this agenda the week before. Get with them. Ask your questions. The only questions that should come up to staff is if it was raised by the audience and you didn't think about it. So it tells me you're not doing your job, and you're telling and trying to run this city from the dais here, and not giving the staff, the competent staff, the ability to run this city.

So at this time of year, I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, and look forward to the new year where we can be civil to one another, disagree, and still be friends and come together at this time of year and love one another. Because there's too much hatred that's dividing this country. And in order to get things done, we need to work together. So thank you. Thank you very much, Peter. Patricia Coleman.

Followed by Christine Denny-Helvig.

Sorry, I wasn't ready. It's City Council Persons and Mayor. Once again, I brought you a picture.

So we have a project that had some basic problems coming in. it had a zoning problem the property it had a contamination problem there's a gas station mortuary you know they figured out that whatever the gas station leakage was coming from elsewhere but it's there seismic safety it's in a liquefaction zone I'm not really happy with how that was handled it's uneven across the city but we'll deal with it I want to talk about access because it also has always had an access problem and what I gave you was the

second modification of access of trying to make it work and trying to make it function and unfortunately redoing it every time has meant that there's been a less of a chance for it to be fully reviewed now I actually I asked staff if They could tell me what was the lane width twice. I never got an answer. And if you look at the picture that I gave you, you can see on the first, I just used Google Maps, my first concern was just the distance between the crosswalk and the intersection.

Cars turning right on red is always a problem for pedestrian safety. I had that from your traffic engineer. He said it's unavoidable. Putting a distance between the intersection and the driver and the pedestrians makes it worse. You're less able to be aware of the pedestrians when you have distance. So I looked up a lot of studies, and it's advised that you give the crosswalk its own location, maybe. There's lots of mitigation that could be done for that.

None of that was addressed. The additional problem for the pedestrians wasn't addressed. When I went out to look, I was horrified to see that you couldn't even see the crosswalk. so I really think you need to consider the safety and the configuration the second one you might want to notice the lane widths don't even fit okay so I mean my question of lane width never got answered and that doesn't fit there's no crosswalk, I mean there's no sidewalk in front of the Discovery Science Center right there so please take the time to look at this modification it really, it hasn't fully gone through the EIR

our process and I think it's worthy of consideration. It may meet the bare minimum but I think we need a little more attention to safety. Thank you. Thank you. Christine followed by Thomas Cartney I believe it is. Hello City Council. First I would like to sincerely thank Councilmember Villegas for daring to speak truth to power. The power of the money behind developers, the power of a dark money LLC tied to relatives of lobbyists.

Thank you for standing up for your and others' reputations on this council against those who would try to assassinate your character, as Mr. Art Pedroza tried to assassinate mine, most likely backed by dark money, in his factless new Santa Ana blog. I don't break either. For over two years, many neighborhoods from all over the city representing multiple walks of life, ethnicities, and income levels have been involved with presenting logical reasons why, one, a commercial location is best for 2525 and the city, and two, the zoning change and proposed high-density development doesn't make sense for that property.

And yet, council members continue to vote for the proposed development. So I listen carefully to the reasoning. One, it's all of these constituents' fault for not participating enough in the right issues, other issues that are near and dear to the voting council members' hearts. Let's call it what it is. A payback vote aimed at one or more other council members for some vote on one or more previous issues unrelated to 2525 Main Street.

We are voting and considering 2525 Main Street, not historical votes. Not whether or not we have even been informed of other issues in the city because of the 500-foot rule. The citizens being impacted by your decision on this issue, the ones here and at home watching tonight, are nothing but collateral damage pawns in a game where the rules are set behind closed doors. The false win-win.

The developer has reduced his request from 517 to 256, will bring an end to the homeless issue in the area, and will get rid of the dangerous and scary situation on the property. One would think he's an angel in disguise. Let's be clear about a few things. In November 2017, you have the paperwork in front of you. At the request of the developer, an economic analysis was delivered by the Concord Group for the 2525 Main Street property, showing a 100% likelihood of delivering a projected 272 market rate units in 2019. Not 517.

272 units. If you look at the numbers for Prisma, the numbers there are exactly the numbers that Prisma has. So these numbers were part of it, most likely, in economic analysis that showed that 272 could be profitable. There was no mention of anything else on that property, including a parking lot for the Discovery Science Center. So let's look at what the developer gave up from their original projection of 272 minutes. Please conclude soon. They gave up 16 units. They didn't come down by half. They came to the table with twice as many as they originally projected.

I will finish, but if you give me just a few more minutes. So now they get 256 units on a property with a parking lot where eventually the Discovery Science Center will run out of parking. You'll get a few more minutes, a few more moments. Just please conclude. And they will go for stacked parking there. So then what will we have? Thank you. Thank you, Thomas.

Followed by Walkie Ray.

Good evening, council members. I'm Thomas Cartney, and I am a 20, nearly a 20-year resident of Park Santiago. And I'd like to say a number of things. firstly that you know Santa Ana is a unique place there was no master plan it grew organically throughout the years and it has the types of neighborhoods and the types of housing that all developers are trying to recreate we choose to live here because of the uniqueness of all of our

Santa Ana neighborhoods. And I am very grateful to the young man who is from that spoke earlier, who said that I would believe strongly that everyone in Santa Ana feels the same way about their neighborhoods and no one else wants to have a high density building like this abutting or at the entry of or within their single family home neighborhood. Also, we make choices. when you buy a house that's next to the railroad tracks, are you going to protest the fact that there's noise of trains coming by and there's rumbling?

The neighbors along Spurgeon who have purchased in the past couple of years, they knew that this was a possibility. They chose to buy anyway. And I'd have to say that every day in my neighborhood, and especially before meetings, I speak to many neighbors who are absolutely against this project. We are not a minority, and we have not been compensated in any way whatsoever to spend all of our time coming here and stating our case for what we believe in.

So, in conclusion, I would like to ask those council members who voted for this project to please consider changing your vote. Thank you so much.

Wauke-Rae, followed by Michael Ovalle.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is James Wauke-Rae. I'm on the board of Discovery Cube, and I'm here to voice our support for the project. For the last six years, we have had the good fortune of being able to make arrangements to park on the Wells Fargo parking lot. Without this parking, Discovery Cube would be by now out of business. I repeat, without that parking, we would be out of business. There are no options. We're now in the good position of having a grant from the state

which enables us to purchase enough land for 180 parking spaces and it cures our parking problems. I hope you will support the project. Thank you very much. Thank you, Michael.

Followed by Catalina Vega. Good evening, Council members, Mayor. I'm Michael Valle, Park San Diego. I'm the president. I've been president for about five years. Going strong. Love coming up here and talking. I'm getting better all the time.

sorry for what you're going through Council Member Inglacia we talked about it last time you can see why people are mad you know you spent a lot of time with our neighborhood you came out you beat the streets you talked to everybody you put your hand on our necks felt our pulse and then you called it and you know you still have a chance to resuscitate us Council Member Penaloza you know you were right on last time you came out and you said give it a 60 day continuance can we continue up to 45 or 60 days? And then it went down to 30, and then it went down to 15, to two weeks. And you could literally see Councilmember Solario

kicking you under the table. Two weeks. Ten days.

Well, yeah.

Okay, thank you. Councilmember Solario, we've known your position the whole time. I wish you would change it, and I wish you would support your ward. Thank you.

You know, I work two jobs. My wife works full-time. I resent being called an elitist. And, you know, one out of 11 Spurgeon residents came and talked for the project tonight. That's less than 10% of Spurgeon residents.

Gary you know we've always had a good relationship we've always been cordial I appreciate that you can come out and speak your mind

and like I said I hope you guys change your vote and consider what the residents want thank you

Catalina

followed by Dale Helvig Hi good evening I wasn't going to talk today but after hearing everybody I think I need to be here. I live in Casa de Santiago. We deal with so much traffic, so much homeless, so much people just creating crime, plus the freeway. So I'm here to support them because you guys don't understand how much traffic to exit, to come in. My children, I have to go through web pages and internet, call the police, and they're not there right away and you know it's not fair you guys don't live there don't know what the area is if

you go right now there's traffic in the um discovering science center i have to park across where that lot is and i have to cross back my kids could get hit by a car it's ridiculous no totally support them shouldn't do that there it's just thank you

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and staff. Dr. Snyder earlier today made a comment. We as a community can make a difference. And I think that sums it up. You know, we as a community have united, and it's not just Park Santiago. it's many neighborhoods in the city that feel the same way as we do. We are united in our adventure that we're undertaking right now. It's not a minority of Park Santiago that's opposed to this. It's a majority of it. Spurgeon residents did meet, and I did respond to those Spurgeon residents' requests,

and that was not to establish a basis for the project. It was concessions that they were looking at that were going to be specific and affect them personally. And so I supported that meeting and I provided input to that meeting. Follow up to that, seven out of the 11 residents that live on Spurgeon wrote a letter to you guys opposing the project as presently proposed, 256 units. Seven out of 11. If we put residents first, then we know that it's not good for the Spurgeon residents as well.

As far as the issues that caused this continuance for the two weeks, two out of the 13 issues were addressed. Two of them had an answer to it. Nine went unanswered, and I don't know for what reason, but they weren't even in the letter that the city manager submitted to you guys. They were silent on it. It could have been, we can't comment on this or something, but we don't know what the answer was to those nine issues. One of them that is brought up by several people here tonight is Main Street putting in an access into Walkie Way.

you can't take a 400 foot stretch of land, shrink it down to 300 feet and add two left turn lanes at 190 feet going northbound and 200 feet going southbound. You have 90 feet that you have to figure out how you're going to work it. Are we going to shrink the lanes down? We don't know. That's why we asked last time for an engineering drawing to show how this plan is going to work. That and and other things, it seems like you're going to approve a project and everything's going to be, well, that will be covered in plan check. Storage space for the units, only eight units out of the

256 have the required storage that says they'll have in the development plan. That will be covered in plan check. Balconies, oh, that will be covered in plan check. Why isn't the project that you're approving complete. I don't understand that. This project will only yield $270,000 a year profit to the city. Is that what we're going to sell out for, is $270,000? You know, I've told people, without hope, all is lost. And we have hope that you'll do the right thing tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to bring it back to Council for discussion and consideration.

Phil BacerraItem —

Mr. Moir.

Councilor Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem —

Well, first I want to thank all the folks that came out to speak tonight, whether you're against or for the project. As we know, there's been a core group of you that have been very dedicated to your position and it's the spirit of democracy to come out and speak to your elected representatives. My hope is of course that some of your passion pleas do come through to my colleagues. My background being in planning, I'm usually more grounded in just whether this thing passes the smell test or not. And, you know, I was very adamantly opposed to the general plan amendment as it was proposed, and I still am.

Phil BacerraItem —

But even looking at the findings for the zone change, we talk about general plan consistency in that this amendment application will not result in incompatible land uses on adjacent properties. I respectfully disagree with that. It also talks about will this project protect and enhance the value of properties. We've heard from numerous experts that it will not. So with that being said, I'd like to just go ahead and make a motion, and I know I've done this before, but I'll continue to do it again, that we deny the two ordinances on the agenda with the findings that are not made, including that the application does

Phil BacerraItem —

result in incompatible land uses and that it does not protect and enhance the value of adjacent properties. I'll second that.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Additional discussion?

Let's vote on that and then we'll go from there. Those in favor, plus green.

Motion fails. So now is there a substitute motion or just another motion? That one failed.

Mr. Rejo, just some comments. Senator Solario. Initially, we had some residents speak about traffic, especially their Bristol, Casa Santiago area, of keeping it zoned the way it currently is, versus this new designation. This actually is substantially less traffic. And there's disagreement. I mean, read the reports though. So I'm just saying it's our city, staff and engineers, the consultant engineers, other areas. I'm just sharing with you, doesn't mean you need to agree, but I'm just sharing that with you. And then with respect to housing requirements,

the city has been very successful historically at doing our fair share of housing. But under the governor's new directive, just for Southern California alone, over the next 10 years, we're being asked to, for the Southern California area, build another 1.3 million housing units with several thousand more here in in Santa Ana we thought it was higher we've been lobbying for it to be last but I think it's looking in the three to five thousand range and maybe maybe our city staff can give us an update on that I think it's gonna be what is it

approximately we were very fortunate with the allocation it's approximately 3,100 for Santa Ana.

How many?

3,100.

Yeah, 3,100 additional units over the next decade as part of the new state administration. There were questions about, you know, I made a lot of comments on the prior presentation about changes, et cetera. Here on this project, there were several changes made over about a two year period or so, but the developer and the city were just trying trying to reduce density, reduce issues, and so there were ongoing changes, but as a result of, I think the city and the developer trying to reduce the density. And then at the end of the day too, with the grant that Senator Umberg helped get

for the Discovery Science Center to help with many things, including parking, because it is unsafe right now that folks have to park somewhere else to go to Discovery Science Center. This now is a combined solution that brings the dollars and improvements to make parking for children and families at the Discovery Science Center better. Also, as a result of a smaller project, there are less dollars going to the city, but again, it's the city and the developer trying to come up even with a smaller project with, again, much less traffic than if it were its current office or similar use.

Also, in an office use, it can even have a hospital, a shelter, a lot of other services and uses that may not be, that would be less compatible. Residential, next to residential is pretty common. We can disagree on height and density and other things, but it's pretty common to have residential next to residential, obviously. And then finally, I don't know whether the property owner has already made the request, but if there is already a request to demolish 2525, the existing building, it does need to go down. It's a visual disaster.

It's a magnet for issues, and so whether it's been requested now or not, that building needs to come down right away, as well as, assuming things go forward, other safety improvements as well. City Manager, any update on that aspect?

Council Member, there hasn't been a demolition permit pulled for 25-25 miles yet.

So, assuming this goes forward, something that... She says there's been no demo permit pulled. Something that I would encourage as soon as that gets submitted as soon as possible. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Additional comments? Go ahead, Councilor David Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem —

You got the last name correct. Got it right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to address some things that were said. I absolutely agree 100 percent and will always make sure that a proper process and public hearing takes place, regardless of whatever project that is I think that it you know as we've seen even with with the concerns that mr. Helvik brought up at the last second reading I made sure that you know we continued things and and sat down with staff to go over the numerous different issues that were brought up you know I

David PenalozaItem —

I do agree with Dell on the specific details of the plans, but I mean, that's standard operating procedure across the board on any project that's turned into the city. You go through plan check after initial approvals. Now, secondly, in regards to the safety of the children, absolutely care about the safety of the children. And the reason why I brought up those questions earlier tonight is because it's different in the sense that in a school setting, you would have, let's say, a PE teacher, one adult with a group of 30-plus kids crossing a street. That's a lot different than a parent,

David PenalozaItem —

two parents with a couple children looking out for each of these kids. And specifically because they've been using this parking lot for five-plus years to park at the Discovery Science Cube. So it's completely different in the regard of just the amount of children crossing at one time with one supervision adult. So I think that if it's done correctly, and I'm sure it will, it shouldn't be a problem because it hasn't happened, nothing hasn't happened in the last five to six years. With that said, those are my comments.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, I'm just happy that staff was able to address these concerns. that we took into consideration after Mr. Hovex-Sutter was brought forward. Thank you.

Thank you. I've just got one question, then let's continue with comments, and that is to staff. Last time they asked very specific questions about traffic. Do we have a formal answer to that analysis, or did we do some preliminary work?

Honorable Mayor, I'll ask our Executive Director, Mintai, to talk about the work that was done in the area of the traffic.

I believe a couple questions came up one was relating to the adequacy of Main Street between Edgewood and walking away to accommodate the proposed lane configurations based on engineering staff design they're able to fit in three travel lanes of through traffic along each north and southbound and including one turn pocket so the answer is yes they can accommodate the design based on the existing width of the roadways the second question I believe that came up

if I recall correctly was whether or not the project traffic was or consider the cumulative impact of what's around it including main place mall so from a traffic requirement standpoint the point at which the study look at is the release of the NOP so the answer is no it did not consider the traffic of main place mall at the time because it was not legally required however when we did the traffic study for the main place mall that study did

include the project so the answer to whether or not the intersections were study from a cumulative perspective it did just what point in time it was studied at the time when the main place mall project was approved did they submit a certified traffic study and did you review that as part of your analysis yes so that's part of what you're talking about the their eir submitted a traffic study correct but if you're asking whether or not their eir consider the traffic of the main Place Mall, the answer is no. But if we as a city evaluate whether or not traffic impact

cumulative- Without Main Place, got it. Yeah. All right. Correct.

Any additional comments or questions? Councilor Solario. Mr. Ray, that's an important question. I want to rephrase it a little bit differently. We've had this conversation before. Main Place is redesigning what their future blueprint print is. It's my understanding that really they're tremendously downsizing the square footage and other uses at their property. I forget if you and other staff said like it's about half the density of what was initially the master plan or something in that way. Can you speak to that?

In terms of the office, they reduce it by 50%. In terms of the hotel, they also reduce it by approximately 800 units so by doing that the the the proposal with main place mall was to allow for the conversion of the reduction of commercial hotel and office into residential the impact from the residential development project with the main place mall as approved did not increase or was a reduction from the traffic from the previous approval that's correct so so what i would suggest

if they really did look at their new proposal, the final finding would actually be there's actually less traffic that's going to be generated from Main Place compared to what was previously approved by the City Council as a master plan.

So the question, it sounds like, was traffic evaluated for the entire scope of Project Cummings to be including Place Mall? It does include Main Place Mall because Main Place Mall includes 2525. Thank you. All right.

Councilor Iglesias. Okay.

So I have a few questions. We received this exhibit. I don't know the...

I forget the name of the lady that brought this up, which talks about the development pipeline detail, competitive market area which was in November 2017. It talks about the 2525 Main Street having an estimate of 272 units. Was this something that was previewed to staff? Min, if you can come up I just have a question for you.

Yes, if you can help repeat the question.

Okay, so the question is, this is the first time I see this, and maybe it was in the staff report, but it's, you know, since so many pages, maybe I may have missed it. But it talks about, it says the number 6, it says 2525 Main Street, and it says estimated, And it was, I guess, given to staff. This was way before I was on the council in November 2017. And it talks about the estimated market entry, which is 2019, and has total units of 272. So my question to you is, was staff aware of this document?

I believe this document was part of the submission to the city. Yes.

Correct. In 2017?

Yes.

I don't have any information that would argue otherwise, but I would assume that it was submitted after the application in 2017.

So then my question to you then, because I know you've been here a little bit longer than me, is why would we even consider something like it was almost 500 units to be built?

So the application was submitted by the applicant for, I believe, initially 517 units.

I know, but this document says it's 272.

This is a market study that they provided.

But we had this, right?

Yes.

Because my question is, when I make a decision, I like to make it an informed decision. And I remember when we voted on it, and it was like, okay, it was 498, and I'm saying, okay, that's what we had. But I don't remember seeing this document. So was this preview to our staff before it came to us?

So the market study was not a document that we use in consideration of land use issue, if your question is whether or not this was used in our determination.

No, that's not the land use issue. The thing is I like things given to me for me to make an informed decision, and I apologize for asking this question now, but this is the first time I've seen this. And for me, it raises a red flag because if we knew about it, then we should have started with 272 units.

And I know I was so invested in this project, asking questions, doing this. You know, it's kind of like, how can we move forward? Because I want it to be a win-win situation for both the community and also for the developer. But this right here is just, for me, it's troubling because if we knew that it was 272, then that's what we should have started with. So why did we even propose to the Planning Commission and to us to be 400? I think when I came in, it was 497 units. For me, that was a monstrous development.

development. If it would have started at 272, I could have, you know, we wasted almost a year trying to get this right to 256. And I just don't, I know, I just don't feel comfortable because knowing that this is what we had to work with, I wish I, you know, we could have had this because it's, it's more telling of where really the developer wanted to go with. and I just feel that I don't know, I just don't feel comfortable because for me this is a very very

this is an important information for me so if you guys would have told me 272 I would have said oh my gosh this is where we should start

so this is a part of a study so I don't have all this stuff in front of me we could look at, review it and provide some answer but just based on this this is what it says.

Because I do, and then I'm going to go back, I do see the benefit of this development in that area. I do see it. I like it, and I think we should work with something. But if we would have had 272 to start with, we could have negotiated something less with this. Because that's where I was going when we went from 498 to 347, and then went down to 256.

So, I don't know, I'm not comfortable. I'm not comfortable because I just feel like, I don't know, this is, for me, it's very important. And it's something that I think that I have been asking you from the beginning. And I wish, you know, I could, and I feel really bad because it's a lot of time that we've spent on this. A lot, a lot of time.

And truly, truly my heart goes out to the community, to the residents, and especially the ones who support this project now. I mean, I do want something to be built there. But just having this at the last minute brought up, knowing that we could have started with 272. And if you hear my voice shaking, because I'm mad.

Why don't you continue? Thank you.

So,

So, you know, how long would it take for us to go back to the, you know, to get back, to, you know, talk about it with the community, talk it out? And I want to apologize to the developer, to the applicant. But, you know, this is important information for me. So how long would it take to go back and talk to the community, talk about it, negotiate something? Because I do want something to be built there. But knowing that we could have started with 272, I'm not comfortable moving forward.

And I'm just going to say, can we delay it to the January meeting?

because then we could really have honest conversations. And I know it'll be a benefit to the discovery cube. It will be. And I'll be able to make a more informed decision. But for right now, I just don't feel comfortable. So if we move it, that we go to 60 days. So let's move it for 60 days. and so that would be what the first meeting in February will be 45 days right or 40 days.

So that's a motion?

To the first meeting in February. How many days is that?

That's about 60 days.

Because I don't want it to be 60 days because I think that's a long time.

So that could be in January.

We have one meeting in January and that is on I believe the 21st. That would be about 45 days.

Okay, so I'll be comfortable moving it to January, the second meeting in January. So we can talk especially about this number, because this is something that I am not comfortable with, and I'm hoping that we can negotiate something with the applicant and really make it to be a win-win for everyone. So move the motion. Is there a second to that motion?

David PenalozaItem —

I'll second the motion. Second, okay.

Mr. Mayor, I have comments. One question, though. Maybe staff, and I don't know if Mr. Tai was here at the time, maybe Mr. Fregosek can come up with the applicant to explain this because it is a good question, and there may be information now already.

All right, let's just speak to the motion, but go ahead, and then we'll... Well, we have somebody that's coming up to respond. Council Member Slory wants to hear from you. No, I know that. So we're going to speak to this, and then we'll call for the question when we're done. Yes, this does it.

So let me explain what you're looking at. What you're looking at is we paid the Concord Group and RSG to do an economic study. It has nothing to do with the submission. The submission was 517, 496, 347, and now 256. What the study did is it studied different impacts at different densities of units. And again, this was not a staff document. This was paid by the applicant. And it, let me just remember exactly what it said. Oh, what

this is, is it's talking about the delivery date of units. So if you had 517 units, in that year, 272 would be delivered because the velocity of the lease up is approximately 30 or 40 a month. Actually, I need to interrupt. This isn't even discussing our project. This is 2525 Main Street in Irvine. Guys, I apologize. It's a completely different project that was delivered this year. 2525 Main Street in Irvine. This is not our project. This is nothing. Completely different project. It's built. It's on the same street on Irvine. This is not our project.

I get letters all the time for that project in Irvine.

And the developer is not listed on there either. Right.

And you could Google it right now. It's 2525 Main Street in Irvine, and that's how many units this is for. Well, that makes sense because it's talking about these different projects. In the yellow, doesn't the yellow represent the projects that were delivered, and the rest are the projects in the pipeline? Yellow is under construction, so when this was done in 2017, it was already in construction. Councilwoman, if you look at number six, it's in yellow. Right above that in the box is yellow equals UC, which means under construction.

And if somebody Googles it, you'll see 2525 Main and Irvine is an open and existing building. The remainder of the study at the time was 496 or 512. There's nothing that is not completely transparent that was in this document. It just happens to be the same address in a different city.

Any further questions?

I don't know this document.

Again, we hired the Concord Group to study economic impacts of the city. And part of that analysis is to look at existing projects and pipeline projects. And Jeremy's right. We get calls all the time about this project. It's not our project. It's an Irvine.

And I think Councilman Becerra has found the project on his laptop. And that's not a residential project, what he found.

Yes, it is. It is.

Here's an image of it. Yes. Yes. Did it get north or south? It's 2525 Main Street. Zip is 92614. That's what I have.

Phil BacerraItem —

Okay. This is it.

We'll show them the picture, the real picture.

Phil BacerraItem —

I mean, there's literally a 2525 in front of it.

I don't know if this is a way to do city business.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor, I'm not.

Well, why they're looking at the Councilwoman, if you see at the top, it says competitive market area, meaning other projects that are not 25-25. And where is 25-25? Just 25-25 in another city.

Okay, so then, Mr. Oglenig, then where would you have your 25-25 Santa Ana one?

Well, this is a 30-page study that shows the economic benefits of the city. This was just a section detailing other projects under construction, the pipeline, that are what they say are in the competitive market area, not necessarily just Santa Ana.

I don't know. I just don't feel comfortable because it's right. We shouldn't be doing this type of dialogue.

Did we confirm it's not in Santa Ana?

So, Council Member, I believe what happened. I would say let's make sure that we have everything all squared away January 21st. I'm comfortable with bringing it back on January 21st. Make sure that we address this, that we get all the information and that we have everything squared away because I just don't feel comfortable.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Comment to the motion? Council Member Bessera.

Phil BacerraItem —

Just real quick, Council Member Iglesias, so in continuing this, once we get down the road, what are you hoping to have staff or the applicant or anybody do? I mean, I guess I feel both for the community and, frankly, for the applicant. I think, you know, we had a second reading last time. We punted it because we had some questions. I appreciate staff's work to try to answer those questions. But just to understand, I just want to know, so when we get back here January, February, what is it that you're hoping that is going to come to the table that you're then going to feel comfortable with the vote?

My hope is that this document that was presented to us wasn't something that was omitted from the beginning. And if it was, then I wouldn't feel comfortable moving forward with the project. and if it and if it wasn't then then I'm okay with the project and we're gonna

move we're gonna continue it to what date the 21st of January that should give ample time it'll be the holidays so okay Santa'll be busy but and so will the rest of us doing other stuff so we have a motion a second we can go all night

David PenalozaItem —

those in favor before we move on okay I'd like to respectfully ask the applicant and the residents please I know you've met dozens of times but every time we have conversations and we this project comes before us something else whether it's from the residents or whether it's from the applicant gets thrown on our lap at the last minute and it's and it's from both parties are fault not just the applicant the residents you know right now we address the issues that were brought up last time in two weeks continued three to 30 days the residents are gonna come up they said they were gonna plant orchids and they're planting roses.

David PenalozaItem —

And it's, please have these conversations get together and give, if there's more information that you guys feel, please let us know ahead of time. Not at the day of, not the last, because this is getting crazy. So let's continue. All right, so we have motion and second.

One final comment, then we're going to vote. Council Member Vince Sarmiento, please.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So just so we're clear, The reason why we continued the matter to today's date was to address some of the questions on the development agreement, correct?

Correct.

Okay. So, Madam City Attorney, your findings and your response to that was that you didn't see that the issues that were raised from those concerned about the content of the development agreement didn't rise to anything that was significantly wrong.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I looked at all of the legal issues that were raised and I provided you a confidential memorandum with my conclusions and asserted that those issues had been properly addressed by staff.

Okay, so you feel comfortable that there isn't anything there that needs to be adjusted or was not properly presented to us?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Different people may have different opinions as to what should have been negotiated or how it was negotiated, but from a legal perspective, the development agreement meets the legal requirements of the government code and the city's code. Great. And to our planning director,

you know, what this document appears to me, and it was unsettling when I first saw it as well, but my understanding is that these analyses that are prepared or forecasting, you look at other properties that are similarly situated or other projects that are similarly situated just to see where you fall in the market. Is that common for applicants to prepare and have prepared on their behalf?

Generally, applicants submit these types of studies to evaluate the absorption rate, but also look at other market existing development in the area to look at over time how will the product be absorbed. but it's not something that we generally use to evaluate land use decision as we are needing to look at the technical aspects of what is being proposed and based on that, we evaluate the environmental impact of that.

Right, so it's really not our concern whether or not a project is profitable, whether a project can be absorbed. That's more of an internal document or an internal analysis that an applicant would make on their own behalf. Correct. Right, so that's what it appears in. Again, at first glance, it looks like, again, a pipeline analysis of maybe what the city has, but some of these properties I don't recognize are outside of the city, so I think they're more regional projects, more than likely, but again, I think it is glaring that it's, I mean, who would think that there's another 2525 Main Street, right?

So to the extent that I think the question will be answered that this isn't the project, so we're going to be back here basically without an issue having to do with the development agreement and an issue not having to do with any prior, I guess, knowledge that there was going to be a proposal made for less than the 500 units, right? So that's, I think, what we're going to be doing. And I'm fine, again, pushing it back if that's where everybody wants to be, but I just don't see that we're going to be getting any further. I think the arguments that are relevant, I think those that are opposed

are going to remain opposed. Those that are supportive are going to remain supportive. I think that you know we're gonna respectfully disagree I guess on some of the issues and I don't think that there's going to be anything substantively different unless staff or the applicant or you know those that are working on this are willing to go ahead and adjust. So I just see that this issue is going to come back to us no different than what was presented to us at the first reading.

All right, I think we've all had time to discuss and thoughts. Those in favor, please press green. It's continued to the 17th of January.

The 21st, I think it is. Okay, now you guys can all go home and we're going to go to the consent calendar and begin our meeting.

David PenalozaItem —

I want to point out that January 20th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I don't want to also hear, oh, it's a holiday. It was planned strategically because that's not the case either. So let's be aware of the calendar here. Thank you.

And January 14th is my birthday, and that's also not relevant, but thank you. Thank you, Council Member. So with that, I believe item 28, Council Member Iglesias.

28.

28, I believe. Bless you, Madam City Attorney.

Okay.

Go ahead. You have the floor.

So this one is to, do you want to just wait until they leave?

You want to take a five-minute recess? Let's go to the bathroom, then we'll start up.

All right, if we can get council members back on the dais.

I believe we are on item 28.

Correct. 28.

28?

Yes.

Do we have the camera going?

Okay. So Council Member Iglesias has the floor. I think this is a question about an appropriation adjustment.

So the reason I wanted for it to be pulled is because I am, you know, I just am not comfortable with it still, with the way it's written and the way we're going to be, the way it's the recommended action is for us to allocate the money just primarily just to the police department. I feel there's other agencies and departments that need this money. We could have allocated it for one-time use for other stuff, like for the parks, for lights, for our youth, provided youth programs. So me, I just pulled it because I didn't want it to go with all the consent items.

So I'm a no on this, so just me.

All right, so is there a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second.

Mr. Mayor, I have a friend of the minutes. Go ahead, Cal Simmers.

Solorio.

I very much appreciate we're in a very good groove on hiring officers,

and the chief and the police department are seeking additional resources to continue. They're hiring within the authorized positions. I'd like to suggest, and it could be part of the motion, or maybe if the city manager is just agreeable to it, I know for the mid-year budget report that's going to come back in February, I'd like for you and the chief to come back with options on how we might fund the additional 18 police officer positions that are authorized in our budget but not funded. I know there are obviously competing demands, but around that time we'll be looking at other items as well.

If the maker of the motion accepts that as a friendly amendment, that's what I would suggest. I'll accept. Okay. So we accept. So those in favor, and the second accepts as well.

David PenalozaItem —

Those in favor, press green. Just clarification on what exactly the, it's.

We're voting on this plus Council Member Solario's amendment, which is a request that staff come back in February with a plan as to how we're going to fund an additional 18 positions after that. The final that are unfunded in the budget, yeah, as an option.

David PenalozaItem —

I think that to add to that, I know two weeks ago I mentioned that if we come to the new fiscal year and the police department has 10-plus funded vacancies, I would like to have that money rescinded because of the – but I have faith in the police department that they're going to fill the positions. So I hope that's not the case. But just so that we're not, you know, putting the –

Chief, do you have any quick comment on that? Just to show off your orange tie, I've got to get you up there. We coordinated today. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council, City Manager, and I told you it was going to happen here. Yeah. So, yes, we will continue to aggressively recruit and hire and fill all authorized funded positions. That is our plan. having now approached 50 in calendar year 2019 essentially we would be looking to do the same in 2020 to account for attrition as well yes sir mr. mayor

yes go ahead because I was finishing up but good good updates I also want to have conversations amongst ourselves and I started with the chief and the city manager we still have major issues with our creek bike trails and railroads and and maybe they can have an informal or formal task force that just kind of looks at those areas, because as we add additional officers, I think we're showing up patrol and SWAT and other areas, and maybe we can look at some of those areas as well. But again, just separate and apart, just suggestions.

I would concur with that, especially if we could focus some of that on the homeless, the criminal homeless which exist out there, because they're really beating up the town. And if somehow these additional officers could be on a task force that focuses on enforcing law against all the crimes that are being committed by, you know, homeless, some of which are criminals and violent.

You're right on, Mr. Mayor. I think really for those areas, what we have are homeless drug addicts and mental health transients. I think those that really do need a hand up are more likely to take services or go back home or what not or accept other services. And it's very much needed. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Chief, we don't know how to run the police department. These are just suggestions. But you come back with a plan that says here's how we can potentially address some of these issues. Council Member Ben Sarmiento and then Peña Lozano, I got your name right again.

Thank you. And thank you, Chief, for those comments. So one of the things I wanted to mention to you is actually commend you for, I know one of the conversations that we had before the contract was approved, how we're going to start monitoring, engaging successes that I think were premium services for premium pay. So to the extent that we're dealing with improved response times, one of the other goals was hiring, which is what we're doing today, and allocating funds for that. but also what we see in other cities like Anaheim, unfortunately, where there's some questionable encounters that their officers have had with their public.

I really appreciate how important of a priority it's been to you because for me, that's one of the reasons why I supported funding, resources, and support to the officers because to the extent that our residents are kept safe, to the extent that our residents are respected and treated with dignity, I think that is worth every dollar that we spent. And hiring folks that you know will continue to do that because one person, it's so difficult to establish the trust with the community and so easy to lose it, right?

and all it takes is one bad officer or one officer that doesn't reflect the department. And you've done a really good job in making sure that there's sufficient support and training to the extent that there's anything that we can do for those new officers and existing officers to provide support and training. And I know that other departments have done good things, and I think for us, we've been blessed that we don't have those outrageous issues that maybe some of the other cities have, but that's something that we need to continue maintaining as a goal. And maybe that's what we add to your matrix of improvements,

because it really does reflect well on us that as large as we are, as densely populated as we are, as many issues as we have, we don't have those encounters. And I think it goes to and speaks well of our officers, but it also speaks well of our residents. Our residents, for the most part, are law-abiding folks. And, you know, so the more we let people know and we celebrate that, those are good things. And so I want to thank you for making sure that you do.

Thank you for those comments, Council Member Sarmiento.

David PenalozaItem —

You wanted comments?

And then Council Member Iglesias.

David PenalozaItem —

I just wanted to add that I absolutely agree 100% with Council Member Sarmiento. The first three, four months of this year, I was a newly sworn in Council Member. I drive around town, and even before that, as a resident, I'd go days without ever seeing a police officer patrolling our streets or seeing them as you drive around. Now, I mean, I see them. Every block I turn, I'll come across a police officer, black and white, so I'm happy. You could see just it's evident how, you know, the strides that you guys have taken to staff up and hire police officers, so I'm very grateful for that.

David PenalozaItem —

and I thank you along with the city manager for your leadership in regards to that. I know that Councilmember Solario brought up the possibly more patrol throughout the bike trails and the creeks. And I want to make sure we remember that we hired, not saying that the security guards could do everything, but we did hire the park security guards, so also working closer with them and putting more emphasis on these specific areas. For the security guards to drive through, I know they can't really do much from the few conversations I've had with them. They can't get out of their vehicle for safety reasons and whatnot.

David PenalozaItem —

So maybe looking at those potential 18 new hires that we're funding to bring back a couple of the park rangers, it wouldn't be a bad thought, and that's something that we could have a discussion with as we move down the line into the public safety committee. to the Public Safety Committee and the new budget cycle, too. Put some emphasis on that. Some of the things I've heard, again, I'm not a police officer or a chief of police, so I don't know the background workings, but is that the park ranger has the same requirements

David PenalozaItem —

as a police officer, but it's not as much pay, maybe bringing down not the quality, but the requirements that it takes to hire a park ranger, bring them on, maybe with some less, I don't know, finding a middle ground between a park ranger and a police officer to staff those positions to address these issues. So thank you, Chief. Thank you. That's a Council Member Iglesias, please.

Well, first I want for staff to make a correction. I believe it was Council Member Solorio and myself who dissented on this vote, right? Or was it Becerra? did you dissent on this? You're talking about the minutes? The minutes, uh-huh. You did? Okay, I thought it was Council Member Solorio. Okay, so anyway, so what I wanted to ask, and I'll be...

Phil BacerraItem —

Yeah, I just real quickly clarify, it was because I wanted to move the item that night. I wasn't supporting... She didn't want to support a continuum.

Okay, so thank you for the clarification. Okay, so one of the One of the things that I wanted to ask, and I know this is something that has been coming to us time and time again, Chief, is the coverage that we have at Harbor for the, you know, to control the prostitution and all that's happening there. Is this something that you will be able to fund overtime for so you can control that area in the site of Santa Ana with this money for the overtime?

Yes, in part. I'm also in the process of recalling officers that are assigned to outside task forces, three of which will be assigned to the vice unit on a full-time, regular basis, without overtime.

Okay, but for this overtime, because I know we want to get a control on what's going on there, so is that something that you would commit to funding so we could have extra man, you know, manpower there so we can address the issue that's happening on Harbor?

Yes.

Okay, so when you say yes, but I want something like significant, because I know that that side of town gets neglected a lot, and then, you know, only like downtown and the other sites of Santa Ana get the attention. when it comes to police coverage. So I would be okay in supporting this, but having your commitment that you are going to deploy and that you're going to have staff on harbor and hazards so we can really control, do damage control and what's happening over there with the prostitution issue.

Right. So overall, the hiring has allowed for increased patrol staffing, quality of life team, vice unit, and then we're also looking at a major enforcement team that will go live in January, all of which support crime, violent crime citywide to include harbor and hazard and all the crime that comes associated with the prostitution trade. So yes.

But significantly, though, I want something more than to include. I want something that I'm saying yes. We are going to see a strong yes that you are going to be there.

Council Member, are you talking about the overtime that's included in the appropriation adjustment request for you? Yes. They're two completely separate items. So the first item is an appropriation adjustment to fully fund the 18 vacancies that he is quickly filling The second item is to approve an appropriation adjustment to cover Unfunded pension cost and overtime that was originally budgeted in the parking revenue fund the downtown parking fund Which is in the red so we are requesting a recommend we're recommending that you

Appropriate and just meant to move it to the police department because there's no money in the downtown parking fund to pay it So those two items are specific to the parking fund and downtown operations.

Okay, so this is just to balance our books. So, and I get that, and I know moving forward what Councilman Pena was saying, it's like we are going to be having more like a heads-up, but this is where we're at financially with our budget in all departments.

Correct. We're anticipating in February to do the mid-year budget update. You did receive a receive-and-file that gave the status of all the funds at the last council meeting.

Okay. So just to have your strong yes commitment to supporting what's happening on Hazard, I would be okay with supporting this too.

Thank you, Councilwoman. One final question, then we're going to vote. Councilmember Salaudi.

I just wanted to win a quick comment. I think in the past we've talked about the need to, with these additional positions shore up the vice unit, we have a lot of motorists' deaths, unfortunately, community-oriented policing and park ranger stuff. and on the reason of the task force and formal or informal for like the creek the creek area is one area where the patrol company is not patrolling just because they can't really get in there it's it's you know it's rough it's ragged it's too too crazy and then the private railroads we haven't been doing that because it's private but as we're looking at this relationship to shore up

up up I think would be helpful and with the bike trails there's a lot of homeless and transients and other issues there that as you train more people to work with homeless that's one area where we get a lot of complaints and calls for service on all these bike trails because the bike trails can connect a lot with the railroads and the creeks and etc so that's why I raise it because these areas are largely not currently protected well thanks all right with

that those in favor press green I believe the next item is 25 D is in unanimous vote chief David see good thing you wore that orange tie chief all right councilor iglesias you have the next item I believe was it 25 D B as a

B as in boy this was just a question that I had for the city manager it's for approving ambulance and paramedic billing and collection services renewal agreement with Whitman Enterprises for a contingent recovery rate not to exceed 3.99%. So my question was, I know we just approved a, I think it was for the ambulance, the contract for the ambulances. And is this something that cannot be covered under that RFP or that contract that we just approved?

Certainly some cities do. their ambulance providers will also do their third-party billing for them. In our case we've utilized Whitman to do our billing for the EMS charges and I believe our ambulance service is provided by CARE. So under their contract

this was not part of their I would say responsibilities or oh my god my

computer just went down. No Whitman has actually been providing the service for a number of years and they did a competitive process and Whitman came out scoring the highest again. So we are recommending that you renew an agreement with them. And you're absolutely right. It's a recovery rate of 3.99, which is a significant reduction in what we were paying previously.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. I'd entertain a motion.

Motion approved.

Is there a second? Second. Press green. Next item, I think, is 25D as in David. You have that one as well, Councilman Maria Iglesias?

Let me see. My computer went down.

This is the CityNet Outreach Service proposal.

Here. Yeah, try to get her computer going again.

David PenalozaItem —

While we're on that item, I just want to thank you, Madam City Manager and Stephen. I had a lot of questions on this particular item, and they were all addressed and answered. Professionally answered. Before Tuesday, which I love. Thank you so much, and happy to support the item.

25D as in David.

So, sorry about that. I don't know what happened.

That's why paper's good. I know, right?

Good old-fashioned paper.

I'm supportive because I know you're doing a great job with this provider. So what is the intent behind this? If you could just explain the item.

Certainly, Council Member. So what we were trying to do as part of our strategic action plan, which includes the four things, clean outreach, housing, and communications, we really wanted to improve the outreach component of it in order to move individuals off of our streets. And right now, you know, we have our daily action teams and we have our quality of life teams and we have our heart officers. But one of the things I wanted to supplement was having a nonprofit provider to do outreach, which would allow the officers to have free time in the field.

So when an officer is dispatched to a homeless individual, if there's not a citation needed, if there's not an outstanding warrant, if there's not a probation violation, that officer then can move on and do their other business. And the outreach workers can try to obtain that relationship with the homeless person and hopefully encourage them to take the services that they are offered.

And this is for a whole year?

This is a whole year. We did a pilot program for about a month and a half and the stats are included in the staff report. It was a pretty impressive number of contacts and individuals that they did move from the street.

But do you think based on, you know, what the action that we took in closed session regarding like the homeless issue, not the things that we're talking about, will this would be a possibility that they may require more more funding?

I think this is adequate funding for a year, and it would help serve the homeless that have a nexus to Santa Ana and help improve the quality of life for the residents. Okay, thank you.

Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Or just go green. We only have... All right, next item is going to be 25 EAs and Edward.

Motion to approve.

We have, but do you have a question, Councilmember? You pulled it. Yeah, I just pulled it just for you. All right, so we have a motion on 25E. I'll entertain a second. 25 what? E is an Edward.

Move the item. Second.

Okay, those in favor, please say, or just vote green.

25G.

Question or a motion? Move the item. Is there a second?

On 25G as in George.

Okay, for this one, I just had a question. Okay, go ahead. And I believe Stephen, the one that's in charge of this. Council Member, can I interrupt you just for one second?

I think that the previous item was 25E as in Edward, Madam City Clerk. I pressed my button and it didn't reflect a yes vote on that. So can you?

Please record that. Make sure that that's. I'll record that. Amend the minutes. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Sorry about that. No, no problem. Councilman Regalas, yes. Okay.

So this one, and I know I had an issue with it last time because it's something that it's a service that we're providing to the entire county constituents who want to participate in this employment implementation supportive services. So is there a plan in place? I don't know if most of them are have a home residence outside of Santa Ana or are most of them Santa Ana residents well thank you very much for that

question it's important to focus could I get the screen popped up it's important to focus on the fact that we're the lead agency among two other agencies in the County of Orange introducing this program we just took the lead as the fiscal agent. The fiscal agent allows us to go through this process and obtain approvals and the other two agencies get to kind of skate behind us. But one of the important parts that we've left out is there are six locations in the County of Orange that are part of this contract where parolees and probationaries probation errors will be provided service. I have a map available for you.

They can go as far south as Laguna Niguel for service at the South County field service office in Laguna Niguel they can go to our work center Anaheim work center the Anaheim probation office the Westminster probation office or the Santa Ana probation offices so this represents six different locations where someone could provide services for this service so but most of these individuals

going back they're going back to a residence not like they go back to where

they live yes back not this isn't for somebody released on our streets at midnight okay this is for somebody who would be released from parole or on probation and released to their home base okay which could be countywide and

this is to reintegrate them back into our community employee training and get

them in jobs and employed okay thank you you're welcome okay do I have a motion those in favor please press green next item are we on 25 H as in Harry Motion to approve. Do you have a question, Council Member? You polled it.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion to second. Go ahead, Council Member Iglesias.

So, just my question for this, is this coming from general fund money or is this a grant-funded

service that we're going to be adding to our police department?

I'll ask the Chief of Police to come up. I believe it's blended depending on which officers are using them and what source of funding officers are paid from, but I'll let him clarify.

Thank you for the question. This is a five-year program, the first of which would be funded actually in partnership with Human Resources as a risk liability minimizing strategy. It really moves the TASER platform into the next century, if you will. And so it's part of the Council's priority as well to work on de-escalation. This resource provides for that. I have my training commander here present who did all the research behind it. We have a very brief presentation if you so choose to listen to that.

But essentially it focuses on de-escalation. We have equipment that's dated and is not supported by TASER at this point.

So when you say it's blended funding, is it like 50% grant, 50% general fund? What does that mean?

It would be general fund, although we would look to see, as we do in these programs, to see if there's any grant funding. Our body-worn camera is a perfect example. the council funded that initial program and then we actually awarded a grant to expand that program so same same process here as well but initially it would be

general fund okay but then you are going to be looking for for grants yes thank

you we have a motion a second those favor plus mr. mayor yeah oh sorry about that

it's okay chief I just wanted again you know thank you for this and I'm very supportive of this I think I was a second on this motion because any efforts that we can make to use non-lethal, non-deadly force, protect our officers. And I actually had a conversation with the city manager about something we both saw, I think. What is it, the Spider-Man thing where you were able to lasso folks? I'm not sure whether or not there's any efficacy to that or studies, but those efforts are really helpful just to see what we can do aside from just shooting first

and anything that will prevent any wrongful death actions, any civil rights actions against us. And, you know, again, give one more tool to our officers' toolbox.

Absolutely. And if this can prevent some of those lawsuits that we get, just two or three of these lawsuits will more than pay for itself. And not just the lawsuits.

And it's better for the community. It's humanity. It's right, being decent and providing that public service in a way that is not going to, you know, devastate families. But please go ahead.

We have about a half dozen of those units to field test as well, the ones you're referring to. My training commander has those. and so we're looking at...

I know they're not called Spider-Man. No, they're not.

They must have a technical name.

David PenalozaItem —

Council Member Peñalosa. And at the Public Safety Committee meeting, if you remember, I was voluntold by the city manager to get tested. Do you want to test them on Public Safety Committee members? Be a guinea pig for the web slingers, but I'll pass. Just want to make sure to squish that now before it gets too out of hand. And just – I know why, Chief, but just for the community's sake, because it was brought up,

David PenalozaItem —

these obviously are tested before we make this kind of investment for equipment like this, correct? Yes. I know – I personally know that you do, but can you just go over the process of what it is – what you go through to acquire when you finally say, okay, this works for us, let's get it?

Yeah, so again, my training commander looks at what the platform is, looks at other agencies to see the effectiveness. That's actually one of the principal reasons to go into this program. Officers' confidence in the weapons systems that they have can be impacted if they're not actually effective. So this next generation platform increases the effectiveness. And again, looking at de-escalation measures, that's really what we're focusing on. There are a number of agencies here in the county and in surrounding regions that have already gone to this platform. So that's the research and background behind it. Thank you. Yes. All right.

I believe we have a motion and a second on that. Those in favor, press green.

Now I believe our next item is at 65A, Madam Clerk.

55A.

55A. I would entertain a motion. So moved.

Second.

Those in favor, press green. Now we're going to 65A.

So moved. Second. Those in favor, press green. Now 75A, this is time and place for a public hearing to vacate a portion of Bristol.

Just tell her how you voted. That's for the budget comment. Right. Yes. She'll vote yes. Just record her yes.

And Mr. Mayor, before you go forward on that, I'm going to recuse myself on 75A. We own a property that's very close to the In-N-Out. Thank you. I'm not sure we haven't had it measured, but I'm just going to err on the side of caution.

Thank you for that. So I would now entertain any members of the public. Do we have any speakers or communications? We do not. In case I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it back to Council for consideration. Is there a motion? I make a motion so approved. We have a motion and a second. Those in favor, press green.

Now Council Member Sarmiento can come back if he so chooses. Next item is 75B. There's a public hearing. Do we have any communications from the audience on this item?

We do not.

Any written communications? Seeing none, I'm going to close a public hearing, and I'll bring it to council for consideration.

So moved.

I'll second it. Those in favor, press green.

75C, this is time and place for a public hearing to amend some subsections or a municipal code. I'm opening up the public hearing. Are there any speakers, Madam? City Clerk?

We do not.

All right. Seeing no speakers, no rent communication, I'll close a public hearing. I would entertain a motion or questions. Questions. Questions, go ahead, Council Member.

Phil BacerraItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Phil BacerraItem —

Min, real quick, on, I think it was subsection C for 34-127, it stated only the subdivider can appeal the Planning Commission's decision on the map, and it was underlined so it looked like it was proposed language. Could you, just for my understanding, why would only the subdivider be allowed to appeal the commission's decision?

Let me take a quick look.

Phil BacerraItem —

Sure.

If you can point me to the right page, please.

Phil BacerraItem —

It's on the ordinance. It's the proposed language. It's under section 34-127, subsection C. In the ordinance, or the proposed ordinance.

Do you want to restate your question?

Phil BacerraItem —

Yeah, so the question is just essentially in that proposed language it talks about that only the subdivider can appeal the Planning Commission's decision.

It's page 75C-6.

Phil BacerraItem —

There we go.

Do you have a proposed amendment or suggestion?

Phil BacerraItem —

Oh, no, I just want to understand staff's perspective before proposing anything. I think.

It says, if no appeal to the city council is fired, the subdivider as provided in the planning commission, decisions shall be final. It should be any interested party.

Phil BacerraItem —

And that's why I was asking. I'm not trying to second guess. I really just wanted to understand if there was maybe something in the subdivision map act that for some reason precluded somebody else from appealing it. But if not, my only proposed amendment would be just to change that to any interested party. And I just also want to thank staff for doing this because I think as we talk about trying to get folks interested in investing in the city, the hurdles that we can get out of the way for folks, but at the same time being mindful of trying to make sure that the community has an opportunity to weigh in on these issues.

If there's no objection from staff, why don't you make a motion and include that in the motion.

Phil BacerraItem —

Motion to approve with the language proposed by Mr. Tai.

Okay, those in favor, press green.

Madam Clerk, the next item, did we do that one already?

Now we're at the joint session, ADA.

Which one are we on now?

ADA, joint session. With the City Council and Housing Authority joint session.

All right, so this is a joint session of the City Council on the Housing Authority.

And we have no action other than I'll entertain a motion on the receiving file. I'll move this for the... Okay, press green.

Now we're going to go to joint... Now just the Housing Authority. Call to order, public comments. I guess we have calendar items 1 through 3. There are no excused absences, but I'll entertain a motion. Those in favor, press green. That's the end of that. Now, on the business calendar, joint session, city council, regular authority. We've already considered that. No housing authority comments. So do we have public comments?

We have Carlo Bonanini. Bonani. I added another I. Bonanni is okay, though. Bonanni is okay. Bonanni sounds Italian. True Latin language of Rome. Bonanno. Right, all Latin. You took over the Greek, I mean the Spartans and all that, right? No, that was my ancestry. I'm sorry that the Romans were really mean to everybody in the Mediterranean, but they modernized them. They dominated the world for hundreds of years. Keep going. So, anyway, Mayor, pro-Tim, been trying to come up here to talk about this. I got this in the mail before the election. This. trying to figure out why we got to read this garbage

and why we have to try to understand it. Okay? This is all garbage.

All lies. All fake. And then I noticed up in the corner, taxpayers for ethical government. And I had some people to do some investigation who really paid for this. It was a Santa Ana police union. Wasting their money. And we can't even get them on the south side of Santa Ana. Can't get them on Bristol and MacArthur. We do see them. They're gone. They're taken off. They're gone on one side of town, the other side of town. Before, I used to know where Santa Ana PD was. Could go ask, hey, can you do us a favor, get rid of these people, get rid of these homeless people? But we don't get it anymore.

But the Santa Ana Police Union has to pay for the recall. And then when you go see the people that are getting the signatures in front of Vons, Smart and Final, a couple other places, and the lies they tell on the recall, it's ridiculous. And I confront them all the time. You're telling the people's lies. You're asking people to sign a piece of paper. This is not the truth.

It's being backed up by the police union. I remember the crack days of the late 80s and 90s how Chief Walters, without even getting his boys raises, but they still did their job back then to keep the city from going like South Central LA, Compton, and the rest part of LA when the crack cocaine hit Santa Ana. And I know it was really bad up on Main and 17th Street. But now we don't even see them. And I would like to confront the police union president, but you can never find him or he doesn't answer his calls. And it's sad. And then I heard now next year we even got more recalls coming up. Okay.

So eventually we're just going to have a mayor and a new city council member and see what happens to the rest of everybody. It's just crazy. I have to call certain people from Costa Mesa to come do some jobs that Santa Ana PD is not doing on the south side of town.

and on Bristol and Alton or right by the railroad tracks did talk to the Union Pacific police and hopefully by next month they'll be able to go down and clean it out again but y'all need to look at San Diego what they're doing to the homeless people down there and that mayor spent that money really good by getting a FIFA tent city set up and they give them the ordinance go to the shelter go to our tent city or move on or get picked up. Only three options they got. But on our side of town and south side, it's getting bad. Maybe we can send them down to Sandpoint. Maybe we can send them to the other side of town. Who knows?

And it's sad, man, because I feel sorry for the kids all by Saddleback High School. But they have to deal with it every day. And that's not including Home Depot that has to deal with that nice little tent city around the corner over there. so hopefully next year somebody will stand up and say we're doing i was very proud to see her on tv saturday morning with the county and i can't wait till we get rid of our county supervisor of this area so may you all have a merry christmas happy new year before you leave carla i just want to ask the chief if possibly he could set up a meeting with you and address the things that

you're talking about maybe giving a cell number for the watch commander and or some follow-up meetings, you know, things to address the things that you deal with. Because I get close to the Mesa PD like that. They love it. They'll go up all the way. Meet with our chief. You're going to love him, too. Oh, I know. I know. Do you have his number, chief? You guys can get to it. All right. Get together soon, please. Mike Tardif.

And then Manny Escamilla, you're next.

And then Dale Helwig. Dale wants to talk again.

Put on the hat this time, the Santa hat, Dale. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I want to talk to you about an incident which occurred at the previous meeting, Council meeting, on December 3rd. You can call this a point of order concerning a particular agenda item. For reference, it was item number 60A. My objection does not concern the substance of the item. It concerns how the Chair, the Mayor, handled public speaking for this item. Among the rights of Americans enumerated in the Constitution is the right to freedom of speech.

The First Amendment tells us that government shall not abridge our freedom of speech and a right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. When Item 68 was announced by the mayor, he went directly to asking for a motion and a second to quickly approve the item. without checking or asking if there are any members of the public who wanted to address the council on the item.

Members of the public had a right to speak to the council concerning this item, and that right was abused. If I had not walked toward the dais in an upset manner and indicated that there were members of the public who wanted to speak, we would have gotten rolled over and not allowed to speak.

I can't stand here and say that this was done intentionally. I can say that the mayor has had many years of running public meetings. He knows that some agenda items are more controversial than others, and he knows who is in the audience and may wish to speak on a controversial item. Having done this amounts to a violation of civil rights and the California Brown Act, whether intentional or not. If there is a procedural problem with identifying public speakers at the proper time, please look into that and make a correction.

I ask you all to see that our public meetings are conducted in a manner which is respectful of the rights of the public. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Point well taken. Manny, followed by Dale.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Happy holidays to everyone up there. I just wanted to congratulate the city on getting so much funding for the protected bike lanes, really kind of investing in our public safety by making sure that our public infrastructure is safe for people to be on the road. I know some years we have more homicides, some years we have more vehicular incidents, And I just want everyone here to know that the work that Public Works is doing, that Corey Wilkerson managed to get done before he left, I think is really going to save lives.

So making sure that we have the right infrastructure so that people are safe on our streets is super important. I think last year we had 17 vehicular fatalities in the city, and anything we can do to get those numbers down is very important. I think we have a good roadmap that was put out in June as far as which projects to prioritize. and again just happy holidays and again hope that we continue to invest in public safety through public infrastructure. Good night. Thank you very much Dale you're the last speaker and I was just kidding about the hat by the way

Good evening Mayor and Council and staff. Didn't want to take up my other three minutes but I did want to make sure I wished you guys all a happy Christmas and happy New Year and a good holiday season and to Santa Ana. I really do care about the city and I'm passionate about what I'm doing and I think it's the right thing. That's why I've been here all but two meetings in the last two years. So happy holidays to all of you. Thank you. Thank you, Dale. With that, I believe we are

at city manager comments. Thank you, Mayor. I do have a few. So the first one deals with the I just wanted to let you all know that on Monday, December 16th, staff distributed a welcome letter along with information on the city resources to the newly annexed residents near 17th Street in Tustin. And we will do additional outreach, including mailing of information to local businesses and other property owners. And we are planning a block party on Saturday, February 1st from 11 to 2 to welcome the new members of our community. A brief update on Union Pacific, as you know they started cleaning up their property.

They have moved from 1st South down to Ettinger and they're almost complete with that area and for the most part the area that they have cleaned has remained free from further transient activity. And then this Thursday, December 19th, there is a Tamale Festival in downtown Santa Ana and the event takes place from 5 to 10 on West 4th Street. And then lastly, just to announce, we do have a holiday closure at City Hall. The offices will be closed from Tuesday, December 24th through Wednesday, January 1st. There's detailed information on the website of how the services are affected and what will still be available.

And we have also been providing social media in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese so that folks can understand what the holiday closures are. And we've posted notices on all the doors to City Hall and the Ross Annex. And that's it.

Thank you for your report. Council members, who wants to go first? That side? Council member Jose Salonio. No, typically I go like this, but it's okay. You want to go before Jose, you can go before Jose. Go before Jose. You volunteered. He's energized.

David PenalozaItem —

You're eager to go. All right.

David PenalozaItem —

Good evening, again. Just wanted to just commend and thank again. You know, just last week, I didn't realize that my mom came up to me. She's like, oh, it was a year ago that you got sworn in. So, you know, I've been a city council member for a year now. I've definitely learned a lot and learned a lot from each and every one of you in this room, really, and the residents as well. I wanted to personally thank just the Parks and Rec, not just the Parks and Rec Department, but in particular the Parks and Rec Department for this past Saturday.

David PenalozaItem —

All the very successful events that we had, the opening of Mariposa Park, the opening of the fitness center at Jerome Park, and all the plans that the Parks and Rec Department do have in the pipeline, as well as the police department. You guys just, Chief Allentine, thank you for your leadership and the hiring goal that you promised, and you've fulfilled that promise, and I thank you for that. And I know that that wouldn't have been possible as well with the leadership in the HR department. So thank you, Mr. Stephen Pham, as well as all the other departments. I've kept Mr. Jack Chula very busy the last year with all the IT upgrades

David PenalozaItem —

and pushing on the 21st century government. so thank you for that. And none of that would have been possible without, I think, my most important vote this year, Madam City Manager. Still very thankful for you and your leadership, and just wanted to wish all of you guys a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Looking forward to 2020 and the next couple of years of all the great things that we could do together. With that said, I also just wanted to thank all of my colleagues, each and every one of you. I've learned a lot from all of you. We don't agree on everything, and that's natural, that's normal, and that's okay.

David PenalozaItem —

But I'm looking forward to working with all of you in the new decade. With that said, again, happy holidays. Thank you so much, and talk to you soon.

Thank you. Now, Councilman Jose Solorio.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, I do want to compliment all the staff, too, on the great Saturday. I think because of the rain, a lot of things, a lot of events got moved to this past Saturday, and it was a little bit busy but it was a great success. I'll just highlight of the items I attended that day. The Mariposa Park unveiling really was a very nice event, well put together, but it also shows how on a small lot you can really pack in a lot of good stuff for people of all ages in the family and in the community from you know garden stuff to walk and exercise stuff to even a

skateboarding element. So it's fantastic and the kids in the community really enjoyed it. I do want to thank city staff on the great work with UP, but please keep us posted. We want to make sure that that's going well and we don't want to overly subsidize a multi-billion, multinational corporation. But we'd like that they're rolling up their sleeves and doing some work. CityNet, great provider. I had the opportunity of helping my young son who's with the Key Club, it's a Qantas organization. They put some stuff together that they donated to the city and that's when we went to their facility in Anaheim

to drop it off. Outstanding team. It's an organization that developed really just because they have a soul to help homeless folks and they skew younger and really are great teams. I'm really pleased that we're growing our partnership with them and that'll complement PD, our park, private patrol, and other things we're doing. So that is great.

There's been interest in an update on the water briefing. I know at a meeting or two back ago was suggested that maybe at the Rancho Santiago building we could do an update on water rates, etc. And not just for the neighborhoods up there, but citywide. I've been getting additional interest on that. I don't know if it's been scheduled yet so we can begin to

share the news with folks. What is it? Speaking with Ed just tonight, we've

selected January 8th at 7 o'clock. January 8th at 7 p.m. at Rancho Building which is the northeast corner of Buffalo in Broadway and we will share that more fully with others. Finally, I want to wish everybody a happy holidays and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that good stuff and look forward to

great things in 2020. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Iglesias please.

David PenalozaItem —

Peña Losa has something to add. Go ahead. Just because the water rate came up and I just want to also remind staff, and I know it wasn't intentional, but in the future when we have these public hearings, were something as important as the water rate changes, that we coordinate these agendas so that they don't, I know that when we had the public hearing on the 19th of November, we had the 2525 North Main project, we had the Toll Brothers project, we have numerous other public hearings, and all the speakers that were here to speak

David PenalozaItem —

in support or in opposition of the water hike item, where it was by it was midnight and and they left so just moving forward just try to really plan these these agendas I know it's hard when we have a lot of important issues to address but to make sure that the public is heard and they're giving an opportunity to speak especially because we spent a lot of money on the invitations I guess I should call them for the public hearing So that's it. Thank you.

Councilor Iglesias.

So I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And, you know, spend time with family. Family comes first. And I also wanted to say this in Spanish. Quiero que tengan feliz navidad y un próspero año nuevo. Que pasen un buen tiempo con su familia. Porque la familia siempre es primero. Yeah, and I'm going to say in Vietnamese. But I can't say the one with the family. But I'm just going to correct me if I'm wrong. So it's,

So that I believe says, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. and then I'll say it in sign language. So it's Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. So thank you all for being great staff and I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thank you. Council Member Becerra, please.

Phil BacerraItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to echo the sentiments of my colleagues. I wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and thank you staff for all the work that you put in. I've been up here for three meetings and I've just seen all the efforts that you guys have put forward and the results. So thank you for all that you do and I'm looking forward to a productive 2020. I want to congratulate my colleague, Council Member Penelope, on his one-year anniversary. Congratulations. Should have been yours too. Another story for another day. But... Oh, that's right. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Phil BacerraItem —

Well, Council Member Palozo was more pronounced about his anniversary. More self-congratulatory, right? No, but in all seriousness, this past week we had a loss in the historic preservation community. A gentleman by the name of Phil Brigondi who passed away suddenly. He was just a remarkable man. He had a wealth of knowledge about the county. He toiled away a lot. right here in downtown Santa Ana in the old county courthouse down in the archives. And I can say that there's a lot that I've learned about Orange County history thanks to his contributions.

Phil BacerraItem —

There's a great book that he put out that was called Orange County Names A to Z that really just, it's a really short read, but it's very insightful. And he'll definitely be missed. And I'd like to ask the mayor and my colleagues if we could adjourn the meeting in his honor. Thank you.

What was his name again?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I also want to wish everybody a happy holiday season, whatever you celebrate, whether it's Christmas, whether it's Hanukkah, to all our residents and those who come before us all year long to come and speak to us on issues that they were in support and opposed to. And I also want to thank staff and thank you Madam City Manager and everybody, Madam City Attorney, Madam City Clerk and all the other members of EMT and all the other staff here in the city. We're all a family so sometimes we spend as much time with each other as we do with our own families and sometimes more.

But you know I certainly do respect all the work that you all do. I certainly appreciate everything that you do for us all year long but more importantly what you do for the residents. and so that does not go unnoticed. And I see other cities because I do staff up some other cities and I know that the quality of work that's done around here is by far some of the most impressive that I've seen. So speaking to that, though, there is one issue that I wish I would have been noticed on is on the water conference. As president of the Orange County Water District representing the city,

I think that OCWD needs to be involved in discussing any water issues, having to deal with water rates because water really doesn't just include rates, but it includes quality, service delivery, contamination issues, and those are all things that we're dealing with right now. So to the extent that we're going to have something that's informative to our residents, we need to include those subject matter items. And to the extent that we include some of our member agencies or some of our sister agencies, We receive 75% of our water from the groundwater basin, which is managed by the Orange County Water District.

I think we need to make sure we incorporate them. So thank you for doing that in advance. You know, I was going to go off on a tangent on the county, but we've already, I think, done that in closed session and was reported out. So I hope all of you who have been coming to us and compelling us to do something to stand up for our city, listen to some of the items that we've moved on tonight. So I'm certainly proud of that work that we've done there. And thank you, Peter. I just wanted to give you a shout-out for always coming to us and keeping us focused on things that are important.

And thank you for your service that you do, that you've done, and just being somebody who is reflective of what the city residents here are most proud of. So finally, I want to invite all of you, every Christmas Eve, my family and I, and now with co-sponsors from the Santa Ana Unified School District, from the Mexican Consulate, Toys for Tots, Suavecito Pomade, and 7-Eleven, we provide meals and toys to the less fortunate. And we've been doing this for about close to 30 years now.

So we have about maybe 1,000 to 1,200 kids and families who that's the only meal they have for the day, and that's the only toy that they receive. So I want to thank staff because they helped coordinate some of the logistics on that. But for those of you who can't come, try to do something kind for a child. for a family because there are many, many families and children that are not as blessed as we are. And so to the extent that we can extend our hand or a gesture, as simple as it could be, you can change a life. So thank you all. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad a todos allá afuera. Gracias.

Thank you for your comments, Councilmember. Mayor Prozón.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. December 8th, I and many members of the council attended the Wilshire Square Neighborhood Association holiday parade. It was a great success. Thank you very much for the invitation. This past weekend also I attended the Washington Square Christmas party for their neighborhood association and also the Santa Anita Neighborhood Noche de Paz celebration, where they fed about 500 members of the community. There was about 350 toys given away to children also,

and that was also attended by many community leaders and members of this council. Also, I want to congratulate the five members, five young soccer players here from Santa Ana who attended the Hugo Sanchez Foundation soccer training, and they've been doing a lot of work lately, and they went to Mexico. They flew to Mexico to have tryouts for Pumas de Onam, which is a famous soccer club out there. And they made it, there's three tryouts, and they passed their second one. So we wish them well, and I hope they move on so they can get picked up as professional soccer players

and make a career out of it. I also want to thank all the staff for all of their work, the city manager's office, the police department, OCFA in the back, Public Works, everyone that's out there working during the holidays. Thank you so much. While you're out there working and we're celebrating with families, I know it comes with a job. We thank you for your sacrifice, your commitment to keeping the community safe. and the city running well. And happy holidays to everyone, and thank you very much.

Thank you. First, I'd like to start with a staff request, and that is for the gentleman, Phil Begani, that Councilmember Bacera mentioned. I just want to make sure we get a proclamation out to the family. I don't know anything about funeral services or what's going on, but if there's time for flowers, I'd like to make sure we do everything as appropriate as possible. I also want to say, boy, it's been another year, and it just all goes by so fast. I know all of us up here at the dais and folks out there in the audience are in a long, long love affair with Santa Ana.

And I think we're fighting a good fight and doing a lot of good work. I, in particular, want to thank the residents. I know that there's so many out there that are doing so much. I, too, was in that holiday parade over at Wilshire Square. And you've got the marching bands and you've got reindeer and all that. And as you're out there driving around the streets, you see all the people and how excited they are. You know, kids, adults, folks from all backgrounds, everybody out there celebrating. So I think we're a blessed city. We have a lot to be thankful for.

And as we go, really, we're not going to see you all until next year. So this is not only Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and Happy Hanukkah. It's also, you know, the Tet Festival, because I think that'll be around the 6th or 7th of January. So and there's many, many others. I know that now the mayor of Anaheim, Harry Seadu, is a Sikh. and recently we had a group of Sikhs here because they celebrated their 550th anniversary and just so many wonderful people and religions and you know this is you know we should always be compassionate but as Councilmember Sarmiento mentioned earlier I think there's an extra

time to be kind and to be caring for others so with that happy new year and we'll see you on the 17th of January.

Thank you.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.