Read the May 7 meeting.

If you can all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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're going to have our invocation by Vincent Berenger today, our police chaplain.

Will you please join me in a word of prayer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, most merciful Lord, we are meeting today to conduct matters of importance to our city. Please guide our hearts and minds into the spirit of fairness, right thought, and speech. impart your supreme wisdom upon our activities so that our affairs may reach a successful conclusion thank you for being our source of guidance today Father God, I ask that you bless this meeting with your divine intelligence and help us to make the best use of our own

because as you know, Lord, we are of a diverse opinion here yet we wish to mend our differences and reach agreement satisfactory to all Lord, I ask that you bless our Mayor Miguel and our City Council Members Vicente, David, Jose, Cecilia and Juan, as well as David, our police chief, and Christine, our new city manager, and all those that serve the city of Santa Ana for the benefit of their citizens. That you may bless them all with courage, wisdom, and empathy, so they can perform their duties that you have seen fit to assign to them. Lord, I ask you not only for blessings in their public lives, but their private lives as well.

I ask that you grant them each peace, health, and contentment. And I ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated.

I want to ask the clerk of the council to prepare herself for a very special event. and that is a swearing in of our new city manager that I want to formally and officially welcome here to the city. I believe as you all get to know her and work with her, you'll find that she's very thoughtful, very intelligent,

compassionate, efficient, and really cares about making Santa Ana even a greater city than it is today. So with that, Christine Ridge, if you can come forward, we're going to have our Clerk of the Council administer the oath of office.

I, Christine Ridge, 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 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 discharge

The duties upon which I'm about to enter.

Mayor Pro Tem, I believe we have the next presentation.

If I can have our Parks and Rec's Director Lisa Rudloff join me up front.

Good evening, everyone. Today is a very special day because the Parks and Recs Department has received a special recognition. I'm going to get it here.

they're the recipients of the California Park and Recreation Society Award. It's a very, very special award that's given to certain entities within certain regions, and the City of Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Division has received the first place winner in that area. And I would like our Parks and Rec Director, Lisa Rudloff, to please say a few words about the award.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Viegas. Thank you for recognizing our award that we received from the strongest professional organization available to park recreation and leisure service professionals in California. I've had the opportunity throughout my career to participate in the California Park and Recreation Society and have been elected by my peers to be the president of the state board.

And my goal as the executive director in Santa Ana is to ensure that my staff is able to join, be a member of CPRS and have the opportunities to attend trainings and learn about best practices and programs and services to bring them back to the city of Santa Ana. So I'm very excited that my staff, the three rock stars over here, have provided youth sports activities that have been recognized by District 10 in the California Park and Recreation Society. So I knew when I started here I had some stellar staff, but I didn't know I had some rock stars.

So Jeanne Gerardo, America, Miss America, Good Morning America, America's Got Talent, whatever we call her, she's awesome, and Juan Lara. I really want to thank you for everything you've done and appreciate it.

We have 44 parks in the city, and we have a lot of recreational centers, and so they're very, very busy here in this city of 27.2 square miles. and here's the award.

Thank you.

That is an awfully big medal there.

Congratulations again.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Charlotte Egan, if you can please come forward at this time.

Standing to my right is Charlotte Egan. Let me tell you a little bit about her. She is celebrating 50 years of service here in the County of Orange in the public health lab. She began her career as a public microbiologist trainee. She has worked in every section of the laboratory, and she's witnessed amazing advances in technology over her 50 years of service here to the community.

She's always been conscientious about the quality of her work, the standard of her work, and she's actually become a model to others in the field. After the 50 years of service, Charlotte will begin a well-earned retirement on May 9, it says here. Two days. She says that's two days, but nobody's counting. What are you going to do?

More time with my family.

More time with the family. That's always a good thing to say. And do. And do. So, and it says that right here. She's planning to spend more time with her family.

I should have read instead of asked. Also, it says that you're going to explore personal interests and passions. Do you like paint or something?

I'm going to volunteer at the aquarium.

You've been a volunteer and serving the committee for 50 years. Not really. Not really. But now you're going to volunteer at the aquarium.

Yes, in Long Beach.

In Long Beach. So you're leaving Santa Ana after 50 years? I live there.

I live there.

Alright, forget it. It's okay. But you could volunteer at the zoo.

but but look um charlotte you know 50 years is a long time and to do one thing for 50 years takes a special individual and you've done it serving the community so i think that aquarium in long Beach is going to be very very fortunate to have you and it is my honor to present this to Charlotte Egan in recognition of 50 years in public service for your commitment to the city of Santa Ana it stated this seventh day

of May which as you point out is two days before the ninth day of May and And congratulations to your new efforts and passions and to that aquarium in Long Beach. Take care.

Thank you very much.

Do you want to say a few words? Something brief. In 50 years, give us something brief.

Really brief. Yeah. Really brief. It's been my pleasure to serve the citizens of this community. and the County of Orange for these many years. We have a great laboratory, works really hard, but it's very interesting work, and I've enjoyed it so much. So thank you again for this recognition, and thanks for supporting public health. Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tembe-Legas, please.

I can have Chief Valentin and the members of the Santa Ana Police Department join me up here, please.

Every year we celebrate or we honor the men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. in Santa Ana. We have four of those

officers who have given their all. Chief Valentin is our chief of police who will say a few words regarding

this memorial. Sir?

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tempiegas and city council. I appreciate the opportunity to speak just briefly on this topic, which is obviously near and dear to every peace officer across the United States. As the Mayor Pro Tem indicated, we've had four officers killed in the line of duty here in Santa Ana. What I thought was most appropriate for this proclamation is to invite four of our finest officers that actually are part of frontline policing that are out on the streets day in and day out, 24-7. Each one of these officers represents one of the four policing districts that serve the city of Santa Ana, again, 24-7.

And every year, we recognize those that pay the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. So it's not only a loss for the officers themselves, their families, their communities, and the industry as a whole. So I thank you very much for the opportunity to be acknowledged. And on behalf of all the men and women of the Santa Ana Police Department, it is our greatest honor to continue to serve you. And unfortunately, from time to time, it does require that ultimate sacrifice. I know that tonight you're also recognizing veterans. A couple of these officers are former Marines. And so we appreciate that recognition as well. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Chief. You know, the men and women in law enforcement, many of them, they don't do it for medals. They don't do it for certificates. They do it because they believe in the work. They believe in their community. And it's a very, very tough job. Police work has evolved very, very much. One thing remains the same, still dangerous. And sometimes these officers end up becoming a casualty of very, very bad circumstances.

So, Chief Valentin, you can please accept this proclamation on behalf of the Mayor and City Council regarding National Police Week. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

There's Council Member Iglesias.

Good evening, everyone. Okay, so now we went from the police, now we're going to go to the green. We went from the blue, now we're going to the green. My recognition is for the Peoples and Trees, Inc., which is a non-profit organization which promotes tree planting and care in urban communities. At this point, I would like for them to come up over here and for you guys to join me.

And while they're coming up, I just want to share that we're very fortunate to have an organization like them to care about what's happening in our parks. As you know, our parks need a lot of TLC, and I'm very grateful for this organization that provided us 108 trees at Centennial Park. And as you guys know, I represent Ward 6, which is on the west end of the city, and their contribution has been a great blessing to our community. so I just want to let you guys have time to tell us more about your organization

but I know I went out there twice on a Saturday morning to help you know to thank you to help plant some of those trees and just to see also the community involvement seeing the kids with their smiling faces they were so happy just to have individuals like yourselves there so if you could just come up here and tell us about what your organization does and then how we can further collaborate.

How many hours do I have? Right. There you go.

Three minutes.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you, the board. Thank you, the audience. Our organization is called People in Trees.

And here's the President, Bill Rowley.

I'm a secretary, Vladimir Gorin. We have two Santa Ana residents who are on our board, Ellen Calderway and now just recently Irma Macias. And actually this is Robert Frost, another member of our board. And here is our cooperating partner agency from Citizens Climate Lobby. So the thing is I need to mention the funding sources that come from Climate Investment Fund, which is directed towards combating global warming, and in particular by planting trees, increasing absorption of CO2.

They actually advocate the Citizens' Climate Lobby for regulations stimulating decreasing emissions. Anyway, and it's distributed, defined by the Department of Forestry and administered by California Relief Organization network of such organization as ours. And it's required for tree planting to be done with volunteers. And I need to mention all those, but before I need to recognize, not just to mention, the parks, services of the Parks and Recreation Agency.

Ron Ona, who manages park services, He's also a landscape architector. He designed our planting plan and organized storage and delivery to the site. Unfortunately, he missed not just their award but our award also. But here is Director Rudloff. She was also very supportive of our activity. Then I need to mention the contractor, Mariposa Landscape, who dug holes for the trees. We cannot do it with volunteers and takes care of irrigation.

And now I need to mention the all volunteer resources which are here in Santana and which are, I don't think they're ever anywhere else. Neighborhood Initiative Program is unique and it helped us a lot. And neighborhood associations, we have here Chris Schmidt from one of the neighboring associations, Alberta Christie from another one, and actually Irma is also a leader of the third association. We have here Peter Cutts, who is the boss of all leaders of associations, Crank Communication League, and also the school Centennial Educational Center,

the dean of administration, Christine Koska, she was very helpful. And School of Our Lady, they volunteered a lot with their middle school students. The teacher is Jennifer Avila-Gonzalez. And also America on Track organization, which provided healthy snacks for our volunteers. and Jasmine Torres, Healthy Eating Advocate. Also I need to mention the social media, New Santana Blog, editor and publisher Art Pedrosa.

So thank you very much, and please come and plant trees with us, and also we invite more residents of Santana to our board. You still have two vacancies. If somebody is interested, let us know and we'll seriously consider you. Thank you very much.

So somebody, do you want to say something? Oh, no? Okay. So then on behalf of the Santa Ana City Council, a small token of our appreciation for everything that you do for our community, we want to give you the certificate for your outstanding contribution to the Santa Ana community so thank you so much and I look forward to more more tree planting with you guys

Now we have council member Sarmiento.

Thank you Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. and I was saying I love trees. They just recruited me to go plant with them, so that'll work. So we're going to transition from trees to something very serious, and if I could have Dr. Ana Jimenez-Hami, the founder and CEO of Orange County Children's Therapeutic Arts Center.

So May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and so it's a very, very serious topic, And I know Dr. Jimenez-Hami works with a lot of families and children who unfortunately suffer from this. And it is a very, very difficult thing. We have it prevalent in our city, as many communities throughout the country have. But it's the leading cause of disability in the country now. And nearly 20% of adults in California have experienced mental illness in their lifetime.

and it contributes to one's overall health, mental health, and is responsible for sustaining thought process, relationships, productivity, and the ability to adapt to change in the face of adversity.

The stigma of mental illness is toxic to those who suffer from mental health conditions because it creates an environment of shame, fear, silence, and it prevents many people from seeking treatment. For us, I guess, it's something that is very obvious in our community for many of us who deal with the homeless crisis that's happening, not only in Santa Ana but throughout the county. We realize that the condition that many of those folks suffer have a lot to do with conditions, and mental health is one of those prevalent conditions that we see as a common thread to many of those folks. And nobody is immune from it.

You're not immune from it. it doesn't distinguish between race, it doesn't distinguish between gender, socioeconomic status, it can affect anybody. And I'm sure that many of us probably have dealt with this directly with somebody in our family, a friend, or somebody that deals with it themselves. Personally, I know in my family we've had unfortunately this condition that we've had to deal with and it's a heartbreaking condition because it's not like a broken limb, it's not like something that's a physical condition that you can treat you can put a cast on, you can visibly see

but for mental health it's something that's very very difficult to detect and it's very difficult condition to treat so you can't apply a prosthetic to it you can't just simply wish it away or rest and expect that it's going to get better it takes some very very complex treatment for it to be overcome And, you know, I'm very proud to see some folks in the audience that have dealt with this. I see my former colleague, Councilwoman Martinez, who was a big champion of just bringing awareness to mental health and making sure that we understand it, we deal with it in a thoughtful, compassionate way.

I see, you know, some of our police officers who've been awarded nationally for having a heart program. The HARP program is when you approach somebody, if they're on the street, if they're indigent, and they have a condition like mental health or some other psychological impairment, to treat them in a humane way, and not simply just to detain them, take them away, see them as resisting, because a lot of times folks don't understand what's happening in that interaction, and it becomes a very difficult exchange when somebody's met with authority and they have no idea what's happening.

So I want to thank everybody who's involved with bringing awareness, with educating, with informing us. And this is a month that we should not only be thinking about it, we should be thinking about this all the time. Because we live in a very densely populated city. There's a lot happening. There's a lot of pressures on people. Whether it's, again, whether it's work, whether it's family, whether it's relationships, all these things impact us. And we see it now more and more in younger people.

Which is what's scarier, right? Because not only are they seeing pressures in their family, but they're seeing pressures at school. They're being bullied. They're being asked to do incredible amount of academic work and be excellent at that, while at the same time, and I see our superintendent from the school district, so I'm sure they know what it's like to deal with students who are having to deal with all these pressures. So all of you who are partners in this effort, I applaud you. I thank you for bringing more attention to it because whether or not it affects your life today, it will affect your life tomorrow.

It will be somebody you know, somebody you deeply care about, or it may affect us personally. So I thank those service providers, and I know Dr. Hami does such a great job at Octag to bring awareness to it. families that really traditionally don't have access to it, which are your low-income families, monolingual Spanish-speaking families, undocumented families. And so, Dr. Hami, I want you to come up and tell us a little bit more about what you do. But, you know, on behalf of all of us for all the great work you do, I just want to thank you for all the effort. So the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you Councilmember Sarmiento and thank you for inviting me to be here tonight. It is an honor for me to be here. This is a very important topic for me also in my heart. And as Councilmember Sarmiento said, our organization provides services here. We've been providing services for the past 19 years to youth, to children, to youth, to families. And we've expanded our programs for adults also. Also, one of the ways that we bring mental health awareness and we educate the community is through the arts.

So we do a lot of creative programming through the arts, education, and therapeutic programs that are creative. Because it's really important to educate our community and we do that in a fun and creative way. In fact, this Saturday, I invite all of you here if you're interested in this. We do have a mental health awareness day all day at our agency this Saturday. And we will be screening a really, really beautiful video that our youth created. And the youth that created this video, that's exactly what they are sharing their stories about mental health.

They are also sharing their stories as having a disability and being bullied because of having a disability. And how this problem affected them so much that some of them even attempted suicide. Because they got into a deep depression. So this is a big problem that we are going through in our society and we cannot ignore it.

And it's very important. So I invite all of you to come and celebrate with us this Saturday at our agency. We're going to be doing a lot of fun activities with art, but especially to see this amazing documentary that the youth created. the youth created, and it talks about how we can educate our community about this problem of mental health if it is not addressed and if we ignore it.

So as Council Member Charmiento said, there is a lot of stigma in our society today about mental health, a lot of stigma associated. And so we need to educate, especially in our Latino community. It's a taboo. Let's not talk about it. Okay? So we need to educate our community. And so today I invite all of you tonight to come and spend time with us this Saturday. But I'm very passionate about this topic because it's very important, as Council Member Charmiento said. Thank you for inviting me.

I can go on and on, but I just want to make sure that all of you that are here tonight talk about this openly and ask them to ask for help if they're experiencing depression, anxiety, any form of mental health problem. And that's what we need to do is bring it to the awareness of all and not be afraid to ask for help. So it is an honor for me to be here tonight. Thank you again Councilmember Sarmiento. I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

So, Dr. Ahami, I'm going to ask you to receive this proclamation from all of us here in the city and a very grateful city for everything that you do. And I'll just go ahead and skip to the last clause, which says that the city of Santa Ana proclaims May as a Mental Health Awareness Month and urge all the residents to increase awareness and understanding of mental health to reduce barriers and stigmas associated with mental illness. thank you all who are our partners in helping get this message out I want to give a shout out especially to former council member Roman Reina who brought this to my attention and works with a lot of

with an extensive network of agencies at work to address this so thank you all very much. Gracias.

Gracias.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. I believe now Councillor Peñaloza is going to have our next presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

David PenalozaItem —

Good afternoon, everyone. If I could please have Sergeant Justin Ventura, United States Marine Corps, come up, please. And anyone else who has ever served in the United States military in any form, please you're welcome to stand or join us back up here for a how you doing sir for military appreciation month mayor pro ten viegas if you could join us so in in 1999 senator John McCain introduced a resolution to recognize May as military appreciation month and it's something that mayor pretend you guys

David PenalozaItem —

join us join us oh okay and you know whether it's the United States Marines the the Army the Navy the Air Force the Coast Guard or even possibly the Space Force in a couple of years who knows you know it's it's it's a work that isn't you know is I don't think is appreciated enough the the sacrifice that these men and women go through oftentimes leaving their families for long periods of times and uh or given the ultimate sacrifice you know gives us gives me the opportunity to stand up here and you know protect our democracy as the same way they're doing it we were doing it here

David PenalozaItem —

and it's something that i always think about that i have the opportunity to take an oath of office because of people like them and we have the opportunity to live freely because of the sacrifices that they make. And, you know, during May, we pay tribute to the extraordinary men and women who serve our nation with valor and distinction in all branches of the military.

David PenalozaItem —

And, I mean, that's it. We honor our current and former military men and women, and I thank you enough for our service this whole month of May. My two best friends in high school were in the Marines after high school and everyone would look at me like hey are you gonna you know follow suit I was like ah I'll pass you know but but again I thank you guys because that's you know it isn't I feel thanked enough so thank you and my

David PenalozaItem —

colleagues and the City Council in the city of Santa Ana I present to you this proclamation for military appreciation month whereas during military Appreciation Month, we pay tribute to the extraordinary men and women who serve our nation with valor and distinction in all branches of the military. And throughout history, our service members have served with bravery, skill, and an unwavering devotion to duty. And because of this, there is no fighting force that rivals that of the United States military. And the precious liberties that all Americans enjoy are possible because every day and without exception,

David PenalozaItem —

our armed forces relentlessly and tirelessly carry out the critical mission of protecting our country, our freedoms, and our way of life. And we will never be able to repay fully our heroes for their selfless service, but we will guarantee that we will support them and their families. And on this day and every day, we owe a great debt of gratitude to our service members stationed at home and those deployed around the world, and we proudly salute our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and Coast Guardsmen and recognize the families who serve alongside them for

David PenalozaItem —

their courage and commitment. We the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Santa Ana hereby recognize the month of May as military appreciation.

David PenalozaItem —

You could hang that in your office.

You know, this is quite a surprise. Memorial Day is coming up at the end of this month, and everybody looks at it as a party weekend and a kickoff of the summer. But take some time to go beside a grave and lay some flowers. There's some soldiers that gave the ultimate sacrifice. I was a burial officer for the United States Army during the Vietnam War, and I buried 28 young boys, 18 to 20 years old, for the states of Georgia and Florida. I also escorted bodies across the country, and I know what it's like for that ultimate sacrifice.

So all the freedoms that we have out here, we can bury our hatchets and we can disagree, but it's soldiers that gave the ultimate sacrifice and defended this great country from the very beginning. to the present day so uh... don't ever take for granted a soldier you see on the street yes they think you can service

thank you thank you for that presentation Councilman so now what I'm going to do is I'm going to take an item out of order. I'm going to go straight to 75A, which is a public hearing. I understand that there are many families, thank you, with children outside. So if folks can talk to each other. I know that there's a few seats in here. Let's fill them up. I don't want families and kids outside waiting if they don't have to be doing so.

Also, by taking this item early, afterwards we'll go on with a regular agenda, but this involves a charter school, and I understand that as a consequence a lot of children are here, so I want to take it early so they can get home and do their homework.

so this is time and place for the public hearing to adopt rezoning or zoning ordinance amendment 2019-1 to permit the expansion of an existing elementary school located within the specific development number 82 and that is a zoning district by many chapter 41 to add a definition for schools and to allow schools as it permitted use in that specific zone. And the address is 2601 through 2617 West 5th Street.

So first, before I call on the general public, do we have a brief staff presentation? I'll please direct my attention initially here to the city manager.

Honorable Mayor, we do have a brief presentation for you. Our Executive Director of Planning will be providing that presentation.

Thank you very much for that. Please go ahead.

So I said brief. The City Manager said brief. Let's see if we got through.

We'll make it very brief.

Thank you.

Mayor, as you mentioned, this is a zoning ordinance to approve specific land number SD82 amendment to the existing list of uses to allow for school, but also to add definition of school to the zoning ordinance under Chapter 41. The purpose of the request is to allow the expansion of the existing Vista Heritage School, which is located on site. The school has been operating there for well over 20 years. as part of the approval of this specific changes this will only apply to this

specific site and as you see on the map later on this SD82 is limited to this site only as part of the approval the Planning Commission incorporated drop off and pick up plans as well as a circulation plan they included outdoor limiting outdoor activities to be all inside. There's some existing activities now that's being conducted outdoor and it's all being brought indoor. There's a parking management requirement, a safety plan requirement, both for emergency as well as for circulation. What's really important here is that there's also a stipulation for periodic review.

And this will allow the city to be able to evaluate the operation of the school on the site as times move on and as the school start to expand. There is a gradual buildup. The existing number of students right now is at 270 students. The proposal by the school is to expand, to have a buildup over five years, going from 270 ultimately to about 870 students. And as you can see, Vista Heritage right now is sixth grade through eighth grade, and the expansion will include K through five,

which is considered as Vista Corridor, and you can see that in 2023-24, ultimately will be about half and half. This is the site, as you can see here. SD 82 is what you see in yellow. The existing school is located in blue here, and the proposed expansion is the P. These are the two adjacent existing tenant space that are vacant, and the school is proposing to expand. You also see as part of this picture, there's a signal traffic light here. Currently there is not one presence. The city in the development plans for this area is going to install a traffic signal

as part of its on-street improvements. The signal has been funded and the proposed installation is within between 24 to 36 months.

the complex was developed in its industrial complex in 1984 the church was relocated to this complex as part of a redevelopment project era back in 1980 in the 80s the school has been occupied the site as part of the ancillary used to the church by operated by temple cavario and and it has been existing there since the beginning. The site back in 2008 was changed to an SD. Prior to that, it was an M1 zone. The reason for the change to an SD is to allow for the expansion of the church use on site.

The city back in the mid-90s made a change to the zoning code that did not permit churches in the M1 zone. So therefore, the SD was put into place to allow the conforming operation of the church and the accessory use, but also to really address the use on site without having to address those uses as a citywide land use provision.

While the project is exempt from CEQA, SEF was sensitive to the concerns that we heard from the community during the outreach process. There was a traffic study that was conducted. Over 11 street intersections were analyzed and four driveway locations were analyzed. And all of the evaluation and the data shows that the project does not create an impact to the existing street.

In terms of project circulation, the planning commission wanted to make sure that there is a plan for circulation that is being put into place on site. The proposed circulation, right now the school, the existing school as it operates, only conduct pick-up and drop-off in the front of the school. With the proposed expansion starting from day one, this area will be only limited to bus pick-up and drop-off. All of the parents in the school pick-up and drop-off will be conducted coming from the driveway located on the east side of the site, going to the back area, looping around, and then coming back out.

This allows for a very extensive queuing area. As you know, pick-up and drop-off requires quite a bit of queuing, so the vehicle pick-up and drop-off queuing, based on the design, will allow for a smooth operation of that during the morning, but also in the afternoon during the pick-up and drop-off.

In terms of parking, again, the site currently as exists provides approximately 310 parking spaces. the spaces that they're going into, the two spaces adjacent, is approximately 48,000 square feet. And as an industrial building, it requires by code 98 parking spaces. However, when it converts to the use as a school under the parking requirement for the city, that gets dropped down to 67 parking spaces. So approximately 31 spaces have been reduced in terms of the demand based on our code.

And so there's a reduction in both the demand and number of spaces that's required. The total parking provided on site is 144. So as you can see, it well exceeds what's required by the school.

The parking analysis, we also were very sensitive to the parking concerns brought up by the community outreach. While the school by code still meets the parking, we also conducted a parking utilization study to understand how the existing site is being used based on the existing uses on the site, as well as the predicted expansion. And based on that, even at the highest peak period, the site is still able to accommodate, and it actually peaks out at about 95-96%.

So while there are a few spaces left, it still shows that there's enough parking to accommodate the proposed expansion based on actual use.

This really is kind of to help demonstrate the school pick up and drop off to student safety plans, which includes the pick up and drop off, reducing outdoor activities, or actually eliminating outdoor activities, putting in a traffic safety team to mitigate both doing pick up and drop off. the school also has an emergency plan as required by any school to put in place and that emergency plan addresses not only the in case of emergency situation but also a wide range of issues, health hazards, environmental contamination concerns

so it addresses and the school is required to review that annually has a committee that actually oversee it and has to certify it annually as well

there was a question that was raised regarding putting the school in an industrial area like this, is there environmental concerns any pre-existing environmental concerns, the site back in 2018 there was an environmental phase 1 conducted to evaluate whether or not there is any concerns of site contamination or any potential for pre-existing conditions And that phase one study determined that no further requirements in terms of environmental review was required because there's no factor there that warrants looking into environmental concerns.

Additionally, the school has shared that in their 20 years of operations, there has been no situation where students were exposed to harmful matters on site. Real quick, again, you know, the site was beginning in the 1980s. SD82 was put into place in 2008. The school was and is still legal nonconforming use. With the approval of this proposal, it will become conforming and it can accommodate for the proposed expansion.

The staff recommendation is for the approval of the zoning ordinance amendment, and we'll be happy to answer any questions. I just want to share that we have our project staff here. We also have our engineering and traffic consultant to answer any questions. We have also the leadership of the church and the leadership of the school to ask any specific questions.

Thank you. If you can be on standby, I have several speakers that want to speak, so we'll go ahead and take testimony, then we'll bring it back to council for consideration. So if that being the case, I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing officially and ask for Tom Steckle, S-T-E-K-O-L, to come forward, followed by Alfonso Jimenez.

Please go ahead. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, and citizens and voters of the City of Santa Ana. My name is Dr. Tom Steckle and I am the Deputy Superintendent of Administrative Services in the Santa Ana Unified School District whose views I'm here tonight to represent. I've served in public education for over 30 years and I'm here to comment on the proposed changes to the zoning ordinance that you're considering tonight.

Under the proposed changes, charter schools will be allowed to bypass many of the important regulations that are currently held in place for public schools like those in Santa Ana Unified School District. in order to provide safe and secure environments for our students, the children of Santa Ana. Contrary to what you were just told by staff, it's our understanding that this is not a CEQA-exempt project, and also you may recall from the presentation that there was no reference to any traffic study having been conducted on this project either.

It's worth noting that the Santa Ana Unified School District currently authorizes six charter schools within its district's boundaries. We review charter applications for the soundness of their instructional programs, their overall fiscal management, and most importantly, for the safe conditions they provide for students. This oversight is a responsibility not taken lightly by SAUSD. Our goal is to ensure that all students within the district's boundaries are served by schools committed to their education.

It's perhaps worth noting that Vista Heritage submitted an application to operate as a charter in the Santa Ana Unified School District, and that their application was rejected as inadequate. This, of course, did not stop it, like many other charters, from seeking authorization from the county Office of Education or even the State Board of Education for that matter. And thankfully, such attempts to circumvent local oversight are now targeted for reversal by pending legislation at the state level, which raises another question. If the governor of the State of California and the legislature have seen fit to take up the matter

of providing greater oversight of instructional programs at charters for the sake of children's education education by local entities, why then should the City of Santa Ana consider taking up a measure that would compromise the safety and security of its most precious assets, the children of Santa Ana? Approving the proposed changes to the zoning ordinance would remove essential safeguards in the operation of a charter school that would fundamentally compromise the safety of both students and the surrounding community. To affirm your support for the safety of students of Santa Ana, You must vote now.

Thank you. Alfonso Jimenez, followed by Barbara Pearson.

Good evening, Mayor Pulido, Council Members, and City Manager Ridge. I am Dr. Alfonso Jimenez, Deputy Superintendent of Educational Services for the Santa Ana Unified School District. I'm here today to express major concerns regarding the proposed zoning ordinance amendment for Vista Heritage Charter School, which you will consider this evening. Please note that as a main organization within the city that is charged with ensuring the safety and learning of all students, it is important to note that Vista Heritage came before our school board to determine the viability of their charter petition.

Vista Heritage's charter was denied due to concerns regarding the academic program, but was consequently approved by the Orange County Department of Education. Vista Heritage did not have the intent when submitting their petition to us or the county to expand to such a large number of students in a small confined space. What have we learned from charter expansion? Up the street we have Magnolia Science Academy, which recently expanded in their upper grades, which caused severe detriment to the academic program of its students for the last three years. Is this the same result you want for the students at Vista Heritage?

Time and time again, we see charter schools expand that can't meet the academic needs of their students due to their inability to scale up, and this is very concerning. The Early Developmental Index, the EDI, which is an index that reports the conditions of children in Orange County schools, indicate that the children of Santana are severely impacted in gross and fine motor skills, with approximately 60% of the students showing a need. What this means is that the children need to have appropriate play areas and learning environments. Having students confined to small spaces that does not provide adequate space is a further concern.

With the new Romero Cruz Academy, a Santa Unified School District K-8 school right next door, there is no need to allow a charter school to expand in this area. If we are truly the education city, we should take these concerns into consideration. While my colleagues will present concerns with governmental regulations and ordinances, I stand before you to voice the concerns as an advocate for all students within the city of Santa Ana. I ask that you please consider denying the request of the zoning ordinance for the benefit of the children in Santa Ana. Thank you and have a great evening.

Thank you. Barbara followed by Stephanie Phillips.

Good evening, Mayor Polito and City Council. My name is Barbara Pearson, and I am the president of the Santa Ana Educators Association. I'm here to urge you to vote no on the zoning ordinance you are considering this evening. One main concern I have with the expansion is traffic congestion in the area. I witnessed it firsthand last week while traveling down Fairview near dismissal time. Even though Spurgeon traffic had cleared, the congestion was still heavy with parents picking up from the Vista campus. I can't imagine what it will do to the area should the expansion be approved.

It prompted me to look at the performance indicators on the website, and I saw large percentages of standards not met and below standards levels. On the contrary, SAUSD boasts growth, performance, and school choice. The Santa Ana Unified School District public schools have performed at levels that garner state recognition. Keep our students in the schools that have proven track records of success and growth. Keep our students in schools with teachers, administrators, and support staff who know what the community needs. Keep our students in a district that has choice within choice within choice.

Choosing a campus is the first of many choices that our students and parents make. They have choices with programs, instructors, sports, visual and performing arts, speech and debate, mock trial, advanced placement, technical training, auto mechanics, culinary arts, dental training, and the list goes on. On the surface, it may not appear so, but your vote tonight is about much more than an expansion. Thank you.

Thank you. Stephanie, followed by Oren Williams.

Good evening, Mayor Polito. members of the council and City Manager Ridge. I'm the superintendent of Santa Ana Unified School District and on February 21st, I submitted a letter on behalf of the district citing concerns with this proposed zoning ordinance amendment. To be very clear, the district opposes this amendment and it's for the following reasons. There are significant challenges for this project, a particular project with VISTA Heritage. The expansion of Vista Heritage poses very real impediments to the traffic circulation, parking, and student safety with respect to safe routes to school.

The expansion also circumvents the public input and CEQA requirements that would be required of similar public school projects in Santa Ana Unified School District. Further, the proposed amendment sets a precedent for other schools to circumvent local oversight and approval processes, creating even greater disjointedness across the offerings of educational services for the students of Santa Ana. Let me say that the district nor the school board are anti-charter. We have authorized six charters within our city.

We are, however, very conscientious of our responsibility for the educational offerings in the city of Santa Ana and take great care to only approve programs and schools that are of high quality and that will expand the landscape of educational offerings for our students. Therefore, it is imperative that we are brought to the table for any discussions regarding educational program within the city. Our parents look to us to ensure that they are not being taken advantage of or otherwise being sold a bill of goods. I encourage the city council to vote no to the zoning amendment.

Thank you. After Orrin Williams, Elizabeth Rojas.

Greetings, Mayor Polito, Mayor Pro Tem Villegas, City Councilmembers, and City Manager Ridge. I come before you tonight on behalf of Santa Ana Unified School District to express significant concerns regarding the proposed zoning ordinance amendment for the Vista Heritage Charter School, coming before you later this evening. The potential change to a more lax zoning generates significant concerns on the part of the SAUSD and should be a concern for the community as well. Our concerns are founded on an expert understanding of schools and our interest in safe and secure student pathways to schools

which are deserved by all of Santa Ana's public school students. To that end, non-chartered public schools are required to have their student drop-off and pickup zones reviewed and approved by the California Department of Education. This review requires the schools to provide safe and secure queuing and drop off pickup zones and create measures that prevent student pedestrian traffic from crossing the vehicles of parents or guardians who drive their students to school. We understand VISTA's traffic and parking plan has not been approved nor has it been reviewed by the California Department of Education.

A review by these California Department of Education experts would have revealed that Vista's half-acre site is completely inadequate for any school. Just to put it in perspective, SAUSD's school, Romero Cruz Academy, just a few hundred feet away across Fairview, has about the same number of classrooms on a 19-acre site, nearly 40 times the same amount of space. We are investigating the claims that Vista's parking agreement has also expired, and now they have even more limited parking. Likewise, we cannot locate documentation confirming Vista Public Schools' satisfaction requirements

for the California Environmental Quality Act, also known as CEQA. Have CEQA traffic, noise, and pollution studies been completed for a school that provides nearly 1,000 students? Because the intersection of Fairview and 5th Street is very busy, this increased traffic will provide a negative impact to our SAUSD schools and the neighborhood in general.

If not, why has the study not been done? To date, we have seen no evidence that Vista Public School has resolved many of the secret problems that they are creating, and we are very concerned about the negative impact to the community and the surrounding businesses, as well as to SAUSD's nearby Romero Cruz Academy. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that testimony. Elizabeth Rojas, followed by John Palacio.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, and City staff. First and foremost, thank you so much for allowing me to speak at your meeting today and for moving the agenda up. I really appreciate that. My name is Elizabeth, and I am a parent of a student at Vista Heritage. My son is in sixth grade and absolutely loves this school. I'm not here to badmouth public schools, as we have many good friends at various public schools throughout Orange County, and he attended public school up until last year. My son came across Vista Heritage at the School Choice Fair last year.

We learned of all the great things that FISTA had to offer students like robotics class, coding, cyber patriot, soccer, virtual reality, and much much more. He handed me the business card and said you need to call and asked me every single day if I had called and visited the school. After visiting the school and giving it much thought, my husband and I realized we needed to try give it a try. Our son's future and success depended on it. Since being at Vista Heritage he has already excelled in many core subjects. He's on the honor roll and enjoys many after-school activities like Cyber Patriot and has even gotten up early to

attend robotics class which is before school. I've never seen him so excited or happy about going to school. I actually asked him the other day who his favorite teacher was, he paused and said, all of them, as they are all really great. It warmed my heart as a mom to hear that from your son. I wish all kids felt that way about all their teachers, not just one. Let me add that it's not just the teachers that are amazing, caring people at the school. The leadership at Vista is what makes the school a unique educational environment. Dr. Felch is always thinking outside the box. I came to him with a unique idea of offering

boot camp for parents and guess what he offered it for parents. He's also looking in having e-sports and Mandarin at the school and much much more. The school, his vision for preparing students to meet the needs of this global economy is what makes the school such an asset in Santa Ana. I'm here to ask that you approve the expansion of Vista Heritage so that other students can experience of fun and innovative way of learning. I also want to add that up until a week ago I actually worked at NOVA Academy which is actually a charter school down the street. I worked there for a little over a year and a half. As you know they've

been around for over 13 years. They were just awarded the California Distinguished

School. I've had many students... Can you please stop? It's a red light. Thank you. John Palacio please. He's a member of the school board. followed by Mia Masariegos, I believe it is.

Mr. Mayor, we're the members of the council. I'm representing the Board of Education. You can give me about four, four and a half minutes. Go ahead. Thank you. First of all, Give me five minutes. Five minutes, there you go. First of all, I want to acknowledge that on the city council,

Ms. Iglesias, Mr. Penalosa, our attorney here, Mr. Sarmento, have graduated from Santa Ana Schools. Mr. Solores, both kids, one is graduating soon, the other one graduated, both going to some of the best schools in the country, one is a valedictorian. So Santa's schools are very successful. Vista Heritage Global Charter Academy is requesting a capacity of 960 students on one and a half acres. Currently Vista Heritage houses 270 students on a half an acre.

The City Council Agenda Summary that you have says 870 students, but the council resolution that you'll be approving says 960 students. Which one is it?

Spurgeon Romero Cruz houses 1,027 students on 19 acres. That's 12 and a half times the acreage that Mr. Heritage is proposing as part of its expansion with the same number of students. This does not include the 50 or so preschoolers that are currently being housed. school hours being proposed increases from the current 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. to 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. that is a four hour increase or a 50% increase in school hours 50%

until recently Tempo Cabario and Vista Charter parked approximately 100 vehicles in the Orange County street car right-of-way. Due to the expiration of the lease, 100 additional vehicles or more are now parked on the property, creating congestion, leaving very little parking spaces. The school anticipated an increase from the existing school use of 20 parking spaces to 62 to 67 parking spaces after the expansion, an increase of 42 to 47 parking spaces. Students are playing in between cars

and within 90 feet in front of auto repair and tire facilities, which creates student safety and creates environmental issues due to auto contaminants being used in the area. Approximately 30 vehicles plus are parked along 5th Street, where Vista Heritage has its front entrance, creating fire safety access, traffic congestion and circulation issues. If you had an emergency, I think we would have a problem. Tempo Cavado just finished an $11 million sanctuary that includes 3,000 seats for their 6,000 members. This increases the usage of its members on a daily basis.

How does the city protect the children from tow trucks, delivery semi-trucks, forklifts and commercial business operations in the immediate vicinity of children? Has the State Department of Education, the Orange County Department of Education, reviewed the expansion request? And so, what were their comments? If not, why not? Which is required. The industrial area is an association and owned in common by all owners. The CC&Rs will not permit the use of common area property for one individual usage.

The CCNRs prohibit the parking lots or driveways from being fenced off or to be used for purposes that infringe on the owners like what is currently being done. The current school has zoned off areas for PE and playground usage as well as coned off the entire perimeter of the building for student traffic and PE activities. All of this is in violation of the recorded reciprocal parking agreement, as well as poses a danger to conducting this in an area with heavy commercial business traffic.

After decades of expansion and little attention to zoning, Temple Calvario proposed additional expansion plans in 2008. At that time, City Council planning decided to rezone the commercial property to include the church in the zoning. With the city of Santa Ana rezoned this law from M1 to SD82, there was a shortage of several hundred parking spots to meet the current code. In an attempt to remedy this lack of parking, the city of Santa Ana created a variance to allow for this large shortage of parking. You know, the variance is basically never addressed.

system. This variance did not fix or address the problem, it just pushed it to the existing owners of the other businesses on this lot and surrounding property owners.

Santa does not have a formal record of the Zoning Ordinance Amendment request, even though Spurgeon Romero Cruz is located within a notice area of 500 feet. This Zoning Ordinance Amendment sets a precedence for allowing other charter and private schools to be located in industrial areas and auto repair facilities throughout the city. This is a legal entitlement that you're giving them without reviewing the impact. In closing, what I want you to know is what I've shared should be alarming to the members of the city council. The notion that there's not a negative

impact in the area is absolutely unequivocally unbelievable. A sequel study does apply and it should be undertaken before the council considers this agenda item. Please vote no. Thank you.

Thank you. Mia followed by Colin Fletch.

Felch, please bring the mic down, bring it down. Okay.

Hello, my name is Mia Masariegos. I am a student at Vista, and I've been at Vista for three years. My experience at Vista has been fantastic. Our teachers are dedicated and hardworking. They plan lessons in a way that we can interact with other students and learn without sitting in a chair all day. VISTA is always opening new doors for the students, such as exposing us to new and interesting sports, such as hockey. Hockey has helped me motivate me to try harder in my education so that I display the same level of grit in my academics as I do in the sport.

If you vote for our building expansion, more students could have the same experience I did. With new and improved buildings, more students would experience bigger classrooms and imagine a teacher and a student with larger spaces. That creates more hands-on projects, allows new space for technology, dedicated music rooms, and a bigger library. This expansion would help more students reach their full potential in the school with the wide variety of activities. As I finish, I would like to say one thing. Mr. Penalosa, I look up to you for someone so young being in such an important position. You are a role model to me.

It is people like you who motivate me to work hard every day, so I can one day be in a position to make a difference in my community. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope you vote to support our dreams.

Thank you.

Colin, followed by Elizabeth Markhan, I believe it is, M-A-R-K-H-A-N. Colin?

Sorry, Mayor. Our speaker cards are out of order. Colin is one of the, part of the applicant team.

So do you want to speak now?

I think at the end, unless you want us to make our presentation now.

No, no, it just was given to me in this order. I know. If you want to just be on standby, let's go to Elizabeth. And then after that, Mari Bark, V-A-R-K-E.

Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Marchand, and I'm currently a social studies teacher and leadership teacher at Vista Heritage Global Academy. I was born and raised here in Santa Ana. So I'd like to think that I'm pretty familiar with the needs of our students. One of the needs of our students is the need to experience education that is transformational. So at our school, we like to say we transform the school experience. We do this through things like Kagan strategies, programs like Way of Counsel, Eagle Hour, among many other things that we do as well. This year, our focus has been global education.

So we are helping our students prepare themselves to be globally competent people in this ever-changing world. We are showing them and teaching them how to investigate the world, how to take action, how to make a difference, whether it's in their community here in Santa Ana or at the state, the national, the global level even. So we are doing a lot for our students. One of the issues we're currently facing is the lack of space. If we were to be able to give them space, they'd be able to be creative and innovative with their projects.

If you were to support construction for our school, you'd be making a humongous difference in our students' lives. We would be able to help them and give them that space that they need. We would be helping them view themselves through a different lens, showing them that they can make a difference, that they have that power. So all we need and all we kindly ask for is the ability to give them that space. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

By the way, I know there's still people outside. For the staff, I know you're helping them come in. There's a bunch of seats up here in the front. Fill them all up. I'd rather have them full than people standing outside. So you're Mari Barki, I believe?

Yeah, Mary Barkey. I'm a trustee of the Orange County Board of Education. I'm here speaking on behalf of the majority of our board. And thank you, Mayor and Council members, for hearing a couple of words from me.

I truly feel that VISTA is making a difference in Santa Ana and Orange County, especially with English learners. They also do an amazing job with special education. We often use them as an example. They are chartered by the Orange County Department of Education. We are happy that we made that decision. We continue to see them thrive. I visited the campus yesterday, and I saw many thriving, happy children there. So I strongly urge you to support the expansion. I think the expansion will, in addition to other things, it will make that Vista Heritage has an even bigger impact on education in Santa Ana as well as Orange County.

So I strongly support VISTA, as does the board majority at the Orange County Board of Education. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for your testimony. Zoila Lubin, I believe, is next.

And after Zoila, we have Jose Avila.

Good afternoon.

Hi, my name is Soyla Lubin. I have lived in Santa Ana since I was eight. I am a businesswoman that operates in Santa Ana for Santa Ana people. I sell and donate books to children and parents in Santa Ana. I am a parent at Vista Heritage and at Vista Condor. Before finding Vista, my son, Calum, and Kendra attended a private Montessori school in Huntington Beach. When Kendra finished her fifth grade Montessori private school, it was time for her to transition to a public middle school. We had lost some of our monthly income, and so I needed to look for private, I mean public.

I went to Spurgeon, and I went to Carr, and I just didn't feel like that was a fit for her. I am also a teacher assistant. I was a teacher assistant for seven years and I worked in a classroom for 10. I remember walking into Vista and thinking this just might be it. The school was small enough for that sense of community I wanted for Kendra, so I enrolled Kendra in life at Vista started. Academically, Vista has provided Kendra with what she needs. Her last year test scores were fantastic, exceeding in all areas. So I enrolled Calum in third grade at Vista Condor this year.

As a parent, I have a voice, and I see other parents having a voice too. I attend student psych council meetings every month, and when, I just came from one of those, every month. And I have a consent principal or vice principal in just the hello.

There is however something that would make the relationship between Vista Heritage and my family better and that's the building expansion. I speak here in front of you today because we need to expand our school. You see, as a community, the students, parents, and schools and staff, We would love to have a new gym, beautiful new classrooms, a new cafeteria, or our library, and all else that comes with the approve, if you approve this expansion. I believe every parent at Vista would love to be here, but everyone could not be here due to work or other commitments.

For those parents who are here and support our project, please stand up. But I'll spot this guest on a key up for a nuestro proyecto for some work

I I along with parents that are present and absent thank you in your time and commitment

we if you can wrap up yes thank you thank you very sorry I didn't want to scare you i should be a little softer there maybe get a whisper or something you know and then jose avila are you here come on down jose and then uh circia santiago i think it's ciria

i a please go ahead jose hi good afternoon um real quick before i start um whoever is here to boat no on Vista. I hope you guys stay here till the end not like last time because most of you guys took off and my kids were here till the end.

Let me start by saying it's an honor and privilege to be here and speak on behalf of Vista Heritage Global Academy. My name is Jose Avila and I'm a proud dad of two kids, Selena and Adam Avila. Selena went to Vista three years and graduated. My son is now attending Condor. I'm here to share my family's experience with first Vista and now Condor. When my daughter first attended Vista as a sixth grader she was concerned about she was concerned and scared as many other students would be in her position changing schools in the middle of the year. That didn't last

long. If memory serves me right, it took about a week. Vista staff made a huge impact on my daughter, that sometimes she wishes she could go back. The awesome teachers of Vista were very attentive to my daughter's needs as well as the rest of the students. There was this occasion that I could remember that my daughter had a seizure while in school. Vista's principal at the time, Mrs. Martin, took upon herself to go in the ambulance and stay in the hospital with my daughter

until I was able to get there in the hospital. The level of communication between Ms. Martin, the staff, and now Mr. Felch is awesome. I never experienced that as a student in Santa Ana Unified School District. Went to a couple schools here in Santa Ana.

When my wife Donna shared with me that Vista wanted to add an elementary to their school, I was excited as kids get on Christmas when they see all the presents under the tree. We immediately wanted more information. Once we got it, we were able to sign up my son, and I knew I was doing the best thing for my son's education and future. When Condor installed the new playground, my son was so excited. He took a picture and sent it to myself and my wife.

Ms. Stevenson, my son's teacher, cares so much about my son's education and every student in her class that when she saw my son getting a bit behind, she recommended us, she and the teacher assistant recommended my son to be in the IEP program. I might have gotten that one wrong because I can never remember a three-letter acronym. And they've been assisting my son and he's been getting better and better gradually. They've done a great job so far that I can't wait for what will come next, and that's the renovation. Vista's not just a school with the building, staff, and things to do. They're family.

I can't wait for the renovation to begin. Thank you for your time. Got it. Thank you.

Santiago followed by Danny DeLeon Jr.

Baje el micrófono. Hable despacito a ver que venga el traductor.

No lo veo.

Danny, are you here? Okay, empieza, ya viene, ya viene, empieza. Ahí viene. Empiece a hablar.

Buenas noches, mi nombre es Siria Santiago. Y este, mi, a mi presencia aquí, es decir, sí a vista. Aquí estoy para representar a vista. Tengo una niña de 14 años que tiene 3 años estudiando en vista. va a cumplir tres años, se gradúa para el 7 de junio y mi hija ha sido exitosa en todos los tres años.

En vista es seguro, es una escuela segura, desde que entran los niños desde las 7 de la mañana, 7 y media, los maestros están al pendiente de los niños este es una escuela pequeña es una escuela altamente académica muy alta mi hija se gradúa y va para la high school y la verdad que me siento muy orgullosa de vista y quisiera como ustedes concejales que dan el sí a la construcción para que nuestros hijos, los hermanos los sobrinos puedan venir a esta escuela that is academic,

and the teachers are very professional. The school is small, they are very attentive to the children, they are worried about them, and I would like to see that the children can succeed. As I said, my daughter will go to high school to enter the school, they had to do an exam. If he passed the exam, he stayed in the school. And the exam was, my daughter passed the exam, and they were felicitated, they asked me, what school was, he said, where is it? In Irvine? In Newport Beach? No, it's in Santa Ana. It's a small school,

where the children who go there are excellent children, they are academic, and I would like to ask you to make sure that you are here, that you are here to make sure that our children are educated and that one day our children can take place where you are sitting, and that they can shine like you are. The truth is, a applause for you. And we say, yes, a vista, yes, the success of our children.

It is Santana. Many people think about Santana is the worst. But you know what? I have a daughter that is where she is, for the education that is giving us our children. De verdad, quisiera que consideraran a vista que cada día vaya creciendo, que esa visión pueda plantar en el cerebro de nuestros hijos.

Si puede concluir, ya se acabó el tiempo. Gracias.

His name is Silvia, and she is in the school.

You have to go from Spanish to English.

Oh, I'm sorry. My first time. I'm reading my notes out loud. That's okay. My daughter is attending.

You can also do English to English.

Yes. My daughter has been in school for three years and she's graduating in June 7. She has been attending for the last three years and she has been very successful in school. Since the school starts at 7.30 a.m., all the teachers are taking care of the students at school. And when she graduates, she's going to be going to high school. Her son is also going to that school. The teachers are professional, and they take good care, and they care about them.

And we want you to say yes to this plan so other kids can go to this school, and they can be successful. Her daughter took an exam last year, and she passed, and other students are asking her what school she's going to, and they're asking if she's going to Irvine or another city, but she says no she's going to a small school here in Santa Ana and and approving this plan will help other students to to shine and to be successful in vista and that's why we ask you to to approve this plan and to plan this vision for all

children and also for them to be where you're sitting now so they can be also successful. Thank you.

Danny DeLeone, before you speak Danny, I just need to take a moment and say that your father, all the years he's worked there at Templo Calvario, he's a true institution leader in the city and appreciate you coming down and talking for us. Thank you very much Mayor, appreciate that.

First, my father sends his apologies as he's not able to be here tonight, but thank you for allowing us to have time to address this incredible group. We're here and I am here on behalf of Vista and representing an amazing church, Templo Cavario Church in the city of Santa Ana, which has a rich 82 year history of serving this community, part of which is a major goal, meta vision for education. A lot has been said of 1985 establishing schools, of which we have three to four schools that we planted seed into. What is maybe less known is before that in our facility on Bush Street, we also hosted two

schools there. Education has always been a part of what we do. We are saying is we are blessed to bless. Part of that is in the education arena. We are here to meet the needs of our community, and one of those needs is that they have an education that supports, structures their lives, and places them on a path forward. We believe, as we have gotten to know Vista, that their goals align with ours, that they want to see the most for the children of our community. And in doing so, we invite and would appreciate to continue to have this partnership on the campus. Also,

we do not enter this blindly. We do not give our recommendation blindly. This is supported by testimony. This is supported by what we hear coming from not only the children that attend our church, but also the children of our community. We get to see their faces. We get to see their accomplishments and hear their accomplishments. So it is not just for any other reason or just because, but we have seen and we believe in what is happening on this campus. So tonight I come asking you and thankful that you are considering this and ask you wholeheartedly to vote yes.

Also, I would like you to know on a note and as a pastor that every Sunday our church community prays for the city of Santana and her leadership as can be testimony. We are here, we are here to serve and glad to be a part of this incredible community. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Christina Casas followed by Kendra Lubin.

And after that it will be Genesis Cisneros de la Mora.

Okay, I'm going to try to get through this, but I lost my voice this morning. So, good evening. My name is Christina Casas, and I am here tonight in support of the building expansion project for Vista Global Academies. I am the mother to three children, two of which have attended Vista Condor Elementary School since its inception in August of last year. With a background in education, I chose Vista for my children because of the focus on the whole child. Our teachers take into account each student's academic and socio-emotional learning needs while providing a supportive yet rigorous educational experience.

Although I have seen tremendous growth in both of my children this year, I would like to highlight my daughter Leah tonight. At the beginning of the year, she was placed in a K-1 combo class. She was able to write her name, produce letter sounds, identify a handful of sight words, and perform basic addition and subtraction. Through the workshop model, which allows students to progress at their own level, Leah has gone from a non-reader to scoring at the 97th percentile nationwide in English language arts. She has increased 11 levels since August and is now reading at a third grade equivalent.

She has begun writing multiple page stories as her confidence and creativity continue to grow. In mathematics, she scored at the 91st percentile and is mastering challenging concepts. I am confident that the personalized approach to learning at Vista has given my daughter opportunities to excel that she would not have otherwise received. Vista is more than just a school. It is a community of caring, supportive, and involved educators, administrators, and parents working together to create an environment where everyone feels accepted and successful.

I urge you to vote tonight to support Vista's expansion so that more students are able to have the opportunity of a transformative education. Thank you. Thank you.

Kendra Lubin followed by Genesis Cisneros followed by Angelique Sanchez.

Hello, my name is Kendra Lubin. I am a seventh grader at VISTA Heritage and I have the honor of speaking on behalf of all VISTA students. I like VISTA because of its amazing atmosphere and great teachers. Everybody knows everybody and there's always someone there for you.

Here at VISTA, we make the most of the space we have, even though we only have a small place to work with right now. My teachers do a really good job teaching us and I can only imagine how good they would be in larger classrooms. With the building expansion, we can make our events like our science fair, our spring and fall festival, and our spring and fall concerts, which I just came from. and our annual VISTA Olympics even bigger and more organized. I'm really excited to have PE, music, art, and all of my other classes in our new spaces. It's going to make it so much easier and more fun.

I love it here at VISTA, and it helps me a lot getting ready for college and career, which is actually the name of my elective. I am very focused on what college I'm going to go to and what career I'm going to have, and our annual field trips to different colleges, like the one we had last week, too.

Cal State LA has opened my eyes to my new opportunities. VISTA has been teaching us how to be respectful, responsible, and resilient like our three R's. Having new facility and classrooms would make me feel confident, cared for, and proud. When I hear about our new classroom and multi-purpose room, I get so excited about my future and going to school every day. And I know my friends feel the exact same way. I hope you support this project and help make this plan and my dream into a reality. Thank you.

Genesis, followed by Angelique Sanchez.

Hi, good evening. My name is Genesis, and I'm a sixth grader attending Vista Heritage. I have attended Vista for almost a year. So far, this has been an awesome year. I'm so amazed by the teachers' dedication to us and their hard work. They help us in tough moments. They keep their patience and encourage us to keep moving forward. I have had so many fun and great memories. We go to really fun field trips, but one that really sticks out is when we went to the Honda Center and learned about the science of hockey. Here at Vista, we are like one big family.

Every month, we have an assembly which gives us an opportunity to come together and celebrate our accomplishments from the past month. By allowing us to build a bigger and better school, this will help with new opportunities. For example, we will be able to have larger classes giving us more opportunities to make bigger projects and create activities in our new gym. I'm also excited for the Makerspace. Me as a lover of engineering, the Makerspace will help me make my dreams as a future engineer come true. Thank you for your time. Have a good night.

Thank you, Angelique, followed by Nazaria Ibarra.

Good evening. My name is Angeline Sanchez, and I am in the sixth grade at Vista. In just one year, I have had many amazing experiences at Vista, from the small things such as our close relationships with our teachers to our annual Visa Olympics and Visa University, where we have the chance to expand our future choices. I look forward to the upcoming experiences in our new and improved building. As a music student, I am very excited for the new music room and recording studio in the building plans. I look forward to enhancing my piano playing skills and creating new memories with my classmates in these two new rooms.

As you may recognize, I am currently wearing an Irish costume. I just came for my second annual spring concert where we sang a song to represent how people from different countries come together. 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 would support our project. Thank you.

Thank you.

Nasaria, followed by Irma Macias.

Irma, do you want to go first? You're right there. Wait a minute, he's coming. Irma, I didn't know you were a student at Vista.

I'm kidding. No, come on down. Yeah, we're going from Spanish to English. English?

this 75A. No, también vengo a decirles en una excusa de por qué a la Escuela Vista se le está poniendo una luz y nosotros hemos estado peleando por una luz y una flecha para la Escuela Sierra y hasta ahorita lo hemos hecho por años y hasta ahorita no hemos recibido ningún resultado y creo que no es justo. En otra forma, yo soy una comunidad de de Santana es un privilegio para mí estar aquí. Soy una ciudadana que mis impuestos pagan por su apoyo. Yo voto por usted y con todo respeto.

Y es para mí es un privilegio estar aquí con el apoyo de todos ustedes y queremos trabajar en equipo. También trayendo recursos para la comunidad, que es muy importante, como es consejería mental, no tengo que traer toda esta audiencia, la tengo atrás, están trabajando, pero si es necesario, aquí estaremos. Gracias.

English.

My name is Nazaria Ibarra and I am representing the school Sierra. I don't have to bring all the community to represent the community. I've been supporting the school at Sierra and it's not fair that they've been fighting for years to put a light signal in front of the school and now it's not fair that the school is going to get Vista is getting a light signal it's not fair that they've been fighting over for many years I paid my taxes and I bought and I bought for you and we work

together as a team and and and I also sorry and we we get different programs like counseling for all children and we and again didn't have to bring all the community to support the Sierra school and I hope that you that you listen to to the her request. Thank you.

Irma Macias.

Good evening, Honorable Counsel. My name is Irma Macias, resident of Santa Ana for over 45 years.

I wasn't going to speak, but I think it's the perfect time. I have raised five sons with the Santa Ana Unified School District. I have been a previous member for the Citizen Barn Oversight Committee for Measure C, Measure G, and Measure Q with Santa Ana College. My involvement with the Santa Ana Unified School District has been for a long, long time. My youngest son is 28. He walked with his master's in geology last year. I have two sons that work for the electrical unions.

I have one that works for Ferrari and Maserari. I have another one that he works for, he's a supervisor with code enforcement in Costa Mesa. Graduated from Chapman, graduated from Fullerton. And what I can tell you in regards to the education for my sons is that I followed them all the way to the university. It is not easy for parents because they have to work, but at the end of the day, it's you that are the leader for your kids.

And at this moment, I support these parents for fighting for their education, but at the end of the day, they're going to be here just for a few days. I think walking to your kids all the way, junior high, high school, college, university, that's where they're supposed to be all this time. Right now, I am here in favor of Santa Ana Unified School District because of my experience as a parent. Looking forward to continue working with the district and in support of every single opportunity that I can put my hands on on behalf of our district.

I really emphasize with these parents right now, but the opportunity for these kids is amazing. It's don't limit the space where these kids can grow. They have 60,000 students, what they have in our district, probably more. So the schools, the opportunities are endless because they fight for every single one of them. and it is about the parents getting involved wherever they take their kids not only walking

right now that they are small but when these kids have the challenges you need to be there you need to support your kids they don't stop growing in intermediate you know high high school college, university, they're always going to be your kids. So you better be there. Not just right now. Thank you so very much for your time. Thank you Irma.

So with that, that is our last speaker and I will now bring it back to council for questions, discussion, consideration. I know the applicant is here. If we have questions will call upon you right now I would suggest just let us you know take it from here so I will now is that one more speaker tell me it's too late no it's okay go ahead all right this is our last speaker Margarita Gonzalez

Muy buenas tardes a los miembros del Concilio de la Ciudad.

Un segundito aquí el traductor porque se nos hace bolas. Is a translator coming down, please?

Every time he comes down, he's got a bigger smile, so he must enjoy this. Es su primera vez. Okay, adelante Margarita.

Muchas gracias. Thank you very much.

And, unfortunately, there is no control. This is, excuse me that I tell you this, but this is like cannabis. Once you find a hole, you put it and we're going to sell. So, this education is not to sell. The education is to help the students to be better every day. Now, the problem of the School of Charter is that it is not only for all the students, but they have a special control of students of education. especial. Yo soy una mamá de un hijo de educación especial y es lamentable de que no haya una aceptación para todos los estudiantes de Santana. Si bien la educación tiene que ser para todo mundo,

estamos segregando a los estudiantes de educación especial y ustedes deben de tomar en consideración eso. ¿Por qué es que controlan eso? ¿Por qué es que no quieren que esos estudiantes entren a estas escuelas y se les den los servicios como el Distrito Unificado de Santana se los proporciona? a all the students of this city? Why is it not doing that? Why is it that only limit the IEPs to only one or two? Why is it that they do that? Is it just for all the students that they have a decent school and that they all are valued in the same way? Is it not this is segregation? Is it not this is discrimination? Why is it that only

the students with better attitudes can enter into the schools? is that when they commit something wrong or when there are students that have problems psychological, they return to the district unified Santana because they can prove what necessary is that just? So, take into consideration what is happening with these schools, because we are not here to negotiate, we are here to provide the better education and the better apoyo para nuestros estudiantes. Muchísimas gracias por escucharme.

Hey, my name is Margarita. I am a parent of San Ana for over 30 years. And I am coming here to beg for your petition about this school. There's many, many schools that they're running out of control here's like if they're selling the education and the education is not to sell charter school charter schools there's a lot of programs that are not under control and they don't have enough services in those schools they only have like one or two IEPs and we need to create schools that are decent and it

seems that the it creates discriminations to better students because if a student is not doing well in this school if they if they don't make any progress then they go back there or they send back to the school district to to get those services and and it's not fair for the other students that they are not able to participate I have a student a son who is in special ed and not not all the students that are in special ed are able to go to this charter schools because they don't get enough services that the Santa Ana Unified School District provides.

And that's why I'm here to provide the better services for our children. Thank you. Thank you.

Magdalena Palomino.

Hello, everyone. My name is Magdalena Polamino. I wasn't going to speak, but I am here to represent SAUSD. Because I just want to say that I came from Mexico. And through all those times, from second grade to my senior year, there was a lot of support. From counselors, from everyone. My junior year, I got to meet the leaders from SAUSD. And let me tell you, those leaders do a lot of stuff for our children. I am a tutor at Mendez Fundamental.

And all those services that we provide to the students, like AVID, is amazing. A lot of the students do struggle. But guess what? The teachers there are amazing as well. All those teachers provide the support, the help. They're not counselors, but guess what? They do still provide the help. And I am there to support them as well.

I am at Santa Ana College right now. And with all the help and academics that I got from Santa Ana schools,

I am going to Cal State Long Beach. I am pursuing social work. and guess what I will be I will be back here at the community and serving my community of Santa Ana so SAUSD does provide a lot of support to our students and not only that but academic thank you

thank you I know I gave time earlier there folks Colin Fetch do you want to or Pam Zappero, do you guys want to present? Come on down if you do.

I'll go ahead and give you five minutes because I gave a president of school board, John Palacio, five minutes.

Thank you. We are, as you know, the applicants before you tonight, and thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to present our request to you this evening. With me tonight is the Vista Heritage team, including Dr. Don Wilson, the superintendent of Vista Charter Public Schools, and Dr. Colin Felch, the principal of Vista Heritage. We want to thank staff for their work on this project over the last year, and we concur with the information presented and the staff's recommendation.

Before you this evening is a land use decision to determine whether an educational use is a compatible use within this specific plan, SD82. As staff has indicated, there has been a school use on this site since Templo Calvario moved to the site in July 1985, almost 30 years ago. The current SD allows a school use as an ancillary use to the church. The church is in the process of selling the buildings that the school is located in, as well as the two adjacent buildings which the school proposes to occupy.

Currently the school is using the Sunday School facilities of Templo Calvario for some classrooms but will be consolidating all of the classrooms into the buildings they are purchasing. As a result the school use can no longer be considered ancillary which is why the zoning adminment has been submitted. Vista Heritage has been located on this site since 2015. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade with approximately 400 students. School use has operated safely and compatibly within this SD since 1985, originally run

by Templo Calvario. It then became the Edward B Cole Senior Academy, the Small Wonders Academy, and the Nova Academy.

Pam, you've got to make sure these guys get a chance to speak as well, right?

Yes, okay. So at that point I know that there were some issues raised regarding the safety and security and traffic. We wanted to address those, but I will take it over to Colin. It was our understanding that as presenters for this project that there was not a time limit.

Well, not necessarily. We can have questions. That's why I think Pam should keep it short. Just start speaking, please.

Good evening, council members. Good evening, Mayor Polito. I prepared remarks, but I want to start by talking about our education. I wasn't planning to talk about education because this is a land use issue, but I want to clear things up and share some data. So first, in terms of our scores, we have outscored Santa Ana Unified School District in the majority of areas. And if we're talking about our neighbors over at Spurgeon, we have doubled. And even in sixth grade, we have tripled or quadrupled their scores last year.

In addition, in our elementary school, which is brand new this first year, at the beginning of the school year we had 15% of our incoming students who were reading at grade level currently we have over 50% of our students reading at grade level that is almost a 40% growth

I also want to clear up some questions about how many students are actually in the school so Vista Condor Global Academy is our elementary school we have a hundred and thirty students in that school Vista Heritage Global Academy is our middle school grade six through eight and we have 270 students in that school so we currently have 400 students between kindergarten through eighth grade but I want to talk about land use and the three things that have become questions when my team has been doing outreach to local businesses the neighborhood association and the Planning Commission first with safety it

is and has always been our number one priority and safety will actually be greatly enhanced with our facility expansion as mentioned before our students are currently outside playing PE there before school after school and during lunch it is an open yet supervised play area that would all be moved inside to a new 10,000 square foot multi-purpose room and gymnasium we will have controlled access at the front doors to add an extra layer of security we will have 70 I repeat 70 high-definition security cameras inside and

outside of the school premises with live feeds to our admit our three administrative offices as mentioned before we have a safety committee that meets monthly and we welcome our neighbors we welcome the community to come to those safety committees and share their opinions and and share their

input as well thank you did Don want to speak go ahead I'm trying to cut down 10

minutes 10 minutes to 3 thank you for the time tonight it's a privilege to be here and I want to thank the city of Santa Ana for their stellar work and making sure that we went through everything and did everything in accordance with what was asked and that as you can see everything was done and we want to thank you and the city for doing helping us to be here tonight I tonight is ultimately a vote on land use we believe education is a separate use is compatible for the specific development 82 plan has been shown over the years and as you know where an educational use has been in operation on

this property for over 20 years land use is also the foundation for all community projects, businesses, and non-profits to come together to transform the lives of a community. And I'm going to skip the next three, four pages for you, because I want you to know that tonight we are here for your yes vote on land use. But as you know, I believe it's more than just a simple vote or a transaction. Land use, when properly applied, is about blessing a community with growth and opportunities for expanded and needed services in businesses, churches, and schools. Land use,

when properly applied is about changing the lives of the people who live and work and raise their families in a community. In short, when it's properly applied is a blessing to the men, women, and children who live next door to us. It's really about loving our neighbor as ourselves and taking care of even the least fortunate in our communities. And when speaking of a community never has the adage, it takes a village been more true. We are here tonight with a large group of supporters. Templo Calvario has walked hand in hand with us knowing that we serve the same neighborhood and that they're here tonight in numbers. Our

parents are passionate about their school and they've been part of the process since the beginning. Open Gate International, a branch of the Pujol Foundation, is in full support. Is that my red light? No. We have outreach to the surrounding community with parents and neighborhoods who have an overwhelming support from them. We've presented and engaged with the Artesia Pilar neighborhood association and we have their full support we importantly tonight we have the full support of the city planners and a unanimous vote of confidence by your own Planning Commission but you don't need to take my

word for it we have here tonight for you some binders with over almost 500 signatures of support from our parents surrounding property owners local businesses and the artesia Pilar neighborhood association all of them are in favor of this project should you have any questions about the project land use or design traffic we have our full team here tonight to present that to you thank you again for

this opportunity let us get into the questions and we'll probably call you back thank you

who wants to

does anybody need to go to the restroom let's take a real quick break yeah i see some kids with their hands up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, I'm going to ask this meeting to come back to order.

I don't know how many people went to the restroom, but a lot of people had a nice time.

It was a little bit like a recess in school.

All right, we're going to go ahead and start, and I'll call on Council Member Ceci Iglesias to begin the questions or thoughts.

Thank you, Mayor, for this opportunity to address the audience and my fellow San Antonio Fight School District Board Member Superintendent. Nice to see you guys all here. I just want to say thank you to staff for the information that you shared with us, being being very thorough and very

appropriately providing us the information that we have asked. And I just want to thank you for all the hard work because I know it's been an issue that has been forthcoming before the City Council for a while and I'm just very thankful for your diligence in putting this report together. As a former school board member, I would just like to clarify some things. I believe that every parent has the right to choose where they can send their child, regardless of the zip code that they live in. And I know that Vista Heritage provides those opportunities for parents,

for all parents of Santa Ana, not just parents in Santa Ana Unified School District, but also parents who attend Garden Grove Unified. Parents, they don't attend Garden Grove Unified, but parents who live within the Garden Grove Unified school district boundaries. And it's about giving that opportunity for parents to choose the best education environment. And for those parents that spoke today on behalf of VISTA, I want to thank you because you guys provide that voice for those of us that may be a little too shy. to share our appreciation of what schools like Vista have done for our community.

And yes, at first the petition was denied at the school district level, but it was denied based on just, unfortunately, many of the petitions that come before the school board, they're dead on arrival. They're always trying to just have any questions to not approve it. And I just think it's not a good service to our community and our constituents. And I know that our superintendent, she does the best that she can. But that's how they come before us.

So I just want to thank the staff at School District, too, for doing their due diligence and asking those questions. but the thing that we have to focus on is what is it that the parents want? What is it that the parents need? What is it that the students need? You know, not every student learns the same way. And I know that that is a model, too, that when I was on the school board, those are the decisions that we made. That's why we have a lot of different options for our kids. And one of the schools that are always high-performing and very in high demand in the school district are our fundamental schools.

Our fundamental schools are a great example of when things want to get done, they get done. And I'm very happy that we have those schools. My son was part of those fundamental schools. He went to, let me see, it's not John Muir, it's Thorpe Elementary and also MacArthur Intermediate School. And I'm very blessed to have had that opportunity. So with Vista, it's about providing these opportunities for parents. But like Dr. Wilson was saying, it's not about the curriculum, because we know we try to compare curriculum. You know, Vista, I want to thank you because you are providing a true service to our community.

Our community has benefited from your presence in our city. And there's a lot of testament. I know a lot of parents couldn't come today, the ones who attend Vista. But I heard from a lot of them. When I visited your schools, they're very thankful for that opportunity to have that school open at that site. So what I would like to say is that it's a land use issue, like Dr. Wilson was saying. And based on the experience of our staff and also the individuals who have studied this, there hasn't been an impact in that area. And I also drive through there.

I see it when school release and also during the time that school starts because I do also have family and friends who go there and sometimes I have to give them rides. And I don't see that impact on that side. And when you start talking about impact, too, we have to start seeing about our neighborhood schools. I live on Windsor Village Neighborhood Association. We have Jackson Elementary School in our neighborhood association. And we're impacted with cars every day. Every day. And that's one concern that our neighborhood association had. And that's a district school.

So traffic is going to be everywhere. And I just believe providing those measures to decrease the traffic impact that they may have for safety. I know that Vista does have a plan. And they've had a plan for a while. And so with me, I'm just very appreciative of the service that you're providing. And one thing that really resonated with me in the big binder that you gave us with all the signatures that are in support of your petition for us to approve the expansion of your school when it comes to the facilities

is the letter from the Neighborhood Association, from Articia Pilar, Articia Pilar Neighborhood Association. They sent this letter, and I'm going to read it. What it says is, Dear Santa Ana City Councilmen and Planning Commissioners, On behalf of the Articia Pilar Neighborhood Association, we have received briefings from the applicant for the conditional use permit and zoning amendment the proposed Vista Global Academy's campus expansions to be located at 2601, 2609, and 2617 West 5th Street, Santa Ana, California, 92703.

Vista Global Academy's campus expansion includes the addition of 27 classrooms, a cafeteria, multipurpose room, restrooms, office areas, and conference rooms. The applicant also provided information describing how the student pickup and drop off is to be conducted. And that ingress and egress will be restricted to West 5th Street. Based on the information provided, the association is supportive of the project. And it's signed by Ruby Gonzalez Wu. And this for me says a lot because one thing that we always say is when we bring a project into the city, or for us to always include the community.

And to have the support of a neighborhood association, it speaks volumes to me. because they're the ones that are going to be impacted by a new business being there, by a new school being there. And if they're okay with it, in my book, I'm also okay. So thank you, Mr. Mayor, for allowing me an opportunity to briefly share my statements, but I'm very happy that we were able to hear from them and also have the letter of support from Patricia Pilar.

Thank you. Additional comments?

Councillor Solorio? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just some questions for now, because I know there will be more dialogue. And I will need staff to help maybe several. I think there was at least one person that mentioned they didn't receive a notification. And they're within the 500 feet or so, including the school district. Eric maybe went to the schools or just if we can have somebody speak to what type of noticing was done.

Of course.

I believe the city manager is going to take the lean on questions, so please go ahead.

Of course, council member Solario. On March 21st, 2018, the applicant held a community meeting in accordance with the provisions of the city's sunshine ordinance at the Vista Heritage Charter School cafeteria. A total of 13 members of the community attended with talking about issues such as parking, traffic, the drop off and the pick up functions and project timing were all raised. The planning division staff also attended the meeting and the applicant provided a draft notice, affidavit, copy of the publication and meeting notes to the planning division staff in the days following the meeting.

A public notice was posted on the project site on February 1st, 2019. And notification by mail was mailed to all property owners and occupants within the 500 feet of the project on February 1st. And also the newspaper posting occurred on February 1st as well.

Okay, so it could be that maybe the schools got notified and the district office didn't. Because I would think that we send government agencies these notices, right? I just want to confirm for the record because it's come up.

This was in accordance with the Sunshine Ordinance, so it would have been following the provisions of the Sunshine Ordinance, which is a distance requirement.

Right, and I assume in the past we've notified other government agencies, so unless if the city attorney or somebody says otherwise, I'll assume that the city mailed them the notice.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I'm not aware of any requirements within our code that requires us to give particular notice to public agencies. I don't know if it's been a past practice, but here in complying with the Sunshine Ordinance, my understanding is that we did not mail specific notices to surrounding governmental entities.

So, but the schools, we didn't send something to the, like Spurgeon School?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We'd have to defer to staff.

They're within 500 feet.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We'd have to defer to staff, and if it was within 500 feet, then they would have received notice under our.

Is that correct? You're correct, council member Solario. The school that was within 500 feet did receive notice.

They were mailed? Yes. Okay. Whether they received it, read it, or did something with it, that's another question. But it seems that at least staff believe that they did send it. I've been to the property for a variety of different services, meetings, and tours of the schools, in particular Nova when it was inside fantastic school and appreciate what they do. What's unclear to me is part of what this does too is it gives this new charter school its own rights as opposed to having to fall under the rights of the church.

What's unclear to me is whether the church has agreed to not allow another school in the existing space where they were at or

Because I don't want it to be, well they already had 400, the church did, and this is now another several hundred, but they're still entitled to their original 400. Can, did staff confirm that the intent is to have no additional schools on the property site?

I will defer to Executive Director Mintai on that, but there is a maximum number of students built into the ordinance amendment.

City Manager, you're absolutely correct. The approval as outlined by this proposal caps the maximum number of students for this specific zone at 1,000 students, and that's based on the available open space that is being provided. So regardless of the number of school, the number of students is being capped at 1,000.

But my question though is, are we gonna see in the near future or another charter school or other technical school on that same property? And the reason why I ask, the header for the section that you're talking about, the operational standards, is very generic and it says school operational standards, so it's unclear to me whether that applies only to this school that's the applicant or whether it applies to the entirety of the property in that SD.

The SD does apply to the entirety of the property. What the approval is for is for the use of the school and the specific number of students. It doesn't limit necessarily the number of schools on site, but it does limit the number of students as well as the...

So are we aware whether Templo Calvario plans to bring in...

They're not, but they can also represent that. They're both here, the school and Templo Calvario.

So there are no plans for additional schools? Correct. By temple on site, okay. Do we have some more? Let's see. I do agree that it looks generally like parking wise that they're okay. But if they're larger events, could be graduations, could be large grand openings or whatnot, where would guests and parents, et cetera, for large events park? because that could be literally in the hundreds.

Great question. We did ask for them to provide us with the annual special events. Most of the events happens after the business hours, after 6, and also on Sundays. So in those cases, they would have access to all the parking spaces on site that's available to them. They're also coordinating with the church on the activities as well because they do use the church, so they have a very close relationship. In addition to that, they have access to additional parking that they privately lease off-site in the vicinity of the project for those special events. Okay so they have other

land lease? Yes. On that there's been questions about whether why there wasn't an EIR done can you can you summarize that again? Yes so CEQA applies and deal

with the physical changes of a project to the environment so in this case this particular project is really a change of land use there's no physical change in terms of the physical development of the project is existing so it's really consisting of tenant improvements the only possible change to the environment that could take place from our perspective is traffic whether or not there's traffic changes that creates an impact so in light of that we did have a traffic study produced and evaluated the impact and the traffic shows based on CEQA thresholds, based on local city thresholds, that the project does not create an impact.

So based on that, we use the exemption 15061B3

under CEQA where the project does not have an impact to the environment, it is exempt.

So where are we having them do traffic stations then?

So the traffic monitoring stations can be on site. It's located in the front.

I know what they are, but if there are zero traffic impacts, why do they need mitigation?

No, that is not a mitigation. It's an operational condition to help ensure that the pick up and drop off are monitored. It also addresses the Planning Commission's concern about not only traffic circulation, but also ensuring that students are supervised during the process of pickup and drop-off.

And what about the traffic light?

The traffic light is actually being, has been considered by the city as a separate project. It's not associated with this project per se. So the traffic light is fully funded, and it's coming in at the location of 5th and Sullivan. And that's about two to three years away. It also is right at the driveway for the center as well. So it helps with traffic flow. It helps with directing pedestrians.

So the city is fully funding that? I kind of got the sense that maybe it was partially funded by the applicant?

It's grant funded, and we do have our engineering staff here that can provide you.

But just not the applicant doesn't pay for any of it?

No, the applicant is not paying for that.

And then my final question before later on in terms of my overall feelings about this. I've been hearing different numbers on what the capacity is. The operational standards section, that's on page 75A-11. It says the maximum enrollment is 960, but your presentation and other items say 870, so it's maybe 960, a typo, and we could correct that to 870.

Actually, it's a cap that we're putting on the school. So the school is proposing.

But which cap is it then?

So it's the 960 cap because based on the zoning standard, it's up to 960. That is limited based on the amount of open space that they have on site, based on school requirements set by the state. So that cap was devised to help ensure that the number of students doesn't exceed a certain number. their enrollment right now and what they project is up to 870 but potentially yes they do have the capacity to go even to a thousand but we limited it at nine that was the third figure i heard a thousand right that says 960 we capped it at 960 uh based on uh you know it's an approximation of

the square footage but we confirm that it is 10,000 square feet folks we should not be doing

approximations of square footage. It's either 870, 960, or a thousand. I'm hearing maybe it's plus

minus off a thousand. Their current enrollment is projected to be 870. The approval is for 960. It's based on the amount of available square footage that they have on site. So it can not

ever be a thousand? It won't be a thousand. It's 960. Okay, so 960 is what you're suggesting. now. Okay, those are all my questions for now. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Additional questions? Anybody on the right or on the left?

David PenalozaItem —

Go ahead, Councilor.

David PenalozaItem —

There's no doubt in my mind that Vista Charter School is a great school and is educating our kids and putting out a great education. And I just don't like that this is like a what school system is better charter or Santa Unified School District it shouldn't be that I'm sure that both school systems are educating our kids just fine you know yes Nova Academy got a distinguished school award a couple of weeks ago but so did Saddleback High School two years ago which I graduated from and you know it's it's it's Santa Unified is putting out great students and is and offers a

David PenalozaItem —

lot. I could attest to that. You know I'm not you know here to pit the two institutions against each other. You know I have a niece at El Sol and I have a cousin at Nova Academy and I have relatives at the Santa Unified School District and both are great institutions. There's no doubt in my mind that Vista Charter School is a great school. This however, what isn't

David PenalozaItem —

it's not about which school is better or not, but the impact that I see from the size of the buildings and the amount of possible student enrollment. Currently, even on whatever this app is called, Google Earth, I counted 117 cars parked in the Pacific right-of-way. that Pacific right away is going to go away within the next year it's gonna be obsolete there's no parking is going to be allowed there I know that that's part of the temple Calvario's parking that they have going on but even over

David PenalozaItem —

the last two weeks the multiple times that I've been going through there I didn't see any empty stalls available throughout the day and I went at different times of the day because I wanted to make you know an educated decision on this and not just because of different influences or or which school is better and what you know that that's not you know why I'm here I'm not here to the the argue which school is better and which isn't so I just wanted a miss what do you prefer mrs. city manager madam city manager

Councilmember Pina loves that you can refer to me in any way you want to.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay.

David PenalozaItem —

No, that won't happen.

David PenalozaItem —

Madam City Manager, I know I had discussions with your staff, planning staff, a couple weeks ago, regards to parking and the traffic, because, you know, just comparing even the two schools, I know that Spurgeon and that other school that's on there, Romero Cruz, I think it is, they share 19 acres, and it's about the same amount of students that are possibly going to enroll at Vista Charger.

David PenalozaItem —

How can we be sure that this parking program that is in place or is talked about going to be, you know, how I've driven down Fairview. because my nieces live off of Fairview and 17th when I'm dropping them off and the traffic is just horrendous. And it's like that everywhere in the city. You know, it's not because of the industrial area or the school. But did we have a traffic study on Fairview and Fifth Street?

I'll have to defer to the Executive Director of Planning for the traffic study, but in regards to the parking, there are set standards for schools, and it's one and a half spaces per classroom and then extra spaces per square footage of office. So that was thoroughly analyzed. But I'll refer to Director Mintai on the traffic analysis that was done.

Yes, a traffic analysis was done. Over 11 intersection was completed and Fairview and Fifth was one of the intersection evaluated by the traffic study.

David PenalozaItem —

and what was because when I met with you you did say that there was a traffic impact

the project has different levels of impact based on our established threshold and actually I will have Zed come up to speak on what is considered a significant impact so the project shows that there is one intersection that went from a level E to F. However, because it is an unsignalized intersection, based on our established threshold, that is not considered an impact. So there isn't a project impact to the environment, but there's a change in the service level.

David PenalozaItem —

I think he said it all.

David PenalozaItem —

Well, can you define these different levels? because that kind of really wasn't clear.

So what we have is...

David PenalozaItem —

More for the public, not for me.

No, that's fine. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Zed Kekula with the city's traffic engineering. So we do have established thresholds that have to be met in order to be considered a significant impact for a traffic study. What Min was referring to is at a specific intersection, you're talking about Fairview and Fifth, our threshold is if it is an existing level of service, and level of service is our metric that we use to identify the amount of congestion out there basically. So if it's considered a D or better, A, B, C, D, it's okay, but if it goes below a D, which is now considered an impact, an acceptable service,

that would be considered an impact, but when you get a location that is already at a level of service that is below a threshold, in other words, unacceptable, if it goes further down, it has to go decrease further by one percent. Fairview did not have that. The intersection of Fairview and Fifth did not meet that criteria. Because it's

David PenalozaItem —

currently complete gridlock on going north on Fairview towards 17th Street so it probably can't have any more impact than already has? Is that the way it's...

So the intent of the threshold is we all recognize that the city is built out, has a lot of traffic. The intent to have a 1% increase that's allowable is because the fact of the matter is we can't allow the developer, schools, whoever happens to come in, the project applicants, we have to acknowledge, and it is a citywide, not a citywide, a countywide, statewide standard, that there is a certain amount of acceptable additional traffic that is allowed when a location is already congested, and that's a 1% threshold. The VISTA traffic study did not meet that criteria.

David PenalozaItem —

And where is the, so that answered that traffic question, but where is the piece of land that's leased for the supplemental parking? I'll defer that to you.

I'll let school, the school divulge all of the location, but we're aware within the study that there is right across the street from the school on the south side that they have a private agreement to use some of the parking spaces on the south side of Fifth directly in front of the school.

David PenalozaItem —

Can you specify where exactly? Or is it kind of school? Because I'm looking at, again, Google Earth and there's a charborger. There's the applicant here, they might know as well. There's an auto body paint. I don't see any open space where they could possibly park cars.

Let's defer to the applicant for that answer.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. And since you're up here, how many currently staff members do you have? on your roster?

Sure. So we have 19 teachers, we have three administrators, and approximately 35 staff members.

David PenalozaItem —

On top of the 20?

No, no, no. That's total.

David PenalozaItem —

Oh, total. 35 staff members. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Tai, your staff report said that there were only 20 staff members

David PenalozaItem —

under Vista Charter, and that's all it says. So I wanted Madam City Manager if you could just make some kind of correction, because the applicant's saying there's 35 staff members on site, and our staff report says 20. I know that a lot of them are probably driving to the school or to work. So if somebody could clarify the correct number, that'd be great. I'm guessing it's 35.

Yeah, I think the staff report was referring to teachers. Okay. Yeah.

David PenalozaItem —

But it would be important to state all staff, not just teachers.

So ultimately, in the final configuration, I believe the total number of staff on site between teachers and administrators is 67? Yeah. 67. So that's the full build-out of the school going up to 870 students. So we're evaluating the project based on the full capacity of the site. And even based on that, the site can provide all the parking spaces shown by the teachers. As you know, the students are K through eight, and while their parents can pick them up and drop them off, none of the students would require a parking space,

so therefore, that's why the code only requires 1.5 spaces per classroom. That is to allow for the teachers and any incidental trips that could be caused by the students. Other than that, the administrators are based on office square footage, which is one per 333 spaces. I'm sorry, one parking space for every 333 square feet. Thank you. And then you had a question about the parking lot. Yeah, please. Where is this? So it is on the southeast corner of 5th and Sullivan.

Southeast corner. Yes. Can you show us on that map?

David PenalozaItem —

it's it's a business correct yes it is and uh do do they they don't have employees that that drive

there how many parking stalls do you guys have there so i believe it is about 20 20 additional

David PenalozaItem —

parking spots that's uh that's an agreement that you have that's an agreement that we have with the business that owns that land. Yes. And they could mitigate their employee

parking and... They actually don't use that at all. The actual building is a warehouse and if you drive by you'll actually see chain-linked fence that's blocking it off and whenever we would need to use it we have the key to be

able to unlock that fence. Thank you. Thank you. Additional questions or

David PenalozaItem —

thoughts? Please go ahead. One question. What is the the plan for and I'm not looking at that for Templo Calvario when this the Pacific right-of-way closes and the streetcar comes in in about a year what what is the plan for those hundred plus cars where would they park anybody

hello pastor de leon again um basically we are actually facing that now uh it has happened we were told for many years it's coming and it has happened so we've been actually functioning i think it's been about four months now without it and uh it's like everything else we find a way so we are also working with that parking lot that you pointed to and we can attest that it is empty all the time that's why we all kind of pointed ourselves that direction we also had been asking to open up we've been in dialogue with the city manager's office to help us with some parking along the streets and some different

things like that conversations of street diets and other things have come up purely on the church's behalf long before Vista ever became part of the conversation. We knew this would be an opportunity to grow. How do you say that? Starbucks says that every problem is an opportunity to grow so that's where we see it. But we park, we find our spaces to park and when that right away went away we were instructed that it was happen and then a fence did go up so we haven't been using it and we have found other ways so that's what we're doing. Thanks

David PenalozaItem —

some of which we share.

David PenalozaItem —

Madam City Manager, are there any crosswalks on 5th Street to get to that parking lot? Because I know it's teachers and staff members that will technically be parking there.

Director Min, can you put the slide back up of the location?

It's on there. There's no direct crosswalk right now across the street, As we indicated, there will be a light signalized intersection coming in a couple years. However, the parking across the street is not for students. I believe your question is going back and forth.

David PenalozaItem —

Regardless of whether there are students or teachers, I would still expect safety. Correct. Any human being could get crushed by a car. Correct. But what I'm just asking is how long before that crosswalk would be built in. Because if this enrollment starts increasing, I don't expect this crosswalk to come in tomorrow or six months from now even. I would hope not because there's a lot of demand in our city for signals and crosswalk updates and left-turn signals that need to go into place. So I know there's a long wait list for this.

So to answer your question, just a little bit of background on the grant itself. It is an ATP grant that we received. We applied for it last summer. We got it earlier this year. And with a lot of the grants that we have to deal with, we have to go through Caltrans, other processes that actually are time-consuming. The construction of the signal should start in about two, two and a half years. But constructing the signal, it takes about six months to get the poles in. So the completion will be more like three years out. But it is fully funded, 100%. The city is not going to put in a diamond for that signal.

David PenalozaItem —

I think, go ahead, sir. Excuse me. Sorry, Mr. Man, I'm taking over your, sorry.

That's why we're here. Thank you so much. Just a couple of clarifications. A couple more issues that are going to mitigate this is that when the school is built out, our play area goes inside a very large gymnasium. That's going to open up an additional 30 parking spaces right behind the school. also the school is being rolled out very systematically with a certain amount of kids each year so that space across the street is really not a space that we anticipate having to use before the allied is in blessing for the rain but is allergies i'm sorry i'm losing my voice as

well but that so there's the additional 30 behind the school that will happen there is that if we need it in the overflow but again it's a mitigated growth over the next three to four years so by the time we even need to use that we suspect that it will be in. Did you say

David PenalozaItem —

you're gonna build a parking lot along with the gymnasium is that what I

know no currently our kids are playing outside and where they play there's an additional 30 spaces so once the school is is finished all of that play area becomes a large 16,000 square foot gymnasium and so they that PE will all be done inside. Once that's inside, those spaces become available. That's an additional 30 that we currently are not using. But if the lot's gonna become an

David PenalozaItem —

indoor gymnasium, how are those spaces available? No, no, no, no. In the plans

itself, if you see, I don't know if there's a, but if you look at the first, the P on the left-hand side, that's the gymnasium. And that's gonna, that's gonna

David PenalozaItem —

become the gymnasium that would be under your plan that's that's correct and so once that happens

those 30 spaces become available in the back as well

so that's an additional immediately additional 50 spaces you had the other 20 but there is that the the 30 right away and that's before growth thank you thank you

Thank you for those questions. Additional thoughts or questions? Councilor Miento or Mayor Pro Tem?

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So we have about 16 charter schools in the city of Santa Ana, approximately. I don't know if we need any more. So 13? 13? I was told 16. Okay, 13. Not sure if we need any more, but this school's already here. I like to look at things for what they are. The school's already here. They're asking to expand. They want to bring in the younger kids. And so in some of the schools, in Santa Ana Unified, by the way, my daughter goes to Santa Ana Unified her entire life, graduates at the end of this month, very proud to say.

And that is our choice in my family. for us. But as a parent I don't see myself you know who am I to tell people where your kid can go to school where they shouldn't go to school because every family is different. I respect that and as a council member I don't pick and choose which group I'm going to support. My job as a council member is to be here for everyone equally. Now this here the question before us is a land use question and if we vote to pass it or deny it Either way, it's going to affect what's going on with the school. So I have to weigh things out to see how it is.

And the way I look at it is that the school's already there, and they're trying to expand. And they're going to do it methodically and with a bunch of care and caution to make sure that it's done right. I just want to make sure that it's quality. I've been down there before. I'm very impressed with the children. I was there a couple years ago and had the pleasure of going there and meeting the kids and visiting with the principal. Went and did a little talk down there. But my question to the applicant is, do you have programs for special ed?

Because if you're going to do this, you've got to do it right.

I am so happy you asked that question because that slipped my mind when I was up here the first time. We are proud to have 42 special education students currently, and we do not deny anyone based on English learner status, special education students, nothing. So everyone is welcome. We are a public school, and so we do as such. I also want to mention that we recently were seen as a model school by the Orange County Department of Education for our special education program. We actually had a visitor from the Huntington Beach School District visit us to learn about our special education program.

So again, thank you very much for that question.

Thank you.

So I hope you maintain it because I know Santa Unified School District provides, you have to be up there with them. It's only fair to be able to offer education to everyone regardless of their story. And that's all I have to say, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Okay, Councilor Benchamiento, please.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. I told myself I was just going to listen tonight and be quiet because I have so much respect for the applicant's representative and I know that they're coming from a good place. I want to say thank you to all the speakers, both in support of VISTA and those that gave a counter position. I certainly respect all of you bringing your kids out, the parents being out here tonight. We know it's an important decision. And what I'm trying to do is make this decision by removing the ideology and philosophy and dealing with what's before us, which is a legitimate land use question.

I do this during the day in my day job, so it's interesting to hear because sometimes we become passionate about the, not sometimes the merits, But really what is going on, right? And so I think as was said before, you know, when somebody was talking about it, I think it was our superintendent of San Antonio Unified was saying that there's no hostility towards charter schools. I don't think there is. I think we have plenty of really excellent charter schools in the city. And I think they provide a valuable service. And just listening to you students tonight from VISTA and parents, it looks like you're proud of your school as well.

And there's value. where you go. So I certainly appreciate that and this is a good problem. That means that we have good schools not only in our public school system, which I'm a product of, but also in our charter schools and that's an important issue. But I guess what I'm trying to, what I struggle with as an attorney

is an environmental analysis and whether or not there's an exemption from CEQA is a very subjective test. It's very subjective, and I haven't been able to reconcile how this was exempt when we're doubling the size of the student body. And so that's my big obstacle here to being able to figure this out, because if we decide that it's acceptable to exempt this project from a CEQA analysis, how would we expect any other project to not be exempt either?

And I think, you know, a lot of us have spoken about, hey, we're familiar with the area, we've driven it, we visited it. Yeah, anecdotal evidence is fine. You can see something, you can drive by and take a look at it, and it looks fine. But there's a reason why there's technical experts out there to analyze traffic, parking, contamination, whether there's a healthy environment for kids to be in. And quite frankly, when I see schools, I like to see fields. I like to see green space. I like to see open space. I like to see baseball fields, basketball courts.

That's how we grew up. And that's how a healthy experience I think is supposed to be. Well-rounded where you're learning in academic classrooms, but at the same time you get some time to go out and get some fresh air. And I think if you're insulated all the time, that's just not the healthiest environment to learn in. So, you know, I guess my questions are, you know, even though there's a dispute or there's our staff that's telling us that a CEQA analysis or an environmental analysis wasn't necessary, why shouldn't we do one anyways if this is probably one of the most sensitive issues, right? These are kids. These are families.

And if the state says, you know, you can exempt it because we don't find that there's a sufficient impact, we should still do that as a local governance. That should just be a policy that we should look for, even if it's something that is a baseline standard. I know that our director, I think, said that we did a phase one analysis, which is a study of whether or not there are any contaminants in the ground.

Look, that's fine, but that's a very superficial analysis. A phase two dictates that you go deeper and find out what these kids are breeding. They're going to be running around. This is going to be their playground. This is what they're going to be breeding every day. And so if we don't know what's underneath, whether there's anything there, look, I don't know how we can say with sufficiency, hey, I've walked it and I didn't smell anything. that's fine, you know, but I think that's why there are experts, that's why there are requirements, and that's why I think we need to exhaust those.

Because if the applicant was coming before us or, you know, asking this question of, hey, we want to move from a legal nonconforming to a nonconforming status, and we want to stay at the same size that we are, I'd agree with you as well. I'd support it wholeheartedly. And just to let you know, there was an applicant that was a charter school that came before us about six months ago. And I forget the name of it, but it was on Grand Avenue near Santa Clara. And they were simply asking for there to be a reconfiguration of the number of grades that they were able to teach their students.

I think they went from K through 5 to K through 8 or something like that. I, you know, many colleagues and many others in the audience said don't support it, it's a charter school. I said they're an existing use. And the impact was net neutral. There wasn't any impact on traffic. There wasn't any impact on parking. And there wasn't any impact on the space that the kids had to share. So I supported it. And I supported it because, again, I am looking at this as a cold, hard, legitimate land use question.

And so on that basis, I just can't see that the intensification of doubling the number of students isn't going to cause an intensity in use. And again, we should be looking at not just whether the state requires it, whether the feds require it, but we should also be saying, look, we should hold ourselves to a different standard, a higher standard, because we do value the lives of students. And if you haven't seen the number of kids and families who've been involved in traffic accidents, pedestrians being struck in this city, the number is starved.

And so I know that Fairview and 5th are very, very high-intensity streets. They're major arterials. And what I don't know is if staffs even incorporated a project that we've already entitled that's going to be developed called the Tiny Tim Project. That's going to bring a whole other intensity to 5th Street. I don't know how many units that is, but it's just east of this site on 5th. So I don't know if that's been quantified into the analysis, but if it hasn't, it's certainly going to increase the intensity. So just some things to think about.

I said I'd be silent, trying to behave myself, but these are things that just jump at me from the page. So those are my thoughts.

Thank you. Additional thoughts? Councillor Solodio? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Before I had questions, now I have a few comments.

For me the big question is, are these too many students for inside one building is what it comes down to. And both as a policy maker as well as a father, it's not ideal. I know we've had other schools that have had zero or very limited open space or playground area and that's a challenge, especially when we're trying to encourage young people to move. I know that our own mayor, he had his boy at El Sol and his kids would say, well, where's the playground? And in part, I know that was a factor in the change in school.

So I do kind of wonder about what does it mean having no playground as a permanent location, no open space?

This is a very large school in an industrial zone and as policy makers and parents, generally the public doesn't do that anymore. It's place sensitive uses in industrial areas. Because yeah, right now the surrounding industrial uses may not be too bad, but by right, they can do a lot of other things. Or sometimes we don't find out until later that there are environmental impacts or chemicals. schools and some parents and kids are going to be walking to school and through those industrial areas. So it's not ideal.

The traffic, already up here, I've glanced a couple times at social media and everybody's going, what are they talking about? There's no traffic and why add more and everything else? I do think that we need a more in depth traffic analysis and maybe even a full EIR as Councilmember Sarmiento, I think is suggesting. Also, I'm still right now very unclear on is the maximum 870 or 960. I know it was clarified it's 960, but then others were saying 870. So I'm the type of person, if you've seen me do this before, if it's not clear, absolutely. I don't feel comfortable supporting that.

And then finally, the issue of neighborhood associations came up and And I received, and maybe some of my other colleagues received something similar, and I'll submit this into the record. But I think there's a little bit of a debate in the Artesia Pilar Neighborhood Association on whether they support this project or not. I got this just a few minutes ago from one of their board members, Luz Andaluz. Says, hi, Council Member Solorio, I want to clear the air. Our TCA Pilar Neighborhood Association did not receive all the information pertaining to the expansion of the Charter School Vista Heritage on Fifth Street.

We were only shown remodeling pictures and not given information about safety concerns being brought up, because she's watching this stuff tonight. Our board did not support the expansion of the charter school. So again, I'm not saying one side is correct or not. I'm glad I wasn't sent any other communication, but I just received that from a board member just a few minutes ago. And I'll share this with the clerk's office for the record. So for those reasons, I just am not supportive of this proposal. The existing number of students there, the school itself fine, but

doubling it to essentially 1,000, that's big. Many of you know, my kids go to school here, my wife teaches here, but I went to Wasco High School. Decent sized school for any town in any city, the population there was about 800. Here we're talking about fitting really the entirety of a full high school into one building. With no outdoor areas, no playgrounds, it's through high grades and it's just not ideal. I know some of the parents may be disappointed, but if your kids are there, they can continue to go. But for those reasons, I just don't think this is ideal. Thank you.

Thank you. I've got a couple of thoughts and questions, and then maybe we bring it back to Council additionally. First of all, on something Councilor Laodio mentioned, and that was El Sol. and back when that was starting about 20 years ago give or take I helped start that school and it was quite an experience you know you know parents painting and trying to figure out the food and the books and frankly we started in the early years just a little bit early a little bit too soon and and and

And that was the difficulty that I had, but continued working with that school, and now it's winning all sorts of national standards. And some of the early concepts that we had, such as allowing the kids to play chess on campus and challenging their creativity, it just became a wonderful mixture of ideas that that ultimately came to pass. And I think the important thing in many schools, especially charter schools, is what's their mission? What's their dream? What are they trying to

do that's different that they're going to offer to their students? And one thing I did learn was one size doesn't fit all. I had all my kids go K through 6 to the Unified school district over at Santiago Elementary on Baker Street and I'm telling you the traffic there was terrible it was terrible all the years that I went there and that's just reality you know I mean we we changed the hours as to when the kids arrive and when they leave and stagger things and you'll work with the crossing guards and everything else we did the best we could

and that's just something I think a community has to put up with it's it's just reality. It's just kids arriving all at pretty much the same time and it's going to cause traffic. But to me the question is what kind of education are they getting? And I think the Unified provides great education for a lot of kids. I've experienced with three of my own as well as the charter schools. And in my case you know my kids end up going to the high school of the arts and if you want to talk about a place where there's no playground you know they're all

inside of a building basically they're going up and down stairs that's their workout try climbing seven stairs up and down because they're not allowed to use the elevators because if they did they'd never get to school or to class so they go up and down up and down and you know they run around the parking lot the tennis team you know gets driven over to Santa High where they share the tennis courts and you know they do Taekwondo and other classes or whatever at the end of the day it's a great school with a huge waiting list and a great education and it's part of you know Santa Unified you know through the through the

charter that they have and and all the kids that they've educated over the years so when i look at this site and we start talking about you know fully irs and this and that i say well wait a minute you know when the unified is going to build something they're exempt from from these requirements and they should be because if they weren't they'd never built anything it's so hard to you know to build things um uh as it is and and you know i mean you know they have to parking ratios and of course they have to do phase one and phase two and all that, but

we can't step in and say we're going to put a new requirement on you. They're allowed by law as long as they comply with all the requirements to proceed. And I think they should because it is so difficult to educate so many children that we have here throughout

throughout the city. So I'm prepared to, you know, support this applicant and this application because I think they've already proven that they know how to educate the kids. They're doing a good job. And they want to grow within a site that our staff is saying can handle all this. Now we can always second guess staff and say, well, we think they did a good job. So we're going to agree with them. We're going to say, well, they did do a good job. So we're going to disagree. But at the end of the day, I think we have to have trust in the nature of the work that they're doing.

So I don't know if staff would like to make any closing comment or something to address some of the things that have come up. And if not, I'd like to bring it back and let's just see where the council lies. Madam City Manager.

Honorable Mayor, if I can say just a few words. You did allude to it, but your professional staff has conducted all the required analysis for this particular specific development amendment, and included they have thought long and hard about it. There's some operational standards that are built into this ordinance that address the parking, it addresses the safety, it addresses the traffic. It also requires periodic reviews of the school to check on those three components of it. And if there are any problems with it, it would be brought back to the Planning Commission.

So your professional staff has met all the requirements in conducting the review of this project. I will say with regards to Council Member Sarmiento, it is true that the CEQA use of the exemption on that CEQA, it could be argued, but that is why individuals are allowed to challenge. If you do approve the project, there could be a challenge to the exemption to the CEQA, and that's why that challenge is available to other people. So with that, the staff is recommending approval of this item. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, what's the pleasure of the council? Is there a motion?

I would make a motion to approve.

I will second. To approve staff recommendations, correct?

Staff recommendations, yes, for the expansion.

All right. Um, those... Roll call? Okay, let's do a roll call vote, please.

Council Member Sarmiento?

No.

Mayor Prochen-Villegas?

Yes.

Mayor Polito? Yes. Yes. Councilmember Iglesias? Yes. Councilmember Pinalosa?

No.

Councilmember Solorio?

Solorio, no.

So it's 3-3.

Motion fails. Failed.

Next item. Is she bringing it back? Next item. Next item, motion fails. If the applicant wanted to bring it back, how would they do so?

I don't believe we have any statute of limitations that requires them to wait any period of time so they could return.

All right. So with that, let's move on to the next item.

I would now bring our attention, Madam City Attorney, is there anything to report out of closed session?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor and Council Members, we were given... Speak up, Sonia. Mayor and Councilmembers, we were given direction on various matters this evening, but in the Mumford case, it was settled for $90,000 by a vote of 5 to 1. With Councilmember Iglesias voting no.

Got it. Thank you. So with that, let's go to the consent calendar.

Mayor, please.

Any items?

We do have a public speaker.

Speak up, please.

We do have a public speaker for a consent item. yes

Michelle Martinez I think she went home she went home she's getting smarter all right so with that we'll go on to the consent calendar any items I have council members want to pull yes go ahead councilor Soloria I'd like to pull I want to pull item 25B.

David PenalozaItem —

25B, any other item? Councilor Peñalosa? 12A and 19E and I also wanted to pull 25B. Got it.

Councilor Iglesias?

Okay, so it's going to be 25E, I don't know if you said 23A, 20A, 22A, and 12B.

Speak up, please.

And 12B.

all right any items on this side i hate to do this to you but i only have two so 25 c and d

is indeed why don't you just pull council member uh but you guys you got to join the party here

you want watch him move the balance i think there's two items left All right, he's moving the balance. Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those motion carries. Let's run the clock. Hopefully you won't need it, but I want to make sure we keep moving on these items.

Madam Clerk, first of all, maybe 28?

Oh, boy. Yeah, let's do it quickly. We're going to do an oath of office to the youth because they're not doing their homework, so get down here.

They got a civics lesson though, so they learned something. You're going to get a quiz in the morning. Keep walking around.

And just repeat everything that you're told.

I, Andres Medina, 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 bear truth, 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 discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Congratulations.

Good luck.

All right, now back to the consent calendar. I believe, was it 12A, the first item?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Very quick, it was the annexation of the 17th Street in Tustin. I just wanted to be clear that no other ward boundary was going to change besides just adding that corner. Madam City Manager, can you just confirm that?

Council Member Pinaloza, you're correct.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay, so nothing else is changing besides the perfect.

Can I have a motion? I'll move it. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The supposed motion carries. This is a great thing. It's adding a little bit of this island of the city, and it's going to be better for that whole area. All right, next item, Madam Clerk, 12B. Who had that one? Go ahead.

Just for clarification, Madam City Attorney, this resolution is to adopt a resolution of intent to vacate a portion of Main Place Drive. What exactly is that?

Council Member Inglacy, so around Main Place Mall, there is a street Main Place Drive. It circles the entire mall. And as you know, they are scheduled to do a complete renovation of that area. And so they want to abandon a portion of it. And so what we're vacating is a permanent easement. We don't own the street, but they no longer want to use it as a public street. So we're going to vacate the permanent easement, and then that will accommodate their planned development on that site.

Okay, but initially it belongs to them then?

They're the owners of the land. We just had an easement. Okay, thank you.

Can I have a motion?

Second.

Those who are fair, please say aye. Aye. Aye, this opposed motion carries. Next item, Madam Clerk.

19E.

Who had that?

David PenalozaItem —

That was me. Please go ahead. And I know that the city manager has sold this question to make any expenditures under $25,000, and I clicked on the staff report and I was looking through. I just had some questions over OCFA. We paid $25,000 to allow them to refuel, and can we clarify what that means? because I know we pay them throughout the year for their services, but I just wanted to see what that meant.

I will have to defer to your former interim city manager since this is day four for me and I did not approve that particular agreement. So, Director Mendoza, do you have an answer for that one?

David PenalozaItem —

And $10,000 for popcorn for inmates. I mean, I'm just... You got me there.

I would have to come back to the city council with the answer on that one. I don't recall that agreement.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay. If you can for the next meeting, that's fine.

We'll get that for you tomorrow. All right. A motion?

No, I have a question on that one.

Go ahead.

So on page, let me see, page five of the item, there is a, there's three actually. It says leisure class instructor.

What is that? Or who is that? who do they provide it to? And there's three of them so it's like $75,000.

There's a number of classes that we do and that people prepare and teach in our recreation courses and that's one of those. Lisa has a number of agreements with different people to provide recreational services and classes in our

various facilities. Okay so but how many students or how many individuals are we serving with the $25,000.

I can break that down and get that to you tomorrow if you like.

So popcorn, OCFA, and you got it. Thank you, sir.

All right, now to entertain a motion. Motion approved. Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, the motion carries. One, one. One, one. Okay. One opposed. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Twenty-eight.

Ceci, I think that was yours.

Okay, so this one is an approved appropriation adjustment of $12,920, an amendment to agreement with Straight Talk Clinic Inc. for rehab and repair of permanent housing for persons with HIV. What I want to know is what is the initial contract that we have with them?

Executive Director of Community Development Mendoza, can you answer that question?

Thank you very much. What we have is we have an excess of funds that we will lose if we don't get that money back out to the public. The money that we have from last year we need to appropriate into this year in order to dole it out. If we don't use it by August 31st, I believe, it will go back to its original source. So what we did was approach Straight Talk Clinic to use these monies. These monies are to be used anywhere in Orange County. It's not even being used in Santa Ana. It's being used at an Anaheim facility.

So what's the amount of the whole contract?

The amount of the contract that we are entering is for a total of $20,728, and those are from federal dollars, not general fund monies, of HOPWA program grant funds. So we're moving just over $12,000 of unused from last year into this year to get to that $20,000. Oh, okay. Okay.

You're welcome. Can I have a motion? So moved. I'll second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, much carries. Madam Clerk, next item.

22A, Iglesias.

Okay, so this one, I don't know if in the future, I'm so used to either the board, the clerk of the board, or if you can read what the title is, it'll help me better to keep in track. Which is award contracts in the amount of 325 for charter bus services. So this one is, who's going to use this charter bus service?

The charter bus services are for the recreation programs for youth field trips, as well as with the police department youth services.

Okay, so is there a specific, is this coming from a grant fund or is it general fund money?

Both. So there is $39,881 that are grant funded, and then there is $25,019 coming from the general fund.

And, okay, so you said you have Parks and Recreation, and who else uses it? The police department?

I believe it's for the Explorer program for the police department.

And that's not in their budget right now?

Is this in addition to?

One second.

This one doesn't involve an appropriation adjustment, so it's already existing in their budget for the current fiscal year.

So this is in addition to the money that they already have? Or help me understand.

So if they're not asking for an appropriation adjustment, it's within the funds they already have legally appropriated to them for this fiscal year.

Okay. So then, but it's $325,000. And you just kind of mentioned, I think it was like $25,000 and I don't know the other amount, I didn't get it, but it was less than $70,000.

Hang on one second, I might have been looking at the wrong page. So 22A.

No, I was. I apologize. I was looking at the wrong fiscal impact on the next staff report. If you look on page 2 and 3 of the staff report, it lists all of the various funding sources and account codes that total the $325,000. And it's a blend, once again, of grant funds and general funds.

Yeah, so then it's more than $25,000 of general fund then?

Yes, I apologize. I had flipped to the wrong staff report, the fiscal impact, when I was reading those other numbers for you.

And were they the only ones that bid for this contract?

No. So there were 250 vendors notified and 34 vendors downloaded the bid packet, and there was six bids received.

So for me, I would like to see how much the $325,000, how much is it going to be appropriated into the different departments? Is that something that you could give me?

Are you asking between the Parks and Rec and the Police Department what the split is?

I believe the bulk of it is the Parks and Rec Department, but I'll ask the police department if they know what portion of the $325,000 is for your PAL program.

It's $15,000 a year coming out of the police department budget, and that's money we already have appropriated.

But for this, so you've already appropriated $15,000 for this project? Correct.

Okay, a motion by Iglesias. Is there a second? Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The supposed motion carries. Next item, Madam Clerk.

23A, award construction contract to all American households.

That was Sassi, I believe.

Councilman Iglesias, 23A.

Okay.

Yeah, for this one, I had a question on the math of the, let me see, how, yeah, the total amount for the project cost. It states that the bid is for $739,596 for a service seal. And then on recommended action number two, it states that the project cost analysis for total estimated construction delivery cost of $911,000. And there's a contingency of $73,959.

So how did you come up with $911,000 from $739,596?

Okay, Councilmember Iglesias, the construction contract is 739,596. The contingency is 10% of that, which is 73,959. And those two added together are roughly 813,000. The difference between the total cost of 911 and that 813 is related to administration, inspection, and testing for the construction project. And if you want any more details on that, I would defer to Public Works Director Fuad Suiz.

Yeah, so who is doing the administration inspection and testing of the projects?

Fuad Suiz, Director of Public Works. Of course, this amount is allocated for our construction management staff who will be overseeing the project and doing construction management. Part of it also will be allocated for testing because once we hire a contractor, we have to make sure that all the work meets the specification for the project.

So then I guess the difference of $95,000 is for staff?

It's actually attached to the resolution. And 50,000 is allocated to testing. And 47,445 will be allocated for our staff to do construction management.

I think it's in the last page of the attachments.

Her question is, is all the cost associated with city employee staff? Are there any other consultants included in that amount?

I'm sorry, I missed that. No.

So the 93,000 is for staff?

I'm sorry, if I may clarify. The 94,000 is divided into two parts. 47,445 is allocated to our staff. The other $50,000 is allocated for a consultant that we have on contract to do testing. So we're not going to spend the $50,000. We're going to spend whatever is needed. But this is a budget allocated for testing.

And I get that, but I guess my confusion or what I don't understand is how we're doing a construction award contract and including city staff salary in the contract.

It's the entirety of the construction project. So you have the actual contractor that's going to be doing the street work, but then you have the oversight and the testing to ensure that they're meeting all the specifications on completing the project. So the total cost is the $911,000.

The contract is for only $739,596, which was the lowest bid amount we received. But we allocate in the budget 10% for contingency and another amount for staff for construction management and testing.

All right, do we have a motion? I just have a quick question, Mr. Mayor. Oh, go ahead. You know, and I know staff and Madam City Manager, you probably will know that this is a question I ask often when it comes to awarding contracts for slurry sealing or when you're emulsifying the asphalt or breaking it down. I hope you're going through the process of making sure that there aren't any design defects or faulty streets that have suffered cracking or some sort of defect in its first iteration. Because I know sometimes we've had, I think, and we use All-American, we also use RJ Noble, if I'm not mistaken, but others, that we contract.

But to the extent that that's done as a due diligence requirement before contracts are awarded, I hope that's a practice that we continue to employ. Absolutely, yes. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

All right. I believe we have a motion and a second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The opposed motion carries. You're against it? Yes. Okay. What's the next item?

45B pulled by Salorio and Council Member Pinalosa.

Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I am supportive of this item, and I thought about trying to do more through this action, but I think it requires more thought.

Given how understaffed our police department is and not having any park rangers, but yet still seeing a growing need for public safety and to address homeless efforts, particularly at parks, I need to think that we've got to do something. And the way to do it in a quick way to ramp up and to grow is by allowing our existing security firm to patrol and secure more of our fixed locations, more community centers, parks, Centennial, Santiago Creek.

There's some parts of our city, including some of my neighborhoods, But they're literally right now doing major collections on GoFundMe to hire private security to patrol the streets. I'm not sure how effective that would be, and it costs a lot of money. There's been efforts in the past, not successful, but there's growing anxiety over public safety issues, homelessness, as I've reported before, 911 priority calls or The response times have suffered because of the lack of staffing, so the community is hungry.

I don't see that this expansion should be forever, but definitely until we get our staffing levels up in the police department and until we reduce our 911 police response times. So via our budget committee, our edit committee, we'll be discussing this further. I just wanted to let all my colleagues know because I've heard other similar suggestions from colleagues or others as well as the need to figure out how to secure parks anyway. So I'm talking about a major expansion and this would be a perfect measure X thing because it addresses homeless services,

reducing 911's response times, youth investment, park safety, etc. So, I'm hoping that we could do a major ramp up of what we're currently doing and perhaps even this last month of the fiscal year. Thank you.

Council Member Panglilu, did you have a comment?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes, I did. A little on the same page as Council Member Solorio, a little different. I do agree that we need to up our efforts in public safety. We need to fill those vacancies. Chief, I know you're working really hard to do it, so I thank you for that. But I'm not comfortable with increasing the amount to this security company until a full complete audit and just overview of what the work that they've done is completed. Just because according to the staff report, one of the city locations currently covered by the agreement that exists is 625 South Cypress Avenue, which is the old fire station.

David PenalozaItem —

and the amount of emails I've seen and concerns about this fire station and broken windows and graffiti and loitering and breaking in. If there's a security company that's supposed to be watching this place, you know, why are all these things happening? We shouldn't have that. So if the security company needs more money for the Santa Ana Work Center, but the properties that are currently under the agreement aren't being secured or up to par with what they should be if we have security on site. I'm not comfortable with this.

David PenalozaItem —

So Madam City Manager, if you could have...

I'm sorry, Council Member Pina Loza. The 625 South Cypress, I believe it was originally included in this contract. This is a contract that was entered into back in 2017, but it is no longer the security services are provided at 625 Cypress. What they did instead is there's a different consultant that does alarm monitoring only at that site. So your concerns that you mentioned for that particular site wouldn't have been covered by the alarm monitoring company.

David PenalozaItem —

So why was this fire station removed from the, I mean it's a historical building. You would think that we would, and it's a really beautiful building, at least it used to be beautiful. Not so much anymore. It's a nice sort. why was it removed from this agreement if it was currently under I know you I know you're day four so I mean if you could find that answer if anybody that didn't give you that if I could ask any of the staff if you guys would know why no so um right so if if you could madam city manager find out for me why

this can we just continue that would that be a problem yes we could let's just

Continue the item?

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah.

Okay. Continue it, get you a better answer. Please. Okay, so we have motion, I'll second it. Those of you there, please say aye.

David PenalozaItem —

To continue the item for two weeks?

Yeah, we have a unanimous, so those present. Also, the clerk just informed me on 23A, Councilman Iglesias, if you can make the motion again, I believe. It wasn't clear when we were on it last time. Who else, who made the motion on 23A? It can be anybody. I just need it again. Okay, Solorio, seconded by Sarmiento. Is that okay, Vince? That's fine. Okay, those in favor, please say aye. Aye, those opposed, motion carries. Now you have the record. What's the next item?

25C, pulled by Council Member Solorio.

Wasn't it Sarmiento? That was actually me.

Oh, forgive me, forgive me, sir.

That was Sarmiento. We just looked like we were both on the, you know, now he's wearing glasses, so I think that's what's going on.

Point of clarification, just what 23A is, you put me as a no, right? Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Merritt. And so, you know, I'm supportive of the item. I simply wanted to state that I had a conversation with the applicant, and I know that the ENA is going to be extended until May of 2020 to be able to go ahead and work out some of the details. And one of the things I did want to remind him and remind our staff that I didn't see in the report as clearly as I'd like stated, I know that when, you know, this has been an RFP that's been circulated, been recirculated since 2014. 2014 so there's a very long tail on this. Too long. Right. And it is a public asset so what we had spoken about was

creating a community benefit to those in the area because it is a public asset that we're going to be negotiating with. And we talked about some conference space or event space and I know the applicant did say that he's supportive of that and so I just want to make sure that I know I know the design has gone through some edits and some revisions, so to the extent we make sure that that becomes part of that discussion point when we go through the extended DNA. I know he was agreeable when I spoke with him today, and that's under those conditions I'm going to be supportive. Can you make a motion please? I'll move that item.

I'll second it. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. Next item on 25D.

That's me again. And so I just wanted to say the reason why I said that is I was at Long Beach's event space area. And it wasn't very big, but it was very efficient. And they had a bunch of different conferences, many conferences going on. They had community events. And it was a space that I thought, you know, given that it's like an acre and a half there that we have, it would be a great place to have something like that. So in any event, moving along to 25D, I know that this is a pilot program. And we spoke about this, Madam City Manager, on your second day, I think, or your third day, so you were very well versed on it.

And my only comment is that assuming everything is successful with the pilot program and everything goes well, I'd like us to make this available to other venues that are similar to the one that we're granting that may be also, that may have public space before them, whether it's the Plaza Calle Cuatro, which this one is at. we have promenades in the downtown and throughout the city. Second Street. Yeah, and so this becomes something that's available to all and I know that we also, you know, you reminded me about

businesses that, you know, or venues in the downtown that are able to use the sidewalk apron so long as they're ADA compliant to go ahead and do outdoor seating. I don't know what that dimension is, but I know there's a lot of folks that, you know, could benefit from that. and we start becoming more of an indoor-outdoor downtown, which is always something that is attractive. So I'll move the item with those comments.

I'll second it. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye, those opposed. The motion carries. Next item, we're now going to go to the business calendar.

I thought it would be 25E.

Okay, go ahead, please.

So for 25E, my question is, what it reads is, It's approved amendment with PlaceWorks Inc to modify the scope term and increase compensation by 36,000 to provide an environmental assessment. Recreational value assessment and National Park Service documents for a land exchange related to Centennial Park.

What exactly are we doing with this item?

Basically, the National Park Service found that the educational use of Centennial Park didn't meet their standard for open space. So what the consultant is going to do is they're going to help us do a land exchange and an assessment because what we will need to do is add additional park space that equals both in value and in space to do a swap so that we're made whole and we still have the same number of or we're actually replacing the space that the educational efforts from the Rancho Santiago Community District is using in Centennial to another area in the city.

So who's paying for this? Is it us or is it Rancho Santiago Community College District?

The funding for the expense of that is coming from the Acquisition and Development Fund.

We are.

The part of the city, right? Right. Yes.

Okay. Has there been conversations with Rancho for them to pay for this type of cost? Because as I shared with you, we're leasing that land to them at a minimal price, which is I believe is like $36,000 a year. Why isn't that anything that comes from us trying to provide added space out in the city come from Rancho instead of the city, either general fund or whatever it is, the grants that we have?

Well, I do know that you have provided a lease to the community district to utilize that land for a period of time. I would have to defer to our director of parks as if there was any conversations with the community district based on the national parks services finding.

Councilmember Iglesias, the school district is paying for this. The $36,000. They've given us $300,000 to complete all the documentation with PlaceWorks that they're doing regarding the environmental assessment. So this was added because the 6th and Lacey and Rayton Myrtle sites have skate elements, and those need to be analyzed through the environmental review. So the amount of money is being reimbursed by the school district. I'm sorry, by the college district.

College district? Okay. Thank you.

I entertain a motion. I'll second it. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. When opposed, next item, I think now we're at 50A, I would entertain a motion on the item.

50A, I'll second it. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those in motion carries.

55A, I would entertain a motion. Move it.

Second.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those in motion carries. 55B, I would entertain a motion. So moved. I'll second it. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries.

55C, I would entertain a motion. So moved.

Second.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. 68, I would entertain a motion.

David PenalozaItem —

I have some comments, Mr. Mayor.

Please go ahead.

David PenalozaItem —

More of a question, Madam City Manager, if you could answer this. Just because I was reading again over the staff report and this whole, I feel like just our city just could give zero regard to parking and traffic across the board, and it's unfortunate. I see this here that according to the staff report, the recommended or required by the MIMU is two parking spots per unit.

David PenalozaItem —

And yeah, two spaces per unit is required by the MIMU. And the provided parking space for this development is one space per unit. and there's like four concessions that are being asked to waive and change. Have we had any discussions about increasing that parking capacity with the applicant?

I will bring Executive Director Mendoza up because I think he can speak to what we're required to accommodate in the form of variances under state code for affordable projects.

Thank you very much. um council member you'll see on page two of the staff report you'll see a number of concessions in regards to setbacks building parking driveway width and building massing those are all of the concessions that they're trying to seek through the density bonus program these were vetted by the planning commission and now they're moving forward to the city council and it's in exchange for the 552 units of affordable by Pacific Associates you'll see in the in the column three of the table on page two you'll see the sections of the government code that they're using in order to provide those concessions and

as you're aware yes parking we can't get consistent on our parking you're right and that's gonna have to come from a policy level above us that we have to one day put our foot in the sand and I think staff would agree with you but we're gonna have to do that one day but as of now this is the concession that the law allows there's two levels of concession state law and then our own

David PenalozaItem —

density bonus law thank you you're welcome and it's just I always have issues with these these laws and and and and plans that were adopted you know 30 years before I was born, back when the population was 70% less. No more than that. Yeah, very old, adopted in 1979, with I'm sure studies done then. No, that was 50 years ago. 40, 50, was it 50? 50 years ago.

David PenalozaItem —

And times have definitely changed, and our city has grown a lot in the last 50 years, a lot of developments. So, and California, just very, very dense. I think we're built up to capacity. So looking at things like this, when seeing the even state, if we were to build the two units per, I mean, two spaces per unit, we would possibly have to reduce the number of units or possibly add another parking level, which I'm fine with. You need to reduce your units, well, too bad.

David PenalozaItem —

We have a huge parking problem and traffic problem in the city, and it's not going to get any better if we keep doing things like this, building almost 600 units with one parking per unit. If they're affordable, I'm pretty sure that knowing how many residents in Santa Ana live, my people, we live plenty of families to a unit. and husband and wife both have a car and they're gonna they're gonna need you know multiple spaces to park I know we keep thinking about you know oh people

David PenalozaItem —

aren't gonna drive anymore there's uber and lyft and micro mobility that's 30 years away there's a lot of people that aren't gonna give up their car in the next five years you know myself included I ain't giving up my car and I don't I I have a problem with just the parking. So if we could discuss it with a-

Continue it long term, have a bigger discussion.

David PenalozaItem —

Continue it, see if the applicant is willing to accommodate to two parking spaces minimum per unit.

Well the applicant is still in the room. If you're interested in having that discussion right now, if you'd like to move this along. Sure. I don't want to interrupt the City Council.

Can we just bring it back to Council for now and if we have questions we can always ask the applicant. That'd probably be better. Certainly. Go ahead, Council Member Sarmiento. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I appreciate the Council Member's comments. And I also was going to comment on this item for reasons that involve parking and for other reasons as well.

It's 552 units, and if you look at the unit mix, and actually to the applicant, this is an improvement from what was brought before us earlier. And I know this came before us and it was a lot of one bedrooms. And I know you listen, so I really appreciate you listening to some of the public comments. And I believe I even sat down with Jamboree before they joined your team. And I said the unit mix needs to reflect what the demands and what the needs are of the city, which is more multiple units. You have one bedrooms, it's going to draw people from other cities, not really from ours.

I think as we stated, families in our city are fairly large. And so the problem that that creates is it does create a parking issue as well. And concessions for parking or reduced ratios usually happen around walkable areas or where there's transit-oriented development or where there's some other public transportation lines. And where this is, it really isn't a typical neighborhood. It's on the north side of the Five Freeway. It's by a bunch of other commercial buildings, not really the most residential friendly.

But that's where I'm just trying to figure out how we can address the parking issue. It's funny because one of the developments in town uses stacked parking. And I thought it was a pretty decent idea and effort to try to solve the problem where you have one space, you have the stacked parking, and you can fit at least two cars and it helps. it alleviates it. It doesn't solve the problem, but it alleviates it. But I guess what I also had a concern with, and I hope this isn't time sensitive.

If it is, then that's another issue that we need to deal with. But if it isn't, a two-bedroom unit at 60% AMI is $1,600 for a family, roughly, if my math is correct. That's pretty close to market rate, although the market's been going further and further up. But a three-bedroom is about $1,850. So, you know, to the extent that, and I know that the financing on this is kind of creative, where it'll be, you're kind of re-engineering the way we've funded these projects in the past. And again, I applaud you for that, because it's creative, right?

But to the extent we can get those levels, because I think you have some at 60% AMI, or excuse me, 50% AMI, which is for very low versus low. That, to me, is more commensurate, at the very least, to being a departure from what market rate is, which is truly what affordable housing is meant to accomplish. But to the extent we can see if we can sharpen the pencils, and if you've sharpened your pencils and you've used the erasers as much as you can, and they're all dull and they're all down, and there's nothing we can do.

I understand that as well. I appreciate that. Like I said, you've made a lot of progress from what this looked like in the first iteration. So I don't know, and maybe staff can tell us, is this a time-sensitive item?

I think staff would agree that the applicant is trying to get their financing locked in right now, and this is time-sensitive to theirs. Michael, is it days away, months away? Days. Okay, days away from what he needs. This is the last entitlement. It's been through the Planning Commission as the project. It's been through the City Council as the project before, so this is just the final density bonus agreement. That locks in those concessions. They're not locking in extra units like some projects do. This is just locking in those concessions.

But the ratio, I assume, on parking won't change.

It won't unless there's guidance from the City Council tonight to change that.

But if we change it up here, I don't think that physically it could be done on that site.

No, but they do have a parking management agreement on here, and you'll see, and it also includes opportunities for off-site in case they do have a problem.

David PenalozaItem —

Councilmember Penelope, and then I've got a comment. If I may. The parking management that these different developments always put into their agreement are great, but there's nobody on our side to follow through. Not that our staff isn't doing their job, it's that there really isn't staff to be out policing these parking managements. Over the last six months that I've been in communication with multiple developers of different projects, I've asked that question because I have friends that live at the mark, live at 1901, and I tell them, look, I go visit on a Wednesday, on a Sunday for football, and I can't park anywhere.

David PenalozaItem —

There's no parking whatsoever. You know, in 1901, and they look at me like, wow, no, 1901's over parked. What are you talking about? I'm like, oh, no, there's 12 stalls for guests, and that's about it for, you know, 400 plus units. And then you look at their garage, you could see it, and you just see empty stalls throughout. But it's because the parking management, they put it in the agreement, But afterwards, no one follows through and no one really supervises to make sure that this agreement is getting followed through. Which is what I've seen on multiple cases throughout our city.

David PenalozaItem —

So I would really like to see this parking spaces increase. Okay. If that means reducing the number of rooms.

Continue it for two weeks.

David PenalozaItem —

I mean, the applicant.

I know the applicant's going to want it yesterday. Right. I get that, but these decisions are forever. You make this, it's going to be forever. So if you're not certain it's your prerogative, even though, I mean, this is the last minute, but it's still the last minute.

David PenalozaItem —

But if we continue it for two weeks, what's going to happen in those two weeks? Are we going to come back with, go back to the drawing board and try to find the two parking spaces per unit, or?

maybe mr. Michael Massey good evening mr. mayor councilmember my name is Michael Massey I'm the chief development officer for Jamboree we're working in partnership with the Pacific companies on this development we've been working with them for a couple of years now as these developments have moved through the process there have been a number of conversations about the parking issues about the unit sizes, about the population that we're serving. We feel that we've, in good faith, had multiple conversations with various council members, some of your predecessors and some of your current colleagues,

as well as staff, regarding some of the issues that you're talking about. A couple of things that I think are important. One thing that's important is, as Council Member Sarmiento pointed out, This is a very innovative project in terms of its financial structure, and it involves the developers, us and our partners, taking considerable risk in order to produce a very significant number of affordable housing in the midst of what, as everyone in the room knows, is a very severe housing crisis throughout the state of California, throughout Orange County, and certainly in the city of Santa Ana. and it's been our desire

and one of the reasons Jamboree is partnering with the Pacific companies, Jamboree has a long and very successful partnership with the city of Santa Ana it's ongoing, it's growing as we continue to develop here in the city but we saw the plans for this development as really moving the needle with the sheer critical mass of units that we're producing that are direly needed in the community. That said, Jamboree, I think, if you speak to other people in the housing industry and other people that we've partnered with historically, has a long history of high-quality affordable housing.

Our projects are very, very well-regarded, well-maintained, and it's important to us that that reputation continues. We understand that there is a challenge with parking here. This is something that's within our legal right to request. it's not something that we've done thoughtlessly. We've put significant work into the parking management plan and certainly consider that as a starting point of a conversation if we do run into parking issues down the road once we're constructed. But Jamboree is, we're long-term owners, and like I said, we have an ongoing relationship with the city of Santa Ana.

It's important to us that we're responsive to the needs within the community and responsive to the needs of our residents. We're certainly aware of parking issues in certain parts of the city. We're currently rehabbing our Cornerstone development on Mini Street, and we are doing parking lifts there as part of the rehab, so we're certainly aware of that. That said, we believe that there's a significantly lower use and ownership of cars cars amongst affordable families. And we've found that again and again

in all of our developments throughout Orange County in Santa Ana.

I understand we're gonna disagree with that and my experience is we've been doing this for 30 years and we see this very, very consistently. That said, we have made

we have made agreements with the parking management plan to address any issues as they come up with a number of different measures to address that. In addition, as I said, this is an innovative and different financing structure, and we have continued to have a conversation with staff and with council and some of your colleagues in regards to financial support for this project. That's a conversation that we're trying to continue. Through that conversation, we can certainly address some of Council Member Sarmiento's

concerns about the set-asides and the incomes and the rent structure that we have for our residents. So if there is... If you could conclude... Certainly. If there is ongoing financial support, that's something we can address. We can also address in that looking at doing structured parking, so including parking lifts within our current structure. And I do wanna finish, make the point, and thank you, Mayor, for allowing me just to finish. This is a matter of very pressing time as we have gone through the process of developing these projects.

Our financial partners have been very patient as we've tried to reach agreements. We've started some level of construction, and in order for our financial partners to continue that, they need to see the progress of the density bonus agreement. So it's pressing and essential that we get it.

All right, thank you. Let me make comment, and then Councilor Solorio, and we'll continue, and then Iglesias. Look, I disagree that lower-income folks don't have cars. they might have cars that are more beaten up and maybe older models but they need to get around as much as anybody else and they do just look at many of the you know projects right now in the city many of them I believe are under parked now I also been following this project for some time I'll tell you that these are not new issues staff brought these things up from the very beginning repeatedly they just haven't gotten resolved and that's a different

issue, but right now is we're about to give the final approval, because where it is, they can go, they can get financing, they get the financing, they'll build it, and they'll build it in an under-parked condition. And then that's forever. You don't go tear them down and say, oh, we're going to knock out some units so we can add some parking. You don't do that. So I would prefer that we do this right, and if that means we have to go to a new cycle, I know that's really rough on a developer because you're all ready to finance and you've got the tax credits coming in and you've got all your money in order so you just want to push

the go button. But if we know and believe that this is going to be a problem, it's I think our job to stand up and say we can't in good conscience just allow it to go as is. So that would be my comment, Councilor Solodi, and then we'll go from there. I have a couple of

questions. The first could be the applicant or staff. Other than this city bonus agreement, does the applicant need any other entitlements or variances or anything?

Council Member Solorio, this locks in what you and I might call variances, those concessions. This locks in that. So you will not see them again unless they requested future funding.

I know, and there's sister projects on this, which is why it's hard to-It is. A little bit hard to follow to remember what's been approved or not. As Councilmember Pinalosa mentioned, we often have been in other

documents talking about even after something like this gets approved, that the traffic management plan is to be developed, considered, and approved later. is that requirement in here and that's a solid requirement that they understand?

It is in the density bonus agreement. It's in the last sentence of the indented paragraph that says they shall obtain approval of that.

Prior to issuance of certificate of occupancy, developers shall submit and obtain approval from the planning and building agency for the parking management plan. It doesn't say planning commission though.

So it's probably a staff review. And that's fine. I know for previous projects we've mentioned how important that document is and putting a lot of other protections in that. Like for example, I've mentioned that maybe if there is some unforeseen situation to the area and everybody doubles the number of cars that they have, that there be a provision for example saying that if you're maxed out and people are parking outside of the development, that they must space by space offer that offsite somewhere else. In a more formal way. Sometimes there'll be loose language on, they could do a shared parking agreement or this or other.

But we got to put teeth in them because that's been the issue in the past that symbolically we'll talk about it, but there aren't teeth. So, I mean, I am supportive of moving this item, but I think that's the weak link in some of these things. But because that's an approval that happens separate from this, maybe we do a council committee or something just to focus in and review and write and provide some oversight because we really never done that. And again, I think that sometimes with these newer agreements, there's the focus on that. But we've never even looked at one, let alone made sure that it solves our policy requirements.

because maybe at the beginning they don't need to share lifts or whatever, but if and when that happens, I want there to be some real oversight rule that we could provide. The other question I had was, I think it's been ambiguous on this item, whether these density bonuses that we're speaking about, whether they're actually required by state law if requested, or whether it's truly a discretionary action. I know oftentimes they're essentially requirements under law that cities must or have to adopt. So can you clarify whether any of these are actually discretionary or are they really all requirements under the law?

I can, but I will need Judson's assistance. Judson, if you wouldn't mind coming on up. The first concession listed is the minimum site acreage. I'm sorry, the permitted frontage, then the publicly open space, space, then the common space and building setbacks. Judson, can you respond to the question? Yes, thank you very much. Council Member Solorio, unfortunately I would have to defer to our city attorney on that specific question, whether or not it's discretionary.

Maybe we could find out, that's a key question. Because earlier on it was presented as allowed under state law to receive these density bonuses. It's another very different thing if cities and agencies are required to adopt these density bonuses if they meet the criteria.

They are required to offer concessions, whether they're required to offer everyone wholesale, I'm not sure. We'll wait for Sonya to come back if you don't mind. Or we can just take the city manager's suggestion of continuing it for two weeks and get those questions answered for you.

I'm hearing there's sensitivity issues and are city attorneys still in the building or no?

She is, she should be right back. As an alternative suggestion, if you wanted to, Council Member Solario, you could approve the agreement with a slight modification in section 4.19, which talks about the on-site parking management plan and add some stronger teeth in there as to the burden on the the project to actively monitor the parking demand at the site and continually monitor and take appropriate measures to manage it, including such things as the lift parking spots.

But I think that discussion is so critical and we've tried to have it before. We kind of really need to do that separately and be thoughtful about it. But my preference would be that we approve it and then just separately say we're going to review to see what that template plan is because we use that plan for a number of other items. City Attorney, the question is, because there's been some ambiguity on the language used. These density bonuses, are they required or are they truly discretionary?

Because I know oftentimes we essentially have to do it if they meet all the eligibility points on the right purpose.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes, so the way our density bonus laws are designed here in California is that you must offer some types of release, once you've actually provided for it in your ordinance, I don't want to say it becomes a matter of absolute right, but it becomes an option that you've thrown out there, your ordinance is out there, it says if you do this, then we will do that. You have a little bit of discretion how you design your own ordinance, but once you adopt the ordinance, you're restricted by the terms of that ordinance.

Right, so that's why I kind of feel that even postponing it doesn't necessarily change anything, Because what they're offering here through this product carries these bonus provisions as we designed them. And so after the fact, it's hard to change.

Thank you Mr. Mayor.

And I know this is a lot to put on your shoulders, Madam City Manager, because you're obviously very, very new to this. But I like the suggestion that you made because I think as the mayor has mentioned in the past when projects have come before us, there's been so much work done by staff on these and so much work done by the applicant that it's a shame that they've come this far. And this is one issue that would undermine the entire effort. They start a new cycle and maybe this goes away and we need this housing. I represent this district.

And if you look at First Street, it's been as bad as Harbor with street walkers and bad elements there. And I know the city attorney and I had a conversation about the old saddle back in on the north end of First. It's a horrible, horrible place. But what we've done, we've assembled 1901, we've assembled the Wormers Project, we've assembled AMCAL, We've assembled a lot of different pieces along that corridor, and it's becoming a neighborhood. You see families moving in. You see that bad element being pushed out. And we converted one of the motels for homeless veterans.

And it's an incredible transformation that's occurring there. And I think this is a piece of that puzzle along first. And I'd hate for us to lose this opportunity, and it becomes a market rate development, And then it's not affordable for any of our families, and we have people from other cities enjoying this. I really would like to keep it contained for Santa Ana families to the extent we can make these affordable. So I think we're close. I do like the idea of conditioning the approval if we can tonight so we don't interfere with the density bonus approval.

Let the developer go out and make his best efforts to finance this with that. And if they can't, then look, it doesn't go anywhere. But to the extent we can assist and we've identified this issue and we condition it so we get some relief at some point where we can work on that condition. I'm supportive and I think that, again, it needs some work as all of the projects that come before us do. None of us are happy with every project and they're not unanimous votes and everybody's cheering. it's always a struggle, but we try to get them to the end of the line.

And so this one has been before us, and it looks nothing like what it did when it first came before us. And that's what I can tell you. So I'd be supportive of that, of the recommendation that the city manager made on this one.

All right, well, we've gone back and forth, back and forth. I believe it's still under park but if you have comments please.

For me that's been the issue too with the new developments that have been coming before the City Council was that we don't have enough parking for each development that we have been brought before us. So I agree with Council Member Penalosa that we need to have two, with me it would be even three, because we do need, what happens is that with the families that only have two cars, that'll be ideal. But ideally here in Santa Ana, you'll have two, three, four cars.

And then if you have teenagers or you have older children, I mean, they're going to start driving. And even though we all want them to have some type of alternative transportation, we know it's not happening. Like Council Member Pineda said, I use my car everywhere I go because it's more convenient. I have a little small car, and it is an older model. It's a 2003, actually. It still works, so I take it around, and I'm not giving up my car because it's very inconvenient, especially with us the way we're always pressed for time. We've got to be here. We've got to be there.

So the way it's written, I just don't think, like you were saying, Mayor, it is under parked and I am not supportive of moving forward with another proposal of a housing project that has less than two cars per unit.

David PenalozaItem —

Really quick, and Mr. Applicant, forget your name, what was your name? Michael Massey. Michael, thank you for being here. I know that time is not on your side with this project. And, I mean, I don't know what to say. I hadn't seen this project. I hadn't heard of it. I hadn't until a week ago when the agenda was presented to me.

David PenalozaItem —

Just again a week ago I was at 1901 hanging out with my friends and I went across the street to that truck that parks there in Pepino Loco to get watermelon and stuff. And it's right up against this lot. And I even told my friend, I was like, I wonder what this lot's about. I'm going to ask staff about it. And then the agenda was presented to me and I saw that it was this project. and Councilwoman Iglesias and I have been in these seats for almost six months you know there was plenty of time to you know reach out and say hey you know what

David PenalozaItem —

we have this project coming before you eventually if you have issues with it you want it I haven't even seen what it looks like the the staff report which we got a fix by the way madam city manager the pictures in this staff reports are like grainy 1910 textbook pictures that's not your fault I don't I don't know how we could fix that, but, and I'm all for affordable housing. There's a lot of need in our city for housing, but it's just this parking I know will become a problem. And I can't support it with that parking design.

All right, so I think we've had a lot of discussion. Is there any, Mayor Pro Tem, have you spoken on this? Do you want to speak?

You're talking to the man who has a parking problem every day where I live. One spot from where I'm at, and no one visits me because there is no parking. So you used to have friends. Used to. I got to lock my car up over at the sheriff's department and then hike it back to my place so I can open up my spot so someone can come over and visit.

So, it's just, parking is an issue everywhere here. And like I've stated before, when I started two and a half years ago, I wish we could implement mandatory permit parking and get busy on that. But I need support. So that's my-

All right, well, for right now we need to do something.

Mr. Mayor, why don't we, to the extent that we are pressed for time, why don't we just move to continue it? hopefully the applicant can ask for additional time from his financing and investors, and let's see if something could become a mess. So I'll move on. 30-day continuance? Let's do two weeks.

Can we do two weeks?

I mean, two weeks in fact, but I'm going to change the parking plans. Well let's see.

If they don't, then we'll have the same discussion. If it doesn't change, we don't change. All right. So with that, those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, those opposed, motion carries. Next item.

I believe it is, Madam Clerk, what's the next item?

That would be item 65A, the Council Committees. And before you is a resolution to repeal resolution 2017-076, which restricted participation.

The Jose Solario resolution.

No, no, that's the one they did so you couldn't be on three committees.

They said I was 12. So now we'll let you be on three committees. So if you do decide to adopt the resolution, we would also need to appoint two committee members to the legislative.

I'd like to-

All right, we have motion to approve the repeal. Those in favor, please say aye. Second, please. Aye. I think Iglesias second. So that passes. Now we need two on the legislative, right? Who wants to be on legislative? I would. Alright, well we got two right here. Is that okay with the rest of the... I'll nominate

David PenalozaItem —

It could be three, right? Do you want to be on that Jose?

Can Jose be on that one? Can Jose be on every other

committee? Now I can. We just repealed it now you can be on every committee Jose. A lot of volunteering.

All right so look Councilor Iglesias wants to join public safety that's now cool. Solario wants to be on legislative ethics transparency communications along with Peña Loza and Iglesias and I think that is more or less it unless somebody Juan, you want to be on more committees? No, he's good, and Vince is good. All right, so that's the motion. Did you get that, Madam Clerk?

Yes, I did. And just to clarify, the Santa Ana Unified Council Committee is being, the frequency of meetings will be from monthly to bimonthly as well. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of that in your vote as well. That's correct.

All right, so let's take a motion and a second.

Motion approved.

We have a motion. We have two seconds. you pick. Madam Clerk, those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. 75A, we've already done. 80A. I'd entertain a motion. So moved. Is there a second? Councilor Iglesias, do you have questions? You good?

Yes, I have a quick question. This is a... I was joking. Keep going. And were you with County of Orange, right? If I'm reading it correctly. With Orange County Social Services Agency. And it says, so the county agrees to pay rent to the city, an amount not to exceed $189,788 for a term expiring June 30, 2023. So it's for four years. What's the monthly, I guess, rent that they're going to be paying us?

You're looking at ADA, correct? So it's a number of partner organizations. Is that the item that you're looking at, Council Member Blasey?

I was reading, I think it was number three, recommended action.

Number three.

Okay.

It's a multiply. That one.

So it's for a multi-year agreement. So this is for all of our partners that are co-located at the work center. And so the county of Orange Social Services Agency is just one of those partners. And in total, that's the amount that they would be paying for the term expiring on 2023. If you look on page three of the staff report, it will show you what their year one contribution is and all the other partner organizations and how their share is split up. Each partner organization is paid based on the square footage that they're taking up in the workforce center. Or work center, I'm sorry.

Okay, so then if I'm looking at page 3, it says the year 1 contribution is $35,747.

And then you said it was a four-year term. Then how do we come up with $189?

So it is a term agreement through 2023. 3.

Oh, it's a not to exceed for a term expiring.

So I'm not sure if it's let's see. Executive Director Mendoza, do you know if the not to exceed is just written in in case the partners change out over the

term? It is and they haven't moved and we haven't started charging them yet.

Okay. What was that?

We haven't started charging them yet. We can't charge them until we get the agreement signed.

So then how do you come up to the term of not to exceed $189,000, but then you're putting over here $35,000?

We know what our lease is for the building. We know what our square footage is, and we know what our partners have agreed to sublease those square footages are. That's where the calculations come from. And we have nickel and dimed them down to the T. If they want a chair, they're going to pay for it.

makes sense Mr. Mendoza can you explain another way sure let me let me give a

shot Deborah would you mind coming up and so the the 189 788 is is for four years but it's not it's for five it's for we have the building for how many years we have the building for five years we're down to four years in a couple months the lease will be done. Social services hasn't moved in yet but

they... Can you speak into the mic for folks at home? Social services hasn't

moved in yet so their lease will be for four years and it's not to exceed just in case they take on additional space so they don't have to go back to the Board of Supervisors for approval.

So then the amount that you guys have here for year one contribution

$657,000? That's the operational cost to run the work center, yes.

Okay. And then on, I guess, action item one, it says that the partners, their reimbursement is an estimated amount of $1,280,530?

Yes, that's the total cost for five years. The table is for one year, and the total maximum is for the number of years. Okay. You see, because you're doing

number in years and right here just as beginning May 7th 2019 to June 30th 2022 that's three years

right the the state law requires us to have an MOU for three years but we have a five-year master sublease so the state and the county wanted to do a sublease for the full year of the master lease that the city holds but the MOUs for three years and so we'll come back to Council after year three to renew this. Okay do we have a motion? Motion approved.

I'll second it. Those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye those opposed motion Motion carries. Next item, Madam City Clerk.

Item 85A.

Councillor Peña-Losa or Iglesias.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 85A is to discuss and consider directing our city manager to work with staff to provide options regarding the city's efforts to address the harbor and hazard neighborhood concerns. the reason why I wanted to put this on the agenda is because we had a one of the community meetings that we had last July in 2018 you know I was present at the meeting as a resident and and candidate I guess not officially at the time but but I was out there and it was you know just troubling to listen to what was going on then as time went on the months you know while putting up

David PenalozaItem —

campaign signs at midnight so no one could see me I would drive through that area and I was just you know mortified at the amount of activity that I saw happening in that in that neighborhood I know that we worked with those businesses on Harbour and Hazard to to do things in their shopping center to help fix the problem or alleviate it putting up security cameras bright lighting I think there was a security guard as well having the the 7-eleven stop selling condoms as it turns out a 7-eleven is still selling condoms they've

David PenalozaItem —

done other things I can sell the lighting and and surveillance and added the gate so there's been an effort made by the by the businesses in that shopping center and i thank him for that uh just uh i wanted our new city manager to go with us to that meeting last week uh to listen for herself but you know it was last minute so she couldn't make it but on friday i uh we met up around midnight and uh i took i was like come on you're coming with me and we're gonna drive uh this area and we went with one of the vice commanders uh

David PenalozaItem —

Viramontes, were in the back seat. We drove through and she was just as mortified to see the amount of activity that was going on. I, you know, it's very, it's hard to listen to these residents there, you know, and I would, and I understand them completely. and you just to give an update on what happened Friday there was a underage girl that was a rescued rested rescued and she was cooperative in arresting her pimp and she was a human trafficking victim I'm not saying that all of them are there are some but there are some that just that's their

David PenalozaItem —

the life that they've been living in and it's gone for decades I don't have a solution for the problem but I wanted to put this on the agenda because these meetings aren't formal. There's no, there's just kind of conversation, but there's no direction given. I feel, I know our police officers are doing a good job at times. Well, you know, there is only so much they can do with the limited resources.

David PenalozaItem —

So I just wanted to put this on the agenda to see, to have that discussion and make it a formal meeting and give direction of different ways that we can fix this problem and make it go away for good. I was very impressed with our new city manager. I walked in the next day after Monday, and she already had sketches drawn out and ways that she thinks that could help reduce the problem. And so I'm happy that she's on board and she's going to help us. so that's going to be your goal the next three years is to make that go away completely? Do you promise me, Ms. Ridge? I'm kidding.

David PenalozaItem —

But that's where I wanted to bring it and see what we could discuss.

Let's hear from Iglesias and I've got some ideas, please.

So I just want to thank staff for helping me put that meeting together. I know it was a follow-up meeting from last year from July, and it's something that every resident that spoke there, it's been an ongoing issue for years. And one thing that I know for sure is, you know, like Mayor Pro Tem Villegas and myself, we represent that area. And one thing that I've always seen is that, me personally, is the west end of Santa Ana is always the neglected side of the city. And things happen there because we allow it to happen.

I know that where there's a will, there's a way. And what we need to do is come together as elected leaders and also as city staff for us to really put a priority of making that problem go away. I used to work for the county of Orange before as a social worker, so I understand the challenges that we have. But I just feel it's an opportunity for us to reach out to the ladies and to the women that are in that situation, but also for us to be, have a, I would say, a strong presence in that area. We don't right now. We don't have a strong

presence whatsoever. And I do see like what Council Member Penaloso was saying, you drive by there at night, after 8 o'clock, the sun's down, you start seeing ladies who are pretty much they're exposing themselves. Some are in thongs and bras. And one comment that I received from police officers, we really can't tell them how to dress, but you know what? There's families there. I think there should be a code of conduct. Because I think we allow it here in Santa Ana. That's why it's gotten this bad. I don't see this issue.

I mean, like out in the open, people parading on the streets, like in Newport Beach. I don't see it in Balboa. I don't see it in Irvine. Why? Because the police really enforces their laws. They don't move along, move along, move along. So they have priorities because the quality of life of the individuals are being affected. And I believe in Santa Ana, we just take things for granted. You know, it's just the Latino community. Oh, it's this community that really they don't say anything. I think it's something that it's been there forever and there's always a reason why we can't really address the issue.

So I'm very proud of the staff that went with us and took notes. I know that we received as council members, we received the minutes from Nicole and the things that we have to follow up on. And one thing, I want these meetings to be ongoing. I don't want to wait another year for us to have these meetings again. So if we could have these, I would say even monthly meetings, have staff report at the neighborhood association meetings, what's going on, the neighborhood association that's mostly affected. You have Santanita, you have Riverside, Riverview West, neighborhood association.

We should be going out to them every month and letting them know what the state of harbor and hazard is. Because, I mean, that is why we're here. We're here to serve them. And they have answers and we should have solutions for them. No more excuses. So I'm hoping that staff should be made available once a month to go to these neighborhood associations that are mostly impacted by this issue. And I think as a whole, we should have a collective quarterly meeting so we can say where we're at as a city with how we're addressing the issue. And then another thing I would say is, yeah, we have lighting and I want to thank staff.

We know that provided the updates on the lighting that we have there, but I believe we need more lighting and we also need more police presence there. And I know right now we're understaffed with police, but I know there's ways that we can make it a priority. So for me, my ask, Madam City Attorney and City Manager, and by the way, I'm glad that you guys are here because there's three of us now. So, I'm not doing it. So- Wait a minute.

Yeah, she counts.

Yeah, no, I know, but Norma does too. But when I'm looking over there, and Mr. Mendoza, yes, thank you for serving the time that you did. But what I would want is for us to make it a priority for us to address those issues. And when we get comments from that community over there on Hazard and Harbor, that we don't take it lightly, that we take it like it's something that it's pressing. and we need to really address those community members. And I know we have some here that...

Yeah, let me call on them if I may. Laura Perez followed by Chris Schmidt.

Good evening, City Council, newly appointed City Manager, and residents of Santa Ana. I am here this evening once again to bring to light the ever-growing issues around the lucrative business that the City of Santa Ana has been ignoring for decades. Prostitution. Last summer, I spoke to four of the sitting council members here tonight regarding the dire need for a solution to keep our children and neighbors safe. As a result, a few weeks later, a community meeting was held with several key departments and three of the assigned council members to the area. City officials, along with the police department,

provided possible solutions to the issues at hand. Streetlights were installed in some areas, the majority earlier this year, and police presence was seen for a few weeks. After two months, patrolling in the area subsided, and an email was sent to Mr. Villegas' assistant regarding this matter. In that same email, I requested the follow-up meeting, which we were promised earlier last summer, that never occurred. Fast forward to last Tuesday. we finally got a meeting pioneered by Councilwoman Cecilia Iglesias. I wanted to thank her personally tonight because she was never a part of the sitting board last year,

nor does she currently represent the wards where we are seeing human feces on private properties left behind by these sex workers, used condoms on our streets and sidewalks, and criminal activities occurring on a nightly basis. In this meeting, Deputy Chief Gaminski mentioned that the city issued a nuisance abatement notice to the owner of the commercial business located at the northwest corner of the 900 North Block of Harper Boulevard to help with the impact of solicitation for sex that occurs on that property every night. The owner agreed to pay a $5,000 settlement that I believe should be used to assist

the neighboring streets where Johns are parading nonstop. In addition, security guards would be supplied for that center, something that the owner is out of compliance with. It was also presented that the 7-Eleven had stopped selling condoms, something that the franchise manager has denied agreeing to with the city. Immediate relief that I believe would benefit our community includes speed bumps, traffic diverters, and more frequent police presence between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It's a shame that this illegal activity has become the norm for all of us,

especially when everyone is aware of the issue, yet no one has stepped up to the plate to eliminate the issue. City Manager, please make this issue a priority and help us make an impact that can benefit all of us by creating a safer and cleaner city. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris Schmidt.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council Members. Can you bring that other mic down? Can you just reach over it? Thank you. Just like to thank Council Members Solorio, Penaloza, Iglesias, and Villegas for attending the meeting last week. I think this has been like the fourth or fifth community meeting we've had regarding the harbor and hazard issue in the last three years. And I was hoping by now, you know, I understand our city has a lot of challenges and opportunities and we're short staffed, but this would become a priority for our city. I respect everything that Public Works has done, trimming the trees, installing the new lights.

I respect everything the police department has done, going out and trying to enforce it. I understand it's very difficult now with things are now misdemeanors, but during the presentation we were told that we did about 2,900 hours of overtime to enforce things on harbor and hazard. Why are we doing on an overtime? Don't we have a vice department? So afterwards, I actually looked up the budget for this year, and in the vice department, and I verified this with the finance department, we have one position in vice, and it's for a senior clerical aide. So how are we making this a priority with one senior clerical aide?

Why don't we have a vice department that's there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday enforcing it? How many times do the neighborhoods have to ask you, please come out here and do something?

We keep hearing about these written settlements, and I know of two that we've done with, but I don't think they're being enforced. There's another one in another part of the city with the hotel where the fence is constantly open that they installed. Who's going out on Saturday night? Thank you very much for going out. Did you see a security guard when you were out?

David PenalozaItem —

I did but he was I didn't want to really he was an older man who's on his phone looking down by the Taqueria there were three girls right 10 feet from him so to me and I pointed that out to this to and commander Vida Mongez was there. So my question is is who

makes sure that these settlement agreements are being enforced to what they've agreed to it's very difficult for us again I appreciate you City Manager Ridge for going out I saw you this last weekend out in Santiago I appreciate everything you're doing. But again, if we're making this a priority, we need to have a vice department. We need to have somebody constantly going out there. So everybody, thank you very much. Have a nice evening.

Thank you. So, Madam City Manager, would you want to address this?

Certainly. I'm not sure what this speaker was looking at, but we do have a vice department that is staffed with more than just one individual in it. So I'm not sure what you were actually.

We have a sergeant and three officers. I think you might just be looking on one particular section.

One of the things that I would like to do is after, and it was quite an experience writing Alana and looking at that, and my heart breaks for that neighborhood to see what they're putting up with. But I think we can form it. But I know everybody goes to the police to solve all the problems initially, and there's other ways to address this issue. So my suggestion would be, and I certainly will move forward with it, is forming a cross-departmental team that includes traffic engineering, code enforcement, and the police department.

Because the one thing that I did see when I was out touring with Council Member Pina Loza is the vehicles are circling and circling and circling. And L.A. addressed this problem back in 2012 on Western Avenue by doing, you know, banning right turns from midnight to 7 a.m. And it was something that stopped the flow through of the traffic that we're just looking to turn down dark neighborhood streets. So there's other things that we can look at from a design perspective, aside from just law enforcement, law enforcement. So law enforcement does a great job, but they're not always the answer for everything.

So that's what I would suggest, and I can move forward with that if that's what this council desires.

Go ahead. And I think we brought this up in another... Oh, I'm so sorry. Go ahead.

Go ahead. Mayor Pro Tem.

I'm going to make the reference to the city manager.

Well, they're ready to yield, and then Solari afterwards.

Very good. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. The city manager and I spoke about this just the other day. We were talking about possibly creating a task force for Harbor to tackle this, and the task force would consist of all the departments that would pertain to try to help solve this problem. I don't think it's ever going to be solved. You've got to continuously address it because it's something that happens all the time. You get people that do that line of work, and they come from out of town. They come from out of state.

up harbor, if you go all the way up north into Anaheim, I hate to say this, but a high tourism rate. And knowing this business, being in law enforcement and knowing how this stuff operates, these people that come in here expect to be serviced. And they go looking for this thing. So you've got people coming in from out of town, staying at the hotels, catching a taxi, getting a car, getting an Uber, whatever, coming down here looking for this stuff. And it's terrible. So something that we have to continuously be addressing all the time. So the city manager and I spoke about this.

For the next meeting, and I believe this should be a part two, a follow up meeting after this. That we should have an update on the plaza with what's going on with the 7-Eleven store, security lights, everything that's happening right there at Harbor and Hazard, which seems to be one of the main points. This problem of the prostitution runs up and down the street, the boulevard. So there was that, and that's just one of the things that I believe that we should have at a follow-up meeting. What are we going to do about it?

Some plans and some options, and I want to thank Councilmember Penalosa and Iglesias for bringing this item forward. And Councilmember Solorio and I, we started this thing a while back. Yeah, we didn't follow up. It was a lot of things going on. The reality also, and this is not an excuse, but the reality is we only have so many employees. We only have so many employees. Our police department is operating at half. I'm going to continue to say that again because it's the truth. And the police officers, you know, our city has a problem with the homeless. We have a problem with crime.

We have special events that we have to hand the officers to. And we also have significant events. So sometimes there's a really bad thing that might happen, and you have to send a lot of officers and they're going to pull people away. So that's the reality of this. But do we want to have somebody dedicated to this? I remember speaking to Carlos Rojas when I got here about this and got a commitment and it was on the news and everything. But then again, you take your eye off the ball and it goes right back. So this is something that we have to continuously, and this council has to come together,

to push forward and make sure that this is a priority. But this problem isn't just there. There's also other issues similar on the other side of town. So if we can get an update on that, I appreciate it, and those are my comments.

All right, Solario, I think, and then we'll come down.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So several council members share Harbor. I actually have from Hazard to 17th Street. So even the main area of activity, that 7-Eleven lot, that's in my area, and that's why Council Member Villegas and And I spend a lot of time on this over the last couple years. And we did have that first big meeting some months ago. And I wouldn't say we didn't follow up. I think we gave direction to do things. So we did do additional lighting, signage, the settlement thing. We also initiated the legal issue against the plot owner, because we saw that works somewhere else.

We dedicated 2,500 plus vice hours that we haven't done that kind of investment in other parts of the city. So I don't want us to undervalue what we've done. Obviously it's not enough. I've mentioned to some of my colleagues and staff and the chief that for some of these things we really need much more staffing. When Councilman Rodriguez and I started, there was zero vice unit, nothing. And I think when we raised that issue, the short-term compromise was we have a medical marijuana task force with officers that has about those three officers. And we're going to add maybe one more.

And we said it's now the vice and medical marijuana task force. And so it's three or four, but nowhere is that enough citywide. My thoughts are we did get good notes in terms of the suggestions that were discussed at that meeting, that we should do some research and see what we might want to try to do or not. We're starting to work on our next year's budget and the use of Measure X dollars. We should see what we might be able to fund next year. Staffing up PD, that's still low, until we do that, it's going to be hard.

And in addition to just doing the traditional police officer, and I mentioned this to the chief very recently, we could hire from the PD more PSO officers, more folks to do community oriented policing. There's a lot of additional personnel that we could hire with existing resources to visit and follow up to see are they still selling condoms, to drive up and down the street, to work on signage, to be part of a task force. I like the idea of our own task force, but I also thought it might be interesting with our relationships to ask some of these other broader human trafficking task forces

for them to help us and put some resources here, because we often time help other task force. Why can't we say let's do a big effort here? For example, when I was in the state assembly we did a big anti-gang thing. We even had CHP officers and folks from various state agencies. And sometimes you got to say, hey folks, this is all hands on deck. We got to do that. And then as we look at all these solutions that should be interdepartmental, we have vice issues in other parts of town as well. I know Councilmember Sarmiento mentioned earlier, First Street, major issues on First Street.

I've been getting a lot of emails on the type of activities going on there. And we can apply many of these same strategies and staffing levels over there, so we should look at other areas too. But I'm glad that we're continuing to talk about this because we need to continue to do more. Thank you.

Thank you.

Councillor Sarmiento, I want to speak, then we'll come to this one and I'll close off and we'll move on.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I'll be brief. And I think everybody, I think some touched on what I was going to say,

which is I applaud the council members that put this on the agenda because we've been trying to do this for years. Those of us that have been on, I think, as long as maybe the mayor and I. And there's so many spots all over town that we don't want to get mired in focusing in on one problem. Because as we invest in one problem, it moves to someplace else and then there's some other part of town. But the city has so many pockets where they are very understaffed and under monitored. I know that I think a few years back with the help of the police,

we identified three hotspots that had just really, really high incidence of crime, aggravated assaults, drug use, and I think it was Bishop Manor, Cornerstone Mini, Cypress Evergreen, Townsend Rape, places like that. But there are so many pockets that I think rather than focusing on one area, I think we need a comprehensive almost count and priorities, a list of priorities where the intensity of crime tends to be really high. And I know I was speaking to the city attorney about this one apartment complex that we've been trying to place a receivership on.

And we've been successful with doing that on some motels where there's activity, and it's very obvious, it's very rampant. And this one apartment complex is one of those, but they're all over the city. I see my commissioner and the president of Madison Park Neighborhood Association here. He and his members have been constantly trying to advocate for more lighting, cameras, more resources, because they have so many children that live in that neighborhood and they're exposed to really bad elements in that park. So as we list these, I want us to focus in on these because there's some specific issues on Harbor and

Hazard that are very similar to what's going on on First Street. But we have so many issues, let's be, I think, a little bit broader in scope and more comprehensive because we do have limited resources. We don't want to expend them on one small focal point, but we want to make sure that the entire city gets the attention, at least maybe incrementally, where we tackle some that are just very, very intense, and then we move along. But we do need to be a little bit more systematic and methodical as we go through this. But I do think we need to start somewhere. Thank you.

Thank you. Additional comments? Yeah. Go ahead.

David PenalozaItem —

A couple questions for staff, Madam City Manager. Just for our Madam City Attorney, can we legally tell the business they can't sell condoms?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

No, I took a quick look at that today. We can't mandate it. I suppose for businesses that might, for example, have conditional use permits, where we are trying to regulate the potential nuisances, we could go back and ask them as a condition of approval that they not sell them. But we can't simply say you cannot sell condoms at a particular location.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you. And Madam City Manager and Mr. Police Chief, Chief Allentine, it was stated that 2,900 hours of overtime were dedicated to Harbor and Hazard. that's to me you know i did the quick little math that's 120 days of of enforcement towards harbor and hazard uh just just i'm just going to say it out through the the number of times that i've driven by i never see any police officers i i i had seen in the past um friday was the first

David PenalozaItem —

time that that i saw i know i know you guys have done enforcements and and and undercover busts But Friday was the first time that I physically saw police officers in the area. To me, 120 days of enforcement, that's every weekend. And from what we've seen, it's only needed between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. or 5, 4 a.m. So if it's every weekend, is this undercover police? are we every if we were to be out there every weekend I would suppose that the problem would go away just because of the amount of enforcement that's going on

so thank you for the question councilmember Penelosa and really everyone

the hours expended on overtime is how we're gonna affect an undercover to cover operations safely. So as you and the city manager went out Friday night in a drive-through to see what was there essentially unfiltered, we already had a pre-planned operation, right? We don't advertise those in advance, but the vice sergeant, the three detectives that are assigned to the vice slash medical marijuana, which is really on point, they need to be assisted by other teams of officers.

And so that's where the overtime comes in. I will tell you this harbor and hazards specifically is subjected to the circuit of the prostitution trade, specifically that area. We have South Harbor, East First. South Harbor is really remnants of North Harbor. East First is a different dynamic. You don't see that circuit-type population. But nonetheless, there are street workers that work there. So there has been, as was mentioned, there's been quite a bit of effort on this.

the community did share with us some suggestions back last year. And whether it's street lighting or the initiative to the city attorney's office, we've actually exceeded many of those recommendations. And it's a continued issue. So we will continue to collaborate. We have one suggestion that we actually mentioned last year, and that is something that's unpopular, but I think something that speaks to a deterrence. And that is we're exploring through additional legal research to publicize the photographs and the names of the purchasers of the sex trade.

So we want to make sure we do it proper, legal, but there's nothing worse than to see your photograph and name publicized to the world that you're one of these people that are out on our street causing this problem to our community.

David PenalozaItem —

and that's what i was going to ask uh what where were we in regards to publicizing the johns because uh you know i asked a staff that when i would see them around as as a candidate as a as a elected as a sworn in sworn in council member i kept asking and and numerous people different people said you know it's it's unpopular uh because you might come across your your local church leaders or teachers or coaches or firefighters or local elected officials. And to me, I was like, well, then they need to find the, I mean, it's too bad. You know, that's, they're across the bear.

David PenalozaItem —

They chose to do this. Let's publicize them. Let's put them out there front and center for the whole world to see. We're going to break up a family. Well, then too bad. They shouldn't have been down there disrupting these families. And in regards to, I know that there's different issues, vice issues that exist throughout our city like East First or South Harbor the thing is that South Harbor is industrial East First it's a bunch of vacant properties and and and run down saddleback in spaces. Harbor and Hazard it's neighborhood homes it's people's homes they're on people's lawns and people's driveways you know I think

David PenalozaItem —

that's a bigger concern then I'm not saying East First isn't important but currently where the activities going on it's I mean it's a vacant broken window theory they're there because of the circumstances around there and so I would like to personally see this publication of John's mugshots I mean let's do it I don't know what it's gonna take madam city manager city attorney chief police I mean I think we should do it I don't think we should wait for the for it to go to the DA and then sit six months and then finally a year later we publicize their picture you know it should be we're

David PenalozaItem —

gonna arrest you and your picture will be up tomorrow morning I know there's legal challenges to that, but that's what I would like to see. And I know there's concerns and questions about that and legal reasons, but, I mean, that's pretty much it.

Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. On that note, I think we spoke, Chief, and I think we need to be careful. I also agree putting the John's pictures up. I don't know if a press release saying, hey, we have a new policy or a thing that we're doing at the city that if you get caught here, you're going to publicize your photo. But we also need to make sure that the DA's office is going to take that case to court. Because some of them, just because you get picked up and later on they find out they don't have enough and they don't follow through, now we're posting up somebody's photo

and they never even went to court. So those are things that we need to be cognizant of.

Yes, and we won't move forward with that until we have sound legal research and a written opinion on what we can do. Preliminarily, I know that there's other communities that have successfully gone with that program post-charging, so long as they're officially charged by the district attorney's office. So we would not publicize pre-charging. But we'll solidify all those details so we do it right, of course. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Chief.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Chief. Go ahead. Madam City Attorney, how long would this, because this was a discussion that was brought up in July, we're now 10 months later, how long would this take to really dive into and see how we could legally post these Johns?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I don't think answering that legal question we can do very fairly quickly. I mean, we did have a program here in Orange County that a former DA ran. We see examples of it. I think the real issue is how we coordinate with the prosecutor, as the chief alluded to. I think that one safety measure is when they're actually charged. I think before someone is charged, we'd have potential legal issues. So I think what it really is is the coordination with the prosecutor. If we decided we were going to do it, we'd have to define that point in time. And then if we made an effort to do it, then we can roll this out.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I'd just like to also mention, just for the record, I don't think that there would be anything particularly illegal about having live cameras and heavy traffic in corridors. Whether that is something that violates other people's privacy, we know that we have cameras everywhere these days. So there are some creative things that you can do that other cities are doing as well, and we can study those things. But I wouldn't necessarily be like the hold up on that if that's what you're saying from a legal standpoint. I think we already have some legal standards. It's a matter of communicating both with PD and the DA's office.

David PenalozaItem —

Okay, so in that case, let's take pictures of the cars and send them to the wives at their registered home address. Be like, hey, look where your husband's at. I mean, it's-

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We have had examples where private parties have done things like that. I mean, we do see examples. We've done some of this research in anticipation of these questions. But it's the government's action where we are restricted and where there's potential liability to the city that we have to be careful.

All right, let me add my comments here and then let's move on. Quickly and then, I haven't said a word, go ahead.

Just to follow up on the conversation about what we're going to be doing at Harbor and Hazard. I know it's on Harbor and Hazard, but also code enforcement and bringing in other departments because there's concern not just with law enforcement, But also these individuals going into people's properties. So how can we ensure that they are going to be protected? I know when they call for service, the call for service, the response time is not as fast as they would like them to be. And then sometimes we are placing our residents in harm's way, trying to deal with these individuals one on one.

And so one thing that I would ask is how are we going to ensure that we are responding to our residents faster than we have in the past? And I know that we're the same, I would say, always the reason why we give that we're understaffed. And I get it, but I know when there's a will, there's a way. And we have to make sure that we put our residents first and that we put them as a priority. And not just only on Harbor and Hazard, but everywhere else, I just feel like what happens in Santa Ana, it's happening because we let it happen.

It doesn't happen in Irvine, it doesn't happen in Newport Beach, it doesn't happen anywhere else but Santa Ana. That's because we have just let it go and people are just looking at us and saying those people are not going to do anything about it. So I'm hoping that we put our priority with law enforcement, with code enforcement, and and also with all the other departments so we can give a quality of life to our residents.

All right, final comment, Jose, and then I'm going to comment. More of a question, and this gets back to the publicizing, but also just in general with reporting. And I had mentioned this to you briefly as well. We have very limited police information on our police website. What we do have is the crime mapping tool on there. And it's my general understanding, we do report like other cities do, all the crimes that occur and it doesn't have it by address specific. It's like within a general area so that it's not obvious exactly where these crimes happened.

But it's my understanding that some crimes, including some sex crimes, The city police department is not putting that on that site. So two questions, are we for crimes and arrests on harbor, are we putting that on the crime mapping system, number one? And then overall, it's my sense from our conversation that you are supportive of putting all crimes and reporting them on there. Again, redacting addresses and with the general parameters.

So going forward, we'll be reporting to crime mapping all the crimes.

Yes, absolutely. There's no reason to hold that information back. The only content that is confidential is the identity of sex crimes related victims.

And I agree. I think part of the discussion is, well, these crimes are kind of sensitive. But all crimes are sensitive, a murder, a major injury, something else. They're all sensitive and I think just for public information, just as long as we redact and are more general in terms of the address, we need to be fully transparent. So thank you for that commitment.

All right, just a couple comments and we'll move on. I know that a lot of the effort ultimately has to include undercover people. because you can't just have lights and officers that turn around and it comes back. If you really want to bust this, it's better to try to, from the inside, go after the whole structure that exists because, unfortunately for some, this is a business. And if you impact their business, they'll go somewhere else because it's not attractive to do it if you can't do what you're trying to do.

So I think we need to, as we charge a city manager, and we're adding a ton of stuff on our plate, but when we add the whole issue of the fact that we have a new contract with a POA, that was a tough vote for us, but I think it was the right vote. That should put us in a position where we can recruit better. As we recruit better and we start filling in those positions, we can then target some of those new bodies. Because ultimately it takes people. And yeah, when there's a will, there's a way. But that can only go so far.

Eventually it's so many hours, so many people, so many areas, working in a coordinated fashion. And then you start getting a hold of this. So what I want to ask is that we really try to come up with a plan on how we can fill those vacancies and then work together with the council and the community and the department to figure out as we fill those vacancies, how can we target some of those positions to address some of these priorities that we're talking about? because it's you know 129 sounds like a lot but believe me this is a problem

that they talk all the time some of these folks are in communication with each other and they say go to this area go to that area and once you get on these circuits they just travel around and they just figure okay you know it's it this is a good area to work right now all of a sudden that's where they're working so so I believe that with a new contract with a POA filling the positions the new city manager that you know off the bat she went out there at midnight I mean you know that I don't know if that was in the job description when we did the thing but I guess it was you'll get a council a call from yes

other duties as assigned just don't make her undercover but take care of that But maybe, I guess if she were, nobody would know, right? No, but we have to be very aggressive on this. But let's take advantage of these new positions because they are going to fill up. And instead of just putting them into the general department because we can do that, I think we can strengthen some of these task forces. And that I think we can do. And by the way, a lot of this is the broken theory, broken window theory a little bit. Some of this goes hand in hand with the homeless.

And I know that's a bigger issue, but if we can be more aggressive on the homeless, take them to shelters, get them off the streets, all of a sudden you don't allow yourself to become preyed upon. If they see weakness, you will become prey. So with that, you can sit down. Chief, thank you very much. Thank you. obviously a lot of interest and energy on this so I'm sure there will be another meeting soon and we'll continue.

David PenalozaItem —

Do we do a vote for direction or anything?

David PenalozaItem —

I think you got pretty good feedback across the board.

I like the idea of bringing it back with maybe

more meetings as you're meeting with different council members different areas that's an opportunity to move the agenda forward as well. All right, so I think we still have speakers, public speakers.

We also need to convene to the Housing Authority.

All right, let's do that as well.

So let's go to a joint session of the City Council and the Housing Authority. So let's bring the Housing Authority into order. I will entertain a motion on items 1 through 4.

Second.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed. None opposed. Motion carries. I believe item 88 was already considered. So we now are going to go to comments. So let me bring up Larry Sutton. And I know certain council members, you have travel and meetings in the morning, whatever you need to do. I think right now it's just going to be public comment and we're going to adjourn. So Larry Sutton, come on down. followed by Al Serato.

Mr. Mayor, that's all you did today. I live at Valley High. I'm sure you know where that's at. And I have some information for you here. My rental agreement, would you like copies of what I'm going to talk about? Documents? Okay.

I have a rental agreement I signed and executed the day I moved into belly high the rental agreement at least binds myself and belly high together contractually is a contract that neither denied nor them can breach the company that we go for managing our park in 2015 has since breached this contract they did it knowingly they did it knowing it was wrong when they did it in section 6 of my lease it says responsibility the owner states unambiguously that any

upgrades or maintenance to the park or the sole responsibility of the owner it cannot be changed to accommodate future upgrades or maintenance it also states any upgrades or improvements that are done in the park or the maintenance after these are done cannot increase my rent I quote directly from my lease it is a responsibility of the owner to provide and maintain the physical improvements of the common facilities as they now or in the future may exist of the community in good working order or conditions at no additional cost to resident I've got a letter from our management company that says that

they're doing exactly that and they applied to they intend to do that again on June of this year they are telling me that I'm having my rent increased due to these these improvements that they have made and that the maintenance is gonna get it added additional operating cost but that is not my leases I'm not supposed to pay for any of that and I cannot have my rent increase for that reason I need you to step in for me because they're gonna do this with me again on June June 1st of this so they're gonna do it again and I need that stopped because what they've already done is illegal. They've already breached my contract, my lease,

and I can't have that anymore. And you're the only entity I can think of that can have that taken care of, to have it stopped and reversed.

I got any questions? I think what we can offer is that you can talk to staff and see what we can help you with. That's about the best we can do because this is a a private agreement that you have. Is that correct?

It's between the park owner and myself, yes. Correct. But you can enforce a moratorium right now, can't you?

No, we can't. That's not on the agenda. So this is public comment. I got you. Yes. So if you would like to speak to one of our staff members and then we'll see what we can do for you. Alright, who do I speak with? Right here, the gentleman, Mr. Steve Mendoza. Thank you very much. You're Al? Me? I'm Larry. Larry, okay, thank you, Mr. Larry. Al Serato, next speaker, followed by Alfredo Rodriguez.

Is Al here? Al is not here. Alfredo Rodriguez?

Not here. Mr. Dale Helbig, followed by Nazaria Ibarra.

Good evening, Councilmembers Dale Helwig, Park Santiago. First off, before I forget, I'd like to say welcome to the city manager. Short night. And also say congratulations to Lisa on the award that they received tonight. What I came here to talk about was open space and density. And essentially, we all know that Santa Ana is the most dense city in Orange County. 12,000, over 12,000 people per square mile. Tustin and Anaheim are 42% less than Santa Ana.

Irvine and Brea are 70% less than Santa Ana. Why I bring this up is we keep on talking about more, I don't want to say affordable housing, but higher density housing that's being put into Santa Ana. And we know that we're built out. We don't have the space to continue to be number one in density. It's going to be our downfall in the long term.

The general plan currently and the updated general plan that they're proposing says that we should have two acres of land per 1,000 people. But yet we keep on adding these projects. The MIMU is going to add, you know, it's 552 units, so it's going to be probably close to 1,000 people that go in there. But where's the open space acreage that we're going to get? Right now, Santa Ana has roughly 360 acres of land for parks. That means our goal of two acres per thousand is really around 1.03 acres of land.

And we're not doing anything to increase park land at the time. And so this cycle is going to continue. And one of the things that is important is open space is associated with various mental and physical benefits. We're going to be losing these benefits for generations to come if we don't start increasing parkland and open space. Willowick might be a good place to start. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Helwig.

Nazaria Ibarra? Not here. Carlo Bonani, last speaker.

Hello, sir. How are you doing, Pro Tem, Mayor, and new city manager. Hopefully it will last a little longer than the other one.

What I come to tell you was, not this Monday, but last Monday, I saw Union Pacific Police go down their tracks. They were on their tracks themselves, and it looks like they had cameras mounted in the back of their pickup trucks to see what they have going from about Harbor all the way, I think I lost them somewhere in between Bristol and Main Street. So they went down the tracks and I just came back and they did reverse and came back the same way they came on the tracks.

It's getting bad down there. I mean, if you had the security that the Super King Market has and how they profile their people that go into stores, you wouldn't have that problem over there on Hazard and Harbor. I feel sorry for that poor security guard over there, because he's really outnumbered.

So, again, and the second thing I wanted to bring up mostly was on, by Seegerson High School, the traffic's getting really, really bad over there, and I know it's the end of the year, and hopefully we can go without any traffic accident or any kid getting hit over there, okay? I would really like to meet the person who allowed that housing track to go in, okay? and what city council members voted it in. I know a few of them are not here anymore. But that was a poorly designed aspect of that housing track over there. And I feel sorry for this city in the future. I mean, you guys need to start putting money away

so in case some child does get hit over there and you guys get sued or whatever happens to the city, you'll have the money on the side.

And it's amazing sometimes to see how this city's been going since I've been here since the 70s. And it's really, really sad. I used to hang out in Delhi. I had a lot of buddies from Delhi and Cross Warner and that area is all changing. So think of the future. Let's not try to be like Los Angeles or Irvine and build all these multiple apartment complexes. It's not going to help this city. You guys are not widening the roads. The roads are getting more congested. All these big conflicts. If you want a developer to come in here, then you tell them we want houses first like it was supposed to be.

houses first and then certain apartment complexes and two parking spots or more per unit. Don't let the developer win anything because they're not going to give these people a chance to live. There's going to be three or four families that are going to just afford to rent.

So good luck, Santa Ana.

Thank you. All right. I think we have one thing that we need to clean up, I think, on the calendar. Is it related to the...

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I conferred it. We were okay. We did? She confirmed it was okay.

So we're okay?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We're fine.

All right. So given that, then I think we're towards a latter portion of the reports here. So city manager comments, please.

Thank you, honorable mayor. I'll be very brief, but I did want to point out to you that we were directed at the city council meeting on April 16th to work on gathering information for mobile home parks within the city. And staff has surveyed the conditions of the parks, the park rents, and have outreached to neighboring cities. staff has also met with one of the mobile parks owners and industry associations and will be prepared on May 21st to present a full report that includes several options for your consideration.

And then I also wanted to point out that our city's public works agency received an award for a new category that SCAG just issued an award for, Active, Healthy, and Safe Communities, and it was for the Central Santa Ana Complete Streets Program. So kudos to Huat Suiz and his team in the public works department. And that's it.

Thank you. Council member comments. Councilor Salonio.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Three items. First, welcome to our new city manager, Christine. You're off to get started, I think, a few days into, but I've done a lot of work, including apparently some evening hours, and maybe after that on Saturday I said it was planned, but But let's go visit Santiago Creek and involve some neighborhoods and walk that area so that you can learn a little bit about the homelessness and other issues we have in that part of town. No, no, it was one, so she was able to get a little bit of sleep. So that was good, but thank you for your time. And also, Chief Valentin and some other officers joined us as well.

And it was very insightful and they learned about the needs there. A little bit related to staffing and efficiency, etc. I had a recent meeting with some of our city staff, public works and PD in particular, regarding 911 and My Santa Ana app. And various things that we talked about, one thing that I think we should continue to study is the 311 system. It's something memorable so that for non-emergency calls, people know who to call.

Whether it's a PD non-emergency or public works or a tree or a code enforcement thing. Whatever it is, because right now the reality is, and I had asked, most of the calls that go to 911 are really non-emergency calls. And we do have staffing issues and other things going on already with that 911 dispatch that freeing them up would be helpful. And we've seen other models where efficiency and cost wise this is very effective. The other thing that gave me encouragement is our sister city of Anaheim has a 311 system and it's working well.

Well, and various of our staff members, including Public Works Director

had talked about similar examples in their successes. Finally, and it may be another area related to how we might use a company like Allied Universal. And Council Member Pineda, during the meeting, had showed me some of it, but I hadn't read the entirety of it. And we had a very unfortunate situation on Warner Avenue where

we found somebody, a woman that was tied up at a property. And it was a city owned property. It's a vacant property and many of our vacant properties, there's issues. Whether there's homes, industrial areas, etc. And so that I would say too is another kind of example of a fixed asset that their liability or safety or other issues that in addition to considering expanding our private security contract to just parks and creeks and some of our larger facilities. Maybe also city owned properties. I mean, if it's an empty lot, I mean, not much you need to do there.

But if we have homes that are vacant or boarded up, we have some responsibility. And this is obviously a situation that probably didn't happen overnight. It's been a growing festering issue and what happened was very unfortunate. And one more reason why if we can't staff up quickly enough, we have to find other avenues to protect our community and prevent situations like this. Thank you.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Yeah, in regards to that property on Warner, I saw it earlier today. It's actually a family friend of mine owned a home, and he was bought out by the city for the Warner widening project. So it's been vacant for a couple months, and that unfortunate situation happened today. So, yes, I would like to see. We are responsible for these properties, and we shouldn't just abandon them. And if they're going to be sitting vacant for a while, let's make sure that they're being monitored and whatnot.

David PenalozaItem —

Again, first, a thank you, again, to Stephen Mendoza. He did a great job the last couple of months. And welcome to our new city manager, Christine Ridge. From what I've seen so far, she's diving in. I literally pushed her into it by taking her on that ride along on her second day on the job. and we were out till about almost, we pulled back in the garage till about almost two in the morning, and I know she was out and about in the neighborhoods the next day in the morning,

David PenalozaItem —

so she's working, she's working hard, and I would like her to use Stephen Mendoza for historical purposes, and our city attorney, who's fantastic, and she could be a great asset, So make sure that there's that daily communication. And in regards to that, I mean, that's pretty much it. This Friday is Mexican Mother's Day. And so I want to wish, and Sunday is Mother's Day. So I want to wish a very happy Mother's Day. Feliz Dia de las Madres to all the moms out there. None of us would be here without you guys. So thank you. A happy Mother's Day to our staff, those that are moms.

David PenalozaItem —

And that's pretty much it. Good evening. Council Member Iglesias.

So I just want to report out on the meetings that I've attended. On April 22nd, I attended the SAUSD City Joint Policy Meeting, along with Council Member Villegas and also with Council Member Solorio. On Wednesday, April 24th, I attended the Orange County Sanitation District Board Meeting. Thursday, April 25th, I was part of the OCOG meeting. And last weekend, last Thursday and last Friday, May 2nd and 3rd, I was at the SCAG Regional Conference and General Assembly.

And I was happy to see that our staff also got recognized. And so it was a pleasant surprise. And one thing that I want to bring up, well, when Christine gets back, I'll tell her welcome to Santa Ana. But one thing that I do want to bring up, and and hopefully this is something that we could look at, is what I would like is for us to have a monthly homeless update at our council meetings from either Hafsa or from Steven. One of the things with actual data, because as prostitution's a problem here in Santa Ana,

so is the homeless issue that we have here. So on a monthly basis, I would like if we could have how many homeless people were contacted by our staff from the previous month, how many agreed to accept service, how many agreed to go to a shelter, how many were cited for violating the city's no camping ordinance, how many had been arrested, how many had had an outstanding warrant and were taken into custody. and what I would like is for every month for the police department or HAFSA to present actual data to the city council meetings

so this way when we go into the point in time or do our own count we don't come up with surprises. We're already a step ahead of the game. So then this way we will be able to address the homeless issue and the reason I'm bringing that up too is because tomorrow I am having a meeting at the link. I'm going to be meeting with HaFSA and also the provider of the link with Mercy House just to see the operations. And I'm going to be asking them some questions because what's before us were the Yale Street homeless shelter.

And I want to have some questions because I do want to meet also with Supervisor Doe to see how we can have conversations and how we're going to move forward with this issue. So I would like if those questions I can send them to you, Christine, if you like. For me, that would be something that would give me data, like a point of reference of where we're at with our homeless count and the services that we're providing. And then also, not just the homeless too, but if we could have an update on the sheltered ones that we have, the sheltered individuals. how many do we have and how many are accepting services

because I believe if we have services for them then we're helping them get off their feet but if we're not we're just providing a roof over their head just like we have here at the courtyard it doesn't really help the issue and then I'm hoping to have a meeting with Union Pacific and I think that's another issue that we need to be addressing just like Mr. Carlo I think. What he mentioned about about what's there's a lot of encampments and I know there's this there's this I guess philosophy or whatever it is you may call it that you

know we really can't enforce our laws because it's it's it's not our our property and it's not our jurisdiction but our our residents really are tired of excuses of why we're not addressing the issue. We need to find solutions for them of how we're going to be working both with the Union Pacific Railroad Police, how we're going to be working with the County of Orange, and how we're going to be working with with the city to address this issue. Because you know with the city with the County of Orange we could also collaborate on with the

health care agency because it's also an epidemic and it's a health issue and for our residents and so forth for the for the homeless individuals too so I would like if it's possible for us to also coordinate a meeting with with it with the county the city to see if we can talk about this issues maybe on a monthly or bi-monthly basis so we can start collaborating working together to address this issue. Because just like prostitution and the homeless, I just think it's something that's gotten this bad because we've allowed it to. So now with the leadership of Christine here, I'm hoping that you can help us move

the needle forward and eventually get away from being the destination city for homeless and prostitution. Thank you.

Mayor, Proptender Yegas. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm just going to report out I attended the Youth Education and Community Services Committee meeting on 415 and we spoke about the citywide volunteer program. City swimming pool projects, six amazing ground breaking event, the CPRS award for the youth sports that we gave today, proposition 68 park grants, park security cameras, Santa Anita improvement requests, public restrooms of all the city parts. And discussion on the Santa Ana Unified and Santa Ana City Joint Policy Items.

Then on 422, I attended the Santa Ana Unified School District and City of Santa Ana Joint Policy Committee, and we spoke about Godina's High School and Central Park Security, the patrolling practices, we spoke about Godina's High School. We spoke about the agreement between the city and the district related to Angel Park and the county's Yale Street property. Then on 423, I attended the Public Safety Code Enforcement and Neighborhood Empowerment Committee.

And we talked about the update on police recruitment. We had an update on the park ranger recruitment also. graffiti report update, cyber cafes report, 9-11 calls made from the courtyard shelter, and an update on the citywide homelessness response.

And that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. And in reporting, I believe I have to report on the OCTA meeting that I attended, Sonia. So a week ago, Monday, I had a board meeting at OCTA. And that's it. Mr. Mayor,

On that point of reports, it might be helpful if our staff can clarify what they'd like us to report on. I think probably the history of this is there's some regulation that speaks to reporting out on meetings that were like paid a stipend for above and beyond.

And I'd like to know could they be reported in another format like they go on the website and can it be reported? meetings and maybe just. Otherwise we're going to sit here at these meetings just talking about all the meetings that we did.

Right. So we need to kind of streamline and clarify but it's definitely not just regular city committees that we're attending or community meetings and we can all do what just you know what was reported out but we need to. Maybe you can follow that up.

Update and clarify. All right she'll follow up. Yes go ahead.

David PenalozaItem —

I have a question, because you mentioned that. Are we really supposed to say whatever meeting we went to that we're getting a site report? I mean, it's all out there. It's on my calendar, public records.

And it's in those public records, too.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yeah, just briefly. Yeah, and just briefly, and I just leaned over to talk with the city manager. We have three things going on at this end of the agenda. You have AB 1234 reporting, which is if you go to a conference or you attend something and the city is paid for it, you are required by state law to report out as to that you attended the conference of what you might have learned that helped the city. That's AB 1234 reporting. We also have on our agenda when you are the chair of a subcommittee, a council committee, because you want to let your colleagues know what happened at that council committee.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

And so that was the other reporting. And the third one was, I think at one time you had an informal policy that if you received a siphon or something that you would do that. That's not legally required by the state law. The only thing required is AB 1234 reporting. I think it's just the way it was listed on your agenda because it was a past practice. But I'm sure the City Manager might have a practice.

I think Mayor Prootem has another question.

Not a question, just a comment that we forgot. On 426, the OCFA, thank you Chief Henry, installed 804 smoke alarms. Yes. And very, very important to let the public know that the OCFA is doing a great job out there. Thank you chief. Yes, thank you chief

And with that this is a meeting is adjourned

Thank you.

Thank you.