Read the September 18 meeting.

If you cannot 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 remain standing, we have Dave Mitchell, our police chaplain, who's going to give us our vocation.

thank you Mr. Mayor let's pray Father God we're thankful that we can gather together in a place like this with people like these that we can gather before you and under your watchful eye for the wisdom for the knowledge for the insight for the ability to understand and to communicate and Father to carry out the work that is necessary for our community God we pray that you would guide each who participates tonight Lord that we would be led by you in some way that we may not even understand but God that it would make us a better, stronger, more prosperous community

that we unite us, that we would work together in partnership with one another that we would care for one another and for those who are in tremendous need and that God we would accomplish all those things that are important for the future generations that follow behind us. So guide us Lord, guide us in the work our city council, the staff, all those involved in the safety of our community as well and for the citizens that are here We thank you for it, for the privilege to work in a government like this. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you. You may be seated.

In a minute, I'm going to call on Mayor Patel Martinez to do both proclamations. One is on Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and the other one is on naming September. Hispanic Heritage Month. So why don't we go ahead and start, Michelle, and we'll do it together, but you take the lead.

Thank you, Mayor Pulido. If I can please have Shaik Saki, from Executive Director from Accord, please join us. And then I think Flora Baraja, please join us. Andreas Rivera with Accord, and Karen. All of you with Accord, great. So September 17 is really, you know, and we always get these talking points, but I want to talk really briefly about Accord. How are you doing, sir?

and the great work that they've been doing across this region here in orange county and in particular the city of santa anna so pertains to citizenship and really working with our friends in the labor movement to making sure that we're able to help many residents as they move forward in their path to citizenship they've done a phenomenal job and so i just want to thank you all for your efforts and your continued effort to really spearheading these efforts and partnership. And I know my colleague, Councilman Vince Sarmiento, has been very active

as now he sits on the board of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, which is Naleo, as I was a former past president. And that's one of our goals is pushing and making sure that we get to move forward and helping those become citizens here in the United States. So every anniversary of the Constitution provides a historic opportunity for all Americans to learn about and to reflect upon the rights and privileges of citizenship and its responsibilities. So before I pass the microphone to Mayor Polito as he presents, I would love for someone from Accord

to just highlight some of the things that you all have done in Santa Ana and throughout the region and what you all will continue to do moving forward. Sure. I first of all like to thank

Thank you all for recognizing Accord and also the importance of the citizenship work. Santana has been a stalwart supporter of Accord all along. To the camera.

You know, Orange County has over 170 plus thousand folks who are eligible to become citizens but have not for one reason or the other. So Accord's job, Accord's role, Accord's hope and aspiration is to help as many people as possible to become citizens so that our democracy can thrive and blossom in Orange County.

Regrettably, despite of us being the largest service provider in this business, we haven't done a whole lot. We have done only 6,000 or so new citizens over the course of the last few years. There are 170,000 folks who are eligible. The people who we have served, more than half of them happens to be from your city, from Santana. And I as an executive director take great pride in our partnership with the City of Santa Ana all along, not just recently. And I must give a big shout out to Council Member Vicente Sarmiento for sponsoring the last event that we did in the month of August.

But I'm sure my colleague Andres Rivera who heads the citizenship program might be able to give more stats and more important information than I can. would you thank you thank you to the city a special thanks to the city and super very special thanks to councilmember Vincent Sarmiento to Julie who is very helpful during the the citizenship fair that we had an August 18th where we actually assisted 150 residents in applying for citizenship in in the process which is a very difficult process for a lot of our residents.

It's a lot of information the applications 20 pages long the cost is $725 so you can imagine do we pay rent or do we feed our families and so we assist in providing this service to the community and we invite Santa Ana residents we invite the city to participate and to take the initiative to join us on September 29th at the Anaheim Convention Center where we're having a mega citizenship fair with the city there's also going to be a health fair there so I invite Santa Ana residents I invite the City Council to

step up and and and join our efforts there like Shaquille said more than half of our applicants even if they go to the Anaheim citizenship fair are from Santa And so we invite you all, thank you for this recognition. God bless you.

Thank you. If you can all just please step forward here, I want to give you this proclamation, recognizing Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, the work that you do, making every citizen, native-born or foreign-born, reflecting on the rights and responsibilities under the Constitution, also the importance that all citizens fully understand the provisions, principles, meaning of the Constitution so they may support, preserve, and defend it against any encroachment. And now, therefore, we're declaring this day, the 17th of September, as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.

So with that, and we have Councilman Vince Ramiento here as well.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I want to thank Councilmember Mayor Pro Tem Martinez and everybody on staff who's helped with this effort, and thank you all. Good to see you, my friend. We just hosted a very important citizenship fair at the Salgado Center for the first time. So we had one, I believe it was during the last election cycle at the Southwest Senior Center. It was very, very successful. We had about 800 folks show up. People were standing in the rain. It was that important of an issue. So as we see election cycles come and go, we see that voters are getting more engaged.

and I want to especially give a shout out to our clerk, Maria Huizar, who has been helping us get the word out. Because as we know, we have about 100,000 registered voters here in the city, and many of our residents don't get out to the percentages that we'd like. So to the extent we encourage new voters to enter into that voter pool, it's important because we're deciding their fate. Their votes help us get resources from both Washington and Sacramento. So I just want to encourage everybody out there. I know there's a big one that's going to be held in Anaheim, right, at the convention center.

So we're participating in that, and hopefully we're going to be feeding a lot of our folks who weren't able to be attended and assisted in Santa Ana to go to Anaheim. So to the extent we can all pass the word along and just continue to encourage folks to not only vote, but those that are eligible to become voters to get themselves processed and naturalized. We know the fees have been raised, but it's really important that we all do that. So thank you all very much.

We're welcome to the football show.

Let me give this to you.

You are the bank.

Thanks, everyone.

Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you.

Is the Council Monica Ochoa here?

So next we are going to do a proclamation in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. And so this is my last one as a council member and I've been doing this for 12 years and And it's been a tremendous honor to really celebrate, really, the culture, the accomplishments of the Latino community, not just here in Santa Ana, but across the United States. And we've had a very great partnership with the Mexican Council's Office, which is just here in Santa Ana and represents all of Orange County.

And so we've been very fortunate. I've gone through four different Mexican consulates here in Santana in my term as a council member here. And I have to tell you that each of those Mexican councils have been amazing partners to Santana. And I wanted to recognize them in particular in this moment in time as what we face across this country. And I recently just got back, I actually just got back yesterday from Miami and had the opportunity to tour Little Havana.

And as I was there, and I toured there for about three and a half hours, to see the pride that that community has and has had for decades. It's a massive history, in particular in Little Havana and in Miami, with the Cubans. And here as we look in Southern California and you look here in a city like Santa Ana, we sometimes get shy to recognize the Latino community. Santa Ana is 80% Latino. We should be proud.

I saw artists. I saw business people. And thousands, thousands of people touring Little Havana. and wanting to celebrate the Cuban American culture. So we should not be scared or intimidated or shy away from this great community where 80% is Latino. And so it's always been with great pride, and in particular, the Mexican community here in Santa Ana. And I'm not from Michoacan. I'm four generations born here in the United States.

But my colleague, Jose Solorio, there's a lot of people from Michoacan, our mayor. I think everyone, an exception for Councilman Sarmiento, because he's from Bolivia. But we accept him as a... Yeah, his kids are Mexican. You know, the pride. And we just had fiestas patrias. And I didn't have the opportunity to attend. But when you go through that festivity and that parade, you have that sense of pride and culture. And that's the partnership that we have had year in and year out with the Mexican consulates and the various organizations that have participated within the parade.

And so it's with great pride to really just honor the Latino community on Hispanic Heritage Month. And I just wanted to share a couple of the rounds, but before I do, si quieres decir unas palabras, lo puedes decir en inglés o en español, como tú quieres. ¿Ok?

Muchísimas gracias. Muy buenas tardes. Es un honor y un privilegio para mí estar el día de hoy aquí ante el Consejo de la Ciudad de Santana. Muchísimas gracias por este reconocimiento que hacen al consulado. Sin duda alguna, este es el mes de la hispanidad que sin duda estamos todos celebrando. Es un honor para nosotros colaborar con socios estratégicos. Sin duda que todos los miembros del Consejo son claves en esta estrategia de apoyo y a la comunidad aquí en el Condado. no solamente la mexicana, estamos uniéndonos para servir a toda la comunidad latina

y a cualquier miembro de la comunidad aquí en esta maravillosa ciudad de Santana agradecemos muchísimo este reconocimiento y este es, me les transmito el agradecimiento del consul Mario Cuevas Zamora, quien lamentablemente no nos pudo acompañar el día de hoy pero que sin duda les agradece este reconocimiento y sobre And, above all, he asked me to transmit the commitment both of the consulate and of all the team to continue collaborating with all of you, with the community, to better serve you. Thank you very much.

Mayor, we don't have a translator. Obviously, I can't translate that. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's okay. The mayor can. I'm so sorry. It's okay. Or Vince.

Go ahead.

No, the message was very sincere and very heartfelt on behalf of everybody at the Mexican Consulate's office. She's just saying how important the relationship has been over the years between the city and the Mexican Consulate that's here housed in Santa Ana, so it's a very important thing. She says how integral each and every council member has been to that relationship and how deeply connected we are because we serve the same constituency. So on behalf of the consulate, she's just thanking us for the recognition and for the hard work that we all do as both agencies collaborate together. Muchas gracias.

Great. And we're going to have the whole council come down so we can take this picture. As I do the whereas. So whereas the National Hispanic Heritage Month serves as a time to recognize, honor, and celebrate the significant contributions of the Hispanic community that is made up of commercial, cultural, educational communities in the United States, and whereas the Hispanic American community is made up of hardworking entrepreneurs, public servants, elected officials who are working diligently to improve the quality of life and the nation as a whole.

And whereas Hispanic Americans are among the fastest growing ethnic community in the United States, the presence of this community is vital to the growth and stability of our city and nation. And now, therefore, we, the mayor and the entire city council, do hereby recognize September 15th through October 15th as Hispanic Heritage Month. Great.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam City Attorney, is there anything to report out?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor, in the litigation items this evening, the City Council gave direction to staff, and we have no reportable action.

Thank you. So with that, I'm going to go to the consent calendar, but before taking up items, we do have an item that a member of the public wishes to speak. So Gabriela Gonzalez, Casa de la Familia, you want to speak on 29A? Come on down.

Good evening. I'm Gabriela Gonzalez with Casa La Familia. We're a non-profit here in Santana, providing mental health services throughout all of Orange County for the past two decades. And 29A was a line item for community support. And I think I'm going to speak in the future about some events that we're hosting for next month. for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We just wanted to make the council aware that we're hosting a series of activities to highlight and provide information and resources to our community on domestic violence next month. And we're in partnership with the Santa Ana Public Library

and just seeking your support. I think we've sent some information your way, so just a heads up that you guys look out for that. And I have some flyers. Everything's online. It's on our website.

And, sorry. I can share the rest of the information later right is that correct okay just on 29A okay that was just it thank you thank you thank you with that items that

members want to call Mayor Pro Tem Martinez Mr. Mayor 22A 25A 25D 25F 25G 25 H 25 I and 25 J and yeah 25 C I should have just said the entire well no you should have said what you don't want oh and mr. mayor I'm actually a no vote so we don't have to pull that out I'm not sure if others are going to vote on this this is 25 J which is the purchase agreement of real property acquisition of Warner I'm a no vote all right and then we have one item by

council member sorry was that 25 c and uh council member i had that same item 25c as well all right so i would entertain a motion on the balance so move second those in favor please say aye aye aye aye opposed motion carries councilman benedians was d was 25d one of the items yes okay do you want to pull it also she's got she's got it she's already got it one is enough all right All right, let's go ahead. Madam Clerk, you got them all? All right, let's go.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'll just be very brief on 22A, which is a contract to award for fire alarm systems maintenance. I would just ask if someone very quickly from Public Works can come up. And maybe more it's towards finance and economic development as we move towards, you know, we've talked about this in the past every time we're doing contracts. I see here the vendor, no vendor from Santa Ana. And I know we have a lot of these companies like this in our city. And so what are we doing to help communicate with them when we have these opportunities? And so I'll be supporting this item, but I know we have a lot of new directors.

And this city council has spoken on several occasions as we look at business to business. It's a huge percent of revenue that comes in back to our city. And, you know, here we have an opportunity to participate, and most times we're entering into contracts and awarding these contracts. Rarely do we see Santa Ana companies. And so it's important for us to figure out ways of what we're doing to making sure that we are helping the small businesses here in our community. We've gone through several iterations of resolutions and ordinances, have worked with our finance department,

with our planning department and our economic development department, and just wanting to make sure that we can circle back around and what, again, are the next steps and what are we doing to help really get the word out to these small businesses. They may not be aware that these opportunities exist. Because no one from Santa Ana even applied. As I reviewed the memo and outreach, zero from Santa Ana. So that right there, again, is a red flag, Mr. City Manager, just wanting to make sure we do everything that we possibly can to get that word out.

We will do that. Madam Mayor Plotter.

Motion to approve.

Is there a second? Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. Next item.

And just very quickly as well, I'll make a motion to approve. And this is an agreement with the Basic HR Services for tracking system for employee leaves of absences. and so I just want I want to thank our HR director thank you so very much for moving us into the 21st century I really appreciate it for years we've been talking about our payroll system about tracking systems and how you know we can integrate those to to really be more innovative and efficient you know and we have yet to get there and so you've come along so I want to thank you I've been seeing these items on the agenda and just want to personally thank

you for helping us get to the 21st century with that mr mayor i'll move is there a second second

those in favor please say aye aye those opposed motion carries next item yes um and this is for

our police department and i'm not sure if chief valentine or another member of our police department but maybe someone else uh can actually uh help us out with this we move forward with um outsourcing our parking enforcement services and I wanted to see if there is a report of how they've been doing you know since we have moved over with this with this company you know there are complaints at times and the way I look at it whether you're a contractor or a city employee residents or the business community doesn't care you know that when you're associated with Santa Ana they can care

less if you're a contractor or an employee and so as we continue to move forward and streamlining our services and contracting uh you know for parking enforcement services i just want to make sure that if we can get a maybe a one page or two page a memo on on their services and what they've been provided and really what have they done up to you know i think the past year and a half to two years as it pertains to you know tickets how they've been responsive to the public because there are times when I received tickets you know here in this in the city and you're running and last-minute and sometimes you know

you're wondering like why are these folks coming here so quickly to ticket me and I hear it time and time again in our downtown and wanting to make sure that these folks represent the city in the best fashion as possible and I'm not saying that they are not but it would be great to get a highlight of some of their accomplishments who are those folks that in particular are in our downtown um i think that's probably um some of the more sensitivity of these parking enforcement off um that we see um a company service company that's out there in the downtown uh would be greatly appreciated chief valentine and with that i make

a motion to approve is there a second second and i'll have councilman a comment mr mr for uh police chief and and city manager well because I would echo some of the comments that mayor Pro Tem has made with regard to any individual that is out providing service in the community ultimately is a reflection on the city and and quality customer services is paramount should be paramount should be should be they should represent us well I've also yeah have been made aware of

certain instances where perhaps parking and park enforcement was perhaps a bit overzealous and particularly around the downtown area and and as an example where I know what what they're looking to at least from what I understand what they're looking to enforce specifically parking in the downtown, meters that have gone over, or people parking illegally and such. On a couple of incidents, one in particular, there was a citation that was given for a meter that had been overrun. Actually, there's been a few incidences.

But then it seemed like they took the opportunity to look at other expired registration, which is granted, it's, you know, that needs to be corrected, needs to be corrected, and no license plate on the front, you know, front license plate. So again, things that should and should be corrected. However, so I'm not saying that the citation, the person didn't merit the citation.

What I'm saying is just particularly in our areas that are destination areas where we want to invite visitors, it's something where we do have to weigh out. What is the appropriate level of how focused should we be on just trying to rack up citations versus addressing the parking situation, maybe allowing for a patrol officer or something if there's a situation where a patrol officer comes across that situation, that vehicle, where they do the appropriate action to be able to take care of these other citations.

At the end of the day, they do end up racking up, and it just ultimately gives a negative experience for the visitors, and we don't want that, especially for downtown. So customer service and just having clear direction to the parking enforcement, particularly downtown folks, what they should be enforcing. Councilman Arsolodio.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I, too, agree with getting more reporting data on a regular basis because we do get a lot of complaints about parking tickets but also lack of parking. I got another constituent letter as we speak. about that so I like the idea of reports but I do want to say that I want to complement the staff writing what I think are one or two new features in this contract number one to encourage really what our local hires which is good and as we continue to do more local hires with things from our cannabis

industry to this and our community workforce and labor agreement let's figure out how we could package up all these local hire programs so that as we do reporting we're you know doing one report rather than multiple reports but that's a very good feature that the second good feature that was added to this contract was encouraging the company really more than encouraging I think requiring the company to do more public outreach so that when there are community fairs or other events that there's that interaction with the public so I think that is very good because I think in our town there's some

folks that don't like when the parking enforcement comes too quick and there's others that don't like it when they come too late or not at all so that communication reporting is very important so I wanted to thank staff for

that appreciate it thank you so I believe we have a motion a second those in favor please say aye aye aye those opposed motion carries now I want to go back to 25 C because council member Vince Sarmiento had pulled it and we We're going so fast we skipped it, so let's go to 25C. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I didn't even notice you guys went past that, but I'm glad you're keeping track of things. So I just had a question for staff. I know that this is the interim homeless shelter that is going to be city-operated, and we are going to be using funding from the Inclusionary Housing Fund source. and I recall that the initial conversations that we had at least the way I understood them is that these funds were eventually going to be replenished so I just want to make sure you know there isn't any mention of that on the in the RFCA so in the staff report provided to us but maybe now that we're

here is are there any thoughts from staff mr. City Manager yourself or anybody else of how we can try to replenish those you know that funding source. And we understand this is obviously a very important objective that we're trying to achieve, but we also understand that the funds where these monies are coming from are equally important. So to the extent that we can maybe troubleshoot that now or at least come up with some options as to what we might be able to look at, that would be helpful.

Thank you, Councilman Sorrento. Yes, absolutely. We don't have currently a replenishment plan. What we have is some general guidelines in terms of trying to find ways to offset using that funding when other revenues come on board. But we'll come back and report to you on some ideas. I mean, I know one of the thoughts is the sale of city-owned property where the revenue can normally be attributed to the general fund. We can use that money because it's fully discretionary to replenish these funds here. So we'll come back to you with some options.

And, you know, I don't want to hold up this item because I know how vital it is, how important it is that we pursue it. And we did identify a source. It is a precious source as well. And from what I understand, once we use the monies that are dedicated for the first year of the shelter, it's going to exhaust the funds that we have in the loop because the other half has already been spoken for through a procurement process that we're going through right now. So we'll probably spend everything that's in there. So it is very, very valuable to us because that's the source that we use to try to augment

and work with our affordable housing partners and developers that develop housing for our families. So to the extent that you can, come back with some options for us and let us know what ways we can reimburse this fund. I'll take you and your staff at the board.

I will take a motion to approve with a friendly amendment as Councilman Sarmiento said, if we can please look at providing a policy in regards to any property that is being sold. I know we have some stuff on the books here today of city owned property. Those revenues go to fill that gap. And as well, we do have a crisis, a safety crisis, emergency with homelessness. how can we use some of our revenue from our reserves of one-time funds to help as well to augment the rest of the balance. If you can come with those two options and what the law says, be grateful.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. I'll take that as a, I'll accept the friendly amendment. The only caveat to that would, I think the funding source or accessing funding from the reserve policy would take two-thirds majority of the vote. So that would be the only difference between the two sources that Mayor Pro Tem mentioned.

Okay we have more comment. Councillor Solorio. Yes thank you. First starting

with that I think this item is really more the agreement with the service provider so I don't know how germane the funding source of items are but I appreciate that the direction being sought. My comments are number one I'm thankful that the staff found a local Sanana based provider Mercy House to operate at the shelter they've been in here in Santa Ana a long time great credentials great service great character etc also the type of model they are proposing are like the the bridges at Kramer where you know homeless can't

walk there or walk out it's largely based on appointment and shuttling so I think that's good they also have a good neighbor policy and some other very good items in the proposal as well as staff did you know ask at least a couple of vendors for for bids and Mercy House came in with a very good price so I think that is excellent the only thing that I want to ensure is that the staff communicates very clearly with them that we want them to explore a number of properties that may be used for this emergency shelter because you know I

know that irregardless of what place we choose there are going to be some criticisms and so to the extent that there has been some good due diligence by the service provider and looking at a variety of options in terms of location costs ability to serve the constituents that would be appreciated thank you so

much. All right, so with that, I will leave you a motion. A second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Aye. Those opposed. Motion carries. Councillor Martinez. Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. The next item is 25F, and I'll just be very quick. We are moving forward with our one of our active transportation grants to put, you know, on Lincoln Avenue a pedestrian pathway. I know this is something in that neighborhood that they've been wanting to see, and so it's finally here with these state grants it takes time for us to go through a process sometimes from a year to a year and a half sometimes even two but we're finally here and just wanting to thank our staff

for their due diligence and continuing to move us in the right direction to providing opportunities for pedestrians to move in a safe manner with that mr mayor move the item second all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye motion carries next item is 25g and this is for our chief. Chief, here we're approving agreement with Westbound Communications, the Ready OC Emergency Preparedness, and if you see something, say something public awareness campaign. I just wanted to make sure as we move forward, and I know this is with some of our UASI funds, that we get the right

messaging and making sure that it's translated in various English and not not only just Spanish, Vietnamese, within specifically this community. And is this funding for Santa Ana or is it also for Anaheim?

It's also for Anaheim, the operational area.

So will both entities be working together on the messaging with the consultant, or how is that going to play out?

It's a universal messaging platform that all contributing agencies access. But the language issue, I hear you loud and clear, and we'll take care of that as well.

Okay, fantastic. Appreciate it. Yes. Appreciate that. And with that, I'll move this item.

Second.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Next item is 25H. So this is another one for you, Chief. I had a very quick question in regards to spill response and storm drain facility. I know there's an increase on that within the jail in regards to sewer and sanitation. it's approval with Ocean Blue Environmental Services so we have one full on contract and I'm not sure if someone from Public Works can actually help them but there's been an increase with your budget as it pertains to this issue in regards to the jail wanting to know why the increase

so I do not have the response to that at the moment but I certainly can get it so specifically the increase in allocation for the obviously there's there's some spills and you I think

you've had many is it because we have more population in the jail or do we have some

pipe breakage we do have some deferred maintenance that we are addressing that I am well aware of we do have increased population we're hovering about four to 425 up from about 125 about a year ago but we do have some significant deferred maintenance that we are addressing you caught a little off guard with the whole spillage and public works that's why i turned to my left i

didn't want to say something the negative way versus you could actually understand me so i i said

spillage but yes did you have anything more to that one second in regards to the uh the jail council member uh we're just making sure that we properly clean up any um any uh you know biohazards that occur within the cells when primarily in the drunk cell. If there's any accidents or anything like that, it's properly cleaned up within the jail, and we've been using them more for that reason.

Great. Thank you. And that was just my question. It was just like, why is there such a huge increase? But thank you for the clarification. With that, I'll move the item forward.

Second.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Great. The next item, again, is just wanting to thank our HR department for moving us forward and looking at some payroll practices, as I talked about earlier in the other item. This is moving forward with an agreement to look at payroll best practices. For far too long, I have said this on this council and with our former executive director in HR, that we need to move towards the 21st century when we're doing things by hand or tricklet. you know still in the 18th and 19th century that's not innovative it's not

efficient in the use of the time of your personnel in HR and how do we integrate these systems and so I'm finally excited to see this department moving towards the direction that it needs to go into so that we can make sure that we are in compliance with CalPERS and I think that's very important from a payroll perspective and making sure that we're calculating things the appropriate way so then we were having to deal with our pensions and cal pers system that that that is a seamless process and because we've had problems in the past and

with that mr mayor i'll move this item so those in favor is there a second second those in favor please say aye aye those opposed motion carries and the last item mr mayor's 25j which is to

approve purchase agreements of real property acquisition on east warner and for the record I've been a no on Warner. Is there a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The opposed motion carries.

Madam City Clerk, do we have an oath?

Yes, we do. Please go ahead. If I can have Daniel De La Cruz come to the front, please.

Why don't you take the mic and bring it down?

And Mr. De La Cruz has just been appointed to the Youth Commission as the Ward 1 alternate representative.

I, Daniel De La Cruz. I, Daniel De La Cruz. The soundly swear. to 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 take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation, for purpose of evasion,

that I will will well and faithfully discharge the duties in which I'm about to enter. Thank you.

He's gone. He's gone. He doesn't want any more of this.

Congratulations and enjoy the meetings and your work. With that, let's go on to the next item. I think that would be 55A. I would entertain a motion.

So moved.

Those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Those opposed, motion carries.

55B, entertain a motion as well. So moved. Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries.

75A, this is a public hearing to hold as legal required, a public hearing. and we're going to be talking potential boundaries, communities of interest to consider and new boundaries.

I'm not sure how much we need other than I want to open up the public hearing. Do we have any members that wish to address us? Any cards?

We do have a presentation from our consultant.

Okay, let's get a translator, and let's do a brief presentation by the consultant. We had one earlier, and then we'll take a comment. We'll close the public hearing. Go ahead, please.

Very breaking.

Yeah, you're good.

Thank you for having me here again today. For any who have not been to one of these presentations, I know the council members have been to several of these so far. I'm going to go through some of the basics about what it is we're doing and talk a little bit about what we've heard from the community so far in our public hearings. So as we draw districts for the City of Santa Ana, we're going to follow some traditional redistricting principles. To go over them rather quickly, the first is going to be that each district is going to be relatively equal size.

And when we look at equal size, we're going to be looking at drawing districts that have equal population per the most recent decennial census. Approximately each district will be 325,000 people. The city as a whole is 325,000 people. Approximately each district will be between 52,000 to 55,000 people. Districts are going to be contiguous, meaning that they're going to be whole parts. They're not going to skip and jump around the city. They're going to maintain communities of interest. And we've been doing a lot of discussion about this at the outreach meetings and going over two different types of communities of interest.

The first type of communities of interest have to do with those protected classes. And when we look at those, we're looking at ethnic, religious, and other nationalities as protected communities of interest. When we look at these communities of interest, specifically looking at Latinos and Asians, we're looking at the citizen voting age population of these different groups. And in the public presentation we've been talking in depth about where these populations are and looking at maps like these that show, as an example, a very dense Latino population in one portion of the city

and a rather dense Asian population in another portion of the city.

We've also been talking about additional communities of interest because as we draw lines, we cannot only consider race. We have to consider other criteria. And a lot of these other criteria are really the conversations that we have in these public meetings. They're the things that the community comes forward with. In some of the very first meetings that we had, we had people talking about neighborhoods. And in the following subsequent hearings, we've heard people talk about education, income levels, and homeowners versus renters.

Another thing that we'll look at is following existing city and county governmental lines.

And then finally, keeping districts compact, making sure that they're not awkward-shaped, long, serpent-like, and more square and circle-like. When we look at the current districts, we can see we have six districts that meet that first criteria of being equal population. However, there are concerns about the way in which they interact with the other communities of interest as we've gone through these. and one of the main communities of interest, as I mentioned, was the neighborhoods. Each of the maps that are in the entryway look at the districts that have been proposed

and have the overlays of those neighborhoods as one of the key criteria in how we draw these. We've provided data that have been in packets and the public has looking at specifically each of these neighborhoods and their Latino and Asian composition as a way of using these neighborhoods as kind of a proxy for those communities. We've also looked at the overlapping political geographies, and the one that really has stood out the most has been this map showing the school districts. I don't know about the council members and the public that's here, but I've always associated myself with where I went to school.

And that is a key kind of way of how we grow up and think about ourselves and how we think about our community. And in this instance, the Garden Grove Unified School District to the west of the Santa Ana River does provide a boundary that you'll see coming up in some of the plan drafts. Another thing that we've seen is in the congressional district lines, there appears to have been an attempt in these lines to draw a district that maximized the Latino representation of the 46th congressional district and the Asian composition of the 48th congressional district

again pulling from some of that population on the other side of the San Antonio River.

When we look at the lines that have been drafted, we see several sets of data that we want to make sure that the public is aware of and can look at it in a way to determine how effective these districts are. The first one is how well we draw districts that are relatively equal size. The second one would be to look at these ethnic populations with a specific attention to the composition of the one district that would be drawn and have the greatest potential for electing a candidate of choice from the API Asian community, specifically the Vietnamese population of the city.

We have four plans that have been drafted. Each of them seek to address these concerns and balance these different criteria in our redistricting in different ways.

One, Plan A essentially starts with the basis of the existing boundaries, but then attempts to draw a district that also incorporates the need for a district that maximizes the ability for the Asian community to elect a candidate of choice, and also preserves the neighborhood boundaries.

A different version of this plan, and to mention in Plan A, that Asian citizen voting age population in the lower left-hand corner of this data table achieves a 43% Asian district in District A in Plan A.

plan B does a little bit different in terms of how it draws these seats and incorporates an additional northern portion of that district A connection to the Garden Grove Unified School District and it rearranges how the districts are built in the core of the city as well the traditional districts have had one district along the top, and this splits that up in this plan B version.

Plan C attempts to look at the fact that we have an Asian population that's to the far southwest of the city, and whether or not that could be bridged to the other portions of the city that have high Asian population. This did come up in the public testimony in that there are two neighborhoods that are adjacent to each other that end up getting split in this plan. And so there was some strong pushback to that element and some input put into the website regarding that.

And then finally, Plan D is the plan that the plaintiffs asked us to spend a little bit extra attention to. And it does most follow the Garden Grove Unified School District boundaries in order to create a District A that comes in at 44% Asian. This district also still needs some adjusting. It has a lot of room for adjusting in order to get the equal population number. But it does meet a lot of the other criteria in terms of trying to keep neighborhoods unified and so on. Each of these plans are out in the entryway.

and I've also provided some additional data to the city that's been being put up on the website. One piece of data asked for in the community meetings was would we provide not just the citizen voting age population but also the simply voting age population and also the estimated new population regardless of citizenship or age. So we've provided some additional data tables that have been put up on the website. We've also done some additional mapping of the income and renter data. Is that, do you think, in this other one?

Yeah.

It looks like the same as what we just did. That will be up on the website, I'm sure. It was an additional version of this plan that we'll put up on the website. And I also have been talking with some of the community members that are here about it. But essentially what we do have in looking at renters is there's a core low-income renter population kind of in the middle of the city. There are actually some high numbers of renters in the southern portion of the city near South Coast Plaza area. but those are high density of renters but also high income populations. So part of the balancing is

in that plan D there is a district C that incorporates a lot of the renter population and a lot of the low income population and part of the concern within the community groups that are going to be interacting either on the website or at these public hearings is how best to address those communities and maximize their ability to elect a candidate of choice, but to not pack them all into one district, to not create a district that's 95% renters, instead to create districts where those renters can influence the outcome of elections in more than one seat. So there's going to be some balances with that income

and renter versus homeowner elements of the final plan, I would expect.

And going forward we have I believe three more hearings that are all going to be here. We have conducted several meetings in the community even on weekends and evenings and mornings in order to allow for the maximum amount of input. We have had dozens of people at each of these hearings which has been great turnout in my experience. One thing to really note is that based on the schedule that we're on and talking to the attorney, we are in a situation where we're planning on having a final plan adopted at the November 20th meeting.

The meeting prior to the November 20th meeting would be the October 30th meeting. in order to have a final plan that can be adopted on the November 20th hearing, it has to be public for that October 30th meeting, which means that it has to be finalized by October 23rd. So we're essentially on a schedule of having three more meetings, but by October 23rd, we really have to have whatever's going to be the eventual plan drafted and made available for the public. So that's essentially where we're at with the schedule.

If there aren't any other questions, I think we might have some public testimony.

Thank you. I don't believe we have any members of the audience that wish to address. We have one. Rick.

Sara Ruiz Velazquez.

and respect the rights of voters and the most vulnerable communities, without import groups ethnic. So I'm here to support the Plan D, a map where all the social levels feel included in their community as voters. Thank you very much. God bless you.

Good evening. My name is Rubi Velasquez. I'm a leader with OCO and with Movimiento y Magma. I'm a resident of the city of Santa Ana for six years, and I'm here because our city of Santa Ana, we need to improve democracy and respect the rights of the voters of this community, the most vulnerable community, regardless of ethnic groups. This is why I'm here to support MAP Plan D for the redistricting Plan D, a MAP where all socioeconomic levels feel included in their own community as an elective community. Thank you very much and God bless.

Quick question. Can you clarify? Go ahead. No, but I heard right. Is it D?

D as in David. Plan D. Yes. Thank you. Gracias. Thank you. so with that um let me bring back a counselor salario i'll go ahead and close the public hearing

counselor salario thank you mr mayor first i do want to thank uh the staff and the consultant for in quick order getting communications out and holding these meetings and scheduling you know rooms and translators and all that i know it was a lot in short order so i'm thankful for that I did go to a recent workshop at the Delhi Center and they had you know modest but good turnout and by having a variety of these different meetings and hearings throughout the city it is getting folks from different neighborhoods to participate so that is very good I know for today's meeting a lot of the

focus is on communities of interest I wanted to share what some of my priorities are. Number one, we've had a you know a pretty good neighborhood movement in Santa Ana for some decades and so to the extent to the extent that we can respect those neighborhood association lines I think that's a very high importance because they communicate and meet, interact according to those boundaries. Second, you know being a representative of Ward 3 and knowing the communities of interest in that ward. You know very clearly 17th Street is an

important boundary and I do want to see you know maps that keep those communities intact north of 17th Street. Second you know we're here in large part because of the diversity of our city and our Vietnamese and Asian American community, most of which lives on the west side of town. But I do like options like Plan D where some of the boundaries for the heavier Asian ward would include neighborhoods that are

east of the river because too often there's a division of who's west and east of the river, who's in San Unified versus Garden Grove Unified. So to the extent that we have boundaries that encourage coordination and discussion on both sides, I think that would be helpful. As well as, you know, I don't want to compact all the Asian American residents in a very small area. I do want to see some, you know, a broader area that's more inclusive of that broader Asian community. So those are my thoughts for today. Thank you.

I do have some additional comment.

Yes, Councilman Benavides. Thank you.

For our consultant, I think he's still here, there was some mention about

I'll mention a few of the comments, but then mainly some questions. One is that there were some neighborhood associations that had expressed concern about potentially being divided I think you mentioned two in particular. I'm curious if you recalled which those were.

The North and South, I forget the name of the Neighborhood Association. And we can come back. You said some of that information is going to be on the website, the comments? Yeah, it is. There is a comment there. It's in that handout. The last comment in the handout that was comment number seven, I think. madam clerk if that's something you can provide us in the future that the other

it's one of that one before I get to some of my additional comments is the timeline that more critical just understanding you've mentioned the October 23rd date yeah which is four weeks or so out right so we've had a few of these meetings where a couple public hearings here, second public hearing here, in addition to other meetings we had prior to even this scenario, right? This go around. A few public meetings out in the community. At this point, we're still looking at the same four proposed plans that you had initially put together.

so at what point and how will we go about getting to to a finalized or fine basically the modification you mentioned plenty for example there's a comment that additional question about plenty but there was at least one speaker today who seemed to favor plenty I'm not sure if there were other other plans favored or mentioned in some of the community meetings but as you're gathering this information, getting feedback, both from council, community members, what is the process going to be to synthesize that and to say, based on what we've heard, we've modified plans XYZ to be, or two of them,

or whatever the case might be, to be what is kind of rising to the top as far as addressing the questions, concerns, ideas that are presented. Absolutely. Are we going to get that from you? Is that something we're going to do? And what's the timeline for that? To answer the first question, it was Windsor Village. Windsor Village, I guess there's a north and a south Windsor Village, and one of the plans, it splits that. So there was definitely some comments about that. We've also had other individuals from different neighborhood groups come up and talk to me and ask me about specific things for those neighborhoods.

So clearly the neighborhoods have been something that have been at the fore this whole time. The timeline is something that you definitely want to talk with your attorney about, but as I understand it, the agreement that you have set out as number of meetings and the structure of those meetings ending with November 20th, and that November 20th would be the meeting that presumably you would adopt the final plan at. In order to have a final plan adopted under the state law and under the agreement, I believe, it needs to be made public for two meetings. And in order to be made public for two meetings,

the meeting preceding that November 20th is October 30th. So in order to be public for two meetings, it would have to be created by October 23rd. I just wanted to mention that because it was a conversation that was at the last public hearing in order for the community and for you to understand kind of where we're at in terms of the timeline. How we go from one of the existing plans to a final plan is really up to the council and also to what input we get from the community groups.

As an example, earlier tonight, one of the rather organized community groups asked me about if they could get the shape files and they could propose actual adjustments to, and I think they were discussing potentially, adjustments to Plan D. If you or community groups provide input that says we want to do plan A, B, C, or D, but we want to make these three alterations, then that essentially gets put on my plate to draw those and to come back to the council with how those plans could work given the input that we might have received from the council and from the public. So it can be an iterative process.

The best thing really is to have the public or the council members make those kind of suggestions. In order for those suggestions to be on a final plan by, you know, the October 23rd date, we need to start, you know, essentially we have a month for that. All right. So, well, thanks for that input. And I would go back to the clerk to help us figure out, you know, because at this point we're getting verbal feedback and understand that if there is some type of specific iteration of a plan sent to you, then you would incorporate it.

Yeah, it would be to go through your city staff to suggest other alternatives. And the same thing for the public. The public has the website. The public can also send in a suggested new file to the city. We discourage people from sending anything directly to me because we want it to be on the record. We want it to go through the staff and the attorneys. So I think it will be important for council to get a better, more clear sense for the public as well. it sounds like there's some certain deadlines and I'm just getting a bit nervous that right now we're getting information, gathering information, but

there aren't any variations that are being worked on or presented. So just just at one point will the comments that we're hearing trigger you know those suggestions. It triggered those alterations. So I'll work on wrapping up here. The Plan D you mentioned

there were some modifications. So it goes to the same question you mentioned in your presentation that there would be a need to modify some of the population balances. So is that something that you work on? At what point does that happen? If we were to, as an example, if somebody were to come forward and say we want to make these two or three little changes or unify this neighborhood, unify that neighborhood, coming up with some things that they really want to see to make that plan better. In the course of doing that, I would suggest some alterations and present a plan. The final plan would really, really have small deviations

in the populations of each district. And any changes that I make from the plan that you have in front of you to a final plan, I would you know outline exactly what changes were made thank you thank you very much my last couple comments one is that the when if there was mention earlier about what has been somewhat of a natural boundary on one of the streets my mind that the riverbed has been a natural boundary to think we should we can look at so that there is a council district or council member basically there's two ways to look at the river that the riverbed the way one of the ways I see

it is that having a council district that is inclusive of all of the west of the rivers that there's somebody who's focused in that area i think is is something that merits us considering and i would also reiterate some of what you pointed out is that in a couple of the maps map c seems to be very very dense uh smaller an area very dense and also happens to be one of the areas where we have more of a working class think families and that might be something for us to to look at to try to balance out. I'll leave that as my comments for now, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? Yes, Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you.

Just very briefly, I know this is just a hearing. The approval of this before this council will be coming in October.

So there's October 16th is the next public hearing with an adjourned regular meeting on October 30th that will have the first reading of the ordinance. At that meeting is when you will have one map or three maps or however many maps are being considered, and the final map will be adopted at that council meeting.

And those maps before coming to the city council, will they be analyzed by our city attorney, by yourself, and others to making sure that we are in compliance with all laws before they come up here? Obviously, when we have community participating, providing input, providing maps, and then you have the city council that is going to opine and provide their input. There are times where sometimes we bypass certain things and we end up getting political and want certain districts to look a certain way because it's going to benefit one person or another and we can't move in that direction. We got to do what is right and it has to be fair

balance and as we move forward I would ask our city attorney at what point will Will those maps be coming before you to analyze them? Because you're going to need enough time to review those. And will you be reviewing those with a consultant before they come before this council?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

So, Mayor Pro Tem, we will largely be relying upon our outside special counsel you've met and presented to you the issues in closed session because she is an expert in the CVRA issues generally and will be interacting, already is working very closely. So the first iterations of these maps that you saw were built in consultation. They're working hand in hand. So in a short answer, yes, they will be reviewed by legal counsel to ensure that they are all legally defensible at the end of the day.

And will we be presented with a staff recommendation or with options for city council to approve? So say there is six maps and there's a recommendation by the consultant and attorney to recommend three because they're in compliance with the law. Is that the process that we will be taking?

Generally, in my experience doing this, I will only provide final plans that are in compliance with the law. But I do not make any recommendations as to a final plan. That is up to how you interact with your staff and how that's outside of my scope.

I would ask our city attorney, because I think we all know that this issue has been very political, and I have yet to voice my opinion. I have let this process go through, through a democratic process in letting the public participate. But it's unfortunate because we've had very little participation. Very little. And it's very disappointing and disingenuous when we sit up here and say that we want true community participation. when we did this at the last hour. And it's not right because we should do things the right way because these are going to have major implications in this city moving forward.

And we have yet to even go to the voters. And here we are in this process that this council will be approving, not the new council. And so it's disturbing for me on many levels. But again, we try to make these assumptions and have these perspectives that we are trying to do right by this community when at times we are not. And I believe that the way this process has gone down is not appropriate. And so I just wanted to voice that. And I'm hopeful that with professional consultants and our attorney that we will get a good product.

right the best product that we possibly can get so that if the voters do support this and approve this that we move forward in a fashion that we know that it wasn't political and it was the right it was the right direction in the right maps that we chose and then eventually we will be able to make that decision in the near future if this isn't you know fair or balanced thank

you mr. mayor mr. mayor thank you I think I had somebody on the left and then I'll come back. Go ahead, Council Member Villegas. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just really brief.

I totally agree 100% with what the Mayor Pro Tem was saying regarding this item. And I want the folks out there to remember that we were not getting sued. Please remember that we were not getting sued until, you know, there's a lot of theories out there about how this came about when we got served that lawsuit up here a while back. So just keep that in mind. And then, yeah, we're doing this before the November election. It doesn't make any sense. And we're also doing it before the census. But those are my comments. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Councilor Dinojero, please.

I think that one of the things that we have to recognize and remind ourselves, let me ask you a couple questions. Have you had any conversations with any of the council members up here regarding your studies? No. Ever since I've been hired by the city, I've had no individual conversations except to maybe say hello. Okay. The reason I bring that up is because we talk about political. This has been very apolitical. And we've hired a consultant to do a job. And the consultant has been giving us a report. Mayor Pro Tem Michelle Martinez voted against ward elections last time so

it's interesting to me how now it's they're very passionate about this the fact is this is that you're going to give us data personally I rely on the data that the experts give us to make a decision ultimately ultimately people have to you know mayor Pro Tem I stayed very quiet while I was listening to you If you could give me the same courtesy, I'd appreciate it. So my whole thing is this, is that give us the continued with the report. We're going to make a decision. That's where we are right now. That's where we are right now, and we're going to make the best possible decision based upon the information that you give us.

So I tend to stay pretty quiet in most meetings because I don't want to be out there talking for the sake of talking. I like to get the job done, and we're in a democratic process right now, and everyone has the right to speak. but I just want to make it clear that you have not been in contact with anyone else, that you're doing the job that you're supposed to do, and at the end of the day we have to make a decision, an ultimate decision. Thank you, Mr. Rear.

Thank you very much, Council Member. So with that, we've done everything, the public hearing, the speakers. I'll bring it back to Council.

We just received a follow-up, or what do we do, Madam Chair?

There's no action required on this meeting.

No action? Okay, so let's go on to the next item then, this public hearing for item 75B. It's a public hearing on the mixed-use overlay zone.

And we've already had a lot of discussion and comment, maybe something brief from staff, and then I do have some speakers that, three speakers that want to address this on the side. So maybe you can just summarize briefly the two actions that are before us today.

Thank you, Mayor. The two actions that are being for you today, one is the original recommendation that staff provided at the meeting of August 21st. And that's option one? That's option one. And then the second option is an option that was developed since the continuance of September 4th. Between that meeting and today, staff was able to take this item to the EDIBIT and receive some high-level comments regarding some of the concerns that were raised regarding the effectiveness of the EDIBIT as it currently proposed in attracting development that are being envisioned for the area.

So with that, the Edibit provided some high-level recommendations that are twofold. The first is to work with the Edibit to develop some high-level overarching strategies and goals, and within the next 30 days, develop that and make some recommendations to the existing main move for the City Council to consider in early October. So that's on the short term. on the longer terms to address some of the concerns about whether or not the MIMU has achieved its intended purpose in terms of being a catalyst for development,

being, you know, creating economic development for the area, is to work with the EDIBIT to go into a deep dive, you know, in terms of the economic impact analysis, fiscal analysis, even looking at potentially increasing the cap for development so that, you know, that has a longer term goal. but that would be something that would then be returned back to the the council as a whole so those were the the overarching comments that we received at the end of it and the recommendations

are before you as as they stand thank you for that if I may I want to open it up to the public I I have Howard Hall that wishes to address us, followed by Kathy Deckard and Desi Reyes.

Good evening and thank you. I'm Howard Hall. I've been on the board of directors of the Friends of the Santa Ana Zoo for 26 years now. I'm also an occupant of the Xerox Center building. My law firm occupies the 10th floor of that building. and I have the benefit of looking down upon the zoo, watching our new Ferris wheel spin around and earn money for the animals. And it also gives me a great view of the portal to the city that every attorney that's heading to all the courts goes through on First Street. And it's been such a concern of blight for all these years,

from going back from the Saddleback to now just the vacant land and all. And I would just, I don't understand all the issues about the larger amendment of the MIMU. Representing developers and coming from a family of a developer, my father was a developer in Texas, I know there's narrow windows on when you can build. All the financial world has to come together with the demand and the processing, and I understand that's very complicated. It would be my concern and my one comment is that we want to build this facility, a facility there at the portal for this fine city. We're very proud to call it our home for our business.

We'd love to have a hallmark attraction that benefits the zoo. It benefits all the other businesses that are operating within the city. So further delay, I understand that there's a greater goal to be achieved in drawing more out of the MIMU as you go forward. but please don't sacrifice this live one you have on a line with the current developer. They've been very proactive in working with parks. I believe that the 14 points that the parks for the benefit of the zoo had tried to raise, that those have all been resolved. I'll let Kathy Decker speak to that.

But they've so far been a very good future neighbor for us, and we'd like to see them come in. So thank you.

Thank you for that. Kathy please then followed by Desi Reyes. Hi Kathy Decker I've lived most of my life in Santa Ana and

worked in Santa Ana at the Santa Ana Zoo. I'm the Friends of Santa Ana Zoo Executive Director and I have always been a big proponent of anything that goes in that complements the zoo. So we would love to change the name of the street from Elk to Zoo Drive. We'd like to have things that complement the zoo along there anything that helps with the landscaping helps with the crosswalk you know i always talk about big jurassic park doors something that really helps make that a corridor that's special that when you come to santa ana it's something unique and special so i know

if we could work with the developer and have it something that complements the zoo something that moves forward cleans up that area is safe for our residents and our guests that come to the zoo i I mean, they come from all over. So it's really wonderful to have First Street get all those upgrades and just to be such a nice place. I mean, I lived right across the street from there for many years, and it would be nice to have all of that. So thank you, everybody, and we really appreciate it.

Thank you. Desi Reyes.

Good evening, Mayor. I'm Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member. It's been a while. I haven't been here, but I'm still here. I'm city resident Saddleback View neighborhood which is adjacent to First Street that's the south boundary of the neighborhood and I want to speak here as a resident not in representing the neighborhood First Street needs to be developed and like the gentleman said there's always a narrow window in in the economy that if you miss it it could be another 10 15 20 years is this working can you hear me it could be another 15 20 years before new new

development is brought into some area like first street it's very blighted there's a lot of hotels there motels that don't enhance the area at all and I wanted to bring you back back when the metro zoning was completed back in 26 or 27, 2006, 2007, there was a big project that was going to come in on the vacant parcel at 4th Street and the freeway. Well, guess what? 2008 came around, market crashed, nothing's

been built since. And that remains the vacant lot, which is blighted. So I'm in support of this metro overlay and to enhance the zoo and needs it I think it's going to improve that area it's a gateway to the city and it will bring additional development to the area we haven't seen much only 1901 been built since this metro east it's a nice complex it has enhanced the area so I'm looking for we're

looking for other opportunities like that. Thank you. Thank you for that. Seeing no other

speakers, I'm going to close the public hearing. So Madam City Attorney, the public hearing is now closed, and I'll bring it back to Council for consideration and discussion. Councilmember

Villegas please. Yes, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve item 1A. Just a

A little louder, please.

If I can approve item 1A.

You mean item 1A and B? Option 1 is what you mean? Option 1, yes. Okay.

I'll second.

Okay, we have a motion to second. Discussion? Pardon? Discussion?

Go ahead, Councilor Vince Armiento. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and it looks like there'll be votes to adopt option 1A tonight, so I'll speak to my colleagues up here and to those in the public. I don't think anybody is opposed to developing the Metro East Overlay Zone. In fact, we gave direction years ago to expand the existing boundary lines to go to Grand. It was a natural growth to move west of the 5 Freeway. I think we also want to see the Elks property developed, and I know it's held by the Wormer family now. That's clear. We all realize that there's opportunities that we can take advantage of.

First Street has been developing. It hasn't just been 1901. We see ground has been broken at the Amcal properties close to First and Grand. We saw that there's the Orchard property along First near Tustin. So First Street has been very active, and that's been a conscious effort on behalf of this council that is mentioned in the governing documents of the housing element and the consolidated plan. The problem is, how do you move forward? And are projects being responsive for the families here in Santa Ana? Or are we creating housing for those outside the city? And so that's the real dilemma.

I think there is an opportunity to develop intelligently, and there's an opportunity to just develop. So we can certainly develop and just open our doors and abandon our criteria, abandon our priorities, and abandon our responsibilities to our families here. We have in the city families living two and three to one unit, two to three families in one unit. If you look at some of the unit mix in the proposed market rate development, I have nothing but respect for the Wormers moving forward, but one bedrooms really aren't going to address the needs that families in Santa Ana need.

You know, we have large families, we have families that have three and four children, and where are they going to move to? So we're going to create a lot of market rate housing for folks that are not going to benefit who are living in the city. We need a market supply in general just so it will relieve some of the demand for housing, but it's the right type of housing that we're looking for. And again, we've already recited those in policy documents that are supposed to govern our decisions. And nobody is saying that we don't need market rate. We just need the developer to work with us.

And I know I've had very good conversations with the developer, and he seems like a good man. And they seem like a good team. They've developed a lot of affordable housing in their portfolio. The problem is that now we have rents continuing to increase, families being displaced. And if we're going to feel fine about displacing the families that are here and in their place having folks that are one to a bedroom and in studios, then that's fine. Let's make sure that we change our policy document and say that we're going to do that. But I think we do need some time.

All that we were suggesting is that we would take this back, study this for 30 days, and bring it back. But, again, my plea is that when we have a shortage of housing inventory, I just want us to look back at this moment because this is a 33-acre overlay zone. It's a massive, massive overlay zone. And so this is a departure from what the policy and governing documents have been. So if we're fine with that, that's okay. Let's just make sure that our policies and our governing documents reflect that.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Temp-Marquinez.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, if I could please have staff come up here. I have various questions as it pertains to the MIMU and also in particular to this project. Because it was my understanding what we were going to be discussing today was the overlay zone, not any new project. And so why we're even having this conversation of approving a project while approving an overlay zone. How did we get here? The city council made a recommendation to expand this overlay zone. So how did we get here today with a development project and an expansion of an overlay zone?

So I would ask the question that who gave the authority to this staff to allow this developer to pay $150,000 for this EIR that had to do with the MIMU? I want that answer today. I want to know because this city council never gave that authority. It never went to my committee. I would like that answer today. I want to know who did they work with on this staff to make this happen.

My apologies, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. As much as I'd like to give you that answer, as you know, I recently joined the staff, so I don't have that answer. That question has been asked, but no one has come forward with any information.

No one knows. Madam City Attorney, I am going to ask you, before this legislative body makes an approval, who gave the authority to a staff member to move forward to accept $150,000 to do an EIR with the MIMU? Who? I know this council did not do it. It didn't come to my committee. I would like to know who gave that authority.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

And Madam Mayor Procton, I don't know who did that. If you're asking me to look into that, I can work with the city manager to find out. But I don't know who did that. I will say for the record that the planning department does present to the city council a list of qualified EIR consultants. I believe that staff then chooses from those lists. But in terms of how it got financed and who made that, I would have to work with the department under the city manager's approval because I do not have independent authority to investigate. But I could look through it through the city manager's authority.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just very disturbing. And look, they have the votes fine. I'm gone in five more meetings. That's all you have of me. But this is a huge policy decision that is going to have major implications moving towards in the 21st century. When you have a commercial corridor that is going to be transformed into residential predominantly, possibly 11,000 more additional residents. When we all know financially this city is constrained and everyone is counting,

They call it a penny and a half sales tax, but they called it a homeless tax, which we all know it's not a homeless tax. They're counting on that. But the reality is this.

We have made many mistakes and we are continuing to move down this path again. And so I'm not going to say anything further. If you have the votes, fantastic. but just let me tell you this that your preferred future is determined on the policies that you set here today you're not going to need a crystal ball to know where Santa Ana is five years from today that's all I'm going to say I made that very clear to you all in 2008 when the city was moving towards financial insolvency and I'm going to tell you again that that day is coming

thank you Councillor Solario thank you mr. mayor this this project really started before i joined the council but i do know it's been in the works for for for about a couple of years and folks have known about it and i know we do have a committee system but not all items go go to committees and some of us aren't on committees because uh you know a variety of reasons but we i think in looking at that first street corridor as a number of the speakers have have have raised there have been some issues there is a lot of blight there is a lot of crime we have major assets like the zoo that could benefit we do need

housing in our community a variety of it whether it's for individuals families low-income market rate etc we also need economic development I know we continuously up here talk about doing economic development and doing the highest and best use for some of these vacant or underused parcels and so this is an opportunity to lift that community up and I was pleased to see some residents from that area speak in support. I think at some recent council meetings and we've discussed this a few times we did ask the staff to follow up on a number of things and they did respond verbally and in writing. I know

I and a few others had questions about the economics of these areas and there was some initial economic work done. I think there's additional work that needs to be done. But when we look at economic development overall and land use, the general plan is a good vehicle for that. And so I know I've mentioned that I'd like to see more focus on that as that continues to go through the process. And really, that's a better avenue to discuss the connection of land use with economic development, property taxes, other things as well. So for those reasons,

you know, I'm supportive. I know staff has been very involved with this and have been working with possible and potential developers, and, you know, I'm here in support. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments? Councilman Benavides?

this. Thank you, Mayor. So a few comments on this. This is a third time that this item has come before Council. And at the last, after the last meeting, we took the opportunity we had a Economic Development and the EDIBIT meeting, Economic Development. Yeah, what

I stand for yeah I know that meeting long committee ultimately it were

addressed economic development planning our land use as well so we had that the economic development committee of the council scheduled so members of the committee myself included asked to be able to have an opportunity to agendize this this item so we can discuss further and I'm one of the members of the Council that has expressed that I have had a number of questions. The concept of the Metro East mixed-use overlay zone of it moving forward, I don't think that anybody is opposed to it, myself included. There was some time back when we were looking at the fact, in fact I think it was first time I remember talking about

this, Councilman Sarmiento, Councilwoman Mayor Patem Martinez and myself, we had just been elected and I believe we were in a conference up in Sacramento League of Cities we're talking about just different opportunities for development within the city areas that needed some some attention and the first street corridor this commercial corridor its gateway into the city was one of the areas we discussed this is back and we were elected in 06 appointed 07 and so it was you know within the first quarter of 2007 a number of not too long ago maybe a couple of about a year year and a half ago or so we're talking about

once again how do we improve and create some some attention and investment in that first record or so the mixed Metro East mixed-use overlay zone seem like natural to to look at potentially having expansion however from that initial conversation from what I recall it things have been sort of radio silent we hadn't heard anything else any further discussion until it came before the before Council a couple weeks back. So this is a pretty significant action that we would be taking. It's designating a land use, providing a land use designation

to this key area gateway into the city, as was mentioned by some of the members of the public. So the conversation, and I thought we had some very fruitful conversation at the Edibit committee

where we discussed the intent of the mixed use, the Metro East mixed use overlay zone that would enhance development, allow for various types of uses, ensure that there is a mix of housing and commercial. A lot of the focus was around commercial, around economic development, around opportunity to be able to create both some revenue, create the destination, create places for some of the current residents and future residents of the city to be able to patronize business and have it be more of an urban village, if you will,

a place where people can live and then walk out their door and go and shop and have some experience as well. Something I think we would all invite and would look forward to. however to date it seems like the the existing plan hasn't quite come to fruition as we had planned so the and mayor actually sat in on the meeting last week as well some of the conversation again which I thought was fruitful led to how do we enhance how do we more clearly create that paint that vision create clarity as to what we would like to see as a city and as a council as policymakers to be able to see the improvement of that of that

corridor that's where the that item the second option came up there was two that were listed here on this item one was to move forward and then the second was was to be able to continue the item so that there would be if giving staff those 30 days to be able to to provide some of that that enhanced language in any case whether we move forward today with an approval or not I still think that that there is some opportunity to be able to have some continue that fruitful discussion so that within two meetings we could come back and have clarity if for whatever reason that's not the direction we go in what I would request

of staff is that we do continue that that stuff it does continue to be able to bring back from what you've heard from council how to bring clarity for future potential developments unfortunately this this has gotten messy to Mayor Portem's point, it was sloppy, and it's gotten messy in that now we have a project that's tied to this land use designation, and there's a policy discussion, and there's, unfortunately, there's a project that's been kind of held up and has been somewhat, you

detrimentally at a somewhat of a just uncertainty. And so ideally there was no project. We talk about this land use policy decision, have the council be able to vet that, discuss that, and then allow for projects to be able to apply through and go through the process. Unfortunately that's not the case here.

So what I would, regardless of what happens tonight, I still do think that ensuring that the purpose of the MIMU to be able to enhance and create some of that commercial development, create that balance between housing and commercial, it's critical. And I know that my time is up, but it is important, Mayor. It is. It is.

You stand up, but keep going.

A policy decision. This is what ultimately the greatest and most important charge that the public places on us as council members and policymakers is land use decision, land use designation, because it has implications and perpetuity for generations to come. And it's something that we should take seriously, and I think we do. So it is more than just one project and one developer and who they're connected to. and it should be what's going to be the impact to the city and to that corridor. So that is my comment. I would hope that we would even now entertain that conversation.

Would there be a detriment to be able to flesh out this a bit further and look at that option too? If that's not the case, then I would hope that we would at least give staff, the trust staff to be able to work out some of the comments that have been made to be able to continue to bring that back for Council.

Yes, Councilman. Is there anybody else that wants to speak that hasn't spoken? Go ahead. Go ahead.

I'll just make it really quick. Part of having this dialogue is part of our democracy and trying to come up with a way to find what best fits for our community. What I look at in making a decision is that this is going to bring in about 1.4 million dollars in property tax each year into the city's funds. It's going to bring in about 1.85 million to two million dollars one-time fees to the school district which also helps out but what really is something that I do

agree with Councilmember Sarmiento when he talks about is this really going to benefit people here in our community or benefit others who are moving into our community. That's a very solid argument that is difficult to respond to. What I do know is that when you look at housing, you look at Newport Beach, it's 2.2 per person. In other words, the housing ratio is 2.2. In Anaheim, it's 2.8 to 1. In Costa Mesa, it's 2.7 to 1. Here in Santa Ana, is 4.6 to 1. So we have a severe housing shortage.

And that property there, I think we have an opportunity to beautify that area, to enhance the zoo, and to make it a nice entry point into the city. So that's where I'm at.

Thank you. Brief comment, Councilor Sarmento. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And, you know, I think development is important. Nobody disputes that and nobody is trying to get in the way. In fact, I felt very troubled by this because we knew that we had some development projects and applicants that were in the existing boundary area that had been waiting for approval and consideration. So this has stalled them and, you know, it just backs things up. But I guess to your comments, Mr. Hall, and to your comments, Mr. Reyes, it's how we get to a decision. It's how we get to a development project.

We want it to be as pure. We want the integrity to be clean so we can be proud of this.

When I spoke to the applicant, he told me that his project was ready for consideration nine months ago, almost a year ago. But he was told by staff that he should delay so this could be considered in tandem with the overlay zone and the expanded area. To me, that was very unclear and just counterintuitive because we could have addressed his issue, he could have been probably breaking ground, and we would have had a project that we're all proud of.

What was odd is that I also found that, to Mayor Pro Temp's point, the applicant was made to pay not just for the environmental document that governs that project, but for the entire expanded boundary area. That's a very irregular thing to happen. That normally doesn't happen. So we have to wonder why they're now embedded and interwoven in an environmental document where we're going to be approving an expanded boundary area, and that project is going to be approved by right. No longer will we have any discretionary rights as a legislative body to make sure that it complies with everything that we're supposed to see.

So, you know, there's other information that, you know, the mayor came to a subcommittee where we addressed this. I don't think I've seen the mayor ever in the 10 years that I've served at any subcommittee. But he made it a point to go and attend, and to our city attorney's point, he may have violated the Brown Act and made us all violate the Brown Act as a function of that. So it's very odd how you get here. To develop is important and to hit windows of time is important. but it's how you get here as well. It's the means and we want those means to be pure and we want them to be right. What I've also heard is that the consultant

that helped the applicant is a former employee of the city. Her name is Jill Arthur. She left the city years ago and she left with a very very blemished and tarnished record and I know that the mayor is, by his own admission has continued to work with her but I don't know how much influence she's had in getting this project to where it is because it seems like everybody now on staff is burying their head in the sand and nobody is saying anything so that's a very odd thing as well that they don't know how we got here and for there not to be a record of this look things are going to happen as a

consequence of this so I'm as an attorney I'm compelled to make a record and I want this to be clear I want it to be in the minutes and I want it to be clear that when this project is challenged look we're all on notice so mr. City Manager madam City Attorney the responses that you've given and your staff has given to the questions that you've been asked tonight are very very they just don't meet the standard that we would expect from your staff and even though they weren't here and you weren't here you by all means when you bring some when you bring agenda items to us, you should know the legislative history and do your research

before you bring those before us and understand there's some dynamics here that are very strange. Thank you. And I don't think we should feel proud of any of it.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Go ahead and then I've got, I haven't had a chance to make any comment yet.

Just a brief point. In fairness to the current staff, primarily our our city manager and our new planning agency director. They've been here just a short time to put all this accountability on them. I'm not sure is appropriate. I think the key documents are before us, which are a number of documents and very thick. So the analysis was done, they made recommendations. At the end of the day, it's the responsibility of the folks up here, not the staff, to make a decision on whether to go forward with this or not.

And there have been, again, numerous meetings already here from the dais and in committees. So I think it is a little bit unfair to put the responsibility on the staff.

Okay, another very brief comment, Mayor Prokamp.

I just want to stay for the record because I did mention it to our city attorney today that you attending the EdBIT meeting was a violation of the Brown Act and number two that this project that's embedded with this overlay zone Seems like quid pro quo and that I will be sending a letter to the Attorney General to investigate

Thank you And with that, let me tell you why I think this is a good process and a good project The MIMU has been going on for a long, long time. It's basically an overlay where projects are allowed to be built. When the folks at Warmer's, which is the old Saddleback site, were doing their project, staff – and unfortunately we've had a lot of turnover with staff, but I understand it was Hassan, the previous director – suggested that they work together because they were they were in the middle of the project and and yes Hassan has passed away and

maybe rest in peace but I believe that that that was an appropriate thing to do if the EIR is not done you can't build a project so if people work together and share and the obligation the document the end of the day have to speak for itself and we have a very solid environmental impact report that will stand up to any challenge. This project I believe is a net benefit to the city. Not only does it generate the jobs and the 1.4 million dollars per year, but it's going to bring folks to an area of town that frankly has been dead. If you go by the Saddleback Inn where it used to be and you look at where the bridge

used to be, we took that bridge down six years ago. In six years since the bridge is gone, nothing has happened. And before that we had a building that was empty, that was burnt down, that we are trying to get people to raise it just because we had all the problems. And even today we have problems. There's homeless in the old Elks Lodge, which folks can't even tear it down because we don't approve this environmental impact report. So I think if we do anything other than approve it, it's just kicking the can, it's just stalling for more time and we just ought to move forward. I think it's a solid

plan, it's a solid project. Everybody's got a chance to speak. I call for the vote. Those in favor, please say aye. I do have a follow-up question. Do we have a second? Yes, we have.

I do have a follow-up question for the planning director. Go ahead, make it brief, please. At the meeting, the committee meeting, there were some... I'm troubled by the fact that we even have to, that we're discussing a project along with this policy, the zoning. But unfortunately, this is where we are. So there was some conversation had and some comments by the applicant on the project where they had mentioned, indicated, The primary concern, going back, is whether we'll have enough commercial development within this gateway, this really commercial corridor into the city.

It seems like there would be a potential for the majority of the development there to become housing. That's where there is, at least at present, a lot of interest, a lot of when we see the economy, the trending majority of development, and where there is a significant return on investment is on housing development. So I think some of the hesitation is that it could potentially become primarily housing, and some of the other amenities might be missing from that area. However, at the meeting that the applicant indicated there are two buildings that are part of the project,

and that they would consider having the building that rests along First Street to revisit that part of the project and to enhance the commercial component on their project. Am I correct in that? Mayor, you were there. You can confirm whether that's the case or not, and I'm curious whether there has been any conversation and if they're still committed to and interested in doing that. Certainly, you know, we did hear the applicants represented, I believe it was Mr. Don, I forgot his last name, but representing warmers.

He did mention that they were open to revisiting the mix of the project in terms of residential versus commercial and do some enhancement. But obviously commitment needs to be made, and it's made at the time when we review the project. So we haven't had further conversations since that meeting with the applicant. That was a comment that was made, correct, Mayor? You were there? Yes, there was a lot of comments made. with regard to if we pass the the approve that the mix that the me move right now that expansion is there potential that it would be potent

from predominantly housing I'm looking at even considering that the the mix on this project with 600 that believe 600 some units and so in my I'm sorry yeah so well that's in essence so in my review I'm gonna cut it off go ahead in my review of the existing Mimu language certainly does inspire a variety of vision to create that urban village as you mentioned it talks about looking at pedestrian oriented development looking at economic development and creating destinations that allows for both retail commercial office commercial and residential really creating a place for people to live work and shop but since

2007 I think some of the project that has come on board as you can see is not I think the concerns I've heard is that the existing regulations, the way it's been implemented, has not attracted the kind of development that has made that vision a reality. So that's where we are now. If there were refinements that were to be made as recommended by the Edibit, there could be potential for stronger language that would allow for making sure that that's more of an emphasis as we move forward.

If the MIMU were approved tonight, does it preclude staff from working on refining that language and incorporating it for future projects to be presented for future projects? It doesn't. I don't think it does, in my opinion. But what it hasn't, I guess really the question for me is that does it reflect what some of the concerns that I heard and are we able to take those and translate into stronger emphasis so that it helps with the implementation? does it stop us from doing that today? Absolutely not. We're able to work with developers to make that happen, but I think without a strong vision,

without an alignment to what the council members here see as what the MIMO could move forward, it would be helpful for staff to have a unified message.

All right. So with that, I thank you. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

No.

Those opposed? No.

We have two no's, four ayes.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor, I'd just like to do this as an unusual thing, but it is to state for the record if the city clerk could report the votes out.

Roll call vote is fine.

Council Member Sarmiento?

No.

Council Member Tinejaro?

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Martinez? Yes. Mayor Toledo? Council Member Benavidez?

I'm not going to be voting for it tonight.

Council Member Villegas?

Aye, yes.

Council Member Solorio?

Aye.

We have a 4-3 vote.

Thank you. So with that, I turn our attention to the next item.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to continue this item for two weeks. Was it 4-2?

4-2-1, I think is what it was. I think I heard Council Member Benavides abstain.

So it's a no.

Okay.

Mr. Mayor, I would like a two-week continuance to work with staff on this consolidated annual performance evaluation. I'd like to continue that for two weeks.

Second. 25D? 75D. 75D, but what about did we do 75C madam? Let's do 75C first. So 75C is a public hearing resolutions to authorize negotiations for the sale of fortunes of city-owned real estate, 1301, 1305 West 12th Street do we have any speakers at which addresses Rick Marshall and Karen Rodriguez all right Greg Marshall if you could come on up Rick Marshall and then Karen Rodriguez

good evening council members I'm a property owner of a strip mall on the corner of Washington and Bristol. It's right adjacent to the two vacant lots that we're talking about here tonight. We're hoping to purchase the lots from the city to develop into a parking lot because we had to give up 3,000 square feet of our existing parking lot for the Bristol Street widening project.

Is that good?

Thank you. Karen?

Hello. My name is Karen Rodriguez. I am a resident from Santana. I'm also organizing with Accord. I would just like to take this moment to say that I oppose any sale of city-owned property without transparency and community input. You all are city council members who are elected by residents in Santana, so your main priority when thinking about further development in the city should be to see how it benefits the people in it. You know, there was a lot of talk about the development coming up, and as Michelle Martinez was angry, imagine how the residents feel

when you don't take them into consideration. So we know that organizations and residents have been reaching out to you all to take them into consideration, sit down with them, listen to them, and hear their thoughts as to how you should disperse and sell these property. I just want to remind you all that this is city property, and again, the people in the city should have a say.

And so with that being said, in our fight to acquire affordable housing and open space for its residents, the community needs representation, but it also needs transparency and accountability from you all. We know that it's possible to have residents in these committees and talk with these developers and choose. They should have more say as to how their community dictates their space. So again, I would just like to remind you all that you work for residents and you represent residents.

So please, in accordance to this development, make sure you remember that there are people who need housing, who need open space and who would like to sit down and talk with you regarding this issue.

Thank you. So with that, is there anybody else that wishes to address City Council? Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and bring it to Council for consideration. Councilor Solario.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I was one that wanted a continuous on the site and for more information. But I think there are some legal questions as well, and I know our City Attorney maybe is... Can somebody get our City Attorney?

She's outside the hall there.

If we could bring her up, that would be great. Here she comes. While she gets settled, I'll just start with a little bit of overview. I agree with some of the comments made about process and transparency. I actually, I think it was probably a month ago when this item came up, I had some reservations about it because I know we've been trying to work on a policy that addresses all the vacant or underused lots that we have citywide and having a good and open process for that. I know there's still work to be done on that, apparently.

But in the meantime, we do have certain corridors like the Bristol Street corridor where there's been a lot of construction, a lot of anxiety, stress, parts of businesses or homeowners land,

And they've been accommodated for at fair market value, etc. But that is a major corridor. A lot of people travel that corridor. And so in areas where there's available land, I know there's been interest from neighboring property owners or folks citywide that want to see what's happening with that land. And I was concerned that the city was making an arrangement with one property owner for adjacent land where there are, in my view, multiple lots throughout that quarter that have possibly similar considerations.

Staff did do an analysis as we had discussed to see what kind of comparable pieces of land there were. And so I'll mention them. Some comparable pieces of land are 1247 West End and Boulevard and 515 and 517 North Bristol Street that really maybe don't make themselves accessible for a brand new use if you will. Maybe they are better used by surrounding property owners. I'm okay with moving forward on this process with a legal question.

But having said that, I would like staff to reach out or notice additional property owners around the other three parcels to see if there's interest. Because what I don't like is special consideration where somebody raises their hand, but there are comparable considerations elsewhere and others aren't given that opportunity. My question, that's a legal question, because indirectly it was addressed by one of the participants and we received the letter as well. given the timing and the situation here, are we legally able to, with notice and time given, are we able to sell this parcel?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes, if you're talking about the property that's listed in the staff report, we would be selling this pursuant to Section 2-709 of your municipal code, which allows for the exception for you to sell the parcel in this manner by, I believe it's a two-thirds vote of the city council.

Okay, okay, so that's the consideration and the exception. So with that, I am supportive and I do appreciate the staff's work, but again, a little bit more work to be done in that we have some related parcels that I think should be treated equally. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you. I've been consistent with my messaging and I had a conversation with our city manager yesterday. I'm going to be a no vote. I do want to thank our public works director for putting a comprehensive report together. But I've made it very clear for many years and prior to you, Mr. City Manager, it was David Cavazos and I asked him and his staff to embark on creating a plan of what we were going to do with Bristol. and they put that matrix together. We then asked to put a policy of how we would move forward with those surplus properties. And, you know, we then had Director Churchme come and work with our community

and provide something that came before this council. No action was taken. And so here we are when we say we are going to be transparent, that we're going to have a process of how we're going to move forward with city-owned property. Trust me, I'm one of the first to say that I want to get all city-owned property on the tax rolls. We need to do that. But we need to do it in a deliberate process, one that is open and transparent, and that it moves forward from a council policy decision and not from an administrative or staff.

And here we are making recommendations without a process that this city council said it wanted to go through. and certainly I'm not putting any blame on you Mr. City Manager you had your staff present this to us not once but three times and it fell to death years and we didn't take any action on this dais and so now we're here and so because a process hasn't come before us or a policy I cannot support this until we have a process and a policy to move forward with any other future city-owned

property. Thank you. Any other thoughts? Councillor Sarmiento. Thank you. So I'm

not opposed to the sale of these parcels either. I don't think anybody is. I guess the concern I had is again a procedural one to make sure that we've been asked and over and over again and I want to thank our new community development director to have sort of taken some of the information from his predecessor in the requests that have been made by some community leaders to be part of the process in selecting what future these parcels have. As you know, this isn't our land. This is the public's land. We're just stewards trying to make sure that we get not just the highest return and the

highest value for that public land, but also the best use, a community use, something that our residents are going to be able to benefit from. So I don't know why it appears, and I know I've spoken to individual staff members, I guess the question that could never be answered is, is it possible to have a community member, a neighbor, a resident, a homeowner, to sit on that board or committee when these properties are being put on the market and listed and their use is being discussed? I would think that since the public since this is the public's property wouldn't they have a right to sit down and comment and be part of the process

is there anything that would violate our charter violate our municipal code or

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

violate state law councilman Brett have to know a little bit more about that but I would think that if that committee was formed by the city madam city attorney

we've received several letters of correspondence from folks who've been asking that very thing, and I know that I've read several reports and documents delivered by community members, and they've asked that simple question, that if they could have a seat at the table.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

That's a policy issue. I thought you were asking about the legal issue. Were there any legal issues? Right. Well, I'm asking both. Okay, so I can answer the legal issue. I'll leave the policy questions or how that is. But I was just going to say that I think the only thing we'd have to look at is if a committee or commission is formed by the City Council, and if those members are reporting under the Political Reform Act, they could potentially have the same type of conflict that you all have if their property is...

Assuming they're not anywhere near a conflict, they don't have any economic benefit or interest.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

If they were outside and did not have economic interest, there would be no problem whatsoever. That's the only issue I think I would have.

And I'm not talking about forming a committee. There's already folks from staff that are going to be discussing this, because this is done by a team. And so, you know, is it, what is, I guess, what's the argument against having somebody, a member of the public sitting on a committee?

So I'll take a stab at it, and then I'll have my executive director of CDA also add in. It's highly unusual. I don't know of any city that has that kind of a policy. In fact, we don't have a committee currently in terms of how properties get recommended for disposal. It's sort of been fragmented, as is the case in a lot of cities where properties controlled by the public works department will determine how to do that, and properties held by the housing authority or former redevelopment agency would sort of manage their properties. So what staff was recommending is a committee made up of staff, internal staff, from different

departments that would look for the best and highest use in terms of recommending how to dispose of a particular parcel. But those meetings would be open to the public, allow for public input. We would notify the surrounding community or neighborhood of a parcel that was being proposed for disposal. So it was super transparent and super cumbersome, as a matter of fact, in an effort to try to be as transparent as possible. The only thing that they did not offer is a seat at the table for community members. So that's a policy call. I personally thought that we'd have to then come up with how do we choose those community members,

and then we have the potential for conflict, as the city attorney mentioned. So that's why I did not recommend it. But certainly it's a policy call.

Well, we just did something that was very highly unusual before this decision. So, look, we're on a roll. So maybe giving a roll to somebody from the community isn't that far-fetched. So adding an additional chair to a committee of our staff, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to that.

And I would support that as well. I would support that as well.

All right, Councillor Saladio. Yeah, just one comment. I'm open to it, and I think we need public participation via a few levels. I mean, this diastole is made up of residents, so there is public oversight, obviously. But we have several commissions, and so maybe these kinds of decisions can also go to commissions for consideration. We all have appointees there. If there is anything separate to that, for balance and variety, maybe there's a variety of residents, maybe a neighborhood association rep, maybe a nonprofit rep, maybe a chamber of commerce rep,

so that there's fairness and a variety of opinions around the table. But I do feel that we have several commissions that are staffed already that maybe that would be a good avenue as well. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor?

Yes, Mayor Potem. I would like to make a motion to move in a different direction based on what I hear on this count, the dais up here today, to direct staff to come back with a process and options of what that committee would look like, whether it is through what Councilman Soloro just mentioned, through commissioners that already have been established throughout the city and or the hybrid that Councilman Sarmiento is speaking of, if that can come back to this council. I know a lot of work has already been done. I think the last step was this committee.

And so if we can bring this to the next council so that we could have a policy in place and or the direction and option to form a committee of community folks.

I'll second that. Okay. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries.

Okay. So we'll bring something in terms of a work study session. Fine.

No work study session. It's a recommendation to do action.

Right. No, I think that it, well, what we're going to recommend, Mayor Prattam, is if I could come back with a work study with options, get input, get discussion, we come back with the actual final product after input. I think it might be a little bit easier to work with that. Because otherwise I don't know.

I think a lot of work, Mr. City Manager, has been done with the former Economic Development Director. I think the last point that we needed to discuss was the issue of a committee, so I don't think we need to do a study session. I think it's providing us the options is what we would like to come before us.

Thank you. Okay. All right. We're on to the next item.

We were stuck at them wanting six committee members. Not the one. The last version that this council saw. So give us that option.

one member versus six members and what that would look like. Thank you.

And Mr. Mayer, if we could have a vote on item 75C. Because what we just had a motion was on a separate direction, a separate item, but 75C, I don't think we've had a vote on that yet.

Alright, so I'll entertain a motion on 75C, the original. Madam City Attorney?

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, it was, yeah, it is 75C, the disposal of the property.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I thought that the motion was not to dispose and to give staff direction. Right, that's what the vote was. Yes, that's the vote.

Oh, so not dispose, I thought that was a separate thing. That was the vote.

That's the vote.

I see, okay.

All right, 75D, go ahead, Mayor Procter.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, we'd like to continue this item for two weeks.

We're going to continue for two weeks.

Okay. So we're continuing that. Is there a second? Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The opposed motion carries.

85A, who wants to take that? Councilman Tinajero? I'm going to let Sarmiento go ahead. Councilman Sarmiento start.

Yes, thank you. So I'll go ahead and lead off and be the lead batter for

Excuse me, we have the superintendent and a board member here. Why don't you guys come on down because you're going to speak shortly.

We did, so I'm hoping I'll go ahead and cede the floor to them so they can go ahead and speak to this item as well because this is hopefully what I consider to be a future joint effort between this body and the San Antonio Unified School District. So it's been fairly well revealed in the media and thank you Madam Superintendent, Madam President and Trustee for joining us but this has been you know something that came to my attention and it didn't come through by you know the media or

anything else. A personal friend of mine who's an assistant high school football coach was present the night of the football game between Santa Ana High and Aliso Viejo, and I'm not sure if you know Tim Smith, but Tim Smith is a dear friend who we've actually recognized here at a city council meeting. He's also a pastor, and he's also a former Valley High School student. In any event, he was there and he sent me a text message about what was occurring the night of the event, and we spoke, and he was very, very unsettled by what he saw, what he heard, and it really made me

very it disappointed me and saddened me and then I started seeing some of the photographs and the images and seeing some of the social media posts that were made against principal from San Anaheim and so look I know I had a conversation with you madam superintendent at an event I think last week and the reason why I wanted to put this on before this body was to make sure we can be as supportive as we can in your efforts that you've already let off and you've mentioned to me that you're going to be starting discussions with your counterparts in in Aliso Viejo and maybe some other cities that feel hopefully

compelled to be part of the solution because I think this could be a teaching moment right I think there were some very unfortunate things that I heard that were said and this this wasn't covered by the media this was by you know firsthand information and you know it's funny you wouldn't look at it You wouldn't think about it if you saw me, but I played football once in my life. And we had bigger pads. He was the ball. I was a kicker. No, I wasn't. I was actually a receiver. But in any event, I remember some very disparaging comments being made back then, right? And so that was years, you know, 35 years ago, 40 years ago.

And you would think that those comments would be dead and gone, and they wouldn't be uttered any longer. but the same comments that were recited against your players were used against some of our players years ago. And so it's very troubling. It's very saddening. And again, not to talk about the veracity of what was said, and that's not what we're here to do. I guess what I wanted us to do is just avail ourselves and avail our help and our effort to make sure that this problem is addressed appropriately. So with that, I'll go ahead and turn it over to my colleague.

Yes, and part of the reason why I decided to sign on on this with Council Member Sarmiento is that, I take it personally, these are our students. And when I spoke to some of the students, my son goes to Santa Ana High School. So when we talked to his teammates that were at the game and people that were there, and I wanted to double check and make sure that what was being said occurred. I didn't want to jump to conclusions. But the information that kept coming back from different folks who were there, some people that are extremely credible, that don't hyperbolize,

and they explain what was discussed by some people. And in no way do we want to say that the entire community of Eliso Viejo feels the same way. Unfortunately, there's a handful of individuals who created this issue. But I do believe that there are some leaders in that community who also instigated some of this. And I'm going to be very direct because, you know me, I don't like to beat around the bush. The mayor's wife said some horrible things about our principal at Santa Ana.

and she has no concept to what extent that principal goes out of his way day in and day out to provide services for our kids. That school had a huge, years ago, had a high number of suspensions. That's been completely turned around to the point where it's the most populated school in our district. Sal, can you just make it clear that it was not this mayor that's a mayor of Elisa?

I'm going to ask you.

For the record. Thank you.

I'm going to clarify. It was not your wife.

The mayor's wife of Elisa Viejo. And, you know, one of the things that really struck me was that how easy it was to go ahead and demonize a person like that. And so I think we owe it to our students to let them know that we're always behind them 100% of the way. But I do want to say this, and this is important.

You have two superintendents who quickly got on the phone, had a conversation, and said, let's make this a teachable moment for all of our students. Let's have open dialogue. And so that is what leaders are supposed to do in situations like that. Never forgetting the hurt that our kids have to deal with. And I think what people don't understand is when you are a minority,

the first derogatory comment that you hear is usually when you're in elementary school. And it hurts. And then you go to an adult, and the adult usually tells you, just ignore it. don't pay attention to it that's what we're taught then you hear it again and again you're told to ignore it it's okay just don't listen to them they don't know what they're talking about they're ignorant then you get older and you hear it again and you tell yourself to ignore it and not pay attention to it well i'm 47 years old i'm tired of ignoring it and i don't think we should ignore it

And so that is why we need to have these conversations, and that's where we're going to have change. So I'll leave it at that, and I'd like to yield the floor to you leaders that lead our children into success in our district. Was there any other comments? I'm sorry.

Please, President Emesqua.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Temp-Martins. I appreciate it. I want to thank you very much for bringing this forward and discussing this tonight and supporting us. superintendent can go into a little bit of detail but let me just tell you we are making it a teaching moment and there are electeds in south county that are also being very supportive and immediately on saturday morning they called me at seven o'clock in the morning val how can we help you and we're very sorry and let's move forward but let's look at it first and so we have been doing that as a board working with the superintendent and the cabinet and all

the staff. Mr. Bishop is an amazing principal and the school we're working with them for the healing process. It's been all over the media and national news but we are going to help our children heal and how are we doing that we're working with the Orange County Human Relations Commission we're gonna and I'll let Dr. Phillips talk more about that, bring our districts together because as a board and all of us we do not want to create a bigger problem. I become the talking heads and we miss the point that it's about our children. It's about how do we help our children navigate this political climate. How do we help them as Councilman

Tina Harrell said, it starts in elementary school right back then we'd say it's okay mijo and you know and say you're sorry and we move on and we end up playing together on the playground but then as you get older it resonates more and it's deeper and the cuts become deeper and so for us it's about teaching our children that first of all I want to say let me just back a moment our children were classy they didn't say anything they didn't do anything and they represented us well and that's what we've taught them to do and that's because of Mr. Bishop and his staff and the entire district but we are using this as a teaching moment

for everybody who's watching across the country because we have school districts across the county that have reached out to us and want to have a summit with us and that's what we'll be doing with the Orange County Human Relations Commission. And so we're going to bring our schools together so that they can start healing. And it really isn't about them, you know, because not all of them said something or did something. It was those few. And so, but those few created all of this mess that we're in right now and that we're working on healing.

And so I'll leave you with this, you know, because some people in the community, even our community, are like, well, we're making it a bigger thing than what it is. well when you're walking to the bus and you're in our band and somebody tells you go back to the strawberry fields where you belong and it's a bad day to be Mexican isn't it you can't leave that there you can't leave that there but that's powerful it's powerful because when people think of Santa Ana they think oh those kids are all gang members oh they're all poor no we're not all gang members no we're not I don't think any of you are

right none of us are all the audience and even if even if i was so what you still treat people with dignity and respect that's the bottom line always because we are all the same and so i'll just leave you with that and so our kids when they say to us what how do we that hurts like that was that hurts and so um we're working together and so i do want to thank you again for bringing this forward and I'll turn over Dr. Phillips thank you thank you council mayor all the council members you know the support that we've gotten in the outreach from our not only our fellow districts but from council people from governing board

members from the other district from Capo has been incredible because I think that although a few people really did some damage to our kids and that is unacceptable there's a lot of people out there who want to do the right thing and who want to be a part of the solution. So that's the point that we're trying to make throughout the county, is that, you know what, we can all grow and we can all learn together. And so Santa Ana is going to lead that. Santa Ana is going to partner with Capistrano Unified and the County Office of Education and bring all of this to some level of positive conversation

because not only do our kids need to learn from this, we need to learn from this. Let them teach us how to resolve this in a different way than what we were brought up being exposed to. As an African-American young woman and as an African-American child, I too had some of those same experiences, different community, similar experience, and that was hurtful. And I've never wanted my sons to experience that, but unfortunately they have as well. So it's time to break that cycle and create a different conversation so that our kids know how to do things differently. Not just our kids, all the kids,

because all kids deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and we have to teach that and we have to lead with that. And so I really appreciate the fact that the council is behind us. We knew that you were, but this is a huge statement to us, and we will continue to keep you in the loop as things develop. We're just really, really pleased with the way our kids behaved, with the way they have handled themselves, and their ability to move, forgive, and learn and move on. So I'm just really proud to be a resident in Santa Ana and proud to be the leader of the school system. So thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Jose Solorio.

Yes, I just want to thank the electives and the superintendent as well. I think we were all very touched by what happened. I think given the national politics emotions kind of are high on both sides, and situations like that happen fast, and maybe we heard some things, said some things, but what is real is a feeling of the students. And I think a lot of harm is done at the elementary level, but for some of our kids, they don't see somebody non-Latino until older. They've never been to the beach. They've never been outside of the county. So the encounter situation like that, it touches them in a way that can be harsh.

And that's why things like ethnic studies are very important. And that's why this kind of dialogue between the districts is important. I know several of the school board members at Capital Unified reached out to school board members, the staff, also some of the council members, myself included. So I do know that they do have some very caring leaders in that community as well. Not just that other person that was mentioned previously, but I do want to thank the professionalism that the school board members and the superintendent showed in this because it's also just very easy to just solely

react based on emotion and we need to turn this into a way to build character and learning and understanding so thank you so much as you all know my wife is a proud teacher there at Santa high school and teaches ethnic studies so she's taking this an opportunity to talk about really the students and what it means for them and how to move forward but thank you as well

councilman so Laura please thank her because she's been working very closely with her children in her classroom and you're right ethnic studies is very important and as a district we have it I believe we have six different classrooms we're expanding again you know that is an area that we are expanding and just like we're expanding in other areas but it's very important so that they understand we understand and we are going to be sharing with them about a little bit of ethnic studies a little healing circle so we're we're going to be doing all that with Orange County Human Relations so but thank you for your

support as well thank you for the good work thank you so with that let me bring it back to Council I think all we have are some public comments do you want to go first because you're standing with your hand raised why you speak when you do public comments because you're going to be speaking in a minute here Donna

Lane we need action you need any direction on 85a is there just because it was direction to staff so if it's go ahead just so just so it's reflected as presented in the in the agenda item that we are going to support the efforts and And the affirmative.

Okay, so we'll move the item. Second. Those in favor, aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. Okay, Donna Lane.

Yes, Donna Lane, West Floral Park Neighborhood Association President. First, I would like to thank the Santa Ana Police Department. I think they're gone, most of them. Code enforcement, Councilman Solario, for helping close down, shut down the Happy Times Cyber Cafe. That was quite a dramatic shutdown, but all the residents were quite impressed. So thank you for all of your efforts on that, because we had many, many terrified neighbors with them as a neighbor.

Second of all, you were talking about parking tickets and getting revenue from that. Well, I have another idea. Come to our neighborhood around school starting time or school exit time or any time on town or speeding has become a real issue in our neighborhood. Not stopping at stop signs has become a real issue in our neighborhood. And I understand Floral Park. It's the same way. And I do know with all the construction going on, rerouting, people are cutting through the neighborhood.

But just have a cop out there once or twice a week, and I'm sure you can get lots of revenue for the city with all these tickets of these people. Anyway, we would appreciate some attention. And just another aside, please, please, please work very hard in getting a full staff on the Santa Ana Police Department. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next speaker, Raul Nolasco.

It is my privilege to stand in front of Commander Polito and his regime. I'm asking Commander Polito and his regime to prevent computer intrusion at SAPL. Computer intrusion must be stopped for three reasons. First, computer intrusion can get in the way of writing to the most powerful man on earth, Donald J. Trump. Second, computer intrusion can get in the way of writing to the beautiful, fortune-ranked Ivanka Trump. Third, computer intrusion is nonsense when reaching Jersey Shore stars, typing up tweets, or writing to the chief. Commander Polito, stop the computer intrusion now at SAPL. We're taking over the world.

Those in favor say aye.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Gabriela Gonzalez.

Thank you so much and good evening. Again, my name is Gabriela Gonzalez. I represent Casa de la Familia, or CDLF Counseling. We provide mental health services to the city of Santa Ana and Orange County for the past two decades. And I am here to promote our domestic violence awareness campaign for the month of October. I know it's not October, but I know you guys have busy schedules. And also to ask for your support. We're working in partnership with the Santa Ana Public Library on a series of workshops and events to raise awareness, to provide education, and provide links to services for our community.

We believe that one family that's suffering in silence is too many. So we're really excited about that. We're going to kick off those events on Thursday, October the 4th. So we invite the council to join us in that kickoff event at the Santa Ana Public Library. We've sent information over to your offices, and we're hosting a domestic violence awareness concert at the San Adam Public Library on Saturday, October 13th. That's free and open to the public with partners like CalOptima, Orange County's Credit Union, Human Options, and others. Lastly, we're also doing and hoping to promote a Go Purple lighting initiative.

We sent a proposal to the city manager's office. we're hoping to get your support in raising more awareness by lighting buildings landmarks in Santa Ana in purple we don't want this to be something that's costly for the city but hoping to work with the resources we already have like the Santa Ana Transportation Center they have those big strobe lights we can get gel filters and that can change the lighting purple the Santa Ana Public Library is on the list the Santa Ana water tower is a huge site. I know that proposal's already sent in. And there's a few things on the list. City Hall, downtown Ford Street. So there's

I think things that we can do that will not cost the city money, but that will help us in raising more awareness so that our families are living safely and enjoying our city, not fearing our city. So thank you. Hope you guys can support

us. Thank you for your comment. Mr. Dale Helvick followed by Connie Hamilton.

Connie left, okay.

Yeah, Dale Helwig, Park Santiago Neighborhood Association. Just wanted to say, I think 85A, I'm glad you guys brought that up. I think it's important, and I hope everybody has a positive learning moment out of it. I had some stuff to say about 2525, but with only three of you there, I don't feel like I need to waste everybody's time on it right now. I find it disappointing that everybody disappears on public comment time. We stick around here. We want to give a message to people, and you guys aren't even here.

I apologize. I'll send you guys all a letter with what I was going to say. I echo that, and my sincere apologies for that.

Thank you, Mr. Helvet. Peter Katz, followed by Michael Plantamura.

Yeah, the input that the public gives is very valuable, you know, and I echo those same sentiments. As long as we go through time, things don't seem to change very much. We've come a long ways, but they haven't. Back in 1968, I was arrested for drinking out of the wrong water fountain in Jacksonville, Florida.

So we have a lot of teaching moments. What I would like to say is a new survey just came out by the state of California that now shows that 49% of the residents of this state are now below the poverty line. So we're going to raise the sales tax by 1.5%, making it 9.25, the highest in the county, and putting us only a half, I believe, below the state maximum that you can allow under the Constitution and yet we're drifting towards insolvency I think a citizen advisory overboard is needed if the sales tax passes we need to find a

way to retire this retirement debt because not only Santa Ana but many cities are heading towards bankruptcy and so if you get to 60 million dollars a year we can't squander it away we have to find a way to pay these bills because I've heard other cities working this direction and it's gonna get scary I have a newspaper article here from November 11th, 1911. It talks about the Lazaro family in the Eastside neighborhood in Santa Ana, how they dream of owning their own home. That was almost 10 years ago. In 10 years, that neighborhood hasn't changed very much, and those same dreams are being

inspired by young kids. But the problem with it is, no matter how much you build for affordable housing, people come in from outside because it's cheaper in Santa Ana. So that dream will never be realized in the city of Santa Ana. You have to come up with an outside the box idea. You have over 2,000 state, federal, and county and city workers that work in the city of Santa Ana, but 85% of them live outside the city of Santa Ana. We have to create an incentive to make people that get these jobs in our city give them some type of incentive like we do with law enforcement and firefighters

to purchase property and live in san anna they're spending all that money that they make in san outside the city so that's the only way you're going to stop gentrification of housing being built all you're doing is creating more poor residents in the city we're not giving incentives for people to stay and live in the city these people are making decent good money we have to find a way to say hey don't live in Orange and work in Santa Ana live in Santa Ana and work in Santa Ana these are good jobs thank you mr. Kasky wrap it up please yeah I will I just wanted to say one more thing is I just want to remind

everybody tomorrow night there's a debate at the Delhi Center for all the candidates running for City Council and for mayor so if you want to hear the questions answered to these candidates please show up 505 East Central Avenue in Santa Ana from 6 to 8 p.m. It's Wednesday, September 19th. There's also one at the same location on Thursday, September 20th, put on by the Chamber of Commerce. So I appreciate people come out and exercise your vote and get out the vote. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Katz. Michael Planta-Mura.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

May I just ask how many cards we have remaining? Council Member Villegas?

We have four more.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Okay, I just want to just note for the record that our City Council meeting will be deemed adjourned for lack of a quorum. However, you may continue to hear your public comments, and I would encourage you to do so as these meetings are taped, and we did have individuals who waited to speak this evening. We will continue with public comments for the record. So I would recommend that you proceed, but for purposes of the minutes, we are officially adjourned. Thank you, Madam City Attorney.

Thank you, Council Members, and thank you very much for staying late. I know it's been a long day, and I very much appreciate your participation in the public comments. My name is Mike Panamera. I live in Park Santiago. I'm here to talk about the 2525 Main Street Project. My wife Karen and I moved into the Park Santiago neighborhood over 14 years ago. We both grew up back east and fell in love with the neighborhood because it reminded us of our early years. Single-family homes, all different with character and charm, large yards and friendly neighbors.

We both get a kick out of our friends' reactions when they first come to visit our neighborhood. They are very surprised because they picture Santiago as an overcrowded and overly crowded houses with lots of apartment buildings and the blight that goes with it. They never realize that Santa Ana has neighborhoods like Park Santiago. They, too, love the neighborhood. However, this story points out the problem with image that has been fed over the years by bad city council decisions in feeding the overly crowded apartment-filled vision of Santa Ana by siding with contractors instead of the residents.

when it comes to high-density building projects. As you know, currently over 32% of the housing units in Santa Ana are apartments. And the project that we're talking about, 2525 Main, is primarily studio and one single family, I mean, one-bedroom apartments. I think it's like 60% or 70%.

With all the recent activity of pushing more apartments, we're getting closer and closer to 50% of our units being apartments. The 2525 Main Street project, if approved by the Council, continues to feed the negative image of Santa Ana. It is threatening to turn our unique, charming Park Santiago neighborhood into another French park experience. By eliminating a parcel of land that could provide high-paying professional jobs for our children, like cybersecurity or maybe even computer graphics-type jobs that pay well, this project will rob our children of that opportunity

and will add to the loss of high-paying professional jobs to cities like Irvine and other neighboring cities, while Santa Ana pushes for more low-paying retail waiter and waitress-type jobs. In this half-mile area, there are plans to add over 3,000 apartment units, including 1,900 main place mall renovation, in addition to those around town and country. Thank you, sir. If you could wrap it up, please. Some of the current zoning ideas that were brought up, maybe like a museum or arts, which would go well with the Bowers and the Discovery Center and the Orange County School of Arts.

just please think of our lovely neighborhood when you consider this badly planned project instead of the developers and I want to thank you very much. Thank you sir. Connie Hamilton.

Hi I was trying to leave and my battery's dead so Peter's going to give me a jump. Gosh, there's hardly any of you left, but that's okay. Anyway, Peter told you about the candidate forum. I think most of you knew about it. One thing that he didn't mention is that there's 11 council candidates that are going to be running in November, so this will be a good candidate forum to hear what they're all about and just two mayoral candidates. So it'll be interesting. I don't know if anyone saw the Feet to the Fire forum in Santa Ana last night. Oh, boy. that was a dilly. They call us the Wild West.

Those two mayor candidates are really going after each other, and both of them are on the council too, like here. So anyway, I think ours will be more stable than theirs. I plan on that. I hope so. Anyway, so I just want to let everyone know that we are having the candidates forum at the Dill High, 6 to 8 o'clock, and you can come early, 5.30, and we'll feed you, and you can talk to other residents and some of the candidates that are running. So it would be a good chance to get to know them anyway. I thank Peter for filling in for me, but as it turned out, I'm not going anywhere right now. Thank you.

Ours is more beauty and the beast, though I will not allow anybody else to call the mayor a beast because he's my colleague. I can get along with him like that. So anyways, we'll get there. We'll get there. Dilly Lay. Hey, you leave early, you lose a little bit, you know. Followed by V. Chavez.

Good evening, you remaining council members. I bring with myself God's blessings for you. how dare you to disappear when we come to tell you something how can we possibly communicate with you if if you're all gone now you guys are here thank you for that god bless you i had planned to say something but i'm so disappointed in the absenteeism of you just the one piece we've been talking about the congestion of 25 25 main street and it occurred to me the other day as I was leaving the area, and I stopped at Edgemont in Maine, and I

looked to my left. Now, I've been living here 42 years, so this is not something new that came to me. I looked to my left, and there is the Santa Ana Freeway unloading on Main Street, and that is to show you it's only 49 feet away, 49, no, 49 feet away, yeah, from Edgewood. Just one more piece, one more component, so that you can consider when you're going to debate whether or not you'll approve anything for what they call this, I call it Satan's Project, because it's done so much disruption,

so much hurt and pain and agony for our community. We had 62 people come out to the developer, guys that approve it, and just to voice their opinions. You guys have heard us and heard us and heard us and heard us. I pray that you will be good fiscal people, not just for the city of Santa Ana when you vote on this project, but that you will be fiscally responsible for us too. Please consider that. And thank you, remaining members that are here tonight.

Please tell your colleagues to be courteous to us. we sat here for two hours or two and a half hours you give us two minutes and then you guys disappear you're here but that's a small request that's not a huge thing you guys can do that so pull that one off God bless you

thank you sir

good evening Thank you, members of the members who are present. Maybe you think I'm wrong with the forum, but in reality no. I want to use the forum possible to oppose a law that will appear in the balkers of November. Okay. My name is Venancio Chavez and I'm resident of Santana for more than 25 years. In my country, the most people used to teach to teach to young people to teach to young people. And I want to share some of you today. The first one,

The second one, The second one, The first one, El primero lo voy a usar para describir al distrito escolar de Santa Ana. El distrito escolar de Santa Ana es un árbol retorcido que aunque los votantes de esta ciudad pasemos medidas en pro de la educación, el distrito nunca va a proveer una educación de calidad a nuestros niños.

Perdón un momento. Madam City Attorney, is he allowed to make comment regarding the school board? Or is this city business only?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

it's really up to the council as to whether you want to entertain the comment but if he's talking purely about the school board that wouldn't be within your jurisdiction

if he can keep the comments regarding city business we're more than happy to hear you but the school board this is not the venue for

son dos diferentes son socios

si, ya sé, nada más estoy usando el foro para hacer este foro para hacer llegar mi mensaje a los votantes.

Permítame, permítame, este foro no se usa para eso. Entonces, con mucho respeto, si por favor puede hablar de lo que pertenece a la ciudad y podemos continuar. Muchas gracias por entender.

No, no venía a hablar de la ciudad. Venía a hablar de la proposición M que va a estar en las boletas. Entonces, ya terminamos.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

May I just ask one comment, please, just in the fairness, in both ways. We might have some members of the public that aren't understanding what you're saying. and we may want to let the interpreter also do that for purposes of the record for everyone.

Can you, if you want us to pause?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yeah, I would.

Una pausa, por favor. Señor Cesar.

First of all, I'd like to thank the members who are present here.

You might think that I'm mistaken in this forum, but I'd like to take any forums that I can to speak about the measure that's coming up in November. My name is Venancio Chavez. I'm a resident of the city of Santa Ana for more than 25 years. In my country, many people use sayings to teach the young people, and I want to share some of these sayings with you. The one, it says, the tree that grows crooked and never straightens up, and the second one is genius and figure all the way to the death. First, I want to use the first one to describe the Santa Ana Unified School District.

The Santa Ana Unified School District is a very crooked tree, and the voters of the city, even if we pass these measures for education, the district will never provide the quality education for our children. And you just have to see the prior bonds that were passed by the school district. and this is where we where you had that question about whether it's appropriate

to be here. Yeah thank you so madam city attorney. Yeah I just like to make a

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

comment I think that as we come upon our election season with our different ballot measures and things will be coming forward I may want to work with the city manager to make sure and the city clerk to me post a statement on our agenda that the City Council will not entertain comments unrelated particularly in elections we've had this happen before at the county level or at the state level where people have come forward and if that's something the council would like us to do, we can add that to your agenda.

Thank you, so if the gentleman is purely going to talk about the bond measure, then we're done here for today. Thank you for understanding.

I have someone to just, I think the way for him to wrap up, because he spent the time to come here, is he could talk about the priorities of city residents, the relationship that he thinks he'd like to see between the city and the city council and the school board, and we talk about education often up here. What I recommend is to be able to talk about the priorities and the values of the residents of the city and also what you think is the relationship between the city of Santana and the school district. But I have already talked very well. Thank you.

In reality, the city of Santana has a statement, or what I have not seen, I don't know if I have taken it, in which I said education is first. If that was true or if that the city was really done,

if it was put in practice, I would have done something, or maybe, I would have participated with the district, with the district school, so that the education was better. Unfortunately, they did not. If they say that I just have to talk about the city, and then I'm going to talk about the city and I recommend you as a citizen or as a resident of the city of Santana change the logo to the city don't put education first in Santana put education in Santana in the last place

thank you for your comment

if you say Santa used to have a saying that was education first If this is true, then Santa Ana would have done something about education, working with the Santa Ana Unified School District to improve education. And since this has sadly not been done, you should remove that slogan from the city and just call it education is last.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Gary Thomas, next speaker. Last speaker.

I just wanted to make a real quick comment on 85A, class of 70 at Santa Ana High. This is my town. This is our town. And it was a disgrace what was done. I went to school with Isaac Curtis, went on to play professional ball, and I was just really angered.

This is about 2525 North Main. I strongly oppose it. And I want to begin with a quote. And it says, if a fax works for you, use the fax. If they don't, discredit your opponent. That was Abraham Lincoln. From the very get-go, this developer at the first meeting just began to discredit the piece of property in disrepair. homeless activity, vandalism, drug activity, and they had photographs to document that. And I called a front line that works for Santa Ana PD.

It's been there for 30 years. None of this was documented with the Santa Ana Police Department. You know, this is what they're presenting to us. I can't trust them. You know, I think Santa Ana was targeted because there at Main and 5 is a great entrance in and out of the freeway systems throughout California.

Fursten, the 5 freeways, same thing. You know, it's a real trickle, and I really feel that we were targeted in these buildings. buildings they're building are targeted for the millennials who are just here for whatever they need and then move on. You know, I just, it's just real upsetting. And the traffic, everybody travels up and down Main to get down to south end of town. They use Grand, they use Tustin, they use Bristol. Those have become our freeways. We use 17th, Santa Clara. you sit there at Santa Clara and watch all the people come out of Floral Park to grab the freeway.

You know, we've got Civic Center, we've got McFadden, Ettinger, Dyer. And the whole thing of it is we, the residents of Santa Ana, need to be listed throughout the city. Not just Park San Diego, everyone. I went out and picketed with the folks against Innovate because of the traffic problem there. Give me one more second and I'll be done.

Thank you, sir. If you could come.

All right. Thank you. The last quote that I want to end with, and this pertains to the council and the city. It says a good, this is from antiquity. A good name is more desired than great riches. Favor is better than silver and gold. I want our city to be remembered with a good name, not like what happened in Mission Viejo. That's disgraceful what those folks did to us. This is our town.

Thank you, sir. We're not seeing any more speaking cards. I'm going to close public comments. I'm going to move on to city manager comments. Mr. City Manager.

Yes, Council Member Villegas. I just have one brief comment. I wanted to announce that next Tuesday, September 25th, at 9 a.m., there will be a press conference for the National Voter Registration Day. We've been partnering with Santa Ana Unified School District, Santa Ana College, Senate Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters, and we're going to kick off a voter registration effort on that day. So we encourage everybody to attend.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. And we're going to move on to Councilmember Comments. Councilmember Tinajero.

Thank you, Councilmember Villegas. Just a couple of things really quick. Tomorrow there will be a big expo at Santa Ana High School. The Santa Unified School District over the summer has a bunch of programs all over the city. tomorrow they all get to showcase their stuff so if anyone has a chance to go take a look at what our district is doing we just heard an individual come on and kind of badmouth what's happening in the district but I came back to work in this district two years ago and it's a huge huge difference what our students are doing so I encourage people to go see for themselves also I encourage folks

to go to the forum tomorrow. It's good to hear where everyone stands, what everyone's positions are, and I think it's going to be very informational. So that's it for tonight.

Thank you, Council Member Tinajero. Council Member Solorio.

Thank you, Council Member Villas. Nice job chairing this end of the meeting. I want to thank all the residents that came out and your patience and waiting for your time to speak. You know, it is unfortunate that we don't have a full dais up here, but you know, since I've been back, I think this is really the first time that we lose a quorum like this. I don't want folks to think that this is a normal occurrence. Also part of the value in speaking is that, you know, these meetings are televised, they're online. There's a lot of folks that watch this meeting, including our very able staff who are here

and they're really day in and day out the ones, you know, getting the work done because, because many individuals think that the council is full-time. We're not, we're part-time, and so we really rely on the talent and the time of our staff, so I wanted to thank them. On a related note, in terms of thanking staff, Don Lane from West Floral Park spoke about the enforcement activity against the Happy Times Cyber Cafe, and that really came to a quick resolution, in part because of the activity of the residents, the intelligence, the concern, the various meetings,

and obviously code enforcement and our police department were instrumental in making that happen. As well as, you know, through this process, we have found out there's probably about a couple of dozen situations like that citywide. So this was a learning lesson to address that other situation citywide. And I know as the city staff tries to figure out how to improve the codes and enforcement activities to reduce that kind of activity that really probably has a gambling component that maybe as part of that we should consider a moratorium on cyber cafes and related businesses

or if nothing else some revisions to the codes as has been thought about. Finally, Mr. Helwig, I want to thank you for your ongoing participation at these meetings and bringing out residents. I know 2525 is obviously a big project and I haven't taken any public position, but do know that I care about the time that you and the residents have invested in this. And the staff has been working with you all on developing the ERs that we can all review and make a decision down the road. So thank you for that as well. And good evening to everybody.

Thank you, Council Member Solorio. And I will report out, actually before that, I want to thank also, I want to echo the thanks to the Senate Police Department for an excellent job they did on that cyber cafe.

Got a lot of attention. I'm going to report out. I was in Washington, D.C. yesterday and came back this afternoon. And I was in Washington at the Department of Justice at the Community Oriented Policing Section to advocate for more grants for recruitment and training for our police department. And I also had a meeting at the Bureau of Justice Administration regarding those burnt grants, the burnt grants, and domestic violence grants also. So, because I want to help establish that Family Justice Center here in Santa Ana that we need so bad to streamline services for

domestic violence victims and child abuse victims and elder abuse victims. And that is my report. I will, this meeting we will adjourn in the memory of King Wilson, who is the husband of long term and former assistant city manager, Deborah Corita. He passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. He was an accomplished painter, retired city manager, and former Army Ranger, airborne. Green Beret served in the Special Forces of Vietnam from 1970 to 1971. And he leaves behind two sons, Wyatt and Skyler, and his wife, Debbie.

We extend our deepest condolences to the friends and family and adjourn tonight's meeting in his memory. thank you everyone for coming out this evening meeting is adjourned

Thank you.