Read the February 6 meeting.

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Thank you so very much. Next we're going to have invocation. Rupert Vega, police chaplain.

Hi. If we could please bow our heads. Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you today giving you honor, glory, and praise. Lord, you are the source of all that is good, and we are grateful for all the blessings you've bestowed upon us. We thank you for our wonderful city of Santa Ana, our honorable mayor, city council, chief of police, police officers, and staff. We thank you for our freedom and the opportunity to unite and gather together this day. We ask for your hand of blessing to be upon tonight's meeting and proceedings. And we thank you for your grace and unending love and wisdom.

We ask that you would guide and direct our meeting and that it be of sound wisdom, that it be productive and with respect towards one another. Thank you, Lord, for helping us to accomplish our work and our goals this day. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you so very much. We're going to take a little of some stuff out of order. we're going to do some certificate of recognition first and i'm going to ask councilman solorio if you can start with your recommend your recognition and followed by council member tinajero

good evening everybody looks like we got a great uh turnout uh many of you know that i like to recognize neighborhood associations for the beautiful homes they have, the beautiful events they have, but I always talk about too these neighborhoods also have excellent people in them and today I'm really pleased to bring up Ruben Alvarez Jr. Please come on up. Let's give him a round of applause.

He has a name and his own identity but very often too he's also just known as Stay Connected OC because today we're recognizing Stay Connected OC for becoming an adult. Stay Connected OC is now 18 years old and I'm going to tell you a bit about that and Ruben is the president and publisher of Stay Connected and it was created in 2000. It's an electronic newsletter that informs the community about important events not usually covered by local media. As you know over the years we've been seeing the shrinkage of the LA Times, the register and everything else that venues like this are very important.

Beginning with only 500 email addresses, Stay Connected has now grown to a base of over 20,000 recipients including individuals and organizations and to date he has a counter clicker somehow. Today he knows that he has sent out over 8 million unique messages. Isn't that amazing? He's also went beyond email because there's social media now you've all heard about that so the platform now also extends to Facebook LinkedIn and Twitter Rubin has created a green business model because it's all electronic that keeps our community

connected through this is a key to positive messaging and accessible communication because it is a free subscription and their advertisements as well and this communication has been so well received so strong that you have entities like Santa Ana Unified that use it to get their messages out to parents students in general community the city of Santa Ana also uses this vehicle for important messaging and so today on behalf of our mayor so today on behalf

of our mayor and city council I'm really pleased to recognize Stay Connected OC and Ruben on this major milestone again 18 years but I'm especially pleased because again I'm on Facebook as well probably more often than than I should be and my wife gets on me for it but I learned from Facebook that today is also Ruben's birthday so we congratulate Stay Connected and we wish him a happy birthday

Thank you Jose. I don't want to take too much time because I know we have a lot of business important business here with the city today but I want to talk to the little kids out there follow your dream don't take no if you have an idea go chase it because that's what I did and look I'm up here okay so everybody out there with the dream you need to go and follow it no matter what anybody says because that's the only way you're going to be happy believe you and thank you very much jose

a couple more things and i'll present this uh he's done a lot of great things in our community long time resident a lot of involvement with the boys and girls club first as a boy club member of the year i think even at the national level at the national level then worked on his staff and then in younger years because we've been around a while he helped bring President Clinton to the Boys and Girls Club and Shaq. Oh yeah, Shaq. And so he's done a lot for this community and for young people as well and now the broader community through Stay Connected OC. If you're not on it already get on it. Ask me or Ruben how to get on it. Again a

pleasure to recognize you at Stay Connected. 18 years. Thank you.

All right, Councilman Tina Heddle.

Thank you.

Happy birthday. Thank you.

May I please have Mr. Jose Ruiz come on up?

I agree with Mr. Rubin. Follow your dreams. I remember one time I met this girl named Jennifer. I asked her on a date. She said no. But I kept pursuing it. Now we've been married for 22 years. Follow those dreams. I'm just teasing. Bad councilman. Bad councilman. All right, here we go.

I want to introduce to you a very special individual. This is what we talk about when you have individuals that come from our city. They grow up here, and then they become an enormous success, and then they decide to give back. On December 16th, the Santa Ana Police Department, in partnership with the Orange County Fire Authority, hosted the Pancakes with Santa Ana event. The event was successful in serving the community pancakes, offering activities, and providing a toy drive. Over 1,000 community members attended.

Jose Ruiz, owner of Loaded Kitchen Cafe, was a great support to this event, donating pancakes, pancake goods for distribution to the community. Loaded Kitchen Cafe was founded in 2012 and has opened up five additional locations. This is our Santa homegrown individual. Currently, Loaded Kitchen Cafe is opening its sixth location, which will be the second location here in the city of Santa Ana. Loaded Kitchen Cafe thrives on improving their brand and specializing in customer service.

This vision is abundantly clear through the generous contributions by Loaded Kitchen Cafe to the Santa Ana Police Department and the community at large. I want to give a special thanks to Mr. Jose Ruiz for what he has done to continue to give back to our community and bring a smile to children's faces. Thank you, Mr. Ruiz.

I'd like to thank the mayor and the city council for allowing me to support the event. Coming from immigrant fathers, we've been doing business in Santa for over 25 years. Us as a family, my father comes from an IHOP background, so we have the IHOP locations, but as a family we've branched out and opened our own brand and we're going on two locations in Santa Ana now and I always like to be involved and anything I can do to support the community you know I'm always open for it I like to thank everybody that's here you know and keep us in mind

for anything you guys need you know we're always here to serve and to give back and whatever is needed thank you

mr. Ruiz it's a great honor for us here in the city of Santa Ana for the entire council the mayor to present you with the certificate to thank you for everything you do for our community thank you very much

If I can have my colleagues and actually have our auxiliary bishop, Mr. Nguyen, please join us up here. We want to give you an official welcome to the city of Santa Ana.

as our auxiliary bishop uh win comes up here i want to just give an opportunity for the mayor and council just to really welcome him to our great city so i'll just say a couple of words because i know many of us are going to want to hear from you auxiliary bishop um win and and before i do so just i just wanted to share with you that we are so very happy to have you back here in Orange County. So very quickly, the Auxiliary Bishop Wynne was appointed to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in 2017. His role as Auxiliary Bishop supports Bishop Vann and Auxiliary

Bishop Fryer in carrying out the spirituality needs of 1.3 million members of the Diocese of Orange. The Diocese of Orange is one of the fastest growing, most ethnically diverse in the United States. The Auxiliary Bishop Nguyen provides an important care and leadership with the Vietnamese Catholic community of Orange County and the largest congregation in the United States. Like his brother Bishops, the Auxiliary Bishop Nguyen is focused on spearheading the large and diverse community towards a deeper relationship within their faith. We would like again to welcome

you and you could please share a couple of words with us and we look forward to partnership with you and the great work that you're doing in our community.

Even just a few words but I pray that you have in a patient to put up with my Vietnamese Boston accent. Well thank you Mayor Putem Martinez for this special recognition this week of many experience of hospitality that I have received here in Southern California you know God's way is not our ways I plan to retire in Jacksonville Florida where I served for the past 21 years as a pastor of the two

parishes and so plan to retire and enjoy the familiarity over there and then serve the people and maybe have some time to go to Vietnam to serve the poor over there but the Pope surprised me with this special assignment to be the Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Orange in California so this is a big judgment for me from Florida to California from being pastor in one parish to be auxiliar bishop of the diocese but this I would say to you that

I love the climate here I love the people in Southern California and I love the vibrant Vietnamese community in Santa Ana now not quite the traffic yet maybe I need to take time to adjust to the traffic. So well I'm a big fan of collaboration and so I pray and hope that we just and stay together that my

ministry as Auxiliary Bishop here in the IAC of Orange add to your good service to the people in the city of Santa Ana. Again, thank you.

So very quickly I'll provide this recognition and then we'll all take a picture. So on behalf of the city of Santa Ana, our Mayor and Council, this is a certificate of recognition, welcoming our Auxiliary Bishop Mr. Nguyen, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, in recognition of your appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Orange. Congratulations. Thank you.

Great picture.

We can take one with everyone? Great.

We get him in the back.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Great. If now I could have Joey Daniel from Santa Ana High School please join me. And if he has any of his family, I do see Jeff Bishop here as well, or his coaches here. Please join us. This is definitely a very special recognition.

and so what we're recognizing him today for is winning the five counties invitational wrestling tournament this is no easy feat this young man what he's accomplished is something that he can take for the books for a very long time at Santa Ana high school and come up come closer Joey how are you good and so just let me read a little bit about joey and his accomplishments so joey daniel is a wrestler at senana high school and is being recognized tonight for his victory and claiming the championship of the five counties invitational wrestling tournament in addition joey is a three

time golden west league champion and a two-time cif champion in wrestling furthermore joey has competed in the Masters Meet, which is a state qualifying tournament that represents over 390 schools in Southern California and taking up the runner-up position in 2016 and claiming victory in 2017. Joey is currently ranked second in the state of California and 18th in the country. That is remarkable, ladies and gentlemen.

This young man is a superstar. As we all know, wrestling, I'm not sure how many of you in the audience have wrestled before. Not a very easy sport, a very disciplined sport to be a part of. and his dedication year after year and being committed to wanting to have excellence in his life. And definitely wrestling has been able to do that for him. His coach is not here. We've brought up Coach Glab many times for the recognition of his amazing work and leadership and really mentoring thousands and thousands of young boys and girls through Santa Ana High School,

making sure that they not only become champions in life, but they also become champions. you know on that wrestling mat and so with that Joey would love for you I know you're shy just to say a couple words about you know your experience and what your future looks like

uh hi um it was pretty good you know when everyone's watching you and thousands of people and just winning the title that you always wanted to win and I'm thankful for all the people that support me what I do and I'm planning to join the Marines for future

I'm not sure if you would like to make a couple comments or Jeff yeah of course

thank you once you get to know Joey Daniel you'll realize that he's a champion on and off the mat he always protects the the kids to get pushed around so he's the anti bully bully so great guy so we Santa Ana high school has always had some great wrestling kids and program it's one championship year after year but rarely do we have students like Joey that is excellent in the classroom he's a great role model on campus and he's powerful he's powerful

because he represents Santa in high school he's he represents central Santa Ana he represents his aunt Michelle she didn't tell you that but but that's Joey's tia so I think that the whole family does enrich the the city of Santa Ana and I just I just I can't say enough about what Joey has done at Santa Ana High School and the mark he will leave 128 years Santa Ana's existed and

for the next 128 years he will go down in history as one of the best wrestlers at Santa Ana High School so thank you Joey

So come on up here Joey. So Ken this is a certificate of recognition on behalf of our Mayor and Council awarding Joey Daniel Senena High School in recognition of your five county Invitational Wrestling Tournament Championship. Very proud of you Joey. Thank you. Let's get a picture.

Thank you.

All right.

I now want to do two brief presentations.

but before we do that I know you know Patrick Murphy is here in the second to the front row and I believe the modern day high school football team who are all celebrities by now if you Patrick if you can just kind of bring them around and put them over here and I'll I'll join you for our presentation at this time.

Undefeated rocks are, it's crazy.

Maybe Patrick and Bruce, if you can all come a little closer. and everybody I know we got the leadership here but I'm just gonna say a few words and I want you guys to make some comment and then I'm gonna give you a you know something to give the entire team let me just brag for a minute if I may you know what can you say you know this is recognition for winning a national championship and modern day is just so amazing that we kind of expect greatness from them

you know every time you hear a new story about some tremendous achievement um it's it's now the status quo um but you know that excellence comes from the top from the middle from all levels and it is just amazing what is accomplished. I know, I think, you had a player who was a junior recently that left

to go to USC and play varsity. And people don't usually do that. I mean, it's very, very rare.

But, I mean, Bruce Rawlinson, who's standing right next to me, you're very, very rare. You know, you're one of a kind. You find excellence and the way to derive excellence from great athletes. But, you know, you're like the maestro in an orchestra. You know, you make it all come together and work. And that's so tough to do because you've got all these things going on. You've got all these things going on. And you know just how to reach the peak the right way at the right moment. and you know just as the overall school is concerned you know Patrick Murphy is

second to none you know this guy he just finds a way every single time he finds a way to inspire to bring you know great people there great students and and to just again make that very high plateau you know the status quo let me just give you some of the team's accomplishments. Jonathan JT Daniels was named Gatorade's National Player of the Year. Let's give him an applause for that. Solomon, how do you say your last name?

Solomon's not here. Tuliapapupu.

Tuliapapupu. He was named the Dick Buck as National Linebacker of the Year. Jonathan J.T. Daniels, Amon Ra St. Brown, Chris Murray, Solomon Tialapupu also participated in the Army All-American Bowl game. Tommy Brown participated in the Under Armour All-American game. and various other athletes were named to the MaxPreps rival Com 24-7 Sports All-American Team, America's online source for high school sports, which names the best players in high school football on a national level.

You also had 10 players from the class of 2018 have signed Division I letters of intent, committing these students in athletics to attend a national college and or university based on the interest of what the college's football team has. This year, the team has a dynamic offense that led to a multi-county, state, and national records and a phenomenal defense that is considered the top defense in the state of California. and today we recognize the modern day football team for their stellar athletic abilities and

their positive representation i think of the city of san anna i think the county of orange really you know the whole united states i think anybody in the country is proud of what you're accomplishing with that before i present you with the proclamations a few words sure sure

Well, obviously some quick introductions. This is Tommy Brown. Okay, he'll be going to the University of Alabama.

Tommy's 6'7", 320. Hasn't missed a meal in a lot of years. Isaiah Alonzo right behind me. Isaiah was one of our tight ends. This is JT Daniels, the Gatorade National Player of the Year. Connor Gallegos, our long snapper. Troy Conway, an outstanding wide receiver, and Nico Remigio, one of our team captains who will go to the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Murphy, thank you very much, but most importantly, Jake never missed a football game, and this is Jake Murphy, Mr. Murphy's grandson. We are proud to, thank you.

we are proud to represent modern day high school and most importantly we take great pleasure in the fact that anytime we're in the headlines it's modern day high school san anna california and we do thank you for the wonderful facility that you provide us where many records have been established right down the street at the municipal san anna bowl baby but thank you very very much on behalf of myself my coaches and our great high school for this recognition tonight mayor thank you very very much

let me hand it to you Tom yours is right there JT Nick

We also have a recognition, congressional recognition for our member of the U.S. Congress, J. Louis Lou Correa. So I'm going to give this to you as well. But Patrick, you don't want to say anything? You're good today. Any of the guys, you want to say a word?

Go ahead, say a word. Somebody say something on behalf of the people.

I just want to say thank you to the city of Santa Ana for being the home of Mater Dei and for the Santa Ana Bowl. And it's an honor to represent Mater Dei and Santa Ana with everything we do. And I know that's from me and the whole team. Thank you so much. Thank you.

and Rotot

alright I want to invite any council members who want to come down I want to take a photo and we'll take a picture and move on please come on down

I'm not standing there.

Sal is as close as he wants to yet. I might stand next to him a little bit.

One baguette.

Thank you.

Thank you.

OCT, if you can come on down. I know you have a brief special presentation and then historic resources.

All right, good evening.

Mayor Polito, council members, my name is Eric Carlson. I'm the OCTA project manager for the Central Harbor Boulevard Transit Corridor Study. I'm joined tonight also by Andrea West, our government relations officer for this project. This study's been underway for just over two years now, and when we started it, we developed a project team with planning staff from each of the corridor cities, from Anaheim, Fullerton, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove, as well as representative from from Caltrans and we continue to meet with that project team throughout the study. Right now we are sharing the technical evaluation results with each

of the City Councils and we're seeking comment on the various alternatives that we're evaluating. Tonight I want to walk through the 12 alternatives and also share the city and community input we've received to date and talk about some next steps and this is the beginning of a longer process we're right now in the initial planning study phase we're taking 12 alternatives and we're trying to narrow it down to three or four of the best performing alternatives that also have wide community support our study area focuses on three corridors not just Harbor Boulevard we are focused on Harbor between Harbor and Westminster

the future terminus of the OC Streetcar and the Fullerton Transportation Center in downtown Fullerton. So we're focused on Harbor for that length. We're also focused on Anaheim Boulevard and Lemon Street Corridor between Catella Avenue and the Fullerton Transportation Center. And then finally, we're also studying Catella Avenue between Harbor Boulevard and the Arctic, the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center. So right now we are in the draft final report. We just presented the technical evaluation results to the OCTA Transit Committee in December and to the OCTA Board in January.

And we have the draft final report is available on our Harbor Study webpage. And I'll provide that address on the last slide.

so why is harbor boulevard such an important transit corridor it is one of our busiest transit corridors in the county it accounts for approximately eight percent of octa's daily boardings bus boardings and right in the middle of our study area is the disneyland and anaheim resort which attracts approximately 27 million annual visitors and at this southern portion of our study area is the high transit usage area of Santa Ana and Garden Grove and the future terminus of the OC Streetcar. The population employment densities in this corridor are double and nearly triple that of the

county the county average and from working with each of the corridor cities over the last two years we know there's a lot of future development planned along this corridor so for all those reasons maintaining a high level of transit is very important on this corridor. Our study evaluates four possible mode options. The first is the enhanced bus mode option. This is the least capital intensive and as we kind of move across this slide from from left to right we go from the least capital intensive to more capital intensive and in the more expensive project options. The enhanced bus would upgrade our

Our current Bravo Limited Stop Service that runs on Harbor today and shares a mixed flow traffic lane. This would continue to operate in that mixed flow traffic, but it would include additional features such as off-board fare collection and all-door boarding that would allow passengers to get on and off the bus a little faster and move that bus down the corridor faster. It would also look at employing things such as transit signal priority and queue jumps at certain locations to help the bus move through traffic a little faster. The second option is the bus rapid transit option. In addition to these features I just mentioned,

this would employ these larger 60-foot articulated buses that have multiple entrances and level boarding, and these allow passengers to get on and off through any entrance. In addition to that, this bus would also operate in a dedicated transit lane for approximately 50% of the alignment. And we have not yet identified the portions that would employ the dedicated transit lane. That would have to be done through further study in the next study phase. The third option is the streetcar operating in a mixed-flow traffic lane. This is very similar to how the OC streetcar will operate in downtown Santa Ana.

These streetcar vehicles are larger than the bus vehicles and have the capacity to carry approximately 150 passengers. They also typically include three entrances, which allow passengers to get on and off fairly seamlessly. For all of these reasons, streetcar tends to be perceived as an upgrade in the quality of the ride and in the visibility and has the possibility to attract more passengers per mile. Finally, the fourth option is the rapid streetcar option. This includes everything the streetcar does, but it also would operate in a dedicated transit lane for 50% of the alignment.

We looked at four main alignments. So on the left side of the screen here, you can see we have five alternatives that would operate exclusively on Harbor Boulevard. the four in the upper left hand corner would connect Harbor and Westminster to the Fullerton Transportation Center via Harbor Boulevard in the lower left hand corner we have one short alignment which would basically extend the OC streetcar up Harbor to the Anaheim Resort and then terminate around Disney Way we have four alternatives that would operate on Anaheim Lemon

So these would travel up harbor to the Anaheim Resort, then transition at Disney Way over to Anaheim Boulevard, and continue north to the Fullerton Transportation Center. And then finally, we evaluated three alternatives that would travel up harbor to the Anaheim Resort, and then head east along Cattell Avenue and connect with the Arctic facility. So those were the alternatives being evaluated. The project team did identify 24 different performance metrics to help evaluate how each of the alternatives performed in the following categories.

In transit performance, in land use, in connectivity, in physical constraints, in mode choices and user experience, and in cost effectiveness. And then finally we have a seventh very important category that is city and community input. and this is one of the key reasons we're here tonight to seek comment from this City Council. So this slide summarizes the results of how each alternative scored against those 24 metrics. The top scoring alternative was the Harbor Rapid Streetcar that operates on Harbor and connected Harbor and Westminster to the Fullerton Transportation Center.

The next best two alternatives were also alternatives that operated on Harbor, the Harbor Longstreet Car, and the Harbor Bus Rapid Transit. So three key takeaways from the results that we see is, first of all, the Harbor Boulevard alignments did the best at attracting ridership on a per-mile basis and overall. The next best were the alignments on Anaheim-Lemon that also connected Harbor Westminster with the Fullerton Transportation Center. So it was important to make that connection between those two destinations.

With regards to the modes, the best scoring modes were the rapid streetcar, the streetcar, and bus rapid transit. And one of the reasons this might be is these tend to be, these are the higher visibility and provide a higher quality of ride. So they tended to attract the highest ridership per mile.

And the third takeaway is really that the enhanced bus alternatives placed in the bottom four spaces of the table, and although these provided a travel time improvement, they did not do a lot for increasing boarding significantly within the corridor, and they provided very little in the way of increases in the overall system-wide boardings.

So some of the key issues that were identified by the project team and by the city staff that were on the project team were that Harbor Boulevard, the right-of-way does narrow down to four traffic lanes in parts of North Anaheim and in parts of Fullerton as you approach the downtown. And this could present challenges for some of the alternatives in connecting to the Fullerton Transportation Center. For this reason, Anaheim Lemon has been considered a viable alternative corridor that we continue to evaluate.

Dedicated transit lanes would require more analysis in the next study phase to see where these could be employed while still minimizing impacts on vehicle traffic. Center running alignments with center stations were generally not supported by the four jurisdictions in our study area. And then the final two bullets are that underlying changes to bus service south of Westminster. We're going to continue to need to look at that and evaluate that as we go into the next study phase, as well as considering complete streets concepts and trying to avoid any impacts to bike lanes that are planned.

With regards to the city council input received to date, we're right now going to each city council and seeking their comment. We went to Fullerton and Garden Grove in the previous weeks, and then we have an appointment scheduled to go to the City of Anaheim. It is worth noting that the City of Anaheim adopted a resolution last January, just over a year ago, stating their opposition to any streetcar system in the City of Anaheim. So at a minimum, this would present a challenge at developing consensus around a streetcar alternative. So with that, I just have some community, you know, a couple slides.

We did go out to the, we've held two rounds of outreach to see public comment and stakeholder input. And we had some online surveys as well. And the results of the surveys were that people did want to see some improvements to transit along the Harbor Corridor. so basically after we make our round to each of the city councils we're going to incorporate all the comments the feedback we received into a final report and we're going to provide an update to the OCTA board of directors and I would just note that the draft final report and all this information is

available on our website at octa.net backslash harbor or backslash harbor documents thank you

Thank you for that. Let me just see if there's a comment. And let me just tell my fellow council members, I think if we're supportive, it's important to voice it. Because unfortunately, as he said, Anaheim is trying to really kill this project. And I think we ought to try to communicate with Anaheim. But also, let's give them good support comment for the record. So who wants to go first?

And if we're not supportive, we should stay silent. You shouldn't say anything.

I want to thank you for the presentation and for coming out to present before us. Before seeing the end of the conclusion of the presentation and the outcomes of the surveys and other feedback and evaluations, I was thinking about, in fact, just today I was listening to the radio and hearing about some of the transit extensions and the rail extensions that Metro is doing out in the city of Los Angeles. So many other metropolitan centers throughout the country are expanding the rail service,

are recognizing that reliance and dependence on the vehicle and the car is outdated. And over a period of time, there's more density in cities and more need to be able to move people in larger numbers at a faster rate of speed in a way that's convenient. more convenient. The Orange County streetcar is something that we've been looking forward to as a municipality, our community, our business community however it's just something that we've talked about often, it's just the first leg. In reality just this less than three, about three mile stretch, it really is only getting people

through a very small portion of the county. However, it does speak of the vision and commitment to be able to see something that would be able to move people in a more uh uh convenient and comprehensive way so all that to say is that uh i would concur with the conclusions that that we do need to catch up as a county going back to the fact ironically we had a rail system and we had you know way back and we're reviving it now uh previously the red car so the

The streetcar and the rapid streetcar in particular, I think, is definitely the way for us to move forward as we look at, again, not just today and 2018, but as we look at a decade and longer from now into the future. That is, it's a more significant or a greater economic investment now or when it gets built, but it's certainly that, an investment over the long haul that will pay off dividends. So I would anticipate and hope that my colleagues would see the same,

and if there's anything we can do to be able to encourage our counterparts over in Anaheim to rethink their position, definitely would be open to having some of those conversations with our friends over there in Anaheim. That's my comment, Mayor, very much supportive.

And I approve of it. Thank you. Who else wants to, Sal, you want to say something? Go ahead, please.

I just think this is a great opportunity for us. We have to move forward. And quite frankly, I don't worry too much about Anaheim. I think we're going to be okay. We're going to be all right.

Thank you. Thank you. Who wants to go next? Mayor Pro Tem?

Thank you for the presentation. One of the things that I would like to mention is that as we move forward with, you know, a regional network of rapid transit and hopefully we move forward with our streetcar. One of the issues that we have and essentially, you know, when we look at our land uses, many of that's incompatible with what we're trying to do moving forward. And as we go city by city, obviously the Orange County Transportation Authority allows us as cities to, you know, manage our own local control. but that also causes problems for you in the millions of dollars that we're

trying to make investments in to move us into the 21st century in providing transportation but we have barriers when the land uses are incompatible and so what we could really do moving forward I would just implore you know our constituents who definitely uses service but throughout the region obviously Anaheim does play a vital role as every other city in the region because transportation should be a regional network. And so I would just implore as we move forward in having issues with our housing crisis, it ties in to transportation. And definitely we will not be able to move

forward if we don't figure out, one, what we're going to do here in Orange County as it pertains to public transit, making sure that it's a system that's predictable, reliable, and accessible, but more importantly that it connects not only you know into Santa Ana in Garden Grove but goes beyond you know the various jurisdictions as you look at Harper you have Garden Grove you have Santa Ana you have Costa Mesa you have Anaheim you know it should not just stop you know in two cities and then in and so I just want to just you know implore you and implore the board to continue to talk to the elected

officials in these cities at the end of the day we can't continue to think that over 3.1 million people in this region are going to continue to drive their vehicles. Obviously, we're at 90% capacity as it pertains to congestion. It's not going to get any better. So we need different alternatives, and we need to be honest about that and what we're going to do to make that happen for really the residents of Orange County. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Councillor Solorio.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I worked at OCTA eight years, I think probably before you were there, so it's always nice having no CTA here. I know from those days and from your presentation, Harbor's always been a very busy corridor on the bus side, a lot of riders, and most of those riders are right here from Santa Ana, so I think any improvements to the corridor would be of great benefit. In fact, now, over 20 years ago, when we were studying the Centerline Light Rail project, we were looking at Harbor, Bristol, and some other corridors, And so this council, this city has been very supportive for a long time.

Of the various options, I do like the streetcar option as opposed to BRT or anything else. So Mr. Mayor, I know you serve on the OCTA board. I definitely am very supportive of the streetcar. And for a variety of reasons, this city has been doing a lot of major development along harbor with a lot of residential, including a lot of affordable housing. and I think what I've seen throughout the country, it's working class people that really benefit from these systems and folks that don't have cars, and we have a share of both in this community, so that's another reason why this is important.

And big picture-wise, there's always some resistance on the front end to any of these projects, but really after you get the first line in, then the five becomes about where you connect to next, and so that's going to be an exciting thing. On that note, I know because of the Olympics coming to Los Angeles, there's going to be a fast forwarding of big transportation and light rail projects in the LA area, including possibly EcoRack bid that would also come down to Harbor. And so I see that as an opportunity for us to connect to Los Angeles, ultimately to Union Station, other airports in the vicinity. So that's important.

So I don't know if we could do it today because of the way it was agendized, but I would like our City Council to support a streetcar project sooner than later just to keep the momentum going. Good work, and thank you for sharing the news.

Thank you. Additional comments? Council Member Villegas? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to voice my support for the project. Thank you for your good work. Thank you for coming out. I too will be reaching out to the other cities to get some momentum. And I do agree with Mayor Pro Temp's statement about, hey, we can't just have this in two cities and then it stops. Just that doesn't make any sense. But thank you very much for coming out and appreciate it. Keep up the good work.

Thank you. Councilman Benavides. Thank you, Mayor. Just one brief comment. If our friends and neighbors over in Anaheim are not interested in the streetcar, we could abandon Harbor and go to Bristol and revive that, and we'll go each direction, whichever way you want to go. And I would echo Councilman Solorio's comment that if we could take a position on the support, I would be supportive of that.

Before you go, maybe to the city manager and staff, I think you're hearing from several council members that may be having a formal position. Look, we've had a lot of votes in favor, but maybe for the next council agenda, Madam Clerk and city attorney and city manager, if we can maybe just agendize a reaffirmation of previous positions, that might be appropriate, especially right now that OCTA is kind of trying to get a limous test of where the different cities are at. and I you know if any of us know anybody in in Anaheim I you know implore us to

talk to him I mean I know the mayor Tom Dayton I'm not doing very well I keep asking to please be supportive and you know he doesn't understand or see the world the same way and I do agree with councilor Tinajero I think over time it'll take care of itself because it'll be such a success that eventually a future council in Anaheim will want it. But right now, look, we're doing this harbor corridor study, and the opposition is so great, they don't even want it studied. We've managed to win that and say you can't do a study without studying something,

and it doesn't make any sense, and so we've managed to keep those options in the study, but over tremendous opposition saying if we're not interested, don't even study it. Do a study with everything but. and we're saying well that's not the purpose of a study so thus far logic is prevailing but I'm just telling you it's very tough fortunately it's a board that out of 17 usually and almost every vote we get about 16 in favor but there is still that that that one no vote and we just have to keep pushing and moving forward so just for the record would you want something right now madam city

attorney or city manager as we vote for this that we also direct you to come back in two weeks and put something on the agenda you don't want to vote but

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

under the Brown Act you can give direction to your staff and that so yeah

and you heard it I think from you know six out of six all right so with that thank you thank you good luck and keep up the good work okay now we have another presentation, a brief one, and then I'm going to go into the whole work-study session and have all the people who want to speak on rent control and all, or opposition to it, to be able to speak up. Alberta Christie, it's my honor to recognize you. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members. Thank you for having the Historic Resource Commission to do a presentation. I am the chair. Joining me is Ed Marachi and also our vice chair, Phil Schaefer, and also in the audience, Janelle Hardy. First, before we start our presentation, we need to thank the staff members of the planning department for helping us put this presentation together. And you're going to learn a lot, believe me, and you may laugh. Okay, we do have some scandals, okay? Okay, all right.

What is the historic preservation? Historic preservation is a conversation with our past about our future. Through historic preservation, we look at history in different ways, ask different questions of the past, and learn new things about our history and ourselves. Historic preservation is an important way for us to transmit our understanding of the past to future generations. If you can see, we have two national historic districts, Historic French Park and Downtown Santa Ana.

To be considered on the historic preservation, the property must be at least 50 years old. Good example of architectural style, ranging from Victorian to mid-city ranch style, and everything in between, such as Tudor, Spanish, and colonial. Now we have categories that we judge these historic structures in. Contributed is good.

Key is better. Landmark is the best. Go metal. Okay. Currently we have 663 properties on our register of historic properties. Of this, 267 of these properties have Mill Act agreements. What makes you unique? Commissioner Warrowski and I interviewed property owners before they come to our commission and we asked, what makes you come to Santa Ana? This is what we found out. Community. They like our neighborhoods.

They like the community. Diversity.

Huge diversity that we have here in Santa Ana. architectural styles different architectural styles they do not find anywhere else rich fabric of our culture that's here in fact we have one lady from San Francisco who went online to look at one of the Floral Park open home tours she wanted a Cape Cod home she saw it she left San Francisco and came and bought that home in floral park that's what we're talking about now remember our three levels of

contributive key and landmark this is an example of contributed that's just in the Park Santiago and this one is a good example which was constructed in 1927 of an English revival architectural style. Next one, it's contributed, it was constructed in 1929. It's a Tudor revival architectural style that's in Wilshire Square. Now here comes key. Now key can be a building structure, object, or site, has a distinct

architectural style or quality. A significant period in our history of the city or a significant person or event in our city. This one is Dr. Sammy Lee's house. How many know Sammy Lee? For all of you who do not know, Dr. Sammy Lee was the first gold medal, the first Asian American to win a gold medal for the

United States in 1952, back-to-back winners in the Olympic platform diving. He was born in Fresno, trained by a diving coach who taught him to jump in a sand filled pit at his house because in 1930s Latinos, Asians, and African Americans were only allowed to use the pool on International Day. That was Wednesday. Okay? So that's how

he became such a fantastic Olympic diving champion. He wanted to, he got his medical degree from USC. He wanted to live in Los Angeles. 1955, no one in Los Angeles would sell him a home. He came to, he heard about the homes being constructed in Santa Ana in 1955, and he bought this. He bought this home. And in this, he put a swimming pool, limbic-sized swimming pool. There was no drought during this time period.

65,000-gallon swimming pool. He talked all of his other neighbors around to have swimming pools. He used his home and his swimming pool to train future Olympic diving champions, such as Greg Guganis, on that. So this is why this is a key property, because of Dr. Sammy Lee, first owner of this home. Next one, key. This one was constructed in 1931. Okay, what happened in 1931? Okay, this is a Spanish colonial revival architectural style,

but prohibition, prohibition, for all of you who do not know, who are younger, prohibition you could not buy alcohol, right? Alcohol was illegal in the United States. Okay, so when this house was built, the owner had in the back a wall, okay? Concealing, as you open that wall, a speakeasy or a bar where you had all the liquor in the world back there, okay? This was the most

popular home in the area. Okay? Anybody who was anybody in Santa Ana or Orange County came to this house for the lemonade. Okay? The lemonade. You know that lemonade had a little something special. Okay? And this was this home. And this is why it's key because it was an important event that happened in there. In fact, that speakeasy is still there in that home today. Okay, all right. Landmark. Okay, now this one is

historical for significant to our city due to the architectural style. And this home is the eastern home which is located on Hickory Street. This is an example of Queen Anne style, rare, rare style in our city. In fact, if you go, and this is located in the East Side neighborhood association area, if you go there, this house will just wow you. The picture does not do

this home that's justice. And because of this unique architectural style we mark this as landmark. Next one. Okay we all know this one in historic downtown. This is the Santoro building. Okay what you don't know about it is that during the time of the 1933 earthquake in Long Beach. This was used as your city hall for two years while the other city hall in downtown was being remodeled. Also on the second floor of that

building was the Danagers Tea Room which occupied the second floor in the southwest corner. Now this was a famous restaurant where home cooked meals. And it was so famous that Hollywood royalty visited that restaurant. And that is called Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Gracie Allen, George Burns, all this. Robert Young, William Holden. These are Hollywood legends that came into Santa Ana for that particular restaurant.

So this is why the Santoro building is marked as a landmark. Now to continue, we'll be Vice Chair, Bill Schaefer.

Good evening, Council, and thank you for your attention. I just want to say, why is historic important to us today? First of all, it brings people to San Ana. It brought me to San Ana. My grandmother lived in an English Tudor house in Washington Square on Louise Street. And I grew up in a brand new house that my parents built in the 60s. And I loved her house. It was cool. It was different. It was unique. As you know, I'm in real estate. I sell a lot of properties in Santa Ana and people buy here because we have unique properties They don't come here because we're Irvine

We're the opposite of Irvine and what we have is pretty cool and pretty amazing I think Now if we tear those things down and we pave it over and we make things too modern Then we lose our edge and we lose what makes Santa Ana one of the things that makes Santa Ana unique and wonderful If you look at this map, all those little dots on there tell you where our historic properties are. I think a lot of you have the misperception that they're only in Floral Park. And I'm here to prove to you that they're throughout the city. There is sort of a spine up and down Main Street because that's how our city grew.

And not so much to the east and the west. Those were newer properties developed later in the 60s, 70s, and beyond. So a lot of our historic properties are downtown of course, but also north and south of downtown. So we have a lot of great, when we say a historic resource, that just means a historic property, right? An old building, an old house. Something that's unique and a well-preserved example. The fiscal impact. I think you'd be curious to know that in my opinion in real estate and having served on this commission for about 15 years now,

I'm a firm believer that this adds a lot of monetary value to our city. Just by having one house on a block that's designated historic, people that do that do that because they're proud, right? They take really good care of these properties. That helps lift up the whole street. I mean, if you have a special house on a block, that adds value up and down the block, not just to one person. And this builds pride in our communities. So I think all ships rise with a rising tide, right? So if we have homes that are being preserved, or we have plenty that are not on the list that probably should be,

and we don't want people to come in and remodel those and kind of take out the charm and ruin the appeal that those homes have. So I think it really increases our rich fabric that we have. It increases our property values. people that live in these historic homes have to find local craftsmen to work on them went to do window restoration to do different things you just can't go to Home Depot and fix a window in a historic home as you know we don't allow things like vinyl windows and things that didn't exist 50 plus years ago and then also under economics is we've had a lot many movies have been filmed in

San Ana I think you're all you all know that already Green Man and Forrest Gump and things like that so that's also brings in an economic opportunity for us and then regarding the fees one thing that you're going to be considering this year is a fee study and our fees have changed dramatically over the years and what this chart shows you is you've brought the most money into the city when the fees have been the lowest currently they're at $10,000 I'm telling you that is discrimination maybe a few rich people in floral park can afford to put their house on for ten thousand but the rest of the city can't and that's wrong

we need to be preserving all the historic properties that we can throughout the city so I hope you'll really consider that we're the highest exp the most expensive city in the County of Orange the city of Anaheim is free to get on the historic registry and to do a Mills Act so we have everywhere from Anaheim next door which is free to us that's ten thousand we are by far we're more than 50% higher than any other city in Orange County so we really need to study that and since our fees went up in January or at the end of the beginning of the year we've had zero applicants so we'll make zero money on

our historic resources when the fees were low you can see they went from anywhere from ninety five thousand up to a hundred and forty thousand dollars of revenue to the city so we think that's really a value and a good thing people pay to get on the registry yes they can apply for the Mills Act only about 40 percent of people take advantage of the Mills Act many people in old homes have been there much longer than what the Mills Act would benefit them so not everybody does that what can we do or what do we need to do going forward as many of you know our historic resource expert we had on staff Holly Sobolewski

had to retire and due to health reasons and we really lost a gem she knew everything she was the gatekeeper for the city right now we've got like a team of five people in building and planning all having other responsibilities and trying to do some of this we'd really urge you to fill a position with somebody who's just could look at this and become our expert again Holly was a great resource and it's a huge gap not that the staff isn't working really hard and doing a good job but when you have somebody dedicated to work on something it makes a big difference we have a vacancy on the historic resource

Commission and I'll direct that to councilman Sal I have a great referral for you for an architect that would love to be on the Commission to be a certified city historically speaking for the state of California we need two people with an architectural background and I'm one of those two people on the Commission but we need someone else so I've got a great referral for you and we'd love to have a full boat there of commissioners and then also creation of historic districts I know the neighborhood of floral park is looking at doing that they've been very active and they're they're on well down the road to

do that but I think there are other neighborhoods like Park Santiago West Floral Park Jack Fisher Park many other neighborhoods in the city that should become historic districts and then preservation program improvements there's a number of things we can do this year and our staff actually has worked with us and we have a list of 20 goals and objectives to achieve this year so it's a pretty aggressive agenda that we've got and then also just two other things is reinstating our recognition programs we used to have awards for people who did a beautiful job at restoring their homes and we let

that go with the budget crisis ten years ago and I think it's time to bring that back and recognize our many homeowners who are doing a great job and then also we used to have bronze plaques that we would put on to properties and we've let that go and we'd like to bring that back as well and that's it thank you so much for your attention and we're happy to serve at your pleasure thank you for your service thank you all thank you um mayor may I make just a brief yeah go ahead on that thank you very much commissioners and former councilwoman

I'll very courtesy for your work as a chairwoman and I'm glad to have you representing our district there. Again, thank you for all your work. Very insightful, very interesting story, history on some of our homes and properties. And just a brief comment to my colleagues with regard to the fees for historic designation. I would echo, and I mentioned before, the historic properties, residential and otherwise, in our city are a great asset to our community, and it definitely is something that it becomes cost prohibitive particularly in some of our parts of town with

families that are more of not as high means and more working families. So I think it would be a benefit for both those families and the city as a whole for us to revisit those fees and make it more accessible. So hopefully we will be able to discuss that and take some steps towards that. So thank you again.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I just wanted to thank the Chair and the Vice Chair and the members of the Historic Resources Commission. I was a commissioner on that commission as well before I came on the council, so I want to applaud your work. It's not easy. It's difficult work to assess the properties. As a homeowner of a property that is a landmark property, and it was held by the Borchardt family years and years ago, It's a 1929 home that was designed by a famous architect, Frederick Ely, who designed the high school, the Ebell Club, and many other buildings in the city. Look, what we don't realize is these are assets for the city.

These are things that we're preserving that have already survived generations of families that have lived here, and they all have stories, and they're all very valuable. And we've scraped and lost many of them, unfortunately. So to the extent that we as a city value these, there are cities like Pasadena, San Marino that do a really good job. Next to them, I think we do a really excellent job. But we have to start realizing that the more investment we make in those, the more we preserve the city's legacy. Not just architecturally, but again, the stories of folks who've lived here and have helped build the city.

So I want to echo what my colleague mentioned. mentioned I know that at one time we used to fund the entire Mills Act process we had a template we you know had folks be able to just sign up and staff would be able to do that it became difficult with respect to staff time that was being consumed but maybe there is a way we can try to find some middle ground where we can assist and we can continue to process more because seeing zero applications that's not a good number and that graph that you all showed is

very explicit about where we shouldn't be and where we need to go. So hopefully that's something that we can entertain. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Councillor Saludio. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. To add to what Council Member Sarmiento said, I think there should be a better middle ground on fees. I think last summer the city abruptly changed the fees while there were a lot of applicants in the queue. and oftentimes they were in the queue just because staff wasn't processing applications quick enough or wasn't giving proper notices. So I know I received a number of concerns and complaints about, hey, I was working with your staff, doing all this work in good faith,

and then the city abruptly changed the fees, and then the staff retired, and it just became a big issue. And as was discussed, there's a lot of benefits to the city and neighborhoods and streets and everybody else. So if we could kind of reconsider the fee structure, as well as maybe for those that were in the queue, maybe some kind of special consideration for them as well. Thank you.

All right. With that, what I'm going to ask the council is to indulge me for a moment, and I want to jump to the work-study session. i want to hear from staff and then i want we have a lot of people that wish to speak on this whole item item of rent control so what i'd like to do is kind of go through that item i think once we're done with that may the rest of the meeting will be a lot easier to continue with and a lot of folks can go home so with that let's just go to that item at this time and again let's start with staff presentation then we'll take testimony then we'll bring it to council

please go ahead thank you very much for the opportunity to present this work study session to you tonight on rent stabilization measures we have two expert speakers to present to you tonight including dr. Richard Green the last chair and real estate at the USC price school public policy and Tracy Condon the executive director of the Santa Monica rent control board we'll start our presentation by providing you with a framework, a context for this discussion. After we establish that basic framework, we'll invite Dr. Green to provide an academic perspective, including an overview of the literature.

Following Dr. Green, we'll then invite Tracy Condon to provide an administrative perspective, including the staffing and resources required for a local community to actually administer a rent control ordinance. Finally, we will end our presentation with the discussion of alternatives to rent stabilization with the specific focus on just cause eviction ordinances as requested by our economic development infrastructure budget and Technology Council committee this is a contentious issue but an important discussion Santa Ana is the fourth most dense city in the in the country nationwide for cities above with

a population of above 300,000 now that the the top seven densest cities in the nation with a population over 300,000. Two other cities, New York and San Francisco, both have rent control ordinances.

Our first chart here provides an analysis over time of our population growth relative to our total occupa, our housing supply. As you can see, our housing supply is not keeping pace with our population. From 2010 to 2016, our population grew by approximately 9,000 people are 2.5 percent while the number of total occupied housing units remained relatively flat. This chart provides an analysis over time of our household median income relative to median rent. Family income is not keeping pace with

the cost to rent in our community. From 2010 to 2016 while our median rent increased by approximately 10 percent our median household income decreased by roughly 1.5%.

And as you can see on this chart, we have a substantial amount, the majority of our renters are rent burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent. This trend continues to increase year to year and as our housing supply doesn't keep pace with demand. And as a result, renters are forced to move out of Santa Ana or double and triple up in many of our rental apartments here in our community.

Meanwhile, relative to our partner cities, we have the highest percentage of families living in poverty.

Any discussion of rent stabilization or rent control in California begins with acknowledging and understanding the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. That act prohibits rent control on properties built after February 1, 1995. This act ensures that any local rent stabilization ordinance doesn't limit the development of new rental housing in any jurisdiction.

And lastly, continuing to frame this discussion for the City Council, what does our housing stock look like? 56% of our housing units are rentals, while 44% are owner-occupied units. and a total of 28,066 units, if City Council were to ever approve a rent control ordinance, a total of 28,066 rental units would be eligible for rent control in compliance with the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. And now it's my privilege to introduce Dr. Richard Green, again, Luff's Chair in Real Estate at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here. I should start by saying I am not an expert on Santa Ana and context matters when we're talking about these things. But I'm honored by the opportunity to come down here. This is a fascinating city, as Judson already noted, the fourth densest city in the U.S. but what's remarkable is of course you drive around here you don't see a lot of high-rise buildings as you do in all the other cities of higher levels of density one of my favorite trivia questions once was what is the tallest structure in Orange County and it was once a roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm so a

couple of other things I think as an academic people attribute to you the virtue of neutrality and I think that's incorrect. If I were a physicist talking to you about gravity then absolutely I would have the virtue of neutrality. Things fall from the sky at 9.8 meters per second square regardless of my ideology but I have views based on experiences and two are particularly important as I talk to you about rent control. The first is the proudest thing I've done in my life professionally has worked in the Obama administration as a senior advisor to Julian Castro so that'll tell you

something about me the second thing is I have a PhD in economics and that'll also tell you something about me and economists are very suspicious of fooling around with prices and rent control is fooling around with prices for economists to be convinced that it's a good idea to do this they need to see a very compelling reason to do it and so there is going to be a suspicion about anything that where government seeks to manipulate prices which is surely what rent control is. So in light of that I'd like to talk to you a little bit about some literature and I have tried to do my best to show literatures that

support a variety of point of views on the issue and in particular oh I thought I was being where did it go there we go okay so I'm going to just say broadly the academic literature generally does not care for rent control and if you go on Google Scholar and look up rent control you can see I'm not gaming this this is just the way it generally is I think the biggest and most important criticism of rent control is that it's a subsidy that's poorly targeted. The income that you earn has nothing to do with whether you're a beneficiary of rent control or not. And in fact as many high-income

people in cities that have rent control benefit from it as low-income people. And so if you're thinking about a subsidy for a real problem and the cost of housing in California and actually nationally now is a real problem, you need to think about targeting it. Second is it's possible that many vulnerable people are made worse off as the result of rent control. Rebecca Diamond at Stanford has done some terrific new work looking at rent control in San Francisco and one of the interesting things about it is if you look at the costs and benefits of rent control they more or less even out so those who benefit from

it get very large benefits there is no doubt about that but the costs to a large extent fall on low-income people. Okay. Why is that? Well, because they don't have the option to stay in San Francisco. They have to live somewhere else, and they have long commutes, and those commutes have costs, both in time and money. And the other thing is my longtime co-author, Steve Malpezi, has done some of the best work on this. When low-income people stay in lower-quality and expensive buildings longer than they otherwise would, and high-income people, even though they have high incomes, are going to be cheap, right?

They might prefer to be in a nicer, bigger unit, but if you're going to give them a big subsidy to stay in a lower quality, smaller unit, they'll stay there. They shut low-income people out from opportunities to move into those units. And so those low-income people now have to compete for higher-cost housing and as a result spend more on the housing than they otherwise would. Third thing about rent control is it generally discourages mobility, is if it's costly to move, people don't move. And this is a particularly important issue in California, which surprisingly has among the lowest mobility rates of any state in the country.

And we think there are two big reasons for this. One is there are fairly large swaths of the state that are subject to rent control. The other is Proposition 13, which means for a homeowner it doesn't make a lot of sense to move unless you have to, because your property taxes are going to go up a lot. And there are those of us who think that this does real damage to the California economy more broadly. And finally, rent control discourages renovation. So if you know that your rent is going to be capped, why would you put improvements into a building as a landlord? And so we have this ironic situation in California.

We have older properties, a lot of stuff built in the 50s, that's actually falling out of the stock because it's not being maintained. And that's not good for anyone. So that's a summary of the arguments against rent control. So what, and again I'm sorry about this, why, what do I need to do? To move it? Oh, what did I do?

Okay, well I remember my slide. So there are two arguments for rent control.

The first is from Richard Arnott, who is a professor of economics at the University of California at Riverside. I consider Richard to be probably the finest urban economics theorist currently living. So when he writes, I take it very seriously. And he argues that because of land use regulation, because we make it difficult to build, particularly here in California, many landlords earn windfalls that have nothing to do with risk-taking and investment. So it's one thing when a developer goes and takes the risk of putting up new buildings and needs to earn a return for that.

That's economic activity that's desirable and they need to be paid a reward for it. It's something else for someone who's just lucky enough to happen to hold a property in a place where he can't have competitors because zoning prevents competitors. And as a result of that lack of competition, the value of the rents rise. That reward does not reflect economic activity. It reflects what is often called Ricardian rent. And this is not a particularly desirable outcome. It can spur a kind of laziness. And so Arnott notes in his work that in light of the fact that we have bad land use policy,

what economists call a second best solution may be to have some sort of rent control regime in order to compensate for that bad policy in the first place. My response to that is the better thing to do would be to undo the bad policy in the first place. but I wanted to make this clear. The second thing is, and I think this is something that's really important to think about as we think about renters, we know socially that stability is very important for children. Kids who get to stay in their house for a long time do better than kids who have to move around

a lot. And so there's a compelling social interest to allow children to remain in their houses, not subject to the chance of being tossed out because the rent just goes up too much from one year to the next. Okay, that's a competing interest. But what might be the answer to that? Well one of the things that's always mystified me about apartments is why they all have one kind of lease, which is one-year leases. If we look at office buildings, if we look at retail space, if we look at industrial space, this space often has leases of five years, ten years, sometimes even longer than that. The rent is known at the time that the person

signs up for it, there may be a clause that allows for an adjustment that's tied to the consumer price index at some point in the life of the lease. But here is a market allowing businesses to have certainty about the cost of occupying the space they need in order to do business. And something I'm curious about and puzzled about is why the market hasn't figured this out in the rental context. So thinking about mechanisms for encouraging landlords to within a market framework allow security of tenure for renters I think would be very sensible and certainly innovative policy. That said I

think zoning reform combined with direct subsidies we saw the poverty rate in Santa Ana is rather high poor people are never going their housing problems are never going to be solved just by housing policy housing alone it's an income issue they need subsidies we need to do something like that but I also have some sympathy for you. I was listening to your discussion about your polite skirmish with Anaheim over transportation. We're in a region with, if you consider Los Angeles and Orange County as part of one economic region, which I do, they're very inter, they interact a lot with each other with more

than 100 municipalities. It's extremely difficult to do that kind of zoning reform. So I hope this is sort of an informative brief tour of my judgment about what the literature tells me about these issues and I'll turn it over to our next speaker thank you for having me here tonight

good evening mayor and council members I'm Tracy Condon the executive director of the Santa Monica rent control agency thank you very much for inviting me to be here with you this evening and to give you an administrative perspective

on rent control. So Santa Monica has had a rent control law in place since 1979, and that year is significant in that the year before that, there had been a push for rent control. First, a push that there be an ordinance enacted by the city council. That was not successful. So a group of activists went to the ballot, put forward a ballot measure, and in 1978 that failed. But Prop 13 passed that year. And the people who had been working for Prop 13 had said if it passed, rents would be rolled back, things would be stabilized. Well, that didn't happen.

So then in 1979, there was another push for rent control, and that succeeded in Santa Monica.

Rent control laws are different from different jurisdictions, but generally they share a lot of the same components. In Santa Monica, with more than 75% of the households occupied by renters, there was a very strong support for rent control. At the time that the rent control was passed, there was a demolition derby going on, which was resulting in a growing shortage of housing units and rapidly rising rents. So that was what influenced the success of rent control.

The hope that was that rent control would provide the same type of stability for renters that Prop 13 had done by limiting the increases on property taxes to 2% per year. The Santa Monica Rent Control Law provides for an elected five-member board, and the major provisions of the law include it applies to multifamily residential rental properties in existence in 1979, controls rent so that they will not be increased unreasonably, requires owners to maintain their properties, and allows tenants to petition for rent reductions if the owner fails to maintain the property

or takes away some of the housing amenities or housing services. It ensures that owners receive a fair return. And the law also provides stability through just-cause eviction protections, meaning that tenancies may only be terminated for limited reasons such as non-payment of rent, violating a lease provision, or creating a nuisance, among other things. As approved by the Santa Monica voters, rent control is an integral part of the city government, but is independent from the city council. This ensures that rent control would be protected even if the city council was opposed to the policy.

Just as the council appoints the city manager, city attorney, and city clerk, the rent control board appoints the executive director and general counsel of the agency. All other employees are part of the civil service system. Following a public hearing each June, the board adopts an annual budget that is prepared by the executive director, myself. The agency operates solely on registration fees that are billed to the property owners, and they may pass through half of that cost to the tenants as a monthly surcharge. so the the policy and the program is complete completely funded by owners and

tenants and takes no money at all from the general fund of the city the board's powers and duties are enumerated in section 1803 of the law and the seven I've listed here sort of help elucidate the work that the agency does we set and track the rent ceilings for all controlled units we and to do this the law requires registration of controlled units including the start date and new rental amount for each tenancy this requirement is very important in that it allows us to develop and maintain one of our most important resources and that is

the property and rent tracking database the board is also empowered to make adjustments in the rent ceiling they do that on an annual basis by adopting a citywide rent increase that now is pegged to 75% of the change in the consumer price index. The board can also allow individual adjustments upward if the owner is not making a fair return and downward if the owner fails to maintain the property or takes away amenities. The board hires and pays the necessary staff including hearing examiners and personnel to issue orders, rules and regulations, conduct hearings and charge fees. And as I mentioned we

charge and collect registration fees and that's what covers the cost of the

program. As I mentioned earlier, one of the things that resulted in rent control passing was the predominantly renter-occupied housing. Today about 72% of the housing is occupied by renters and 28% by property owners. And of the approximately 46,000 occupied housing units in Santa Monica, 34,000 are potentially subject to rent control. There are some use exemptions for small properties two and three units that are owner-occupied other types of exemptions so generally we have about 28 to 30,000 controlled units to oversee the

implementation enforcement of the law and to provide services to the renters and property owners in Santa Monica the agency has 25 staff members within four divisions the administration department oversees the fiscal personnel contract administration, labor relations, public relations, research planning and policy development activities of the agency. We also provide direct support to the rent control board in the preparation of the agenda and board packets and we maintain the agency's information systems and technology. The office support team within the administrative department provides general administrative support

throughout the agency. The public information department which I kind of think of as the heart of the agency responds to questions from the public about the law and they conduct research on the status and history of specific controlled units we receive about 15 to 17,000 inquiries a year in our office the Public Information Department also informs the public about the agency services using a variety of media including twice yearly newsletters seminars, a website, social media, and several annual reports. The hearings department handles the petitions, complaints, and applications that are

filed by landlords and tenants. They schedule hearings, send notices, conduct investigations, draft and issue subpoenas for parties and documents, and hold mediation conferences. And I just want to comment that we introduced mediation about 15 years ago and it's been a very effective component of the program being able helping us resolve disputes without the need for some of the formal hearings I would highly encourage that if you consider some sort of rent control or rent stabilization program the hearings department issues recommended after holding administrative hearings they will issue

recommendations and decisions and addenda we also have our own legal staff as I mentioned they serve as the board's legal counsel providing advice on a myriad of legal topics including drafting regulations and legal opinions, preparing and presenting staff reports to the board on appeal of hearings and administrative decisions. They defend the board's appellate decisions and litigate the legitimacy of the rent control law and its implementing regulations. And there have been a number of challenges to rent control over the years but a number of the issues that have been challenged have now been resolved. So

new jurisdictions are enacting rent control and not facing the same type of legal challenges that some of the older long-term jurisdictions have faced like Santa Monica in order to provide these services the board's budget this year is just over five million dollars as a service organization approximately 85% of our budget is devoted to the costs associated with our primary resource which is our staff members we have an increase in capital outlay that you'll see in this slide from last year and that's because we're in the process of replacing our rent tracking system database so it will provide some

increased efficiencies although the board is independent from the city we use all of the city service departments like human resources payroll finance and we pay indirect cost to the city for those services the agency also complies with the city's centralized purchasing system and competitive bidding processes and procured procures goods and services just like other city agencies and departments the board does have sole authority to employ attorneys legislative lobbyists and other professionals and to approve contracts for those professionals of course what we do is we control rents so it's a

fairly limited jurisdiction it's very important that we work closely with other city departments who handle other aspects of issues that arise between landlords and tenants we have a particular close relationship with the City Attorney's Office. They handle issues of tenant harassment and consumer protection issues like relocation benefits, buyout agreements, and fair housing and discrimination issues. We work closely with code enforcement to address habitability issues and housing code and municipal code violations. Building and safety addresses construction and occupied properties.

And it's interesting to hear Dr. Green say that people don't invest in their properties that is certainly not what we've seen in Santa Monica because of the cost of Hawkins law because of the cost of Hawkins law which allows vacancy D control owners are very interested in obtaining the highest rent possible when they have a vacant unit so in Santa Monica we have a lot of construction going on in buildings that are occupied and as you can imagine this created some problems so the City Council adopted a program where a means and methods plan is required if owners going to do construction and they have to show how

they're going to mitigate the impacts of that construction on the tenants living in the building also any demolition permits come for multifamily housing come through the rent control agency because buildings cannot be demolished while they're under rent control finally the housing division access the housing authority within the city and oversees the deed restrictions on affordable inclusionary units and private developments in addition to in addition to collaborating with city departments we also collaborate with other rent control jurisdictions across the state we get together a couple times

a year to go over common issues we learn from each other so we're not repeating mistakes and we're learning best practices. And this year we've added a couple of jurisdictions to that consortium group when Richmond and Mountain View passed rent control at the ballot measure. So that gives you a sort of a snapshot of Santa Monica rent control. It's a housing policy that helps people in place be secure in their housing. It's not the only answer, but it has certainly allowed Santa Monica to remain a more diverse place than it would be without rent control. You can imagine if the rents could be whatever they wanted

to be or we would not have the type of diversity that we have. It's protected seniors and people of lower income so I think it's been an effective policy in Santa Monica. Thank you again.

Just go ahead.

Now we're going to turn your attention to alternatives to rent stabilization, rent control. Some of the alternatives to rent control include placing a bond or, I'm sorry, placing an affordable housing bond on the city or county ballot, Establishing a Community Revitalization Investment Authority to divert tax increment funding to affordable housing. For the other alternatives that you see here, our City Council approved our Inclusionary Housing Ordinance in 2011 and consistently supports the development of more affordable housing and conventional housing.

One alternative in particular is the adoption of a Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, which we will discuss in more detail at the request of our EDIBT Council Committee. What is a Just Cause Eviction Ordinance? Just Cause Eviction Ordinances prohibit landlords from evicting tenants for a reason not identified as an allowable reason in the ordinance. They protect tenants from arbitrary, discriminatory, or retaliatory evictions while ensuring landlords can evict tenants as long as they have a reason to do so in compliance with the ordinance. These types of ordinances limit the ability of landlords to evict existing tenants.

They protect tenants who have short-term, month-to-month leases. And they slow down rapid increases in rents.

What is considered a just-cause eviction? So local ordinances vary on the types of actions that result in a just-cause eviction. Some of the most common types of actions are listed here. Failure to pay rent, use of the premises for illegal purposes. The ordinance specifies the reasons that a landlord can evict, and then the reason must be provided in the notice of termination to the tenant. Eleven other cities in California have a just cause eviction ordinance, and out of the seven most dense cities nationwide with a population of over 300,000, four of the seven cities have a form of just cause eviction ordinance,

including New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago. With that, Mayor and City Council, thank you very much for the opportunity to present this item.

Thank you. Madam City Clerk, I think we have folks that want to speak on this. If I can have the cards, please.

All right, we have 50 speakers.

So, but it's not a rally. It's not a campaign rally. It's a council hearing. So, you know, two minutes, and we'll go ahead and start. Matthew Buck, California Apartment Association. Association followed by Nicholas Dunlop, please.

Hi. Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Matthew Buck. I'm the Vice President of Public Affairs for the California Apartment Association's Orange County Division. CAA is the largest rental housing association in the country. We're representing over 60,000 rental property owners and managers, who together we operate over 2 million residential units throughout the state of California. and over 100,000 units in Orange County. Thank you for inviting us to be part of this and participate in the work study. Obviously, indeed, Santa Ana faces serious housing challenges.

There aren't enough rooftops for a population of 350,000 people. Lack of availability continues to push demand up, as well as prices to go with it. And as you've shared with me individually, some of our residents here are residing in subpar living conditions. So you do have some challenges. Tonight, I'm here to reaffirm that to each of you, CAA is here to help the city find solutions to all of these challenges. But any solution related to rent stabilization or rent control, it will only deter investment in your communities and make the housing situation worse and help no one long term.

The folks you're trying to help, it just won't help them. We believe in win-win scenarios. That's what CAE does. Santa Ana needs solutions that are going to encourage private investment to go along with the public investment. It's going to bring more housing, and we need solutions that at the same time protect your tenants or your residents and allow them to remain in their community. We're sensitive to that. We've already listed a few ideas in front of you in the letter we've given you. And note, as a public policy trade association engaged in cities throughout Orange County and the state,

We are able to offer a variety of solutions and best practices to challenges you are facing that have been proven effective in the rental housing industry statewide. Again, we believe in win-win scenarios. We're all in this together. CAA looks forward to working closely with you, staff, and the community. Thank you.

And look, if you want to clap, just go like this, because otherwise we're going to have a clapping war, and that'll take even more time. And that doesn't do anything. So Nicholas Dunlop, followed by Alan Wood, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Nicholas Dunlop. I'm here as a volunteer board member, representative of the Apartment Association of Orange County. I'm also an apartment owner. And, you know, this is an important issue, not just in Santa Ana, as we're here tonight, but across the nation. And, you know, one of the things, I think, if you look back and you see the audience, you know, we're all here because housing is a top concern.

And I think this topic here this evening with rent stabilization and rent control is somewhat misguided and really doesn't belong in a conversation or a dialogue related to affordable housing. And when I listen to some of the concerns that are shared, I hear concerns related to housing affordability and specifically affordable housing. And at the Apartment Association, we're a stakeholder here in the city. We represent more than 25% of the city's rental housing stock. And we want to be a resource to you, to the city staff, and also to the citizens here as well.

So, you know, we would love to be a part of a bigger discussion related to affordable housing, if and when that situation should arise. But, you know, we are opposed to, you know, again, to rent stabilization. We think that as has been proven in Berkeley and Oakland and San Francisco and New York and across the country, it only helps to make housing more expensive and does not make it more affordable. Thank you.

Thank you, Adam. Followed by Rick Roshan. Followed by Tommy Thompson.

Evening, Mayor, Council, and Staff. My name is Adam Wood with the Building Industry Association, representing our 1,100 members, employing over 100,000 in the home building industry. I wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to comment tonight. We submitted a letter. We hope you had a chance to review. Our mission is to champion housing as the cornerstone to vibrant and sustainable communities. In our letter, we cited a number of studies that discuss rent control. The key one that I wanted to point out is from the Legislative Analyst's Office. It's California's independent research body.

It says many housing programs, vouchers, rent control, and inclusionary housing attempt to make housing more affordable without increasing the overall supply of housing. This approach does very little to address the underlying cause of California's high housing costs, a housing shortage. Now we could not be more excited about the recently approved innovative housing small lot subdivision ordinance that you guys approve we think this is the way to go these are the smart solutions and we'd love to work with staff in finding more opportunities like that so thank you for the

opportunity thank you rick and thank you for that tommy thompson after that and then followed by

vicki talley good evening my name is rick roshan and i'm an apartment owner um thanks for hearing me speak tonight. You know the problem is just not enough housing. You know virtually nothing got built during the last downturn but rent control it's just not the answer. We need to increase the supply of housing and multi-family apartments within the city. The city should be welcoming builders with open arms and you know stream the entitlement process for them. You know

make Santa Ana city developers want to do business with and come to and really I'm thinking like this work study it really should be a roundtable with builders because they're going to be telling you exactly what they need to solve your housing problem here in the city so the answer to a housing shortage is simple. You have to build more homes, build more multifamily if you want the city to grow. If not, you could be a low-growth city and not allow it and force that out to the surrounding cities. But my sense

is that you guys want to go in a different direction. But I urge you all to say no to any form of rent control. Thank you very much.

Go ahead, Rick, after you, Tommy Thompson, then Vicki Talley.

Go ahead. Yeah, Honorable Mayor, members of the council, Tommy Thompson, Senior Vice President for the California Apartment Association. It's an honor to be with you in your beautiful city. I just want to kind of give you the statewide perspective, since that's where the level I'm on with CAA, as was alluded to earlier by the lady from Santa Monica, there have been cities statewide that have looked at rent control in the last 12 to 24 months. We are in a housing crisis. And these cities have reacted. In fact, nine cities statewide from Santa Rosa all the way down to Glendale looked at rent control in the last 12 to 24 months.

Seven of them outright rejected it because it's bad policy, as Dr. Green has said. Not only that, but Costa-Hawkins, as it's referred to today, is a limitation. It limits rent control from the expansion of rent control. It's what protects these good landlords in their homes and the homes that they own so that rent control doesn't expand. The legislator, the left-leaning progressive legislature, last year Costa Hawkins went before a vote, didn't even get a committee assignment last year. This year it went to a committee, was flat out rejected by the left-leaning progressive legislature.

The LAO, as Adam had just said, wrote up a study about rent control, says it's wrong. There's no way that can be right. The LAO said in this study that rent control was wrong for communities. It's a proven disaster for many cities. Cities up and down the state continue to deny it. Just cause eviction, another bad policy. You didn't spend a lot of time on that today. Look, I think you need solutions. It's a housing crisis. You need solutions. Matt Buck with CAA wrote you a letter about several solutions that we would offer. We love to be at the table and offer solutions. Again, we are all in a housing crisis.

It's not just Santa Ana. It's up and down the state. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Vicki, followed by Julie Pauly.

And after that, Jennifer Hernandez, I believe. Please go ahead, Vicki.

Thank you. Honorable Mayor, members of the Council, I'm Vicki Talley. I'm the Executive Director of the Manufactured Housing Educational Trust, representing the owners of manufactured housing communities in the cities of Santa Ana, throughout Orange County, and the Inland Empire. We've worked with this city many, many times in the past, and I want to make a suggestion, and they implore you to seek that help from our organization and from other organizations coming forward today saying, there are resolutions, and the resolution isn't in control.

I'd like to first congratulate this city for the incredible job you're doing right now to address affordable housing issues, not only through your homeless program, your affordable housing program with millions of dollars allocated, and your voucher program. Alternatives to rent control were given by Mr. Brown, and I think those are ones that we want to look very closely at. Rent control is not the answer. I think that what we took away from Dr. Green's comments, that it does preserve housing for wealthy and disenfranchises the low income. We submitted written comments.

Thank you very much for reviewing those comments. Thank you for listening to our comments, and we look forward to working with you to resolve these issues. I might add that our organization has a dispute resolution program and a rental assistance program for our residents, and I think we're a model organization representing very proud Santa Ana rental housing property owners. Thank you.

Thank you, Vicki. Thank you very much. Julie Pauley, I believe.

good evening mayor and members of the City Council I'm Julie Pauly with the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association like Miss Talley we represent mobile home park owner 1600 of them statewide with many of them here in Santa Ana I first want to commend you about your approach to study this this issue I've been in countless jurisdictions where we've had this conversation and quite often most of the time is spent with a city attorney or County Council outlying how you can regulate rental housing but I think you're taking a slow approach and asking the very important question should you

regulate rental housing WMA and its members are always against rent control as outlined in our letter that was submitted rent control is inherently unfair it's a it's a rent subsidy placed on the backs of a single business owner and the unfairness doesn't stop there there's no means testing as dr. Green alluded to that this goes to to anyone that hits the jackpot of living in a rental unit that qualifies like it's been said before before by other speakers it erodes affordable housing there's no market force or interest to upgrade or

improve units it's costly to administer in 2012 the San Diego taxpayer advocates studied the Oceanside rent control ordinance and it outlined that all of the cost cost the city seven and a half million dollars from 1999 to 2011 and it was set to cost the city another eight million in the upcoming decade. So you've been given alternatives to explore and I encourage you to do so and we're here to also partake in that conversation as well.

So thank you very much. Thank you. Next person lives at 714 North Raid Street. Hernandez, Please come forward. And then Ivan Enriquez. Good evening, City Council.

Mayor, my name is Jonathan Hernandez. A lot of you guys know my address now. And I'm a proud resident of Santana, of the Artisa Pilar. As a matter of fact, our house is 714 North Ray Street, so it probably doesn't get more Santa Ana than that. But I just want to address something before I go into my talking points. The fact that we are debating whether or not housing being unaffordable is toxic to the brain and to the body is absurd. Before I got up here, it was white folks telling brown folks how to live in our own communities. And I want to start off by talking about your five-year strategic plan that each one of you created.

This plan is masterfully designed to displace families and to harm and to disrupt whatever community does exist at this juncture. If your plan is driven by data, if it's data driven, I'm sure you're well aware that you are being driven by the wrong data. Goal number one in this strategic plan, right, is community safety. Goal number two is youth education. Goal number three is economic development. This budget is driven by special interest. You cannot have community safety without having youth, education, and economics at the forefront.

Because guess what? Nobody's committing a crime that they do not have to commit. The proper data would show you that the budget, the biggest threat to our health in this community is inequality. Inequality is poverty, it's violence, it's racism, it's gentrification. These are just byproducts of inequality. If you want to put community first, community safety first, and you want to support the 56% of population that rents here in Santa Ana, eradicate inequality, have it become odious to our community, then and only then will you have community and community safety.

Thank you. Ivan Enriquez. Called by Jackie Cordova.

Good evening, members of the city council. My name is Ivan Enriquez. I'm a city resident. And I'm speaking on behalf of an organization that succeeded the Bernie Sanders campaign. For some people that don't know, as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, he was the first to create a municipally funded housing trust for folks to move into homes. And not only that, but low-income Latino immigrants are more likely to live in areas with high levels of hazardous air pollution than anyone else. The odds of a Latino immigrant neighborhood being located in an area of high toxic pollution is one in three.

At the same time, communities of color lack access to parks, gardens, and other recreational green space. As the former chair of the Youth Commission here in the city of Santa Ana, I've always been one to speak out at the city council meetings about the need for increased youth funding, and housing has a lot to do with that. Just like Mayor Pro Tem Martinez mentioned, transportation also has a lot to do with tenants' rights. It has a lot to do with housing affordability. And unfortunately, as the second densest city in the city of California, we really do need to do a lot more work.

As one of our presenters showed on the screen, we have what looks like a sideways bell curve. And that's not good for our community. When we don't have an increase in housing units to accommodate folks that are now being pushed out onto the street, We need to do more to protect communities of color. And unfortunately, not everyone has been on board in terms of doing that here on this dais. And I would appreciate it if members of this city council would work a little more with the budget to create opportunities for folks that are living paycheck to paycheck

to have more sustainable and more permanent and more solid and more bold housing than we currently have at the moment. And there's nothing that anyone can say in opposition of this that doesn't agree that people need to have stable housing if we want to have

stable communities thank you Jackie Cordova Jackie Cordova that was the Yvonne right Yvonne Enrique so Jackie Cordova then from the Public Law Center Yugochi Nicohan and if not then Mario Chavez

welcome hi good evening my name is good evening Mayor Polito and members of the City Council my name is Yugochi Annabera Nicholson and I'm an attorney with the Public Law Center. We're a non-profit law firm in Orange County and we provide access to justice for low-income and vulnerable residents here in Orange County. Our housing practice includes representing low-income families in housing related matters, preventing homelessness, and advocating for inclusionary housing policies that provide affordable housing opportunities for low-income and vulnerable residents in Orange County. We're headquartered

in Santa Ana. We've represented thousands of tenants who come to us seeking help from the devastating, debilitating, and traumatic effects that an eviction can bring to a family. We believe in the safety, security, and affordability in housing for all, and we believe that everyone has a right to a home. You may say to yourself that we cannot afford rent stabilization, and we don't need just cause eviction protections. Our answer to that is that this city can no longer afford to wait.

Santa Ana, as you've heard, is a majority renter city with at least 56% of its households serving as rental homes. Further, costs are rising faster than wages. In 2017, the average number of hours that a worker has to work just to afford a modest-sized, median apartment in the state of California is about 92 to 118 hours per week. Inhumanly possible. But that's what's happening. Furthermore, HUD is serving to propose to raise its rents and also impose work requirements,

therefore deepening the levels of lack of affordability of housing nationwide, including in the state of California. Supply and preservation is something that works hand in hand. It's not one over the other. So we ask you tonight to join us, seize the day, and lead the way in Orange County by having this work group create either a rent stabilization ordinance or just cause

addiction. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mario Chavez followed by Keefa Brahman.

Hello my name is Mario Chavez. I'm a student at Valley High School and I am a resident of Silver neighborhood. I come here to speak on behalf of my parents, my siblings, and my neighbors. Growing up in Santa Ana I never had a home or a place to call my own. Growing up with my parents making minimum wage, it became evident as long as we lived in the city, we would only survive. With Santa Ana being one of the most dense places to live behind San Francisco, New York, everywhere I looked when we were evicted, it was like we were going to get, it was playing a game that was not meant to be won. Since I was five, I lived in six different

houses when all I ever wanted was a home, a place where I could thrive with my family. So I ask that you help families like mine thrive. So I ask for rent control. So if you truly believe in investment in youth, help these youth drive, not survive. Thank you.

Thank you. Keith Brahman, followed by Jose Hernandez, followed by Barbara Kidder Garcia, after Jose.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. My name is Keith Brahman.

Why don't you bring up the mic? Yeah, sorry, I'm a little taller than most. Yep, you are.

I'm the regional manager for Satellite Management Company that's actually based here in Santa Ana. They were started in 1955. They developed in buildings all over Orange County. And I've also had the opportunity to professionally manage properties in four different states besides California. I'm here on half of just supporting the opportunity for us to come to the solution because housing is obviously important to everybody in this room. um i do appreciate that as city council members you guys are looking at all different alternatives as i was sitting listening to arguments before and after i just wanted to point out that per

rent cafe.com as of tonight the average rent for a place in santa monica is at 3200 the average rent tonight for somebody in santa ana to move into your city is at 1700 just want you guys to consider

that. Thank you. Thank you. Jose, followed by Barbara Garcia, followed by Alexis

Teodoro. Good evening, Council. My name is Jose Hernandez. I'm representing a court and a lot of other folks that can't be here. Many of whom will share stories today, but I just want to say the optics of who is for this and who is against this cannot be ignored. Here in Santana, 80% Latinos you know and and and what the interests that we're fighting for about dr. Green was disturbance disturbingly biased and it was it was obvious and it's unfortunate that pro-business means probe greed and anti-community you know these scare tactics by greedy developers are you know that they're trying to do

oh they're not going to develop that the only answer that we're at need is more building more housing it's just not true you know the fact of the matter is sick more than 60% of the housing would be affected by rent control even without cost to Hawkins. These folks are fighting for another home, another boat. We're fighting to be able to remain, for our families to stay here. That's what the report said. The one good thing from Dr. Green's report was that our children deserve to stay. So the proven disaster, again, all these scare tactics, kind of wording that these folks are using against what was really a community need.

So I heard about a group of all builders who would create a safe system of oppression for our working class. We want a working group that includes residents primarily affected by the stakeholders, the city staff, and people that really care about Santana, not folks that are just looking for an extra yacht or whatnot. Thank you.

Barbara.

Barbara, followed by Alexis Teodoro, followed by Sylvia.

Hi, everyone. Barbara had to leave because she didn't have child care, so she asked me to speak on her behalf. So I'm reading from her speech. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Barbara Kidder-Garcia, and I am the Director of Policy and Programs at the Coalition of Orange County Community Health Centers. Thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment today. The coalition is a consortium of safety net providers and key partners creating quality health care for vulnerable communities. We have 26 member organizations that serve 380,000 patients collectively.

Our members are federally qualified health centers and community clinics. Here in Santana, our members include Altamed, Serve the People, Share Ourselves, and UCI Family Health Center. Our members engage in a wide variety of efforts to treat their patients holistically by focusing on prevention and addressing social determinants of health. We believe that dignified and stable housing plays a significant role in keeping our patients well while reducing harmful environmental exposure to communicable disease and infections and preventing homelessness.

Stress triggered from housing insecurity has a significant impact on the health of our patient population. The accumulation of high stress keeps cortisol, the stress hormone levels elevated, making patients more susceptible to chronic diseases like suppressed immunity, hypertension, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes, amongst others. 55% of our patients, that's 210,000 of them, are under 100% of the federal poverty level.

In Orange County, where the housing wage to afford a one-bedroom apartment is $27.62 an hour, our patients suffer increased economic insecurity and hardship that further compounds their challenges to achieve higher health outcomes. In consideration of the facts, the coalition urges the City Council to be proactive in the homeless crisis. Santa Ana is facing and take every measure to ensure our residents, our patients are not facing evictions and losing their housing due to inordinate housing costs or unjust retaliation. The coalition supports an ordinance that will afford tenants protections,

and we strongly encourage the City of Santana to strengthen policies that include just-cause evictions, rent control, and rent stabilization to meet the needs of the community. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Alexis, followed by Sylvia, followed by Marcela Rosas.

Good evening, Council, City Manager, City Clerk. My name is Alexis Todoro, and I'm the campaign strategist for Santana Building Healthy Communities. And I want to start off with acknowledging the work that we have done together. The SABHC has worked with city council members and city staff on policies that have made the city of Santa Ana a model, not just in the county but in the nation. We worked together to make the city a sanctuary place for the immigrant community. We worked together to allocate $65,000 for providing attorneys for undocumented residents in the city that cannot afford them.

you know so I see this as an extension of continuing that tradition of making the city a leader in the county and we have to be the first to have a strong or a tenant rights ordinance and and and rent control as well then we have to be the first not because we want to be the first but because we know deep inside or lived experience in the city that we need what we're asking for we need what we're asking for because we are here to thrive. We're not here for any handouts or anything like that. We work hard. Our migrant undocumented parents wake up every morning at 6, 4 a.m.

to clean buildings in Irvine. The reason why we are here demanding is because we needed this 10, 15 years ago. For us, mobility sometimes doesn't exist because of systemic racism. So it might take three or four generations for us to become homeowners, but for now we need these protections to get there one day. Because we also want to be homeowners. We don't always want to have to pay rent. I'll end it with this. The City of New York is the first city to assign its court informants and officers to help undocumented residents who face landlord harassment.

if, for example, they're specifically backmailed or extorted by landlords. This has been documented that this has increased under the Trump administration across the board, especially in California. This is more than anything. If we're a sanctuary city, we need more protections for residents, not just the undocumented tenants, but everybody, so we can continue this tradition of actually being a sanctuary place for everybody. Things are connected. They're not separate.

So thank you. Thank you. Silvia, following Marcela Farr by Arceli Robles.

Do you need translation? Go ahead. Empiece.

Mi nombre es Silvia. Yo tengo 17 años de vivir en la calle Main. El dueño vendió la casa sin avisarme. and the new owner gave me two months to leave. I am here because I want to tell my story in a way quick. I want to tell people what I have done, because they told me that I was a firehouse, and I was there and told me that I had a role defective, that I could have a month to get a job, but then they told me that no, it was not so. Well, I am here for that same thing, because I don't want to let the people happen. I was threatened, intimidated by the new

new one, in a way very violent. I started to put cartas where they said, you have to go out because I have to sell this house, you have to go out because I need to fumigate, if you don't leave, you're going to pay the fumigation, if you don't move from here and before the date that I'm telling you, I'm going to take you with all your things. And he also did another thing, he broke the doors, the doors, the inquilinos were not. I was very much in the way I was going to get out of my house, I went to the police,

and the police told me, the police told me, the police told me that if I didn't want to let him go to my house, I would not be able to enter, because I had to pay the rent. and I had the two months that he gave the law. So my content and agravity is because he passed on all of them. He said that he was in Santana and he could do what he wanted. That was one time. The second time I came to call the police because he put a paper saying that the migraine was going to take all the people who were in the house.

me corto la luz el agua y la y el gas cosas que me dijeron que no se podían hacer entonces yo estoy aquí porque yo no quiero que le pase otra a otras personas lo mismo si es muy muy difícil vivir así es estresante triste pero también yo pienso que todos podemos cambiar las cosas verdad porque esto me pasó a mí no se debe hacer pero le puede pasar a otras personas pueden venir otras gentes hacer

Gracias. Va a traducir. Gracias.

My name is Silvia. I've been living for 17 years on Main Street. And I want to bring this information. I was going to be evicted, and I want to tell my story. I was told that I had to move, and just my story real quick, I had to move. And I'm here to, so that this doesn't happen to other people. I was told I had one more month to move out of the place, and the new owner threatened me. He threatened me with some letters. He told me I had to go because he had to sell the house, because he had to fumigate the place. And he said if I didn't move by a certain date, that I would have to pay for the fumigation.

And he said if you don't move by this certain date, that he would kick me out. He broke into the house, and he went into the rooms and scared away the other tenants that were living there. and I called the police. The police told me to calm down. He said that if I didn't let him in, that he could not come in. And I told him that I had to go, and that I had two more months that the law allowed, and he said that he could do anything he wanted because he was here in Santa Ana, so he could do anything. And he was saying that immigration was coming to get us,

and then he cut off the power, he cut off the water and the gas, and that's not fair. and I'm here to tell my story so that this doesn't happen to other people because it's very hard and very stressful to live like this.

Thank you.

No sé si es Marcela Robles, Araceli Robles. Marcela, ok. Adelante.

Buenas tardes, mi nombre es Araceli Robles y yo vivo aquí en la ciudad de Santana, sobre la calle Díaz y el Arroz. The reason I am here is to ask you to support the homes of all of us and every one of those who live here in the city of Santana. We are not only abogated for a church but for our families uned. Unfortunately, people who have been given information, statistics, everything, because they are the expert. When the expert is first, the community. the community that lives in Santa Ana we are the expert when our children are living with a trauma because we are not alone when we are still living with a family

and we say let's go home because why do you think they are in us we are not in control of the people who came to give their presentation but I invite you to that really take us the door and form a committee to work for having a house and really we have come to you and thank you a los concejales que siempre están con nosotros que nos apoyan. Realmente les agradece yo les agradezco personalmente de todo corazón el gran esfuerzo que hacen para trabajar con nosotros y a Michelle la verdad la admiro por estar en medio de tanta gente que son hombres y que ella está dando la cara por las mujeres y gracias

necesitamos más vivienda y necesitamos el apoyo de ustedes y las personas que son servidores públicos y que solamente sirven a un sector y son las personas que estoy viendo les pido que realmente ejerzan lo que es un servidor público

My name is Ezee Rogas and I'm here living in Santa Ana, 10th and 2nd Street and I am asking to support the housing in Santa Ana we don't just need a roof over our heads we need families to stay united you have all these numbers and information from the experts but the real experts are from the community the community who live here in the community these are the experts that you need to listen to it's a very traumatic situation to be evicted and you need to think about us about the community we need to take the bull by the horns and then have this housing be available for the community and I would like to thank

the people who have supported us to thank the council people who have support us like Michelle I admire her because she's among all these men and and she's supporting women and we need to make housing available especially the public servants that need to start serving the public

Adela Montaigne is followed by Idalia Rios followed by Ignacio Lopez

Good evening. My name is Adela Montañez, and I work for the organization Latino Head Access. But in this time, I'm representing a mother who is afraid that her arrendatario is present and has represalias against her. And I read textualmente what she wrote.

He said, no tiene su propio hogar y vive en casa de un familiar, también se le reconoce como desamparado. Por esta razón, estoy aquí, hoy, y representando a mi comunidad y presentándoles a ustedes la necesidad de vivienda digna para todos. Y gracias por su atención. No puedo decir el nombre de la persona.

My name is Edela Montañez, and I'm here from Latino Health Access, but I'm here representing a mom who's afraid that the landlord, her landlord who is here might take some things against her, so I'm going to read her letter. Good evening, members of the council. I'm here to support this protection for, for, yeah, to protect the renters and to ask for your support in this rent stabilization. It's very important for the city of Santa Ana to take action to protect its residents from evictions and to increase homelessness.

I, as a resident of Santa Ana, was homeless living in a room with three children, and I learned that when you don't have your own home and you live in a home with a family member, you are also categorized as homeless. For this reason, I'm here asking for the community and asking you to provide dignified living for all. Thank you.

Followed by Ignacio Lopez Yanni Matute. Adelante.

Good evening.

It's very interesting when you enter that people who rent a room, they also also consider people who are not a home, because they have no home stable. And that's what I live every day, and I've lived in the last few years. I know that those consequences are mine for my decisions, but nobody plans to fail in life. So, so I know that many people who are very workers and are still working on it all day,

the 56% are the ones who rent and understand all the people who don't want a rent, that they don't want a right, because they will have economic loss, but I think there are more losses in the future if we invest in accessible houses, but not for us, but for them. in my office there have been many desalojos because I live near downtown thanks to the changes that have been very beautiful but because of that many people are going to be and I guarantee that I am the following thing I ask you to please please take into account the need for the house and really create a committee where to take into account

the people of

resources of extreme because we can't reach that income of 28,000 people who are of low cost. So please, really take into account those organizations that are abogating for a just a living. I'm going to say that, I don't know how many of you rent or how many of you have in a house, but just let me know a little bit about it in the feet of us, and maybe so we can understand a little bit more. Thank you.

I'm Sedalia Rios and I am here I see so many familiar faces thank you for your help in what you're doing and I'm here to thank you because you listen to our community and do it in doing this study session and the problem is not just for families but also for the children there's two affected here right here and it's very interesting to to know to learn that when you're renting a room when you're living in someone's living room, you're also considered homeless. And I've been living in this situation for a lot of years, and I understand this is based on my decisions, but no one plans to fail.

And I understand that 56% of people rent in Santa Ana, and this decision affects the people who don't want that because they'll incur a financial loss in the near future, but the loss will be bigger in the future if we don't invest in housing now. And I live in downtown Santa Ana and there's lots of evictions going on and I'm afraid that I might be next. So please consider the housing needs and especially consider the extra low income people. Because people like me that earn under $28,000 are considered extremely low income people. So we need to have fair housing.

And I don't know if you own your house or your rent, but put yourself in our shoes when you make this decision.

thank you uh ignacio after ignacio jan janelli and then zabadi alvarez good evening city council

i'm here as a proud resident of santa anna since 1975 also as a witness of the instability that the increase in rents caused having been homeless for a short period of time myself with my family

We shouldn't have to be forced to face this, especially our youth. This is an attempt against the future of the existing Santa Ana community.

Santa Ana youth should not have to be forced to choose between working to help to keep a roof over their heads and help their family instead of pursuing their education and growth. The existing community of Santa Ana should be included in the future and the growth, not only for the economic gains of a certain sector, but the people of Santa Ana. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe I call the next one. After that, Ruben Barreto.

Buenas noches, señores concejales. Mi nombre es Yanely Matute. I come to the law of the people who don't qualify for a low-cost housing.

many people live in the same place because of all the high rents we want to remain here in Santa Ana so please do something to defend the rights of the renters here in Santa Ana

after mr. Robert is remember Alice and then Tim Houchin mayor mayor pro-tem

City Council members my name is Ruben Barreto and I am a renter I'm here to share some information that every public official loves, voter survey data. This past June Fairbank, Maslin, Mullen, Metz and Associates FM3 conducted a survey of voters in Santana. The survey found that voters are highly worried about the cost of living and rent in their areas. 84% were extremely or very concerned about the cost of living and 80% were extremely or very concerned about the cost of rent. Approximately one in three voters is very concerned about the stability of their current housing situation and nearly half know someone

who has been evicted. 78% of Santana voters support proposed policy solutions like establishing rent control and 84% of Santana voters support requiring landlords to provide a legitimate reason before evicting a tenant. In sum, the data from this survey shows that this is not just a renter issue it's not just a housing issue it's a health issue it's a human issue and that's why we urge you to support rent stabilization and just cost policies and to the comment made by Dr. Green and the literature literature that the most affected don't benefit from rent control that is why we need to establish a work

group that includes community stakeholders such as affected residents low-income renters nonprofit organizations and community groups to create that ordinance the strength of Santana is in its people and over Over half of us are renters. It's in your hands that you ensure that we can remain and thrive.

Hi, my name is Zabdi Avris and I'm 20 years old and this is my mom. And I'm here today to urge you to pass a Tenant Protection Ordinance. I am 20 years old and I share a room with five of my sisters. And as a 20 year old, I need space to grow and do my own thing because I'm in college and they're in middle school and high school.

I have lived in a small apartment with five of my sisters, my mother and my father, and to very recently my grandmother, for almost 12 years. Since the day we moved in, the owner promised to fix up the place. But up until today, if we shower in the upstairs bathroom for longer than five minutes intervals, the bathtub will flood and there's going to be a leak in my parents' bedroom.

They also said that they were going to replace the carpets in the room or get them cleaned. They haven't. They promised paint and fixing the window that doesn't open. And all of these problems became ours. My parents stopped asking them to fix them because they said that since we live there, they are our problems now and that if we don't like it, we can always move out.

In our apartments there's board, like directors of board, and the only owners can be in this board and as a renter we're not allowed to know what goes on and on these meetings or any decisions that they make and half of them don't even know the living situations of the apartments and even if we bring up problems we're not allowed to comment on anything.

We can't afford to fix these problems and make rent. The strength of Sanana is people and over half of us are renters. It is in your hands that you ensure that we can remain and thrive. Thank you.

Ruben I think May Ruben is next and then Tim Houchen and then David Carvajal

then then he then Tim are you here

Tim, if not David Carvajal

and after that, Izuri Ramos

Good evening everyone I want to start off by saying Shout out to all the apartment owners and landlords that came out of the woodworks tonight to talk about, you know, finding affordable housing and creating accessible housing. The only time I've seen them is when they're hiking up our rents or evicting us, so good to see y'all.

My name is David Carvajal. I'm a community health worker, and I'm also part of several groups that advocate for housing justice in Santana.

and tonight I'm here to encourage you all to implement a just cause eviction ordinance and rent stabilization. The city is composed, we've heard it a couple times tonight, of over 56% renters. Out of these renters, more than half paid more than half of their annual income on rent. This is absolutely devastating. The current housing situation is creating an environment in which our residents are forced to choose between food, school supplies, and health care. This is a public health issue. Rent control and just cause will alleviate some of the stress caused by economic injustice.

And because Santana belongs to the people of Santana, we are also asking for a workgroup composed of us, low-income renters and tenants, community-based organizations that understand the needs of our community.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Isuri Ramos. I am a product of this city. I am a renter, and I also proudly serve on the Community Redevelopment and Housing Commission. I support the statements that have been made in support of tenant protections tonight by my neighbors, and I would just like to especially highlight the need for a Just Cause Evictions policy, and I want to make it clear that such policy would be beneficial to not only tenants, but to landlords as well. A Just Cause Evictions policy will ensure that there is a mutual understanding between tenants and landlords on the grounds for evictions.

The lack of this policy is resulting in the displacement of our residents. Tenants are being evicted without cause and they live in fear of an eviction. Currently, unjust eviction practices discourage renters from working with code enforcement to maintain livable, dignified housing. For a just cause policy, tenants will be more willing to utilize code enforcement for its intended purpose. The quality of our housing will improve and the retaliatory evictions that we have seen as a result of code enforcement inspections will cease.

We need a work group with low income tenants and organizations and community groups that work directly with these tenants to create a tenant protections ordinance with policies like just cause and rent control. The strength of Santa Ana is in its people and over half of us are renters. It's in your hands that you ensure that we can remain and thrive. And it's in your hands tonight. Please stand with community. We know many of you have stood with us in the past and we expect the same tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Lucero Garcia, Alma Leyva, and Jose Pena, please.

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Lucero Garcia, and I work with CLU, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. I am here tonight to speak on rent control and just cost eviction. As a person of faith, I urge you to support both rent control and just cost eviction. Rental protection policies are needed now to contain a growing housing crisis. Addressing antiquated zoning and funding affordable housing programs are important long-term solutions, but the majority of Santa Ana residents live in market rate units.

Additionally, the number of unjust evictions has increased here in Santa Ana. Tenants lack protections and even fear complaining of much-needed repairs because they fear intimidation or being targeted by the landlord. We need a work group with low-income tenants and community groups that work directly with tenants. The strength of Santa Ana is its people, and over half of us are renters. It's in your hands that you ensure that we can remain and thrive. Santa Ana residents can no longer endure the abuse they receive or continue living in fear.

Proverbs 22, 22 through 23 says, Do not rob the poor nor oppress the afflicted, for the Lord will plead their cause. So I look to you, Santa Ana City Council, to reflect on your own faith values and do what your faith calls you to do by supporting rent control and just cost eviction.

Alma, Leiva, then Jose Pena, and after that, Abel Ruiz.

Hi, good evening. My name is Alma, and I'm going to be reading on behalf of a colleague who wasn't able to stay. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Ana Ordaz. and I am a medical student and I am here with Latino Health Access. I'm here today to support community members in urging you to set clear next steps to develop tenant protections ordinance by establishing a workgroup that includes community stakeholders. I would like to apply a public health lens to the housing unaffordability crisis in Santana. In public health, we know that housing is a primary predictor of a person and community's health.

A lack of affordable, stable, and quality housing affects health in multiple ways. Unaffordable housing reduces the income that a household can use for other basic needs, such as healthy food and medical care, and also results in continuous stress. When a person experiences chronic stress, there is long-term activation of stress response system, which can disrupt almost all of the body's processes. It is no surprise that individuals suffering from chronic stress are at an increased risk of numerous health problems, including anxiety, heart disease, and memory and concentration impairment.

Families that cannot afford their housing may also have to move more frequently, which can lead to psychological stress and depression, particularly in children. A new study by researchers at the Boston Medical Center found that housing instability, including chronically late rent payment, can affect the mental health and physical health of family members of all ages. The study found caregivers of young children in low-income, unstable housing are subjected to significant negative health effects, becoming two times more likely than those with stable housing to be in fair or poor health,

and almost three times likely to report depressive symptoms. Children aged four and under in these families had almost 20% increased risk of hospitalization and over 25% increased risk of developmental delays. Imagine what this does to a community's quality of life and their ability to contribute to a society in the long run. Finally, I want to remind you that in the absence of affordable, secure, and quality housing, social inequities and health disparities are exacerbated because low-income communities are impacted the most.

In Santana, the housing element reveals that low-income residents bear the highest burden when it comes to housing, which means we must act now to protect all our neighbors. If people can afford housing, opportunities for social mobility will expand. Not only can residents invest in local economy, some will be able to save money to pursue a dream that is currently unreachable for so many homeownership.

Thank you. Thank you. Jose.

Followed by Abel Ruiz. Followed by Sarai Arpero.

Followed by Hema Suarez. Good evening, City Council and Mayor. I'm here to speak on behalf of Jose Pena. My name is Jose Maldives. So this is something that you wrote. Lack of accessible housing has been a problem affecting people with disabilities. many people with disabilities stay quiet rather than ask for repair because of the fear of eviction. With the Just Cause Ordinance, we will be giving PWD the backing that they need to step out of the shadows and ask the landlords for much-needed accommodation. We need a workgroup with low-income tenants and organizations and community groups that work directly with tenants.

The strength of Santana is its people, and over half of us are renters. It's in your hands that you ensure that we remain and thrive.

So that's from Jose. And then, I don't know, something I want to say is, like, you know, so many of us are renters here. You know, there's, like, developers, wealthy developers who are working, like, constantly against low-income communities. And it's like they have such a huge advantage. It would be, like, the greatest thing for you all to make the right decision here and stand with tenants. Thank you.

Abel, go ahead please. Buenas noches. The reason I'm here is to say that I'm very frustrated the way that it's being discussed about rent stability. The reason that I'm confused and frustrated is that a year ago, the same city council voted to make Santana Century City. That meant that people who are undocumented could live better lives being safe and also to keep families together.

The reason that I'm frustrated is that the same thing can be applied to the discussion about rent instability. In this case, it's not Trump coming after us, no? It's managers. And so myself, in August 2016, my family moved to Oklahoma, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, because previous to August, three months, in June, some property owner bought the apartments where we used to live. and so in the first month that this person moved in or bought the property they increased the rent for $300

and so it only gave us two months to actually start paying the amount that the increase was due so we were able to pay normal rent for two months and then the third one we had to pay $300 more. $300 dollars, it's a lot of money. And so for a family who's making like month to month there's no way that you can assimilate that, no? And so in the fourth month my family had to move to Oklahoma. They moved and I stayed here. The reason that I bring this up is that, and it's very frustrating, is that

rent doesn't have feelings but humans do. and so humans feel that impact humans can miss people but rent doesn't so this rather than being rent instability is human instability it shouldn't be

people should never go through that experience of within three months your whole life your plans, the school that you're going to the work where you are, all those things in three months can change if the way that continue, if it continues this way, there's hundreds and hundreds of families who are going to go through this, especially with gentrification happening. Thank you. And so I'm advocating for a work group to be created so that people can come together to have this discussion. Thank you. Gracias. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

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which is what day to day has been more difficult for the increase in the rents. I live as I can, not as I want. And it is a reality that I have to face. I never have resigned to think that this is normal. If we put ourselves to think that salaries will never be sufficient to not exist in control of rents, it is normal to be afraid of being a a self-love for having to live in a department of a recalcit, because it is not enough for us. Por tal razón, hoy les pido a todos ustedes quienes dicen tener un compromiso con la ciudad de Santa Ana y tienen una función como servidores públicos, que hoy sea un día que se recuerde.

Yo, junto con mis hijos y el resto de la comunidad que está presente, que comenzarán a hacer lo correcto apoyando una ley de protección de inquilinos que incluya control de rentas y causa justa. Asegurar también crear grupos de trabajo que incluyan residentes de bajos ingresos y grupos organizados para la vivienda. Tenemos el derecho a permanecer y prosperar.

10 times, which has affected my family emotionally, mentally, and physically, and my family's health and my children's health.

Sorry, there was a notification.

I had to live in Santa Ana. Hold on.

And it has been a very difficult situation for this rent increase. I live as I can and not as I want. It's a very harsh reality that I have to face. And I've never thought that this is normal if we consider that salaries will never be enough when we don't have rent control. It's not normal to live afraid of being evicted because you have to live in an apartment, in a bedroom of an apartment because you have no money for anything else or anything more. Tonight, I ask you that you have the commitment for the community of Santa Ana and your public servants.

Today, remember that me and my children and the rest of the community, we ask you to do the right thing supporting renters' protection and including rent control and just costs. And to ensure that there's a work group to include low-income residents and organized groups working for housing. We have the right to remain here and to thrive.

Hello, good evening, Mayor and Council members. I'm here to speak on behalf of El Centro Cultural de Mexico. founded in 1994 and central serves as a synergistic synergistic cultural organization and space that emphasizing the empowering

just give me your name just for the record

so a center is a cultural organization and space that emphasizes the empowering effect of identity and collective work particularly for families in Santana we support efforts by community groups and stakeholders to pass an ordinance that will afford tenants the protections they need. We believe that tenants have the right to live in dignified housing and we need a tenant protection ordinance immediately as Santana tenants live in fear of recurring rent increases and retaliation in the form of unjust evictions.

It is important to protect our immigrants, migrant workers and youth from the traumatic traumatic effects that displacement has on our communities. Policies such as just-cause evictions have been successfully implemented throughout California while protecting the rights of tenants and property owners. The city needs to deepen its commitment to working alongside the community in the development process to ensure that the community needs are being met and that tenants are being protected. policies that include just cost evictions, rent control, and rent stabilization represent a key opportunity to do this.

Santana has the opportunity to lead the way and set a high standard for tenant protections in Orange County. El Centro strongly encourages the city of Santana to establish a work group that includes community stakeholders such as affected residents, nonprofits, and community groups that will create a tenant protections ordinance. We need a group of workers with low-income employees, organizations and community groups that work directly with inquilinos, and the Fortaleza Santana is in its people, that more than half are inquilinos, and it is in their hands, that we can remain and prosper.

Thank you very much.

Jenny Marcelo, Cynthia Trejo, Cesar Covarrubias.

Good evening, Mayor and City Councilmembers. My name is Cynthia Trejo. I'm here representing the group of family members of EXISTO, which are children and adults with special needs. We're here because we want to speak about the rental issues because these children and adults already have to face enough issues and stress and struggles in their everyday lives to have to deal with rent and not having their own space to deal with every day at home. Having even more people at home and everything is causing them more issues, more emotional stress, more psychological stress than they actually need.

With just some more control and helping these families would help them balance out their everyday lives. Thank you.

Cesar Cubarrubias Jeff Biglow

Where's Sean Mills?

Where's Sean Mills?

Good evening, Council Members, Mayor. I would just like to echo the comments that were made today by tenants and residents of Santa Ana who are looking for options to ensure that they can continue to prosper in this city. So we would urge you to continue to think about these opportunities to create rent control, stabilization of rent, and just caused eviction protections for a lot of these residents who are struggling to be housed today. We know that the housing affordability is a huge issue, and the city of Santa Ana deserves some credit for trying to work on addressing that issue. We're

working on it. We're creating units, but not fast enough for the need that's in the community. So in the meantime, we urge you to also consider these opportunities to make sure that our residents are protected. Thank you. Jeff Bigelow. My name is Jeff Bigelow. I represent AFSCME Local 2076. AFSCME represents 1,500 eligibility workers in the County of Orange that do eligibility determination for food stamps, for general relief, for Medi-Cal, etc. We deal with hundreds of thousands of people in this

county who are on the edge of homelessness. We see 4,000 people a month coming to the office in Santana who are applying for general relief. We know the crisis here because we see it every day. And we're here today to lend our voice along with all the other people here who are calling for rent control, real rent control, and real justice in the area have tenant rights by having just cause. Just cause is such an elementary point of fairness that is in every labor contract. Every labor contract in this county, every labor contract across the country. I've been deeply involved in the labor movement for the last 50 years.

I've bargained scores of contracts. Every one of them has just cause in it. Just cause should be in your law here for tenant rights. Today we're talking about not just just cause for evictions in a general way, but we're also talking in a moment where 1,000 people, about 1,000 people, are being evicted from the riverbed. And their condition in the riverbed, the homelessness in this county and the homelessness in the riverbed, is directly related to the exorbitant rents in this county. And that's why we're here today to demand rent control, and why we're here today to demand just cause in evictions.

It's ridiculous to listen to these people who represent the rich come in here and say that their rights are being trampled upon. We're here today to stand with the community against the rich. Thank you.

Hugo Solorzano, please. And then Airo Cortes.

and Eric Garcia after that

Good evening, my name is Hugo Solorzano and I have been a lifetime resident of Santana and I'm currently a second year student at Sonana College and here I am tonight to speak about some of the many pressing issues that we have in our community facing our residents face. The issues that I want to speak about are displacement caused by increasing rent prices and gentrification in our community targeting that affect our low-income residents and businesses. I personally have known of many people neighbors, friends, and even I've had families that have been displaced.

They've had to move to different places seeking cheaper places to live. I've known of colleagues that have had to work harder and take on more hours at work to be able to afford, be able to pay for the rents when they're helping out their families. I believe it's time to address this housing crisis. The city of Santana to me is beautiful in many different ways. One of the ways I feel it's beautiful, one of the ways it's the main reason I feel like it's beautiful, is because of the people that compose it, the residents. You know, they give Santana its identity.

And as of now, we're not doing anything to protect the very thing that makes Santana Santana, which is the residents, the rent owners. I call upon my elected officials to support the measure for our people. and you are the elected officials that I have been taught in school and as a political science major that have been to be representing our people represent the community and not any minority faction as we can tell here people who have been developers who are not here with our intentions of our people who are you have been elected to represent so I'm here as a representative of the

community calling upon you to do the right thing we need ten of protecting ordinances that include rent control and just conservation for the greater good of our community. We need to keep our students, we need to keep people here that want to be here and please do the right thing and protect them and stand with the community. Do the right thing. Thank you.

Thank you.

Airo Cortez, Eric Garcia,

Carla Juarez,

Good evening members of the council. Jairo Cortez, I'm here representing Chispa. In addition to long-term solutions, renter protection policies are needed now to contain a growing housing crisis. Addressing antiquated zoning and funding affordable housing programs are important long-term solutions, but the majority of Santa Ana residents are suffering under unscrupulous rent strikes today. Now a little bit to address the guy from CAA, he's right that the state senate has rejected the legislation to repeal Costa Hawkins, but this is a decision made by timid legislators scared off by a powerful landlord

lobby. Rent control, just costs, and other tenant protection policies enjoy broad support by the public at large, even if not by legislators. Your residents are currently at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords more interested in their bottom line than in the well-being of our city's working class community. Landlords have had decades to do the right thing, and they haven't. Now they're scared of the growing movement for housing justice. We know that if you refuse to take action, they will return to business as usual, which for them means exorbitant rent hikes and unjust evictions. I urge you to stop the bleeding our community

is suffering today and set clear next steps to pass a tenant protection ordinance that includes just cost and rent control and stabilization by creating the workgroup that the community is demanding tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Eric. Good evening Councilor Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem. It must be nice to have the privilege to grow up in the 1960s in the beautiful home that we're trying to make key historical landmarks. It sounds like we're trying to treat these buildings better than we do our people.

And at the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that more than half of Sandano residents don't have that privilege. And it's important to address that lack of privilege now.

Dr. Green made it a point to say that rent control wasn't a solution. It's not going to solve all of our problems we know that we don't live single problem lives so for you to make that point it's almost insulting we're not asking for you to solve our problems we're asking for you to help us meet where meet us where we're at we're have half of Santa's population is living under the horrible conditions and you want to come up and tell us that that's not going to solve our problems we're very well aware of that and we're very well aware of how to survive which is what our community knows how to do and will continue to do we need the

work group that the community is asking for. Thank you.

Carla Juarez, Emanuel Gonzalez, and Rick Julian.

Good evening. I'm Carla Juarez. I've lived in Santa Ana since 1989. I work in Santa Ana as well. so I'm just going to point some things out from the opposition that I heard that I thought was ridiculous

one mentioned that the low income

if they're renting will be too low that they're going to be comfortable enough that they'll never want to move out that's not true that's the American dream is to own a home

so it's not true we want to own homes

it says that um the owners are not going to have incentives um i mean why shouldn't they already be like taking care of their homes that we live in and uh when it's talk about rent increase as the stabilizing rent increase we're not saying that they can't increase the rents we're saying don't do it at a ridiculous increase like a hundred dollars five hundred I've even heard of a thousand a thousand five hundred whenever our wages come up at our employer we never get that kind of increase

we wish we would I know my time is running up I just want to let you know every single one of you guys we will be looking at where you guys fall either you fall with the people with the majority or you fall with a wealthy minority. So we're looking forward to see what your actions, we want a committee that is from the people and to the people. And yes, developers and owners are part of our society and they're part of the solution. We shouldn't let the vulnerables take and figure out what they're going to do. They're part of the solution.

And stabilizing rents is not going to fix it. and Just Cause will not fix it, but it's definitely a good way towards the solution. Thank you for your time, and God bless you guys.

Thank you.

Emmanuel Gonzalez, Rick Julian, followed by Paola Robles.

Emmanuel here.

If not, Rick Julian is next. Paola Robles and then Francie Alvarez Frankie Alvarez

Thank you Mayor and members of the council as you said my name is Rick Julian and I gave you a letter with some information I think could be helpful for you first of all it appears that there's a common goal that I've heard tonight and that goal is that we have fair quality housing in the city of Santa Ana that we don't have unjust evictions that there isn't going to be blight, that problems will be solved on the properties. And that is a common goal for all of us, too. That takes investment, investment in the city, investment in these properties.

And I think it's important for both sides to realize who they are. The investors who I represent, about 400 of them, that own about 1,400 units in the city, are, for the most part, hardworking nurses and mechanics and just regular people, many of which can't afford their house, but they invest in groups to buy properties. And they expect a reasonable return. They wouldn't be doing that. They would not be investing in your city if they could not get that return. You have a list of some of the properties we have, and you'll note that they were all properties that at one time were problems that I heard described tonight.

Things weren't working. They needed to be fixed. they needed investment and we made that investment in those properties and you'll also notice that the rents really haven't been that high as far as increases they were fair and reasonable I think if everybody here looks at it that same way that it's fair and reasonable the problem of housing could be solved it's not going to be rent control it's going to be increasing your

housing stock thank you Paola Robles followed by Frankie Alvarez followed by Perla Dominicio.

Good evening. Hello, my name is Paola Robles. I was born in this city, and it's not the city that it used to be before. Rent control has become a very big issue. Me and my family went through this displacement, and let me just tell you that it's not easy. I saw my mom crying, and that broke my heart. It's not easy. My parents worked very hard. It affected my family a lot. My little niece was just two years old when we went through this. Sometimes when we drive by our old house, she says that it's still her home. After this, I feel sad and angry. I ask myself, how can people do this? Don't they have hearts?

I'm not here for you to feel sorry for me because I won't do anything. I'm here for a change, for my change, and for the change of my city. Thank you.

Thank you.

Frankie.

And then after Perla, Elia Tovar.

Council members, Mayor Pulido, my name is Frank Alvarez. I grew up in the city of Los Angeles. My family bought property in the city of Los Angeles in 1957, and we were shortly after that victims of a rent control act in the city of Los Angeles. I'm here to tell you that rent control does not work. I own and operate a business here in the city of Santa Ana. I service plenty of buildings and other companies here in the city of Santa Ana. I can tell you all that rent control, rent stabilization does not work. I've seen the issues with maintenance.

I've seen the issues with blight. I've seen the issues with just horrible issues related to rent control. REAP, if anybody here is familiar with the rent escrow account program in the city of Los Angeles and other cities, it is detrimental to the apartment building owner, to any investor wanting to invest in your city. It criminalizes good property owners. Are there bad property owners out there? Yes. Do we have our own issues? Yes. But there's no better industry who has shown that we can regulate ourselves. There's no better industry in the United States who has been able to regulate itself, manage itself.

The city, the county, and federal agencies have given you all the tools to keep us in line when we have bad actors in our industry. We don't need more regulations. We don't need caps on free market capitalism. it does not work. You can go to any city across the nation and you can have the perfect example of what rent control really does. If anybody in the city of Santa Ana has ever lived in a rent control city, they will understand what I'm saying. If they've never lived under rent control, then they unfortunately have

a miscued perception on exactly what that means for them. So with that said, I I appreciate the time and please reconsider any rent control and or just cause evictions. Thank you.

Thank you. Perla. And then Elvia Tobar.

Perla's not here. Elvia, come on forward.

Hi, Elvia had to leave. I have her statement. Go ahead. Good evening, my name is Elia, I am 17 years old, and I was born and raised in Santana. My mother always told me this is a city with many strengths and with many hardworking families, and I strongly believe in that. One of the things I've had to live through is moving constantly. When I was younger, I didn't understand, but now that I'm older, I do, and I see that this is a bigger problem than I thought. We've been here before to ask for more affordable housing and we haven't seen you here step up and work with us. The rents are too high and the

opportunity are too little so today I asked the City Council to create a tenant protection ordinance. You can start by creating a work group that includes youth like us and other community members. Focus on the present so we can have a good future. Oh and I'm tired of fighting for a

bathroom every morning. Thank you. Thank you. I have a few folks that I just want to call their names because I don't want to miss anybody. David Garrahan, I believe you spoke, but I still have the card here. Ruben Barreto, Tim Houchen, Jenny Marcedio, and then the last two speakers, Perla Dominico. So if they're not here, then we're done. And with that, I'll bring it back to council for discussion. Who would like to go first? Councilor Sarmiento.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank our staff for helping put the presentation together and our two speakers. Those from the apartment industry and the realtor industry, thank you for your comments. And obviously, thank you especially to the public and the residents that came before us tonight. You know, this was raised at a few meetings back by some of our residents who live in the Lacey neighborhood, in addition to many others. So this is a problem, obviously, that all of us spoke about that is a national issue. It's a statewide issue, but it's a Santa Ana issue, and it's maybe more acutely a Santa Ana issue.

So that's why we do need to have some very specifically tailored solutions to this problem. So I'm glad we had an academic overview, an administrative overview, and I'm hoping we can continue to have an intelligent, thoughtful conversation because we are living through a housing crisis. All of us up here, I hope, can recall being renters. So we've all been renters at some time, and we have to be sensitive to that, knowing what it's like to sometimes not feel like you have any sort of power or control over your conditions. And I've been you know very shocked by some of the photographs that have been sent to me by

residents and tenants that live in the city where the conditions are completely uninhabitable right you know they're disregarded and that's what I think is something we can mutually agree upon both the tenants and the residents and the industry that none of us want bad actors here none of us want absentee landlords none of us want slumlords none of us want people that are hiking rents on folks that can't afford it. That's something that none of us can tolerate. We certainly up here can't tolerate that because it damages our community, it chases folks out,

it displaces our people, and what it does is it creates conditions, living conditions, that are just way, way below what's acceptable. We see that overcrowding causes many other secondary impacts. Just to name a few, public health, parking, traffic, and public safety issues. When you have kids that can't go out and just play in open space and they're confined to their to their apartments it just creates and breeds a bad living environment so two-thirds of our residents are are you know a rent burden so we realize we have a very very cost sensitive population here that

is having to double and triple up on units just to go ahead and make the rent so you know i do want to disagree a little bit with the academic conversation that we had where, you know, we don't have artificial solutions to some problems because, look, we have, you know, monopolies that we break up and antitrust laws when the free market goes and gets out of hand. So there are ways that we can address this. The only thing that I would suggest here tonight is that we need to focus in on those bad actors because I believe those of you from the industry that came and spoke, You don't represent those folks.

You know, some of you that I've known and we've known and have been partners with the city, we've toured your sites. You know, your conditions are, you know, they look fine. But there are others in your industry that don't, right? And those are the folks that we need to somehow single out. We have a prep program, which is the proactive rental enforcement program, to give tenants some protections. I don't know if we're exercising those in the right way, whether we need to revisit those, but I do agree that we need to have a working group that's going to give solutions. We're not going to come up with any solutions tonight,

but I do support the fact that we have a roundtable discussion where the private sector is there. We here in the government are there, but also we need to have a seat at the table for those that are specifically affected, which are the residents and the tenants. That's what's been missing to the solution. So I think that's something that we all need to support. We don't want to be reactionary and talk about having a silver bullet solution because it's just not going to happen. But I think if we work together and we realize there is a problem that all of us can identify, and we all work together, I think we can get there.

I think we're living through a perfect storm. Our inventory of housing stock is low. Wages are low. And rents are increasing. That's exactly – those are the conditions that we can't really tolerate and that are creating this environment. So to the extent that, you know, we can direct staff to create some working group that will incorporate the different points of view that we heard here tonight that can come back and recommend to us what are the best solutions. I look to the private sector industry to give us some, you know, short of rent control, we heard you.

You obviously don't believe, and I do think there are some unintended consequences with rent control that would harm the very people we're trying to protect. Short of that, we also need to make sure how do we protect the lives of those families and those children that are living in conditions that are intolerable, right? So I think we can all get there if we sit down, but I do want a direct staff to coordinate that because it is something that needs to be done. It is something that needs to be mediated, and it's something that we also need to find out within ourselves,

whether we do have some rules, some codes already in our municipal code that we're maybe not exercising or enforcing. And maybe there are some things that we can do and we can improve on there as well. So those are my comments. I just thought this is the beginning of a conversation. We haven't spoken about this. I think this is a conversation that we needed to have. And I appreciate the indulgence from my colleagues. I appreciate the indulgence from the public and the private sector. This is a problem that we all need to acknowledge. This is a very, very big challenge for us, but I think if we all put our heads together,

we can try to figure out some good solutions. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Saltyna, Heddle, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

First and foremost, thank you to everyone who came out today from the private sector and from our residents that abide here and those that are advocating for them that may not abide here, but feel passionate about what they were speaking about today. Excuse me. A few things that we have to understand about our community, and that is that I was at the school district, and the school district brought in different curriculum specialists, program specialists, people that are leaders within the school district,

to find out how it is that we can improve student success in the district. The district is doing great things right now. I've never seen Santa Ana Unified create the educational opportunities as it has right now ever before. It's actually a really exciting time. But there are many, many issues. And I need to share these because some of our residents know this already. Our private sector may think they know it, but it's important to understand the true facts that are happening here. 50% of our residents do not own a car. That's a huge statistic.

And I was talking to teachers and I said to them, at first when I said that to them, they kind of looked at me like, no, that's impossible. No, no, I said 50%. So when you ask a parent to come in for a parent conference, they have to ask a supervisor in fear to let them off of work a little early so that they can get on one, two, maybe three buses. to come to a parent conference. And when you say, I'm going to call your parents to come in again tomorrow, you don't understand the impact that that's having on that particular family. It's not that they don't want to help their kids in school.

It's that they have to work to make ends meet. And all of that has a psychological effect on the education of a child. Here's another statistic for you. 91% of the students in Santa Ana, they qualify for free and reduced lunch. That means that 91% of the students who are populating this city live at or below the poverty line. That's why we saw a group of people here today speaking so passionately. because sometimes you get desperate to find a solution, to find help,

because all you want to do is care for your families and the next generation that's coming before you because that's the American dream that we've been discussing.

There are other issues that come along with that, and that is that when you live in areas that are impacted, something that breaks my heart is when I go to an apartment complex and I see there's a little quad area and I see signs that say no balls allowed in the quad area or you cannot roll a ball in the quad area. So you have an impacted area and the one little maybe green space or even dirt that is available for kids to play, you're being told that you can't play.

And I've been in that situation where parents police that themselves because the last thing they want is for the owner of that apartment complex to come in and see your child playing in that area and then have the fear that they might try to evict you. These are real life problems. Someone told me, Sal, are you sure you guys want to have this discussion? I said, yes. Because that's the only way we truly understand what each of us are going through. The private sector came here and said, if you produce rent control, these issues could potentially happen. Another side said, if you do, you know, disagreed with them.

Well, that's fine. We can disagree. But the reality is, if we're learning something about this situation, it makes us better at creating solutions for it. I want to thank Ruben Marietto, who brought up some stats. Because those stats that he brought up mirror the stats that I'm bringing forward today. There's a young man by the name of Abel Ruiz. Abel Ruiz I knew when he was only 12 years old. He didn't speak English. I can't tell you how incredibly proud I am to see you come up here and speak in such an articulate manner. And that is because your journey took you to where it's going.

But to advocate for parents to talk about how the separation of families sometimes occur is something that we have to discuss. We have made a commitment since I've been here in 2006, when we first sat here, to really push forward affordable housing. But not just affordable housing, high affordable housing, but low, low affordable housing. And I remember there was an argument that was made that, well, we don't want to do that, Sal, because it's going to bring in more poor people. I was like, are you kidding me? They're already here. But they deserve dignified housing as well.

So, as we continue to move forward, as something has come to light, I believe Santa Ana has always been a place where we have been able to create new solutions that then other cities take a look at and appreciate. So, I thank you everyone. I thank our staff for bringing it up here because this is a conversation that needs to be had. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Tinajero. Comments to this side? Councilman Benavides?

Thank you, Mayor Porton. I want to thank all the speakers who came to address us. This is clearly not a... It's a passionate issue on both sides. I don't think that there's necessarily... that it's black and white. Any decision would impact a lot of people. And I want to thank particular Dr. Green and Ms. Condon who came and addressed us. It was on your own time. You could be at home having dinner with family, whatever the case might be, but we do appreciate you bringing your expertise here before us.

I truly value all of the input that you were able to provide. I thank our staff as well for putting this together.

Judson, is Ms. Condon still present? Okay, she needed to head out. I do have some follow-up questions, Judson, that may be off later. I would like to continue to study and better understand. There is some information that's in the presentation that I would be interested in getting more clarity on.

So some of the issues that you brought up is the adjustments on rent ceilings and moving it upward if the owner is not making a fair return. I'm curious what that means, how that's defined. And there's a number of other things. There clearly is a, and it's been documented at a state level and locally, a housing crisis within California, within Orange County and Santa Ana specifically. Ultimately, we do need to have more housing, more housing that's accessible. today we were we looked at two items specifically to potential solutions at the idea of rent control

and the idea of a just cause eviction but there are a lot of other factors and some of what we talked about is a quality of housing the maintenance of the of the housing housing stock there are quite a few properties out there that are substandard and there is that that genuine fear and I've got some of my neighbors my family and I live by choice in a neighborhood that that is it's very dense and it's it's very a lot of apartments and a number of those being substandard and and some of my neighbors fear reporting either calling court enforcement or letting their landlords

know of the issues and concerns from road infestation to ceilings that are coming in that are dripping a number of things because of the fact that they fear not having a place to go if they are evicted. There was a comment that was made by I think a few members of the

rental industry that this idea of regulating itself or policing itself, and that's one of the things that I would encourage and ask members of the apartment associations to bring forth solutions, ideas, and ways on how you can and will commit to doing some of that self-policing to ensure that these retaliatory evictions don't take place. There are a number of people that I know that are very responsible, very responsible landlords. Mr. Julian came and spoke, and one of the properties that I know his company, the company

that he represents, manages, maintains, is the Villa del Solo of Arm Fairview. And I've seen a significant, that's right down the street from my home, that's in my district, and I've seen a significant amount of investment that has been taking place there, improvements, and they're dealing with safety issues right in the middle of a couple of rival gang neighborhoods. I've been out there when they've been doing health fairs and community fairs for the residents and the children there. And so I've seen that practical and genuine care for the tenants, for our neighbors, for the families who are here speaking. So I appreciate that.

Washington Place, another one, another property that they've been improving. And there is, again, that instability that our community fears, and it's a genuine fear. It's a genuine concern. the new property owners coming in and rents being hiked and then within six months another hike and six months later another hike, that's just wrong, frankly. It's seeing these hardworking families as a piggy bank and it's just frankly I believe unethical.

And so how do we make it so that things are fair? There was this discussion about longer-term leases. And, you know, that's definitely something to think about and consider. And one of the things I'm thinking about for our staff is for us to, again, think outside the box. And today we looked at a couple of items. We have a fund, our housing opportunity ordinance fund. you know we typically right now we specifically that goes towards developing an affordable project or subsidizing an affordable project being developed but maybe there's a way to i've been

talking some about this idea of public private partnerships for the benefit of our community and economic development and perhaps we can incentivize property owners to extend leases uh beyond a year two years three years four years and we can provide uh use some of the funds that we have for those property owners to improve their property. So Mr. City Manager, those types of ideas I would ask for you to look at Mr. Brown, Judson Brown, our housing manager, to look at again, you know, there's one of my colleagues mentioned that let's look at innovative ways, ways that we can

incentivize property owners to invest, to trust, to treat the tenants justly, but how can we as a city contribute toward that and provide again some ways to be able to make it so that our tenants are able, our residents who are tenants are able to count on some more stability and the whole issue again ultimately of housing demand and I'll go ahead and wrap my comments of others but I know there's other members of the council and we want to be able to respect everybody's time. At the end of the day though my last comment is looking at ways that we can ensure that

we have that we address the needs providing more housing products so that there are ways for our again more housing opportunities for tenants for our community to be able to rent dignified home and then ultimately move to that place of homeownership as was discussed number of other ideas and questions that I do have problem and my comments here thank you thank you

Councilman Vanavides. Councilman Juan Miegas. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. So half my life I grew up in apartments. And I don't forget some of the experiences I've had. There's been some great owners, some great managers. And I haven't been some great owners or great property managers. So I've experienced both. So I always thought, you know, if they raise the rent, well, I've got to raise my gains so I can keep up. And it's just part of life. You know, I'm in a position now where we can talk about it. I'm glad this came up, actually.

The comments made by Council Member Dinajero really made me think because, you know, I do have a child in school. And I do work with a lot of families. I've done a lot of presentations to families in our communities for the last 16 years. And there's one thing I won't stand for is I don't stand for slumlords. You know, there's got to be fair. Everyone should live in a safe, clean environment. Bottom line.

are there some you know how do we tackle that well you know some say more code enforcement then I hear the other side well there's some good code enforcement some bad code enforcement so you know I would say there's good and bad in everything but for us that we can do here is to to up code enforcement to see what we can do to reach out to make sure that things are fair and just for everyone because it needs to be that way it needs to be that way that you know we have to work on the system. Is there a solution for all of this? You know, one solution? No, everyone agrees on that.

There's good arguments and points made on both sides. At the same time, I'm very pro-business. I have to admit, you know, I'm very pro-business, but I'm also for the residents. It's very delicate balance that we have to try to reach here. So I appreciate the discussion. I believe they're going to have to have some more discussion. And those are my thoughts. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you. Councilman Solorio.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. You know, a lot's been said, and I don't want to be repetitive, but a few things that haven't been covered that I want to talk about. Number one, there's a big need just for housing in general, especially affordable housing, because a lot of the rents that we have are not affordable today. They're very expensive. if we need affordable units for low-income folks, very low-income, workforce housing, etc. And over the past year that I've been on the council, we've been processing about 1,500 affordable housing units. That's the most we've ever done.

That's the most any other community has ever done in about a two-year period. It's amazing, and I've been proud to support each and every one of those projects, and I want to make sure that they're constructed. This issue of high rents isn't just the Santa Ana issue, as you know. It's an Orange County issue, statewide issue, and we do need help from across the board for that. From the first presenter, from the first panelist, I was intrigued with this idea that some of the past policies on this subject don't always target the right people. And that's really true.

You know, I every now and then go up to the Bay Area because my mother-in-law lives in Berkeley. And a lot of the folks that live in rental, I mean in rent control units, they're only seniors or they're actually high wealth people. In coastal areas, whether they're Santa Monica or other areas. And it's not really helping low-income or working class folks. And so we've got to be careful about that. I think in terms of solutions going forward and some of these are more possible now as opposed to the time it takes but we need to increase supply of housing stock of all type and sometimes even when we build at market housing or

market housing oftentimes that frees up lower rent housing because lower rent housing folks want to move up because again we're all looking for the American dream and so that is something that's important as well housing stock for all types and so we need more rentals including affordable housing with a focus on that we need more homes I heard some of the some of the some of the individuals talk about the need for more homes and it could also mean more condos because the fact is Santa Ana is built out and so it's hard to build for example let's say

500 new 6,000 square foot homes as much as we might want to do that it's not possible but it is possible to build up and for ownership you know through townhomes and condominiums is is one way to think about that I also think because again a lot of our housing that we have today isn't affordable that we need to do public-private partnerships and I know Councilmember Benavides just spoke to it and so I know that over the years including when I was first on the council some years ago we for example did the public-private partnership at Minnie Street where we teamed up with the

private sector to rehab very run-down units fix them up reduce the rent put affordability covenants that run 20 to 30 years, fix the lighting, fix a lot of the infrastructure in the area. That was a positive thing. We need to do more things like that because there's a lot of folks living in houses right now that aren't affordable. Also something that hasn't been talked about and it's a little bit close to what Council Member Villegas said, we're one of very few cities in the whole state, in the county, that has proactive rental enforcement program.

That's a program where we charge fees to apartment owners so that the city can go rental unit by rental unit to look at the conditions. And I think part of what I'm hearing today is we need to re-look at that program, beef it up. Maybe it means higher fees. Maybe it means more staff. I do also know that there's a component of residents that work as part of that program, and the acronym is PREP. And so that might be a good owner-tenant program that we could work from and develop. And then, too, I believe that really we can't just look at the cost element. We need better jobs and higher wages for our residents.

That's why I'm always supportive of increasing the minimum wage. Here locally, we've also in the past year plus have been doing things like local hire agreements, project labor agreements. We need to do things to increase wages rather than just focus on the cost element of it. And then finally, what we do need more housing. That's the bottom line, and that's, I think, a conversation that we can all have that we can agree, but with the big focus on building new affordable housing. So I want to thank all the panelists. I want to thank all the speakers.

and definitely I see particularly through the prep program because I heard really a lot of concerns about conditions rents etc that could be addressed through that and so I thank my colleagues for this time and I want to thank the staff as well for putting this together

Mayor Prude, Tam Martinez

Thank you Mr. Mayor. A lot has been said and I'll be short But I do want to give some statistics because I think it's important for us to realize why we're at where we're at today. And I always, you know, the definition of insanity is keep on doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. And here in the city of Santa Ana, you know, while Orange County was growing from 1980 to 1990, South County grew by 25%. 1990 to 2000, they grew by 18%. And then 2000 to 2010, they grew by an additional 6%.

Santa Ana had a rapid increase within resident growth by 44%. But between 1980 and 1990, there was no construction of housing. None. Zero. From 1990 to 2007, only 500 units were constructed. This is a 27-year period. 500 units. Well, we grew in over 70,000 people.

Obviously, the policymakers for the past 27 years chose to ignore probably one of the biggest problems that we face today. That because of not growing, we have issues of overcrowding. We have issues of parking.

and if we move and just and just hypothetically just say we move towards rent control let me tell you there is statistics out there that people are not going to want to come here and build and we already have constraints and let me tell you why we have constraints here in this city because we have a general plan that is 30 years old and we have a zoning code that is almost 60 years old a lot of incompatibility that already prevents developers from building here and now this council is wanting to move forward and build rapidly to meet the demands of the past 27 years

we are let me tell you we're at the intersection of the city really moving so fast and rapidly to build the housing that is needed to realizing that we may not have the infrastructure in place and the resources to manage that kind of growth that rapidly. I'm a big believer in incremental growth. I believe that it's not about smart growth. It's about growing incrementally and understanding what you're supposed to build. People always want to talk negatively about Irvine that Santa Ana shouldn't be about be Irvine or Santa Ana shouldn't want to emulate what Irvine

does but let me tell you Irvine has built more affordable housing than any other city in Orange County Santa Ana has not done its job in over 30 years and I want to give you these numbers because I think it's important for you all to understand that the total affordable housing units at the City of Santa Ana has out of 76,000 units of housing only 2,290 units we have. Out of that we have 1,482 where we've financed those with different subsidies. The other 1,508 are from

the home from from section 8 housing. That is a housing stock that we currently have now. Now, so when I put all of this into context, and more importantly, when we look at one of the other big issues that has faced, and we talk about, I'm a big believer in homeownership, and we have not dedicated our resources, and I certainly understand it takes a lot to subsidize and do homeownership programs, but I'm a big believer that every community, especially the Latino community, which is the fastest growing community here in the state of California, we should provide every opportunity for homeownership.

But there are various barriers to making that happen specifically for millennials. But from 2008 to 2012, we had over 5,661 foreclosures.

That is a lot of homes that went under that. You know who owned those homes in this city? The Latino community that lost those homes. And we have not been able to recover. and that is sad. The reality is in this community we have about 80% of this community that is Latino and we should do everything in our power to figure out a plan and a strategy to get those 5,661 homes back to making sure that these are homeowners and I'm just going to end with this Mr. Mayor that as we look at some of the issues that we're facing and we talk about a prep program I would like

to ask our staff to provide us a report. We have yet to receive report from 2017 and what what are we doing as it pertains to this prep program and really where is the teeth behind it and there may we may need to make some different recommendations obviously within our community because of what's happening over 34 percent of our residents are undocumented. They fear government coming and wanting these open the doors to really check and see if we have you know absent landlords that are not doing the job that they're supposed to do and the second thing is that we do have a tool of receivership I would just ask our

city attorney what are we doing as it pertains to to landlords that have dilapidated and they've been fined several times and they continue not to take care of their properties what are we doing we have that too and we need to use it more. We've used it more on hotels and other buildings, but we have not put our focus on some of these apartments that have not been doing what they're supposed to do here in our city. And then the next thing that I would just say that we need to figure out a way of how do we create a housing trust. Look, I'm a big believer in having metrics and setting goals. The city of

Santa Ana needs to move quickly to build affordable housing? Because, let me tell you, we have a conversion. There's going to be a transfer of these affordable housing units in 2024 going back to market rate. That's about 880 units that will go back to market rate. When I just told you what we currently have, 2,290 affordable housing units. That is a big problem for us. councilman Solorio has mentioned that we have about 1200 units based on the seven projects that since you've been here councilman Solorio I only count 447 I'm not sure if you're talking

about that big project the one on first that we we approved that that's eventually going to get into the pipeline okay okay that's so but right now the seven projects that we have the total amount of affordable units is 447 and so we need to figure out a way of how do we go out and build a housing trust and dedicate the next five years, how can we build 5,000 units of affordable housing? Secondly, what can we do? And the reality is that 70% of our neighborhoods are single-family homes. 70%. 44% are single-family detached homes. You can check and look at a map, and you will see all the yellow,

because that's the zoning of single-family house. It's all over. our city is based on single family homes. We cannot grow because we have issues in our community when we're dealing with parking and we've heard it over and over from our residents. But the reality is we have a supply and demand issue in Prop 13 and I definitely respect that law. But unfortunately, Prop 13 is not allowing those folks that once purchased a home to actually sell sell that home and move on because they can't afford to live anywhere else. So there are barriers

to Prop 13, but understanding that we have to figure out other ways of how we're going to bring in additional housing. We have to figure that out. We have to get around it. And essentially, we have to build up. We can't no longer build. And I know folks are nodding their head, but if we want to meet the demand of this community and keep these folks here with a good standard of living, we have to be open we have to be open to that and so if not we're going to continue and again I mentioned the the definition of insanity keep on doing the same thing over and over and expecting

a different result something has to give and then lastly Mr. Mayor I would just end with this that you know um when you look at you know one our community asking you know that they need relief and then we have you know those folks from from from developers to the apartment association and real estate that are saying that rent control is not going to work. Obviously, I think we've all both all heard from one another and respect all your guys' input and hope that we continue to have this dialogue. But eventually, look, and I've spoken to many of you, there's going to come to a point where, look, our folks are getting so much pressure

that we need to figure out a strategy that's going to make the most sense. And so I would just implore other ideas. if it's not rent control how can we work with you all in the industry and talk about possibly what what Oakland has done you know and and they've moved instead of rent control they did rent adjustments based on CPI and I think that's a conversation that we should consider um that and we should talk about because look we need to provide options on the table beyond the other things that we're dealing with these this prep program I can be honest with you I haven't yet

to see results and then you know our receivership we have yet to use that tool to the full extent and more importantly we're not building the housing that we need to accommodate our residents today so something's going to have to give we got to have more conversations so that we can come to the table and figure out what is the best strategy for this community moving forward thank you mr

mayor thank you i'm gonna speak but i want to try to figure out after i make my comments because we've all had opportunities and speeches i know sal had to leave i want to remind us that after this we're going to start our city council meeting we haven't done the consent calendar we haven't done any business items we haven't done any public hearings we haven't done anything on the regular city council I mean there's people here I know are here for other items other projects so I'm going to say my comment but once we're done let's start with a consent calendar and and and let's

start knocking out the city council meeting first of all I want to say that you know I've heard a lot of the definition of insanity, and that you do the same thing, and you expect a different result. I'll tell you, I don't know if that's a good definition, and let me tell you why. Sometimes I get a call on my phone, and I just press, like, call back, and it says, you know, number disconnected, it doesn't work. I press it again and again, and maybe the fourth time, it connects you. You know, maybe that's Verizon. I don't know what it is, but I've done that

many times to where you do the same thing, but it does work a second or a third time. Same with email. Same with email. So look, it's just a technology. It's more of a joke, Michelle. Don't take it too seriously, but I'm just telling you, whenever I hear that, I say, well, then if I make a wrong call, I'm just not going to do it again. It's like the same exact number, and it goes through on a different time. It's a Verizon thing or maybe other companies too. Second is that on some of the stats that were read, I know because I was here, part of what

we had was we had a huge undercount for, I believe, decades. It was not really till the 1990 census that we began to pick up, and then the 2,000 census, then, of course, we went back a little more recently, but we began to pick up the undercount. We had, I believe, at least 50,000 people that had never been counted in the city before, because all the census were just done traditionally, and again, you know, just do the same thing, but we changed it up. And, you know,

we went to the churches, we went to schools, we went everywhere. Boom! All of a sudden, we had way more folks, and statistically, it changed a lot of the numbers, and nobody will ever know what went on or what didn't go on. Madam Clerk, can you just bring down the mic, please, because there's all, it's right smack in the middle of a whole lot of folks that are still here. I next want to state that I know folks in Santa Monica and other cities that have done rent control. There are so many unintended consequences.

I really think that's a very slippery slope and one that I would very strongly oppose. I don't think rent control, even the concept of it, is a good idea. In San Francisco, my good friend, may he rest in peace, Ed Lee, was in the middle of all this. And often San Francisco is used as an example of, you know, maybe something to emulate. I'll tell you, they have areas of rent control there, as they do in Santa Monica. You go there and you look at some of the impact on other residents, it's absolutely off the charts.

I know people living in San Francisco that are paying $4,500 for a small single unit. A small single unit. And that is more a function of people want to be there. People want to be there and they pay a lot. There's a lot of people, same thing in Santa Ana and other areas, that have to move long distances. and and and you know there's uber drivers again going back san francisco they have to live 30 40 miles away they come into the city to work they're there a few hours and they go back out

that's just the reality we've got similar realities here in orange county i know irvine has done a lot with low-income housing i don't dispute that at all but look at what irvine has also caused. They have way more jobs than they have housing. You know, we're trying to do the 241. There's so many folks that work in Irvine and lived in the Inland Empire. It is off the charts. And now they're trying to catch up because for decades, they hadn't really built nearly enough housing. You know, they went in a different direction. And look, you know, there's some

things we can do. I think one of them are potentially something like the whole discussion about the granny flats and you know can that bring additional housing in the city. That is limited because now where do you put the cars? You know as long as we have a bunch of cars now you can't park enough cars in the streets because you only have so many spaces in the streets and after a certain hour they're full and and so now again more investment. On investment there's unintended consequences. We built some very high-density apartment complexes right next

to neighborhoods, single-family neighborhoods, back in the 80s, and they, some of them got out of control. If there wasn't enough, you know, areas for kids to play, for example, and open space and proper planning, it became a real problem for everybody that lived there and the neighborhoods around them so so you know there's unintended consequences prop 13 was mentioned and an element that I think we have to be careful of is that it you know it's like a drawbridge you know those that had prop 13 before and after

it's like you create two classes of people and and those that all of a sudden have what they want they're in a different position I see a similar thing with rent control. I know folks in Santa Monica that have had it for many, many years. They're trying to figure out how to pass it on, how to keep it within the family or siblings or whatever. And some are quite wealthy because maybe they had it some years back and now it's still there. It's like a covenant. It's something that survives many, many years. And it is a type

of unintended consequence. I know you know we had an expert and I'm glad he's still here I think you're sitting there in the front row. I'd like if you could, because you've heard all this, you've got a lot of stats, could you come back if it's not too much trouble with either a memo or thoughts, because these are not new discussions. These things that we're talking about, other cities have debated, but it'd be interesting to see if there are areas that one could explore without going down that slippery slope. You know, again,

if insanity is trying the same thing, hoping for a different result, I don't want to try what others have already failed at and hope that we get a different result. I think that would really be be you know you know crazy if you like if we know that we're gonna do certain things and it's gonna result in bad consequences if you statistically can tell us what those might be as we continue to think about all this I think that would be very very helpful you know yeah at this point I

want to start the city council meeting if we may and i know there's going to now be comments but go

ahead please can you just ask the staff if they're clear on what maybe next steps are uh that way we can move away from the subject i think everybody spoke and had good comments about increasing

inventory supply talking about maybe some remedial ways either right now tell us what you understand

I think that was the first suggestion, so.

Mr. Mayor, what I heard in terms of follow-up, a discreet follow-up was that we tried to form a working group made up of several key stakeholders to come up with a plan on how to better protect the people, the children that are subjected to substandard living conditions. And then we have a request to report back on the effectiveness of the prep program for the year 2017. What were the accomplishments and challenges and whatnot for the prep program?

And to look and see if we can enhance that program or make any improvements based on that data or any recommendations. We've also received a direction to try to think outside the box and be innovative with our housing funds and to try to figure out how to do things that we haven't done before with those pots of money. Those are sort of what I've captured here.

Trying to read my own notes here.

The other thing I heard is that the whole tool of receivership, that it hasn't been utilized to maybe look and see if we can find more opportunities to use that with the code enforcement process.

Am I missing anything here? I know I've got a full page of notes here.

No, I think that's good for now.

Go ahead, Councilor Salonio. Yeah, I did a little bit more research on this prep program and what kind of residential involvement. There's a rental task force that includes rental property owners and community neighborhood leader types, and maybe we can add a tenant component to that, and that might be kind of an existing working group that we can work off of rather than starting something from scratch. So that might be something to look at as well.

Thank you.

All right. so with that if I may I may you can put in a memo something a city manager and circulate it back to folks not obviously at this moment but in the near future so that if I may if I'm gonna go to the consent calendar madam city attorney is there anything to report out of closed session please been such a long time

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

mayor I'm trying to remember if we have reportable well you have nothing to

report you have no report action all right now

Nick Spain you want to talk on the consent calendar item 17a please come on up sir well walk up and down the aisle and get your juices I feel like many of

us got hijacked but on a very important issue yeah good to see you all again the Mayor and Council, you remember this old getting older face, new face to some of you. My name is Nick Spain, and I'm here representing the Old Orchard Conservancy, a local nonprofit. That has been engaged in trying to protect and preserve the historic Sexlinger Orange Orchard and Farmhouse on East Santa Clara Avenue. And you have before you in the consent calendar tonight an issue related to the final track map. That's item 17A.

And I'm here representing our group, and we're requesting that the council not receive and file that track map this evening. And that request is based on some factual and substantive errors that we see not only in the agenda but in the staff report. And I did send an email out to a couple of the council members in the last couple of days, as well as a letter to all of you earlier this evening.

A couple of the main issues here, and there's some basically quick fixes here. The first one is that the property is identified incorrectly, improperly, both in the agenda and the staff report, and that is its street address. It's listed in several places as 1584 West Santa Clara Avenue. The actual address is East Santa Clara Avenue. That is in one location, so we've got those mixed addresses. Easy fix. No problem there.

The other issue here is if you are members of the council that were here in 2014 when we had the first vote on the VTT, on the best thing, tentative track map, know that March 4th in 2014 was the first approval date on the track map. However, due to irregularities in that procedure, council came back six months later, and on September 16th, 2014, voted approval.

You're gone red there. You're out of time.

Oh, well, the big issues are yet to come. If you can give me another minute on that.

No, no, no, no. We have to move on. But just submitted in writing to the city attorney,

and let me just ask her a really quick question. Let me say that September 16th date is the effective date for the approval. The appellate court last year ruled on that. The March date is basically vacated, but it's the March date that appears again in this current documentation. It's an extremely important point. Madam city attorney, do you have any thought on

matter I mean if we adopt this as is is there something materially significant that's going to jeopardize the receiving file I thought we're all done with it

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

right Mary City Council members I am have a letter dated February 6 2018 I've reviewed all of the issues I do understand the concerns being raised by this group but I can tell you that pursuant to the state code specifically six six four five two point six C it says that a subdivision map applicant can apply to the local agency for a stay, and it actually says that the stay can be held pursuant to the local agency's adopted procedures. The city's own adopted procedures in our municipal code provide that you can get the stay directly from the director, that it does not have to go to the local agency.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Sometimes people forget that we are a charter city, so we have rules that are governed by our charter and our municipal code.

So we're legal, we're okay. Ultimately, yes. We've been over this issue for years. I mean, different related issues.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We prevailed in all the CEQA challenges that went all the way up through the Court of Appeal.

This is not a CEQA related, this is a technicality. I know, and I'm just trying to figure out is it significant if we move forward, is it a problem?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I believe that if this issue were raised, it would not result in a successful challenge to the map. It is exactly that. It's a technicality, and I believe, I've looked at it very closely, and it is in accordance. I understand the opposition from the group. This has been a five-year issue battle.

If we amend the technicality, can we do it from the floor right now? Is that a big deal?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Well, I think their technicality is that they're arguing that the City Council should have approved the map extension back in 16. That is their position.

The extension is the real critical issue.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

They're arguing that the City Council had to approve the extension. Because the City Council didn't do it, they're arguing that the map is invalid, that it would have to start all the way from the beginning again. And I take issue with that. I believe that the municipal code, the language says that the extension can be approved by the director. All right.

We're not questioning that at all. But Nick, you're out of time. We're questioning the fact that it was not.

You're out of time. You had testimony. We heard you. Thank you. All right. So let's come back to the council. Any items people want to pull?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Go ahead. I just want to vote no on 25F.

All right. I'm a no on 19C. Can Madam City Clerk please note those? I'd entertain a motion on the balance.

Second. Second.

Who did the motion? I entertained one. Jose Solario. All right, Jose, good job. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, those opposed. Motion carries.

Item 55A, business calendar. Move the item.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. No comment from staff on that or anything, right? No. Okay, 55B, I would entertain a motion. So moved. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. 55C, I would entertain a motion. So moved.

Second.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. 55 D I would entertain a motion. Do we have a question for staff? Go ahead.

If a member of staff could just provide us a brief overview on on this matter. I was read through the staff report but I wasn't exactly clear on what this the debt management policy is. What in essence what do we have now? What is this looking to address how do things change going forward. Yes, good evening, Mayor Pro Tem. The item before you is actually a stipulation that was adopted last year under SB 1029, if I'm not mistaken. Currently we have guidelines, and now it's a requirement that we adopt a debt policy in order to issue debt, or basically

bonds. And so what we did is in essence we attempted to get like best practices we reviewed other cities that CDAC which is the California Debt Advisory Commission and try to consolidate some of the policies that we reviewed as well as some of the out practices that they indicated that we should incorporate into a debt policy which includes basically for the most part like debt limits debt structure debt issuance and debt management. You know, the main purpose of this is to provide transparency to the public. CDAC will now be the repository of information.

Every time a jurisdiction issues debt, we're supposed to report it to them, and then they will make that available to the public. So that's the essence of this debt policy. What we try to do with the debt policy is try to be a little bit more comprehensive to cover not only public debt, but even private placement type debt. And so we kind of provide guidelines within the policy. Now, it doesn't mean that this is the absolute. We could always come back and revise the debt policy at any point in time. But the main purpose of this is really to get something that's comprehensive on the books

so that in case we do want to issue debt, it's available, that we can point to this debt policy.

Any significant restrictions or changes to our recent practice?

Well, we basically try to identify that public debt will be issued for the public benefit and for economic vitality. So we try to capture some of that, that it would be issued in accordance with our strategic plan, for example, and our CIP. So we've highlighted those efforts within the policy. And then we basically attempted or tried to capture in the policy that we would be responsible for ensuring the administration of all debt in accordance with the provisions under CDEAC.

Thank you for asking my question. I believe the committee reviewed this as well. so I'll just thank for the comments, see if anybody has any additional comments or they choose to move the item. I'll look to the committee members.

Council Member, any comments? Yeah, we were very supportive of what the director presented to us and makes sense and for us to be consistent in what we're doing. When the committee requested

that we provide the policy to the executive directors for comment which we did we followed up and we incorporated that including the city attorney's office and any other department had that had any comments we try to incorporate those comments within the policy as well

all right so with that discussion are we ready to move forward we have motion a second

Do you have them? I'll move it.

All right. Now we do. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed motion carries. I believe 65A is the next item.

We have a new and improved Ken Gaminski.

Right? We don't need a – do people need a presentation? I would like a presentation. You like it? All right. see some homeless version.

He's healthy and fit. He's looking great. We're all striving for that. Please go ahead. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members, what you have here before you is a quarterly update on our housing efforts for the City of Santa Ana. We've attempted to capture all of the different progress and completed items that we've done as far as addressing homelessness within the city. One of the things that we wanted to highlight today for you was the implementation of this 30-day pilot program that we're calling Quality of Life Team or also known as COALT. It's mirrored after good practices from other cities. I think I can mention the

City of Seattle, City of San Francisco, and I believe the City of Long Beach have similar programs and I wanted to have Commander Gaminski to speak on on behalf of this program for you to give you an update as well. Mayor, council members thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today about the quality of life team or COLD. Based on an understanding of the various different jobs that public works, park and rec, the police department, code enforcement, we all have our lanes. However when we're dealing with a lot of the quality of life issues that surround us within this city all those lanes cross so we found that we were

incredibly efficient in trying to deal with a lot of the quality of life issues we have so with the support of the city manager's office as well as the city attorney's office chief Valentin Park and Rec Public Works we came together and formed what we now call the quality of life team they meet together every day at City Yard where they go over what the different locations that are going to be addressed throughout the day. And then they head out to go and handle whatever issues arise. Within the first two weeks, they contacted 84 individuals. I'm sorry. Within the first two

weeks, they contacted 126 individuals. Out of the 126 individuals, eight, only eight, requested any types of services. All eight were referred to some type of service and have been either removed from homelessness or are in the process of being removed from homelessness. The team responded to 85 different locations in the past when we had Public Works or Park and Rec go out to a location. We probably didn't get it all done right the first time and it required multiple different times for us to go back. We've gone out to 85 different locations and handled each one of those the first time.

We have spent approximately one hour at each location, which is down from what it used to be, and having disparate agencies have to go back over and over and over. And we've stored property from 17 different locations. We have had some successes with what we call saves through our homeless liaison officer, Cassandra Hawkins. Just yesterday, she found a 77-year-old male who was experiencing difficulties living in a park. The male was so infirmed, he really couldn't even move anymore. We were able to talk him into accepting services and have removed him from the park and placed him into a shelter

so that he'll be able to get the services that he needs. We also took a pregnant female yesterday from the streets and found shelter for her and her unborn child. The project continues to move forward, but the only reason why this Colt team is working is because your city manager and every single executive director that works for you has devoted resources and their experiences to make this a success. I am extremely proud to be in charge of this program and cannot thank your staff enough for the support that they're giving to me and to this city because

we're making a difference every day. Any questions? No just a great report updates We know that we have issues out there that are significant, the housing crisis, homelessness crisis in particular, but it's great to see the proactive approach, that team effort. And your report, Mr. Gouman-Speed, it's chipping away at it, and the real-life stories and impact is significant. Every family, every individual that has helped is meaningful.

So I appreciate your leadership there and the report. and again what you share as far as support from both city management, city manager's offices, and all the executive directors. So thank you for your work and leadership there. I do have a question for staff with regard to the homeless services manager, the position that we created and that we have recruited for. What's the status on filling that position? So the homely services manager, the position, or the individual who's been hired, will start effective next Monday, February the 12th. That's right.

And everything will be fixed by the 13th? Hopefully. That's the plan. Okay. Thank you.

Before we go on, Councilman Rince-Sarmiento.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to thank the commander for his report. As usual, we're always doing the right thing, and we're always doing good things here. I wanted to just remind staff of the conversation that we had at the last council meeting regarding direction we gave on this issue, right? One of the blogs covered this matter and this agenda item and I think distorted what the request was because they made it seem like we were looking to find out what the amount that the county receives from HUD. We all know that. That's $22 million. The question was much deeper than that was what's been done with that money, right?

What's left in that fund? How much are they allocating to Santa Ana? How much we're expecting to expend on our behalf to address the problem when we're not receiving any federal funding on it, or very little? So those are more complex questions, but this blog decided to go ahead and just make it a very broad statement, like we were asking an obvious question. That's not the case. We've been paying for a lot of these services, whether they be through parks, whether they be through police, whether they be through code enforcement and public works. but you know I hope staff didn't get misled by the way that agenda item was

described in that blog so you know to the extent I you know just wanted to provide some more clarity on it you know I appreciate all the work that's been

done all right so I think we have a motion a second those in favor please

say aye aye those opposed do we pass it quick I'll move the item is there a

second on what item the oh i thought on the report i thought we had one earlier no all right i thought what did we just vote on receiving five receiving five we're doubling the budget

just a joke um so with that um uh madam city attorney i think i'm going to abstain on the next item um i know some of these companies i haven't worked with them but uh it's about charging stations like vehicle charging stations so um out of an abundance of caution i think it's i best not participate i've had nothing to do with any of this it catches me by surprise but nonetheless i'm going to turn things Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

So 75A is a public hearing to adopt the resolution to amend the miscellaneous fee scheduled to add a fee for the electric vehicle charging stations and to approve agreement for installation, networking, and maintenance of the 10 electrical vehicle charging stations.

Madam Clerk, do we have any members of the public? I have not received any speaker corrects. Do we have any council members that wish to speak on this item? so that if not, I will close the public hearing and bring this back to the council.

I'll make a motion to move. Do we have a question for staff? If we have a presentation, it's oftentimes public hearings. You do have a presentation. I do have some questions to better understand. It sounds like we have a motion. I don't know if staff has any information on this. Do you have a presentation? or do you want to just... I didn't have one but I can speak to the item if you wish. So this item, the reason it's a public hearing only is because we're establishing a fee. The fee is for $0.25 per kilowatt hour. How we arrived at that, we actually looked at surrounding cities

that have charging stations as well. They tend to vary from anywhere from $0.22 a kilowatt hour up to about $3.44 a kilowatt hour. So we're in essence tried to at least be modest so it kind of averages out to about a dollar an hour so we're just trying to recoup some of our utility costs the areas that we identified in order to place charging stations we tried to identify areas that people could access for example the zoo Sartek the third and bush lot the super block parking out here in front is an item and then we try to provide charging

stations at the corporate yard as well as for city hall as well so we're going to voltaic will be the ones who are actually installing the equipment and charge point will be the ones who will actually provide the networking so that they could meter and actually provide the online payment do we anticipate this being a uh looking at some of the numbers but a revenue generating or is this more no not necessarily because i mean the program itself annually make it will cost about two thousand a charging station i mean in order to make if you wanted to generate revenue we'd probably have to increase our fee so it's more more than anything

just a service that we're providing making available and supporting correct clean uh

clean emissions yes all right okay okay that helps address my questions great i just have

some comment i'm kind of having like a difficulty moving forward and in the being well we're one we're getting a grant and we're getting from aqmd which is air quality management district not air quality metropolitan district um and as well i said on the msrc committee too which is clean transportation on behalf of the of of the southern california region and we have funding as well matching to provide you know for charging stations and so i get that we're making um i would just ask the question the charging stations that we're putting at the yard in here are

we charging our employees a dollar so again possibly not right and so that's a that's a free and you know we're probably not charging any of our employees to use that but we're gonna go and charge the public and so I guess my question is is that if we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and and we're providing this this amenity how do we leverage as much as we possibly can from these grants because they're they're wanting us to move it move forward and making sure we provide the infrastructure for people to use electrical vehicles I'm just a little confused we're gonna go ahead and charge

them to a dollar an hour right you know and I get that we're trying to recover our costs from our utilities but I just want to make sure that we're being fair as we have them across our city yard here at City Hall we have folks using that you know are we charging our employees you know versus you know not charging the public it

is my understanding that for example the one at the corporate yard will also be available for public use as well so there will be a metering and yes it's my understanding that anybody who utilizes will be charged as well including employees oh okay and so the other thing that

would just ask is that you know I know the the grant is coming from AQ&D have we looked at also at the MSRC because I was working with the downtown and I'm glad that we're getting one charging station on 3rd and Bush but we definitely have five parking four other parking structures around the downtown and as we move forward wanting to make sure that we're able to provide those amenities leveraging our money within our parking meters to provide those amenities to those folks that are willing to to use electrical vehicles

And so I just want us to make sure that we do have a balanced approach and we're able to provide these amenities and leverage as many opportunities as we possibly can to reduce that cost so that we can encourage people. Obviously, we have a major problem here in California, Southern California. You know, we don't have a lot of our community actually using electrical vehicles. Right. And so we're far from moving in that direction. And so it seems to me if we are, we're creating another hindrance for them.

And so I would just, I guess, if we're trying to provide this amenity for our city employees and the general public, for the most part, it's going to be government workers, right? Because around here in this area, whether we're at the train station or the yard here, the Civic Center, it's predominantly, it's government workers for the most part. We have C&G facilities that were paid through the MSRC. We have a lot of opportunity to help, but I guess how does this help really our residents? And have we really done any research on the percent of our residents that actually have electrical vehicles?

Very good point. I think I would have to ask my staff to actually conduct research. What we're trying to do is establish an infrastructure at the very minimum. for providing low cost emissions. As a matter of fact, at the next council meeting, we're looking to add additional charging stations, trying to leverage grants as well as the purchase of electric vehicles. But you make a valid point in terms of the, who basically purchases electric vehicles, who utilizes, government agencies tend to be one of the main users, if you will, only because they're trying to basically provide

alternative vehicles in its own fleet so we are one of the biggest

and i'm definitely okay with that and i get that but we just have to be honest right and have an honest conversation really these electrical vehicles are going towards more for government use and not really our constituency very few and if so you can get back to us and what that percentage is of you know folks that actually have electrical vehicles because i think as we move forward and we're trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have cleaner energy that certainly we want to make sure those that are driving from outside coming into our city that they're doing it in the most efficient, cleanest way possible.

But at the same time, what are we doing to encourage our own residents, right? 20% live and work in Santa Ana, 70% working throughout Orange County, right? So those commute patterns, what are we doing to connect the dots is I guess what I'm saying. Yes, Mr. City Manager.

Madam Mayor Portem, I just wanted to comment that the way we could do this is to actually brand our city vehicles. We should get more city vehicles that are electric, but we should actually try to make sure that they have a very clear designation as an electric vehicle to try to get folks to realize it and ask questions. In the last city I worked, we took advantage of a pilot program that Southern Cal Edison offered throughout their territory. Their goal was to get 1,500 charging stations deployed within their territory. We were the first, 14, out of those 1,500, and we made it kind of competitive for ourselves.

We wanted to be first. There were six stations installed in the public works yard and eight in front of City Hall, and our goal was exactly that, to try to promote in a working-class community the idea that electric vehicles were viable. but there was a great branding that came up by staff to use on the vehicles for that so that you can't miss the fact that this was an electric vehicle but the whole idea is to promote it and the rates I stayed out of this rate setting proposal because I have a charging vehicle and I didn't want to influence these rates are very low compared

to the previous city I worked for this is a four year window of time over there it was two two hours the idea is to turn over because oftentimes the cars will park there for a very long time and then you know they don't free it up for others so usually that but I stayed away from this discussion we'll see how this works but at 25 cents for an hour for the first hour for basically an hour a dollar for four hours is very very cheap I don't remember what the other one was over there because I stayed our way but I think it was more like two dollars for for an hour or something like that but I can put them my staff in

contact with just we continue to help wanting to move our residents in that direction obviously there are other programs that help with you know with rebates and you return you know your old car and they help you actually move towards getting an electric vehicle a QMD has a program MSRC helps fund that so that would be another opportunity for us to be promoting to making sure that those residents that do have those old vehicles that they want to get into electrical vehicle because that is the major problem in discussion that we're having is that

you know the majority of folks that are driving are low-income folks and they're driving cars you know from 1970s and 1980s that you know a lot of a smog friend you still have your own little truck no it finally died yeah right right so but you had that for a very long time right even congresswoman sanchez and her little red little truck for a long time right you guys were admitting a lot of greenhouse gas emissions with those old vehicles right but it's just we see that in our community but there are a lot of opportunities and we're moving in the right direction just

wanting to make sure that we are making not just investments within government but also our residents i think it's important for us to to capitalize on that and so with that i know we

had a first and a second do we i'll move the second okay all those in favor aye aye mayor

Polito you can come back in. Next item is 75B and as he's coming in it is a public hearing. This is the time for a public hearing to approve the zoning ordinance amendment to allow churches as a conditional permitted use in the professional and self main street commercial zoning. Planning staff is available for presentations or answers. Do we have any members of the public wishing to speak at this time, Madam Clerk?

I have not received any cards. Go ahead.

Has the city clerk received, well, you said any written communication, neither. Does the city council have any further questions, comments, or discussion? Councilman Solorio?

Yes, I know in the past there was a lot of thought when the South Main zoning was created or updated to define what uses we wanted and did not want there. What's the reason why we want to allow

churches in this professional zone? I mean, where did this idea come from?

This amendment is designed to bring us into compliance with the Religious and Institutionalized Persons Act. It's a federal law which requires us to treat churches exactly the same as we would treat other assembly uses. So in any zoning district in which we have another assembly use, such as the theater, we are compelled.

But is this a new federal law or are you suggesting that years ago when the city adopted this ordinance that it was not fully compliant with that federal law?

Well, that our ordinance was adopted prior to the adoption of the federal law and we have not updated it.

Okay, so there was a change in federal law and this would bring us into compliance with federal law. Our city attorney agrees with that history? Okay. With that, I'm okay. We're just following the law. Thank you.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye. But just a question for the city attorney. I know, did we officially open up the public hearing? Because I know we have to say those words and we have to close the public hearing. So we're good. Okay. Sorry. Just double checking. So with that, let's go on to the next item. Are we almost done?

Six speakers.

Do we have to hear them? No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's a joke. It's a joke at 11 o'clock. It's a late night joke. You know, Johnny Carson, you start the show about this time. So here we go. Tim Houchen, are you here?

Cabrillo, from Sunburst, lives in Los Alamitos.

Jane Chapman. Alright, Jane, you're our first. This is a raffle. You're the first winner.

Did she get a piece of popcorn on Bristol, maybe? Go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor Polito and city council members. My name is Jane Chapman. I'm an eight-year homeowner from Park Santiago in Santa Ana. I've come tonight to provide you with some public input regarding the proposed market-rate five-story apartment complex project at 2525 North Main Street, right across the street from the Discovery Science Center. I live in the Park Santiago neighborhood on the west side of North Spurgeon Street. My family and I are direct neighbors of the 2525 North Main property. That is, we share our back property line with 2525 North Main Street.

My husband Justin and I bought our house in 2010 and now we live there with our 17-month-old baby. My husband is a firefighter paramedic with Orange County Fire Authority and I am a certified registered nurse anesthetist with Kaiser Permanente. We love Santa Ana and Park Santiago. We feel that our neighborhood is unique in Orange County. We're friends with many of our neighbors, not only on our street, but throughout Park Santiago. The neighborhood is historic, the homes are all unique and beautiful, and they display a great pride of ownership.

When you enter the neighborhood, there's a sense that you've dropped right into the 1950s, both in the look and the feel of the homes and the neighborliness of the people. This is a neighborhood with a lot of soul, one that we'll preserve and protect because it is so much more special than any track of brand new look-like homes in Irvine. As each of you, Mayor Polito and City Council members, make zoning decisions about the future of 2525 North Main Street, please consider first what you would want if you were me, my family, the other families on Spurgeon Street and in Park Santiago,

long-standing citizens of Santa Ana like yourselves. The developer would like to put a five-story apartment complex directly behind our houses. It would block out the sun in our backyards. Tenants could look out of their windows directly into our bedrooms. This is nothing we ever imagined would happen in the backyard of our beautiful home in our idyllic neighborhood. I ask you not to allow 2525 North Main Street to be rezoned as planned. I ask you for more responsible development that is properly planned. The developer seeks rezoning of the property to allow for an extremely large, tall, dense apartment complex to be built there.

It will be overwhelmingly detrimental to Park Santiago. The developer has not provided adequate parking on the property for a complex of this size, and overflow tenant parking will occur on our unpermitted streets. There's only one driveway into the parking structure, and it empties into Park Santiago, not onto Main Street, which will cause unprecedented congestion in our area.

Can you try to wrap up, because it's red.

Please do not allow the zoning change that will allow this to happen to us. If there is a change, it needs to be to lower density housing, single-family homes, or remain a professional building in order to soothe the area. Thank you.

Thank you. Dale.

Followed by Michael Feinstein. Then Carol Bongiani.

Dale Helwig, let me just say that anybody that raises rates on rental units more than once a year, it's wrong. One of the things that really concerns me about the 25-25 main residential development is the constant and consistent referral by the developer about a bus ride in July of 2015 and a reference to an Envision map, which is a draft document that's posted on the city website. that talks about high-density living areas, and it's just amazing to me that he would base a decision to purchase a seven,

you know, put out $17 million on a draft document and a bus ride that evidently was sponsored by the city. And I'm just wondering, you know, what does he know that we don't know? You know, what was he told that would cause him to go out and purchase this property? I don't know the answer to that. You know, he's taking a business risk by doing this, and, you know, not all investments are profitable, as we know. We met the developer last Tuesday because they said they were going to present us with a comprehensive update of their plan. That's what we told the neighborhood representatives that showed up for the meeting.

They came in with five questions. How can we be good neighbors? How can we improve our communication with you and stuff like that? It wasn't a sign of good faith as far as I was concerned. We left half hour after the meeting started. We've talked to them again. We're trying to set up another meeting with them on February 15th. We're waiting to get word back from them. We would like to have open dialogue with them. but so far they've been not too open with us.

We've met with two of the council members so far and we've had good, I think, communication with them. And so we're looking forward to maybe talking to the rest of you guys at some point in time in the near future to discuss this because, like I said, we would like to have a dialogue with the developers, work something out, get a project that would work for everybody, but right now we're having a difficult time doing it. Thank you.

Michael?

Good evening. I'm Michael Feinstein. I'm a former mayor and city council member in Santa Monica, co-founder of the Green Party of California and a 2018 candidate for secretary of state. I'm running on a platform that affects representation of your residents and of your city. I believe that our state legislature needs to look like the people of California And with only 40 seats in the Senate and 80 in the Assembly for 40 million people, that's not possible. I'm recommending a 500-seat state legislature, half which are elected from smaller single-seat districts by ranked choice voting,

and half by multi-seat regional districts with proportional representation. As a nation, state, and a state of regions, we have a lot of public policy that really happens on the regional level, but we don't elect people to the state legislature out of regional public policy discussions. I've sent you a map that's in your pack. The only regional input that you have as a council is you work through SCAG, but then SCAG has to lobby the state. I was in SCAG as well when I was on the council. SCAG then has to lobby the state legislature. Instead, your community should be participating in a regional public policy debate itself.

You've been talking tonight about homelessness issues, about housing production, etc. Clearly there are state policies that affect your ability to do that, and yet you're not really having a direct representation of how that plays out over the region into the state legislature. Furthermore, a proportional representation system would provide for differing voices from the state region. You would have Democrats, you'd have Republicans, you'd have Greens, you'd have Libertarians, and the whole diversity of perspectives that come from this area would be represented in the state

level so i'm hoping that you at some point will give direction to your staff to look at this issue i'm going to be talking to the skag regional council about this to the abad council and others i'm going to city councils around the state thank you for your time got it um carol carlo j1 come on down. It's Italian, it's like Spanish. Carlo? Carlo, got it. Okay, last time I was here I brought the attention about MacArthur Boulevard between Main Street and Fairview. It's not being noted, but the good thing about it is they stopped building, they stopped development of those

homes on MacArthur Boulevard. And I would love to know what engineer okayed the project to have only one entrance and one exit facing Sigurdsson High School, when in the morning you can hardly get anybody exiting or leaving that area. They need to widen the street, put some more emphasis from the city of Santa Ana developers traffic division and then the second thing is on Bristol there's been a street light that's been knocked down since the first week of December and it's still sitting there south of the of the Buffalo Wild Wings right in front of the

CVS right there it's been sitting there and hopefully somebody cut the wires or clinked the wires did something but it's amazing how it's been sitting there this whole time and nobody's picked it up so it's pretty sad public works directors taking notes right now okay it's been there for a long time you know I could have tripped over it major lawsuit this that you know how it goes in the city of Los Angeles there's a lot of things could happen the the last thing that I've been on Harbor Boulevard noticing the traffic from all the building going on and nobody probably did a study on traffic, how bad it is.

Okay? I know you guys want to build it all up. I was on the committee 30 years ago. If you want to build 50 apartments, build 25 houses. Okay? And the next thing you need to tell these kids and everything else, in Irvine, you don't get to own the land. That's the reason why they're not building houses there. Everybody knows that there's a big lawsuit going on right now with the Chinese families on the north end of town. So, that's what needs to be noted.

Thank you, sir. Ray Shana,

Rayshawn. Go ahead, sir. Visiting from Tampa, Florida. Good day. Good evening to you all and thank you for hearing me. And I wanted to propose an idea and it involves your cannabis in your movement. I'm very glad to experience it as an outsider. and the idea is Ganja Town. Ganja Town would be an actual block, start as a block. You've got basically friendly venues where people come from out of town can actually come and enjoy themselves.

and the city can actually have it where it's centered off and protected. So now, and actually it can go in conjunction with your train, or I'm sorry, your bus. Is it a bus or a trolley or whatever the guy was proposing? It can go, that can very sync together and be a very good thing for the city. And I hope that it's a good idea. I hope that I'm not wasting your time. I've waited a long time to share it. Kind of exhausted, but there it is, and I hope that you guys adopt it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any more public comment? So with that, we'll be done with that. Madam Clerk, what's our next item?

If we can go back to the Housing Authority, we have a couple of items.

Well, recess, the city council, convene the housing authority. I'd like to, can we consider all this in one motion? Maybe we can. All right, is there a motion, please?

Second.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those who have opposed, motion carries. Housing authority member comments, seeing none. We've already done the work study session.

and now city manager comments please

yes Mr. Mayor I wanted to report on a couple items one of them is the passing of Mr. Dan Gurney who was an icon in the world of racing Mr. Dan Gurney was a driver and builder of race cars he passed away at the age of 86 he owned the Santa Ana Base Company All American Racers which is located over on at 2334 South Broadway near Warner. The company's being run by his sons and it's expanding and doing well. He won several races, NASCAR Formula One, IndyCar, Can-Am, Trans Am Series, and the 24 Hours at Le Mans. So we wanted to just recognize this person.

Alright, I was just noting that I was supposed to adjourn the meeting and read all this stuff as part of my script. So you stole my thunder.

And not only that, make it worse, I had a special request from Councillor Benavides that knew him personally and wanted to make some comments.

So sorry. Well, I did not know him, so please, Councilman.

Well, he's still going to make comments, but keep them short. Let's move on.

The other thing I wanted to just announce is, of course, the opening of the Orchard, an $18 million project developed after the Housing First model with wraparound supportive services for homeless folks. This is on First Street. They had the grand opening earlier this week.

That was going to be Mayor Pro Tem Martinez's closing comments. No, keep going.

And then we've had a couple of successful recruitments here at the Santa Ana Work Center. OCTA held a recruitment January 31st for coach operators. The starting pay there is $16.80 an hour with paid training. Top 35 candidates were interviewed in pending hiring confirmation. And today, Amazon was looking to fill 200 positions, 200 part-time positions. They actually interviewed 138 today, and 47 were from Santa Ana. And these are jobs with benefits as well. So today we had Telemundo Channel 52 and ABC Channel 4 broadcasting that whole effort in our city. So very proud to report that to you. And that's all I have.

All right, thank you. Let's go to Council Member Comments. Council Member Vince Sarmiento, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

And, you know, ironically enough, I met Dan Gurney when I was a child because he used to race at Riverside Speedway when it was still operating in Ontario Motor Speedway. So they had NASCAR racing in Riverside. They'd have Formula One at Ontario, and those were very big venues back then. That was when there was a big circuit, and A.J. Foyt, Bobby Allison, Jackie Stewart, all the big names used to go out there. And so I was eight years old. and in the pit area, after the race and before, they'd let the public on and you'd be able to have contact with them, and so I have a picture with him.

I had no idea that he had a company. His family had a company here, so sad to see him gone, but he left very fond memories for me because I'm an avid race car driver fanatic. I just wanted to report out from the committee that I chair, the Legislative Affairs, Ethics, and Transparency Committee. we received updates from both our lobbyists, Townsend Public Affairs for the state and Holland and Knight for the federal. And we also considered a scorecard and platform for some priority issues for 2018,

which included immigration, homelessness, cybersecurity, digital divide, opportunity zones, and home ownership programs as well. We also discussed and received an update from the city manager on the search for a citywide communications director or firm, and we gave some thoughts there that we wanted to share with the council. We also considered the positions that we take on legislative bills and how we can streamline that. If there is some time sensitivity, how we can make sure the council members are aware, but sometimes we're not able to convene and we have to take a position very quickly.

Finally, I know to one of the council members' requests, I wanted to consider the code of conduct update and ethics policy update. So I think the clerk of the council is vested with maybe coming up with some suggestions that we recommended at committee. One of them was to include a sexual harassment component to it that wasn't considered before. Some other several items that we think we could improve on, put some teeth in. you know obviously you know FPTC former violations that you know we should consider as having also some sanctionable offenses as a result so with

that mr. mayor I'll say good night thank you for that mayor pro-town you mr. mayor

just very quickly and I've been you know I had a skag last week and pretty long Wednesday and Thursday all day meetings but what I wanted to share because we amazing presentations and we had an update on Prop 64 on the adult use and we had WMAT to come and present to one of the committees and as they were having this discussion you know this this subcommittee of the Regional Council and throughout the region there was about 55 of us elected officials and so we got to hear perspectives from the elected officials from the desert from

the Coachella Valley from Palm Desert and them doing the cultivation on their in and they're giving their experience to hearing from Linwood and then hearing from other folks in Los Angeles to then you know me making comments here in Orange County about Santa Ana and as we move forward you know there was a lot of discussion talking about you know some of the implications coming down on cities in regards to making sure that we're able to recover our costs you know and bet what are some of those best practices and I think WeedMaps did a really good job at

articulating because you have you know half the room that is extremely conservative 90 percent of them still have bans on on on adult use and then just the other 10 percent were flexible and wanting to figure out ways or opportunities to move towards possibly uplifting their bans and moving to to approving adult use and so one of the things that came up and I've been talking to our staff and I mentioned it to Candida today and I met and I mentioned it to our city attorney is that you know the testing you know by state California law by July we got to be in compliance

and at this moment in time we have yet to move forward and what I want to ask my colleagues is that for us to be in compliance and making sure that we and I just heard from our staff that we just released and called out for the 10 adult use applications to go out to everyone else right now we already approved the medicinal now we're out with everyone else you know we need to have this test these testing labs in place and we're far from it because we're trying to package it up with everything else what I would just implore us for us to be in compliance and having this testing

to do you know a separate ordinance I think the testing is totally different from the distribution and manufacturing it shouldn't be part of any of that it should be by standing on its own and to allow these folks that already want to come here. And unfortunately, they can't because, look, this is a public health issue. We want to make sure that those that are selling the cannabis in our community, that it is being tested, that we want to make sure that there's no pesticides or other chemicals. And right now we don't have any testing labs in our city. And so we need to make we need to rush and move forward with this immediately.

So I would just implore us to either write a letter to those testing labs that have interest, that have sent emails to us, or do an emergency ordinance to come before us at the next council meeting so that we could address that to give them enough time because they still have to go through a permit process, you know, to do their building, you know, wherever they're going to be. They need to put it up to code to make sure that they have a testing facility that is going to meet the needs of the state. And so that is my recommendation to this council so that we're in compliance.

Finally, as well as our city manager talked about jobs at Amazon, Of course, Amazon doesn't have anything here specifically, but these jobs are in Buena Park and in Irvine. So this is to tell you that transportation is not local. Housing is not local. Jobs are not local. They need to be regional in context. And so, you know, we can't say we want to create jobs, create jobs in Santa Ana. Obviously, we need to figure out ways of how do we partner up with other cities like Irvine and Buena Park, where they have big employers like Amazon and facilitate partnerships so that we can continue to employ our residents,

but at the same time figure out ways of how we can attract other employers that can provide good paying jobs. And then lastly, I just wanted to make mention that I got an email from Jason Mercado, and I'll be sending this to our staff to forward it to my colleagues, but they're having their third annual resurrection celebration feast that is hosted by the Sweet Mission Project. and it's the Mission Cookie Company. For those of you who haven't met him, he's at the 4th Street Market. He was once homeless, and now he's making cookies. He has a project. He's a pretty amazing young man that is doing this and giving back to the community.

That event is going to take place on Sunday, March 25th from noon to 4 at one of the churches. So I'll go ahead and send you guys that information. And we're not going to be here for Valentine's Day, so I want to wish all our residents a happy Valentine's Day, all my colleagues and our employees a happy valentine's day and just continue to show the

love thank you thank you michelle councilman salario please thank you thank you mr mayor

a few things uh another item related to this homeless homelessness crisis that we have has to deal with folks being moved out of the riverbed and our partnership with the county one thing i I had discussed with Supervisor Doe that he seemed interested in, because I did say, hey, we want reimbursements for some of our law enforcement services, and that could be a substantial cost, so he did not seem so interested in that. But in the related idea, I said, well, how about in those areas where we have joint enforcement responsibility like the river, but like the Santiago Creek or other areas like that?

Can we have the sheriffs do additional education and enforcement? And he was very open to that. And so I would ask that our city manager and our new homelessness coordinator to be and deputy city manager, if that could be followed up with the county. With respect to the orchard, the new orchard place with wraparound services, I think in part for, I don't know if it was lack of coordination or notice, but it's my understanding none of the council members were able to attend.

I know I had an interest in attending, and I know Council Member Sarmiento, and it's in his ward, he was not able to attend. I think given that the operator is a great operator, that they may allow us to do a follow-up event where we can do a ceremonial ribbon cutting or something else. And if staff could coordinate that with them as well as with the council, I think that would be fantastic because that's an important facility and great leadership there.

on the issue of adult use and testing regarding cannabis the last I remember on this general conversation because we discussed this when we're talking about land use and how many permits it was the thought at the time from the staff that these facilities really are R&D facilities that already fall under guidelines of R&D in industrial zones that because theoretically these testing labs can test not just cannabis projects but a number of other projects that essentially it's by right yet there I think

some testing labs that want to come to Santa Ana and they have not been receiving that level of support if anything I think they feel barriers to it so consistent with what Mayor Pro Tem Martinez is talking about maybe it's just a clarification memo to us and those folks that have shown interest about that that we make that be or if there does need to be some cleanup measure in any other prior ordinances we ought to do that but my understanding and it made sense and I I think there was council and staff consensus that it ought to be a by right thing.

I think that makes a lot of sense to me. I do believe, though, that even though we may not currently have a testing lab in our city,

these dispensaries that we have in town, they could use testing labs from other communities as well. But it would be nice to have some local. And then I also remember, too, that part of the discussion of why it was already by right was that we already do have one testing lab in our city. At least that at the time was discussed. Whether that's true or not, I'm not sure, but I know at the time we were told that. I don't need a question and answer right now. I'm good. But just if we could have staff follow up on that, that would be fantastic. Finally, I'd like to have the chief come on up to give us a mini report.

I'm really excited that we had a new class of recruits finish their academy training. And I know that you've been spending some time with them and you joined them at the ceremony. And so if you could tell us a little bit what this new crew is like. And you know, you've been doing an outstanding job in terms of recruitments but also laterals. but I know this was something that happened in the past couple of weeks, and so if you could speak a little bit about the recruits.

Yes, thank you, Councilman Salario, Mayor and Council City Manager. We had, on the 25th of January, eight recruits graduate from the Orange County Sheriff's Academy. Of note, three are local products here from Santa Ana. Two are former explorers from our program. They went on to become cadets, worked part-time in the police department, and then went on to become police officers. Really a key for what we're looking to do in the future, and that is to create a pathway for local talent to become police officers here in our community.

In addition to that, we had three lateral officers join the police department, one from the Orange Police Department, another one from the Los Angeles School Police Department, and another one from the Tustin Police Department.

Excellent work. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilman Villegas, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to make an announcement. Tomorrow we have the Connect to Council in my ward for Ward 5. It's going to be held at the Santa Ana Police Department Community Room from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. So that's tomorrow, Wednesday, February 7, 2018. So if you live in the ward, you belong to one of the neighborhood associations, you're welcome to come down. I also want to report out on the January 22, 2018 Youth Education Communities Services Council Committee meeting. We received an update from the zoo manager, Ethan Fisher, regarding the master plan for the zoo.

We also received an update on the Fiestas Patrias 2018 R&P process that will be coming out soon. I am also happy to report that Santa Anita Park is going to receive a new synthetic soccer field. That's very exciting. That's going to be coming up. We also got an update on the youth services supervisor position. And we also discussed the Civic Center common area here becoming a regional park. And we have our staff that are going to be communicating with our neighbors at the county, state, and federal jurisdictions.

Also, on January 29th, we hosted the Santa Ana Unified School District slash City of Santa Ana Council Joint Policy Committee meeting. We had Board of Education President Valeria Mesquan, Board Member John Palacios, and Superintendent Phillips who were present. They gave us an update on the $8 million Roosevelt Community Center and Walker Sports Field Project. We also spoke about the Santa Ana Unified School District's use of the stadium and joint use facilities at Centennial Park.

There was also a brief update on the district and city regarding options to secure the city's continued use of the water tower that was provided to us. The city also provided the district with an update on our youth services supervisor and night lights program. And there was an update on the youth restorative justice initiative from the school district. And they also introduced their new police chief, Smith, who is now present, now working, and she is going to be conducting an active shooter training. So that's going to be between the city and the school district.

We're going to be working together and have that training available for us. And that's all I want to report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman Benavides.

Thank you, Mayor.

A couple things here on last Saturday. I mention oftentimes just the the a lot of just exciting things very positive things taking place in our city this past Saturday myself my family and we actually ran it ran into a councilman VIA set the lampo del cielo for for cloric or company their annual Student Showcase that took place at Santana High School. It's just It's wonderful to see hundreds of our communities youth be able to present this talent by way of dance and I'm particularly proud of the fact that my daughter participated in the performance. It's her first time a few months ago

started taking some of the classes so it was a really fun experience. Again, it's part of a rich culture of our city. And to that point, just the youth and them being one of our greatest assets just want to continue as Councilman Villegas reported out, we did at the committee level discuss both within the committee and with the school board ways that we can continue to proactively support our young people I know soon we will be filling the youth services supervisor position and and again just just can't stress enough the opportunity that we have to coordinate both district nonprofits to be able to ensure that

we're investing our young people and our future and then there are practical simple things that we can do. I know one we've talked about and staff is working on creating spaces such as skate elements and skate parks and just opportunities for our youth to be engaged in positive things and we have members of the business community that are looking at investing and helping us to create those types of spaces for youth. I'm hopeful that we will be able to proactively take advantage of those opportunities and do that as expeditiously as possible. Another side of other opportunity that we have is you

know can't stress enough economic development investment development in the city. There are a number of projects we talked earlier about the YMCA building we've been discussing third and Broadway and there are other opportunities and just want again encourage us and our staff to look at how we can proactively make this a top priority and know we need to fill the Community Development Agency director position we have and I think there's even more of a certain degree sense of urgency in that there are interim

director I believe is coming to his time when he's going to have to move on and And I'm not sure what we're doing with regard to the consultant, Lisa, what she just said. Her name is a little bit difficult, but at least for me anyway, to pronounce.

But again, we've been able to make some advances with these people that have been in place for a short period of time, and I just want to make sure we don't miss out that momentum to be able to move forward. there's opportunities for us to promote the city communications manager as Councilman Sarmiento mentioned earlier is key to be able to help us again not just communicate but communicate the positive message of all that's taking place in the city of Santa Ana so we market ourselves and we're intentional about telling our story and part of telling the story is again a lot of positive things and people who have invested

and have been leaders in the community and city manager took the initiative to share a little bit about Mr. Gurney, but if it's okay, share a bit more. We actually, if you visited the Santana Auto Mall, the street that goes through the Auto Mall is Gurney Road, I believe in the name of Mr. Gurney, and recently passed away. One of the most famous American auto racing drivers that has ever lived and his business again All American Racers has been here in the city of Santana for over 50 years and now it continues in the

family his sons are continuing with the business and one of the things that we might not know is that today there was a lot of attention around the SpaceX launch and for I believe on this this rocket as well but previous one SpaceX Falcon, the legs that are used as the rocket lands back on Earth were actually built, designed and built by All-American Racers, which is a local Santana business. And I did want to read a statement that was released by his wife and the All-American Racers on the occasion of

his passing. And it reads as follows, Dan Gurney, the first driver with victories in each of the Formula One, IndyCar, and NASCAR Cup Series passed away on Sunday at the age of 86. His wife, A.V., announced his death in a statement distributed by All American Racers. With one last smile, she said, on his handsome face, Dan drove off into the unknown just before noon today, said the statement signed by A.V. Gurney and the Gurney family. and deepest sorrow with gratitude in our hearts for the love and joy you have given us during your

time on this earth we say this earth we say godspeed. Agurney began racing in 1955 and won in nearly every racing series he attempted. He drove for Ferrari, BRM, Porsche, Brabham, and Formula One then formed his own team. He won the Belgian Grand Prix in 1967 in his own car, the first and only time an American won an F1 race in a car of his own design. Gurney teamed with A.J. Foyt that year to win the 24-hour Le Mans in a Ford GT40, and he's often credited with starting the tradition of spraying the champagne from the podium at that race.

Gurney retired from driving in 1970 with 51 victories. And this is a quote.

NASCAR Cup Series. Andretti hailed Gurney in a post on Twitter. I was first inspired by him when I was in midgets dreaming of being like him. I was last inspired by him yesterday. Yes, I mean forever, Andretti wrote. He understood me better than anyone else, which is why he wrote the forward for my book in 2001. and it goes on to share about funeral arrangements.

We actually invited, and at some point in the future, we will invite the family back here to make a presentation. Obviously, at this point, they're still in mourning, but Legend and somebody here tied to the city of Santana, and I think it's appropriate to go ahead and close in his memory. With that, thank you, Mayor. Have a good night.

Thank you. just the midnight hour approaches so I'm going to keep it short and just to talk about another wonderful Santa Ana resident and person that passed away recently Vic Edge many of us know his wife Judy Edge as well she was very active in Sandpoint neighborhood and really much of much of the city um you know community meetings uh you know comlink um you know the edges were active in many many campaigns some of us you know as we've run for council they are either you know

they're they're active and trying to get folks uh involved um i know vic uh on graffiti and in that part of town i think it was eradicated in large number effort because of the edges they had this paint program and they would coordinate it and before anybody could see it it would be removed and and that was all just love for the city it was just volunteer work um you know i think vic and judy were married for almost 50 years so you know he was uh just a wonderful husband

and i also as we uh talk about dan gurney and all the wonderful things that he did on a major scale I just want to make sure we don't forget folks like Vic Edge that you know give so much to the community as well In their own, you know strong way So with that, please

Mr. Mayor, could you could we recommend a staff that we send something? Yeah, yeah

the standard You know

You know both the I mean the the edges lived in my ward and I know Councilman Solorio represented them out in Sandpoint. And so not only were they very involved in graffiti abatement, but they were extremely involved in street improvements, right? So the whole repaving of that neighborhood, a lot of it is a result of their hard work, and Vic was just tireless in that.

And those of you that want to reach out to Judy, I spoke to her recently. I know she'd much appreciate our condolences and love that we've had for her and Vic and the family and what they did. So with that, this meeting is adjourned.

Amen.

Amen.