Read the January 16 meeting.

Council members and members of the public. Our names are Avery Shelton and Chloe Shelton. At this time we would like to invite you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise and place your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much. Our police chaplain, please come forward. Sir, this is Curtis Smith. He's going to give us our invocation.

Honorable Mayor, members of the Council, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen of the community, let us pray. Eternal God, we come into your holy presence asking you to invoke the richness of your blessing upon this assembly on behalf of the great city of Santa Ana and the leaders of the community who will be honored with exceptional service certificates and awards for their outstanding contribution to the city.

We are grateful and thank you for their inspiration, their faithful performance, and unselfish service to the city and especially to the citizens of the community. We pray for them your continued blessing of divine guidance and providential leadership in their future endeavors on behalf of the city and for the benefit of the community and all Santa Ana citizens. We ask you to bless the mayor and this council body as they conduct the important business listed on the agenda, guide your thinking and actions that they will be positive, productive, and successful.

May this council meeting, which was called to order in unity, be conducted expeditiously with dignity and adjourned in harmony. We pray in your holy name, eternal God, and all of God's people said, Amen.

Thank you. You may be seated. Dennis Wooten, if you're here, sir, if you could please come forward. Representing the personnel board, you're the chairman, and please give us your presentation.

Welcome. Thank you.

Good evening Mr. Mayor, Councilman Solorio, all the members of the Council, City Manager Godinez. My name is Dennis Wooten. I am Councilman Solorio's appointee to the Personnel Board from Ward 3. I currently serve as the Chairman of the Personnel Board. We have been asked by the City Manager to make a short presentation to you this evening regarding the operation of the Personnel Board. I have been pleased to have served the City of Santa Ana since 1988 in various appointments by Council from Ward 3 on the nominations of Councilman Dan Grisette, Councilwoman Lisa Mills, Councilman Brett Franklin,

Councilman Carlos Bustamante, and Councilwoman Angie Amesqua, in addition to Councilman Solorio. In these appointments, I have served on the Charter Review Committee, the Redevelopment Commission, the Redevelopment and Housing Commission, and now the Personnel Board. This is my fifth year of service on the Personnel Board. The Personnel Board is established by the City Charter to serve as the Appeal Board for City employees who have been subject to discipline under civil service or police rules, in accordance with their service as members of the several unions which represent most city employees.

Employees may appeal the terms of discipline, including dismissals, demotions, and suspensions issued under the authority of the various city executive departments. In addition, on its own motion, or as requested by city leadership, the personnel board may conduct reviews of the civil service policies and make recommendations based on those reviews. And the board on its own motion may establish such rules and procedures as are required to conduct the appeals processes. We've been asked to discuss the activity of the personnel board during the past year and to comment on the expected activity in the coming year.

While most advisory commissions of the city participate and advise counsel with regard to matters relating to their particular commissions which support city activities and agencies, The Personnel Board specifically responds to appeals submitted by employees under the personnel rules of the City for matters relating to discipline. There have been no appeals submitted for adjudication during the past year. And to our knowledge, there is one pending discipline case within the coming one-year time horizon. In the absence of appeals, the Board meets a mandatory minimum of once per quarter to preserve familiarity with current issues

and to be assured that the Board remains available for cases when they're referred. In general, when cases are referred to the appeals, hearings for appeals are scheduled for several evenings each week from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., generally Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, depending on the calendars of the various parties. Some cases resolve in as few as two or three sessions, while other cases can require a dozen or more sessions. Cases are conducted in a formal manner with the City Executive Department originating the discipline represented by the City Attorney or a contracting

counsel and the employee represented by counsel or by an arbitration specialist provided generally by the employees union. The proceedings are transcribed by a professional court reporter. The board consists of seven members, one from each ward plus citywide the mayoral appointee, with a dedicated board counsel that is retained by the city to represent the personnel board as legal specialist during hearings and pre-hearings and the board secretary to control files documents and exhibits relating to the appeal the personnel board is committed to conducting a hearing process that is fair unbiased and in conformance with

administrative hearing rules in general each appeal begins with a pre-hearing with the two attorneys and a meeting with the chairman and the vice chairman and legal counsel of the personnel board to encourage settlements and to establish calendars and rules including considerations of admissible evidence. The two sides share their exhibits and witness lists. If there is no resolution at the time of the pre-hearing, the appeal is set for hearing and dates are set with both parties, councils, and the board. In general, the appeals hearings are open to the public unless one or both parties request that the hearing be

closed. In addition, special rules of confidentiality apply to police discipline cases that may limit what may be heard by the public or even by the parties that is the unions and the city management and council once all testimony has been taken the personnel board confers in closed session to discuss whether the disciplinary charge against the employees justified and if so whether the proposed discipline is appropriate votes are taken and recorded the personnel board then returns to open session and announces the decisions regarding whether the charge is sustained and if so the recommended

discipline. The Personnel Board then issues a detailed decision setting forth its factual findings, reasoning, and determinations. If either party is dissatisfied with the decision, they may appeal the decision to the Superior Court with a writ petition requesting review. The Personnel Board takes its responsibility very seriously. We understand that we have the power to affirm a decision to terminate an employee or reinstate an employee to his or her job.

We strive to fulfill our important role by making evidence-based decisions, always conscious of the community's desire to have high-quality employees serve this vibrant, wonderful city. The current board has no vacancies. Members range in length of service from two months to over 12 years. Their personal backgrounds include employment at a telecommunications company, an aerospace and defense contractor, a city government, an insurance company, a financial administration and investment company, and law firms generally in management positions.

Thank you very much for requesting the summary of the personal board and its activities, and if there are any questions, I'd be pleased to answer them as well as I can.

Thank you. Councilor Sarmiento, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Mr. Wooten, for coming in. and addressing us and giving us some background on the personnel board you know i was hoping our city attorney would be out here because i had some questions about the powers that the um that the board has and whether or not we can distinguish it from some other quasi-judicial boards because we

know that the planning city manager can you just ask the city attorney to step in i'm sure she's

right we have one of our deputies uh they're they're here in the audience but maybe you can answer this um so once there's a decision and findings are made by the board um is that binding or is that something that has to be authorized by the city manager or the city manager staff? It's my understanding it's binding on the city. So that's where I guess I had some concern and maybe some questions because my understanding is that most personnel boards, because they're not the hiring body and the city manager's office is, they should have the final say in dismissing or providing sanctions on an employee when there's some sort of ill.

So, Madam City Attorney, so I was asking on the powers of the personnel board and whether or not we, you know, there is some disagreement between the charter and the way the personnel board has been operating, not to impugn anything that you've been doing, Mr. Wooten. In fact, you and all the other personnel board members do a tremendous amount of work relative to the other boards and commissions, because when you hear testimony, that testimony is very lengthy. It could take days and up to weeks. So we want to thank you for your service, but we also want to make sure that you're operating in compliance with our charter,

which is important. That's right.

So the question is, is there any tension between the charter and the way the personnel board has been operating?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

So the charter is fairly clear, but it doesn't have many details. Where we have some inconsistencies is between our charter and our municipal code. We have municipal code provisions which don't exactly dovetail into the provisions in the charter. There was an attempt by the personnel board, I want to say a year ago, but it's probably longer, two years ago to rewrite all of the personnel rules with respect to the personnel board hearings. And I think some of that was cleared up. But in my opinion, we have some work to do, and we should really focus on the municipal code provisions to make sure they're consistent with the charter.

Right, and I think the question was whether or not the findings and the rulings ultimately made by the Personnel Board are binding on that employee, or whether or not that decision has to go back to the City Manager in order to make that final call.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

So that's where the inconsistency is. We have operated here as if that decision by the Personnel Board is binding, but we did find language in the Municipal Code which would suggest that at the end of the day, it really is the City Manager who has the final say, because the Charter says that the City Manager is in charge of all subordinate employees.

So, you know, ultimately we just wanted to, you know, thank you for the presentation, but at the same time let you know we have some homework to do on this end, and the City Attorney's Office needs to go back and revisit those. That tension could cause some problems if one of the employees who's being disciplined or dismissed could come back and hold the City responsible and the Board responsible, so we want to make sure that doesn't happen. But maybe we can, you know, based upon this presentation, Madam City Attorney and Mr. City Manager, we get a little bit more background and have that come back to us. Thank you.

Thank you.

Other questions? Councilor Benavides? I mainly just want to thank Mr. Rudin for the presentation, for your service as chair, and for your work and the work of the rest of the board members. My appointee has been there for quite some time, and I know that there is very sensitive issues in work and at times can be extended, and it's important work. I appreciate your service. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Anything else you'd like to add? No, sir. Thank you. You're doing a great job. Thank you for your years of service. Many, many years, Dennis. Appreciate it. Thank you. Take care.

Michael Macri's or Macri's Flowers, are you here? Please come on down if you are.

if not let's go on to the next presentation mayor progta michelle martinez

yes um one oc can you come on down 19 years of service on martin luther king day come on down

please. Thank you Mr. Mayor. As come on to the front up through here as they come up. Today we're presenting a proclamation for 19 years of service for the Martha Luther King Jr. Day in Orange County and I think we have Kimberly here and how do I pronounce it? Dick Lotley here as well and so I wanted to share some key points and one of the reasons why I wanted to provide this proclamation because the 1OC has been probably one of the only entities that has been able to continue year after year

with public service events throughout Orange County, not only in Santa Ana, but throughout the county. And as we celebrated Martha Luther King Day yesterday, some of the council had the opportunity to participate in a leadership gathering, breakfast, which was very motivational. But more importantly, I think it's very important that we have organizations like the 1OC who is helping and engaging our communities, not just in Santa Ana, but throughout Orange County to making sure that they can volunteer, in particular in a day like Martha Luther King Day.

So it is their 19th year. the 1OC has really helped community members make their day off a day on by celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martha Luther King through a day of service. The 1OC has partnered with 13 local agencies and schools offering volunteer opportunities to address the critical community issues including hunger, homelessness, education, health and wellness, and economic opportunities. The 1OC mobilized over 850 volunteers, individuals, families, company,

community groups, and meaningful service to support 24 AmeriCorps VIP service leaders. Furthermore, not only are they celebrating their 19th year, and I want to commend you and the 1OC for the great work that they're doing, but they're also celebrating their 60 year anniversary, the 1OC has grown and matured from a simple clearinghouse of recruiting and placing volunteers in local nonprofits to one stop shops for community development and social impact. So together with their partners, the 1OC is making a long-lasting positive change in our community. And so I wanted to give you all the opportunity, I know you guys are in charge of

this specific program, and really just share, you know, what the community experience in the various service projects yesterday and how you all will continue to move forward with making sure that Orange County is able to volunteer on MLK Day. Sure. Great. Thank you very much for this honor.

My name is Kimberly Harnish. I'm the volunteer services manager with 1OC. Yesterday we were able to bring together close to 600 volunteers to serve at the Orange County Food Bank, which was very, very inspirational to say the least. We packed over 9,000 food boxes for the seniors in Orange County, and that was just one of our projects. We also worked with companies like Cielo and Hoya Scholars to help improve their grounds and or items that they needed for their clients and for their programs and really enjoy bringing companies and

organizations together with the causes that they care about it's really what motivates us and what keeps us going so in the future we continue to provide days of service not only for Martin Luther King jr. day but also for days like Earth Day 9-11 Day of Remembrance and during the holidays as well so if you are interested in volunteering and serving with us, please see our website, contact 1OC, ask for me, ask for Lolly, one of our AmeriCorps Fellows, and we will be happy to place you in an organization or to do a service that you are very passionate about. Thank you. Fantastic.

And congratulations on 60 years, but more importantly, just wanting to thank you for being able to have the opportunity, giving volunteers the opportunity to go out and do a day of service out here in our community. And I think you guys had four to six sites in Santa Ana as well, right? That various groups in your community were doing days of service here in our particular city. And so I'm not going to do all the where as is, but let me just, you know, I think 60 years is a major milestone. So let me start off with that.

Whereas the 1OC celebrates its 60th anniversary, and of course they grew from a maturing from a simple clearinghouse for recruitment and volunteers to moving forward to being a one-stop shop for community development and also social impact. I know there's a lot of folks here that are in the audience that actually use the 1OC as fiscal sponsors in helping them because they can't establish a nonprofit status because of the cost. And so the 1OC has been able to provide that for many members in the community. And so that's exciting.

And so on behalf of the Mayor and City Council, we therefore proclaim and recognize the 1OC for their outstanding contributions and recognizing 19 years of service on Martha Luther King Day in Orange County. Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

And I'll tell our city manager, maybe next year we could do a day of service with MLK and get the help of the 1OC.

Now, Council Member Sarmiento and Council Member Solario presenting to Erica Worley, our Orange County Auditor and Controller.

Mr. Woolery, come on up and join us. No, come on up to the well. See, that's what we call this, the well. So in court, nobody is allowed in the well, but here we're able to do that, right, Madam City Attorney? So it's easier. It's more of a welcoming place. I have the privilege of joining my colleague, Councilman Solorio, in recognizing Eric Woolery, who's our auditor controller. Now, all of you guys received something from him. Does that name ring a bell in the county? But you're really a nice guy, right? Yeah, you do. Exactly, right? So I wanted to just let you know a little bit about what Mr. Woolery does.

He's been an advocate for the taxpayers and the founder of a regional CPA firm specializing in services for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and later in the public sector as a chief financial officer for a major county department. The good thing about him is that he started and enacted a taxpayer watchdog program, and he uses a mascot, and the name is Jameson. And I want you to tell us when you speak how you came up with that name, because I know a guy named Jameson. So he's probably going to be interested. And it's the official taxpayer watchdog and mascot.

He's been on guard 24-7, reminding the office that they work for the taxpayers of Orange County first and foremost. And each month, the taxpayer watchdog award is given to a watchdog honoring them for their commitment in keeping Orange County government fiscally responsible and transparent. It's due to Mr. Woolery's hard work and dedication that the Taxpayer Watchdog Program continues to be a success. Now for us, we're blessed in this county to have many, many businesses that are thriving, large, large employers that employ many of our residents and neighbors, and we have a lot of micro-businesses.

So in addition to being a strong advocate for making sure that everybody follows the law and everybody complies, I know Mr. Woolery's office is very business-friendly as well. making sure that when businesses have questions, they have some concerns. He deals with them in a very humane way because we know some employers, some businesses are not as sophisticated as others. They may not have the length of time and experience as many businesses in the county. So we thank you here in Santa Ana, Mr. Woolery, for making sure that you have the patience and the ability to educate and inform a lot of our folks here in town

who are maybe starting small micro-businesses here. And so we try to support them. We try to be humane to them and make sure that they learn how to play by the rules. But it's important to have this safety net to make sure that nobody violates the law either. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Councilman Salorio, to say a few words as well.

Councilmember Sarmento did a great job. I just want to add one item. One of the things I value about his leadership as an auto controller is he goes out into the community and tells people how to read a budget. because you know we're we all work on budgets whether our home budget or nonprofit budget or in this case a city budget and he goes to different organizations different groups he goes up to Sacramento to give them ideas on how to make things better and more physically responsible for everybody and so here locally I'm proud that we have him located physically in our city but

that he goes out to the community and I know that I'd like to you know one day with some of my colleagues, take him out to Santa Ana to have him show our community how to read the city budget and ask questions and know where to look because council members over time, we know what to look for and ask for, but a normal citizen or resident may not know. So with that, on behalf of the Mayor and City Council, let's give him a round of applause and have him say a few words.

Thank you, Councilman Solario and Saramiento. It's very humbling to be recognized and to be here this evening. I thank you for that. One of the things I've done with the County Auditor's Office, which is your office too, I represent the entire county of Orange, is that we try to get information that's very complicated and complex and try to break it down and demystify it. And the watchdog programs we've talked about, we've had in the city of Huntington Beach. We're planning one later this year down in Laguna Beach,

and I'd love to have one here where we just make it, you know, it's the ABCs of budgeting. So you, the people, can understand where your money's going, compare it to what the plan was, and make it more understandable because that's part of the foundation of our government. And I'm pretty sure you know where Jameson came from. Any of those who like Irish whiskey probably understand as well. But literally, one of my staff had a son who has a dog, a little bulldog, and his name was Jameson. And I'm assuming that's where it came from as well. So anyway, thanks again.

The Jameson whiskey comment a little bit better. I think that resonates with all of us, right? I just wanted to go ahead and deliver this to you and give you this, Mr. Woolery, on behalf of the City of Santa Ana. It's a certificate of recognition awarded to you, the Orange County Auditor, Controller's Office, in recognition of your contributions to the community. Thank you very, very much for all the work that you do and the public service that you extend to all of us. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Next it's my honor to recognize somebody that's real special to our community and that's done a lot to uplift individuals and really full families and neighborhoods. I want to bring up Armando, but also known as Mando Esparza from Labor's Local 652.

and if there's anybody from the local the family that want to join him as well you're welcome

so uh mando as he's affectionately known as his local at his local he was born and raised here in beautiful santa anna at the age of 17 he received a word of mouth referral he likes to say from his own father to join the laborers local. He remembers, you know, back then paying an initiating fee of $126. And, you know, he joined the union of laborers to, you know, bring home the bread for the family and make a living. And back then, you know, the rates were $5.49

an hour, considerably higher now for laborers, but that's what it was back then. And he quickly became an expert in his field and particularly in the trade of concrete. And he was a regular laborer out there, shoveling, building things, etc. for 16 years. And then he gained more and more leadership within the local. He also acted as a watcher of elections for his local union elections, because sometimes they get pretty contested too, and attended every monthly union meeting.

And eventually, all his good work and knowledge of the trade enabled him to become a business agent. and after many tireless years he became the business manager for his local and then actually for the entire Southern California district area so that is a big thing advocating for all members and and and their families and he when he thinks about accomplishments it was always about he was able to get you know those individuals that worked in the you in the Union to earn a little bit more to get insurance and other benefits for their family and to move you know the community

forward and also you know sometimes there's a race to the bottom on people's views on whether folks should have retirement pensions or not he protected those pensions and grew those pensions because he wants all families to to live in dignity today in part because of his leadership The local now has 3,400 members, many of them living right here in Santa Ana, and they've all have benefited from Mando's hard work and dedication. Today we're pleased and honored to recognize him on his retirement. I hear he still wakes up early, because that's what, you know,

people in the trades do, but he often goes to the beach. But at four o'clock, and he often goes to the beach and takes a photo and sends it back to the family and others. And like any good leader, He developed leadership, including his own family. So his son, who actually has a bad flu, so we're glad he stayed home, his son now is the business manager of this local, Adrian Esparza. And so we're really honored for Mando's hard work all these years, his dedication to the community, and everything he's done for working families here in Santa Ana and in the county. Let's give him a big round of applause.

Thank you Jose for those kind words. It was 22 years I put in the field. Yes, I started 18 years of age. I retired October 26 with 46 years of all good years. Thank you.

And I was speaking to Julie earlier and we had a gentleman come by our local the other day. I see a lot of young people out here. This is not a job. This is a career now. A very well career that pays good wages, good health and welfare benefits and a retirement. And it's provided for me and my family over all the years. And we've been blessed. We've been blessed. and we have some of these officers that serve for me and I'll serve for Adrian our second generation my grandson is here tonight Nate if you'll stand up he's fourth generation also I'd like to I'd like to present Adrian's staff his

board now every financial secretary Robert Reese yep president president Jesse Segura second generation vice president will set the dollar board member of Mike Hernandez thank you auditors she got to check the bills all time trustee Gabby Gabby Enriquez I don't think I see it there's a couple other auditors are probably not here tonight but I mean it's been a great it's It's been a great run. I want to thank my mom and dad. They're not here, but they're watching. I want to thank my wife for putting up all the years.

My daughter's in the audience, too, Ursula Esparza Martinez. My granddaughter, Victoria Esparza. It's been a great run, I said, but, you know, it takes hard work. I've been able to work on some of these buildings, the federal building here back in 1972.

First toll road here in Orange County. The great Disneyland big parking structure. Jesse Segura was my foreman. his son is still generation now and these gentlemen are born and bred here in Santa Ana so and my family came to this Santa Ana in 1901 so we have a little bit of time in this city and I could go on and on but I don't want to take everybody's time because I know there's other presentations I just want to thank everybody for this presentation it's time for me to enjoy my time that God gives me whatever's left to enjoy it thank you very much

Armando, don't go anywhere, Jose. I think the council ought to come down because it's 46 years. So just stay there a minute. We'll take a photo with you.

I want to make one other comment. You see when I walked up here to roll, shake his hand. His father is a retiree out of Local 300. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Oh, and your certificate. Your certificate. You earned it. You earned it. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Yes, he's a living legend in the whole family. And again, they go back to the early 1900s as family. So thank you so much. Next, I want to invite up Patricia Winkuskas, founder and CEO of Crime Survivors. Some of you may have heard of this organization. It's been around since 2003 providing direct services and support to families and children impacted by crime, violent crimes in particular. And over the years, and I've seen her work at the state level and locally through advocacy, resources, information and empowerment, Crime Survivors and Patricia have been

invaluable to the families after major crimes occur. They work in conjunction with the community, local leaders, law enforcement, the media, and others to ensure that families if they're vulnerable and they need support that they have a place to go and a place with dignity where they can be offered services and help. And we're here today really because it's a big announcement. she's been county-wide and beyond county-wide offering these services and she's real proud to say that she got a new center i'll let her say in what city but we're excited about it there's a

soft opening in the near future and really on behalf of the entire city council i want to say we're grateful for crime survivors and in particular patricia's hard work and energy helping family and children impacted by violent crime. Let's give a big round of

applause for Patricia. Thank you so very much. My name is Patricia Winschoonis and I am the founder CEO of Crime Survivors. We started our organization in 2003 and we have grown to be a Southern California organization and I am really excited because I've had a dream since 2003 to open up a Crime Survivors Resource Center here in Orange County and we have worked effortlessly with our board of directors, our Crime Survivors Council, our advisory members, our volunteers, our donors, our supporters, and thanks to KPC Health as well as Snyder Langston. But KPC Health is being a sponsor of ours and giving us the

location to open up the first Crime Survivors Resource Center here in the city of Santa Ana. So we are very excited about that, thank you. And this Resource Center is going to provide support and guidance to all victims of violent crime. Families of murder, survivors of attempted murder, rape, domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, and human trafficking victims. So not only are we going to continue to bring awareness throughout Southern California about crimes happening, but we're going to talk about how to prevent these crimes from happening and continue our trainings, our self-defense and

safety classes. We're also going to provide a lot of advocacy to service providers, to victims of violent crime, to family members in the community, as well as healing. I am a survivor of attempted murder myself, and I want every victim to know that you may be victimized, but you are not defined by the crime that happened to you, that you can have healing, you can survive, you can thrive, and you can live a healthy and productive life in the communities. And we're going to be there at this Crime Survivors Resource Center to be able to provide that. So we ask you to join us. It is a community effort. It is a team

effort, the Crime Survivors Resource Center, it's going to take sponsors and supporters and donors and volunteers and it's going to be able to be a place for victims to come to be able to have hope to be able to heal. So thank you so very much for this opportunity to be here and for your continued support.

One more thing that I want to add, one of the more special things that she does, and she does many obviously as you've heard, a great story including a you know, a personal life story, is she also gets stuffed animals in blankets, because often at scenes of crime, there are children, and she gives these, you know, toys and blankets to officers that carry around their car in their trunks, or if there ever, there is an unfortunate situation, and the children need some consoling, something to hold on to and feel comfortable, that's what she does and she does it year after year a lot of personal time a lot of personal

resources so on behalf of our mayor and City Council the law enforcement community the general community we're honored to welcome you into our city and we look forward to the ribbon-cutting congratulations

Now I think we have Councilor Marcel Tinajero and then Councilor Villegas.

And if we can get the folks from Cesar Chavez High School come on down. Also, Sofia Cuevas from San Ana High. I got it, Mr. Mayor. Go ahead. I got it handled.

Can we please have Ms. Cuevas from San Ana High School? If we can have the Santa Ana High School educators that are going to be recognized, as well as Mr. Bishop and Mr. Cruz, I'd like them to come on up as well.

Because we're talking about human capital today.

Now, if you've ever watched a city council meeting, I usually, I don't give a lot of awards. So when I do, you know I mean business. You know that we have some amazing individuals up here. I see some of our parents out there with the parent choice group out there as well wearing their yellow scarves. And something that I always tell people because some people sometimes get a little combative about charter schools and public schools and private schools. And I always say this, competition is good. If you have competition, it's going to elevate your game.

And let me tell you something, competition has made Santa Ana elevate their game. And that's what we're celebrating tonight, because the work that these individuals do is incredible. I'm going to start with Ms. Arlen Shelton, who's out here.

she is pioneering efforts to the new and innovative Circulos program with SAUSD it has been an extremely successful program at Cesar Chavez high school Circulos is a school without walls in where the world is the classroom. Ms. Shelton serves as the curator of access and knowledge to students, providing them with an abundance of experiences. And now you're probably wondering, what do you mean a school without walls? Let me

let you in on a little something something. Our world has changed tremendously yet many schools still teach the same way they did in the 1950s circulos takes it a step further and it's not just education in the classroom but it's education in a business education in sciences with hands-on where students get to go and experience it for themselves this teacher did not have resources am I wrong no resources when you first started it was like go ahead figure it out and she would she would go out and find people to sponsor

students to go out on trips where that they could go and watch and experience things her effort then sparked interest and support from other individuals and the reason why she is so important and she is one of the most important people at the Santa Unified School District is because she is in a school where people sometimes say that's where our kids that are not able to function in a regular public school go. And she takes those students and makes them become college-bound students that have a belief in themselves because she has opened those doors.

So she's one of our educators today, and that is Ms. Arlen Shelton, who we celebrate this afternoon.

Mr. Cruz said I didn't have to speak tonight, but I just want to say thank you, Mayor Pulido and council members. I have been honored to teach here in Santa Ana for 17 years. This is my 17th year teaching in this wonderful city. I have taught elementary school, middle school, and now high school. So I can truly say I've seen everything in Santa Ana, and I'm truly honored to be a part of it. And with our classroom with No Walls, it's been such a wonderful experience, because we truly have gone through the community of Santa Ana, and that's where our class is.

And so we literally will have class in the middle of Santa Ana, and it's so beautiful, because we'll take public transit, we'll get on the bus, And one of the most wonderful things is we went on a bus and the bus driver told me, I know you. And I'm like, what? And he's like, I've been waiting two months for your students to get on my bus. I've heard about your program. It's been so wonderful. And so I just want to thank the city of Santa Ana, my family, my parents, and my daughters are here, my principal, Mr. Cruz, Dr. Allen, my colleagues and my friends here, and especially my students of Circulus that are here.

So thank you so much.

What I want to know from Ms. Shelton is how does she still look this young? Because, you know, I'm trying to keep it together, but we're going to get there. The next individual that I want to introduce comes from what I call the anchor school here in the city, and that is Santa Ana High School. Mr. Tom Erickson is a pioneer of the Honorable Judge Elizabeth G. Macias Academy of Law. Mr. Erickson works as a career technical educator in charge of implementing and connecting classroom content with industry professionals.

He provides students with access and connection to the community through knowledge of and experience with laws and the legal system. He also works with the mock trial at Santa Ana and is developing a very strong program there. Now let me tell you something. We started a speech and debate program in Santa Ana. I don't know if you heard about it, but it's pretty good. And Mr. Erickson was going to take one of my kids. And I said, oh, Mr. Erickson, we're not going to have that. But next year I'm going to throw you about 15. So Santa Ana is about to explode.

Because when you have human capital like this individual with this talent and his ability to inspire, and now you bring him students, it's over Mr. Bishop. I just want to let you know. Get ready to put up some trophies. And so I just want to thank him because he also looked at our students and believed in potential. And that potential is starting to flourish today. And so that's why we honor you today. Come on up and receive your award.

Mayor, City Council, I appreciate this honor.

Things have circles. I'm going to turn 60 this year, but my mother was a graduate of Sedana High School, a graduate of Sedana Community College and then went on to Fresno State. I grew up next door at Garden Grove. But I had an unusual teacher in high school. His name was Don Carlos. He was a retired Jesuit priest who taught me Latin of all languages. But he took an unusual course his junior year. He called it practicum and community leadership. And I was silly enough to take it. And this man took me to places I never expected. He took me out into the community.

When I retired from probation and started teaching at Santa Ana High School, I made the Civic Center my classroom. And the Civic Center area has been so welcoming to my students. We've been able to go to the victims' rallies. We've been able to go into courtrooms. We've been able to go to hearings. We watched the unfortunate trials of this county, but we've also seen some of the more enjoyable parts of the county, the swearing-ins and stuff. And this allowed my students to begin to dream. Along the way, we're able to build networks, and they learn how to build networks. That's why we have a wonderful judge as our mentor

who's now bringing in the Hispanic Bar Association and it's a hundred of attorneys who work on a one-on-one basis with my students to master the skill of litigation. I'm looking forward to getting your students. Thank you.

and I've been able to watch his classroom and watch him teach if your son or daughter goes to Santa Ana High School you must insist that they take his class it's an incredible class finally the last recipient is a young lady by the name of Sofia Cuevas she is a Santa Ana High School teacher and she is a pioneer of the Santa Ana Edwards James Olmos School of Cinematic Arts program. Saintly Film Academy, Ms. Cuevas' innovative work with the industry professionals in the entertainment and media sector

have enabled students to access opportunity and experience using English content to bridge the gap in learning ability. These efforts have resulted in a successful program within the Edwards James Olmos School of Cinematic Arts. And if you don't know who James Olmos is, shame on you. Shame. But she gets to meet with him and talk to him all the time. Now, let me tell you something about Luna Sofia Cuevas over here. Okay, so Miss Sofia Cuevas, I met her when she was 15 years old.

and I spoke with her and I went, this kid has got talent. So I told her, I want you to join the speech team. This is when I was a teacher at Fullerton High School. So she said she would do it. She says, I'm going to join it. I said, okay, you need to go to summer camp and this is what we do. You need to, and she's like, okay, I'm going to do it. I am on vacation driving through Philadelphia on my way to New York City when I get a phone call from her mom and she says Mr. Tinajero we have decided that Sofia is not going to do speech next year

until her senior year see you all don't know I have never had an argument like I did that day with a parent I was not going to take no for an answer oh is she out here where is she where is she where's your mom she doesn't want to raise her hand now she's like no I'm not doing it and I said she says no Mr. Tenajero she'll join her senior I said if she joins her senior year then she might as well not do this I need her here her junior year so I can train her and she said okay so she let her compete Sophia became one of my first finalists in the

of California she finished second in the state of California her senior year got a scholarship to Cal State Long Beach Cal State Long Beach and became one of the top five speakers in the nation and let me tell you it warms my heart

that she now gets to use those talents to inspire our students here in Santa Ana And so it is being grateful to her mother, who's always been her support throughout her educational career, in a place where sometimes Latino parents weren't that welcome. I mean, you'd walk into Fullerton and 54% of the students are Latino and there's not one thing that's in Spanish. But she still kept coming in. She still made contact with teachers. And that's why Sophia is where she is. And so I'm just extremely proud of Sofia. I know I don't get to tell you enough because I don't see you because you're always busy working.

But she is one of the individuals that I look to and that I talk about as a huge success story in my educational career. And now we're colleagues, so it's just a great place. So this is Sofia Cuevas.

I feel like I need to be really good at a speech right now. So thank you, council members and Mayor Pulido and audience. At the end of the day, our students are the dreamers and the creators, and they make things possible. As educators, both public or private or charter, our job is just to open the opportunities and allow them to create and become and do the impossible. and as we watch them grow and become and amaze us and change the world that is there

we clap and applaud them and support them and be the parents and the counselors and the advisors and the inspired people as we watch our students become everything they can be. There are people that always support us. There are people that guide us, advise us, inspire us and that's why we're here, even sitting in these seats, because there was at least one that believed that you were worth something more. And so that's where I'm here, because I know my students are worth everything. So thanks, guys.

So this is a team effort. These are the individuals that make our students shine. Let's continue to support them. Let's continue to recognize them because their job is not easy. And it's things like this that gives us that extra energy to keep doing what we do. So thank you to our administrators who are 100% behind these teachers. And if we could just take a quick picture and honor these individuals, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thank you. Wait, wait.

Thank you.

Last presentation of the evening. If I can have Ceci Iglesias and guests come forward. Join me up here in the well, please.

Thank you for joining me. It is my honor to recognize National School Choice Week with the following proclamation. And School Choice Week is celebrated January 21st through the 27th.

and what it means is giving people a choice, access to different schools, whether it be a public school, whether it be a charter school, a magnet school, online academies, or homeschooling. So I have asked school board member Cecilia Iglesias to join me up here and to accept the proclamation, but if she could please talk to us a little bit about School Choice Week, we'd appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Cecilia Iglesias. I'm a trustee for the San Diego State School District. And also here, I'm very thankful to Councilman Villegas for acknowledging National School Choice Week. It's a week that is celebrated across the nation that it celebrates every type of public school choice option that we have, and even private. Because as parents, what gives us that authority is that we're able to choose the best education for our children.

So I'm very thankful to the entire council members and the mayor for allowing us to accept this proclamation on behalf of National School Choice Week, which is going to be celebrated. As you see, we are wearing yellow scarves, and the yellow scarf is a symbol of what National School Choice Week is. And what we have done, too, is we put some scarves on your dice so you can celebrate it with us. So the celebrations start January 21st through the 27th, and you're welcome to join us on the 27th at the Main Place Mall. We're going to be having a celebration with all the different school choice options.

And also, I'd just like, if I may, Councilman Villegas, I would like some of the parents to kind of give a testimony of what school choice means to you. So I'm going to have Celia and then Nancy and Mike.

A brief comment.

I want to thank the council members for recognizing the organization. Our parents are working very hard and striving to give their children an education and we're here as a parent union to give them the support, education, and tools to be able to give their children the education that they deserve.

Yes, I'm Nancy Gomez and I actually want to thank you as well council members for recognizing the parent union because it is definitely a lot of work to have others understand that it's about school choice you know and parents know what's best for their children and in receiving the best public education possible whether it's traditional public schools you know charter public schools online learning homeschooling it's all public you know so that's what we promote choices thank you

Thank you. Mike Gonzalez, thank you, Ceci, for inviting me. And thank you all for being here. I'm very proud of being part of this new group of parents, bringing more choices of education for parents and even better for the kids. Thank you. Thank you, Mike.

Hello, good evening, council members. My name is Nancy Hernandez and I'm speaking on behalf of Nova Academy. My family is grateful to have the opportunity to choose a charter school that best fits our family's unique needs. Having the choice has made Nova Academy the best fit for me. When my mother studied here, she struggled in obtaining the one-on-one individual attention in a public school. When Nova Academy was introduced to us, she found that it was the best place for me. That was a place where my academics would be seen by everybody and they would be supported by not only my family but by the teachers as well.

When Neva was first introduced, it opened a new opportunity to succeed. Neva has offered me college courses that will help me fill the requirements when I am off to a university. It has built a strong foundation towards my higher education and as a student from a low and family, I understand how difficult it can be to even have the idea of a higher education being possible. The support that we receive from Cecilia Iglesias and the help that we receive from all of you has given me the opportunity to study and given me the opportunity to meet NOVA.

We are thankful for the educational opportunities and the opportunity that the parents have the choice and the benefits that come along with the charter schools. Once again, I want to thank Cecily Iglesias for the parent union. We know how important they are now and for the future generations of Serena and all of Orange County. Thank you.

Round of applause. So I can't think of anyone more deserving to receive this proclamation than Cecily Iglesias for all her hard work in promoting school choice. So National School Choice Week, César Iglesias, from the Unified School Board, if you could please accept. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Let's get a photo.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, if I can call that.

Yes, go ahead. Let's bring out the fire chief. Go ahead.

If I can have Chief Black come up and briefly report on the OCFA incidents that have taken place recently.

Mayor, Council, Randy Black, your division chief for the Orange County Fire Authority. yes as councilman mentioned we did send up as part of the statewide response to the flooding and debris flow up in Mendocino Santa Barbara County we sent up 31 members of the urban search and rescue task force as you remember just a brief a couple months ago I reported out on the response to Hurricane Harvey and And some of those same folks responded up to Northern California Central Coast in response to the flooding.

We set up with them three of our dogs and our dog handlers to conduct rescue operations. Unfortunately, as you've been watching in the news, we were not able to make any successful recoveries and rescues. excuse me, rescues, but we did participate in two of the recent recoveries of the bodies of the deceased folks up there. All of our members have returned from the task force. We still have some of our equipment up there assisting in the ongoing efforts for mitigating the impacts to the area.

Thank you, Chief. I also thank you for the house fire that the OCFA responded to in rescuing someone out of the house the other night. And thank you for your hard work on the flying car the other night off 17th.

Yes, we rescued two people out of that car after it landed on the second floor up there. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you for all you do.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you for the good work.

Okay, I'm going to try something. little different um we only have two speakers so i uh and robert dangling come on up i'm gonna let you speak after that i want mayor pro tem to go through her uh requests and then may we'll entertain a motion on the balance and or if we have additional we'll look at additional considerations but i'm going to see if this moves things along so robert come on down you're out there socializing Tell you just come on down. I've already called you guys to speak Come on. Yeah, you're in shock

And remember it's with an O and we should be in good shape here come on down and

Robert you're next Please go ahead. Thank you bring it down. Yes, thank you

Good evening mayor Polito and and a respectful member of Santa Ana City Council. My name is Ilya Tseglin. Regarding the Agenda 25E related to legal services with police litigation and personal services,

I would like to notice that I appreciate the offer from Mr. Solorio to arrange a meeting with city manager Mr. Godinez and present the situation. But I'm wondering why I tried to talk to Julia. I sent a number of messages and I'm looking ahead that we would have possibility to meet and arrange and discuss the question.

because I consider my family struggling for years. Every day we don't have a normal life when a member of the family would be kidnapped, tortured, and just every minute we don't know what is with his life. here in Santa Ana Group Home and Larry Landauer, CEO of Orange County Regional Center

receiving profiteering from torturing innocent persons. I believe that the police department can help with you, all members, that my son will be released and will be alive. I appreciate very much the community and each of the city member council. Thank you. Thank you. Robert? Hello, Honorable Santa Ana City Council's Robert Seglin, Brother Nate Seglin.

As I've reiterated before, my brother Nate Seglin was kidnapped three times from his home in 2007. by Child Productive Services and then released in 2000, around 2008 at the home. And six years, approximately six years later in 2012, kidnapped and removed from the home by the Irvine PD, released by a second order of writ of habeas corpus. And then again, this happened 2013, December 12th. And then he was released by, ordered to be released from captivity December 31st, 2013 from the whatever hospital that they put him in.

And nevertheless, in contempt of that, he was placed in the San Antonio 903 South Harmon group home where he's been confined for nearly three years and forced on various psychotropic drugs, including Zyprexa, Depakote, and various other perhaps sedatives or so forth, whereas his medical records are concealed. That's obviously the fault of the obstruction just as a public defender. Now, what I would say the reason why the Santa Ana PD should, I mean, the Santa Ana can help a lot is because right now, as we stated before, his health condition seems to be deteriorating.

They don't allow any doctors to officially visit him, although they allegedly bring him to doctors and they don't allow any medical records to be disclosed. And he continues to report seizures in EPS. Of course, now they've cut out phone conversations, so they're going to continue to cut out and isolate him and do whatever they can do. Of course, in a situation, he's gained weight and the seizures and the EPS, which are all allegations. But nevertheless, you had a situation before the conservatorship was removed, and my father called the paramedics and the PD,

and when he was taken to the emergency room, they concealed the medical records. So what I think is needed to be done in a situation where, of course, if it's exigent circumstances, if there would be a normal public defender,

they would do their job.

Thank you, Robert. It could be arranged maybe with the PD.

Do you guys go to every meeting for the Board of Supervisors? The board, yes, yes. All right, good. All right, thank you. Thank you. So with that, let's try this thing. Let's see how well it works. Mayor Pro Tem Martinez. Any report out, city attorney?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor, we do have a few reportable items. In the Ahern matter, the city council unanimously approved a settlement in the amount of $65,000. Council also gave direction to its negotiators with respect to the YMCA property and instructed staff to negotiate with Thrive on the Daisy and Walnut property. That's all a recordable action.

Thank you. So with that, Mayor Potem Martinez.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and don't worry, I'll be brief even though I have a lot of items. I just want to indicate I'm just going to be a no vote on the following items, which is 11A, 19D, and 25G, and I want to pull 13A, 19C, 19E, and 25B.

Go ahead, start pulling.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. so the first item is 13a which is um and um because you know i only get three minutes at my last meeting i want to make sure we did have a council committee on the ebb it and so i just wanted to just share real quickly as we indicated that we wanted to every time we have a council committee that we would report out so i'll report out very quickly of course both members were present the committee received presentations from cosmo on enhanced infrastructure finance districts and community revitalization investment authorities. The committee also received

presentations from the housing division manager, Judson Brown, on affordable housing policies, procedures, including extensive Q&A on questions raised at the 11-13 meeting. Next steps will be a workshop before the city council. The committee received a preview of the city council workshop on rent stabilization and that is planned to come here on in february the committee received an update presentation on unfunded pension liabilities from our finance department also on our caffer and then fine and also on our debit our debit management policy and then it also received

received an update on acquisition of real property located at 651 and 657 east washington avenue for the water well development from the public works agency and lastly mr mayor the committee also received brief updates on the timing of the small business ordinance workplace cooperatives and proposal for the downtown skate park from the economic development project manager mark morley and also the fiber optics network plan and information technology from director jack chula so that's what we discussed it was a lot of work so moving forward on that 19c is update on cip

projects and I just wanted just to very quickly on this one thank our staff our public works director of continuing to update the CIP project I really want to thank you for that because it really helps us understand where we're going and what projects are in the pipeline and so I wanted just to briefly make sure that the residents know that we are moving forward with a lot of our projects in particular we have the um san anna zoo amazon edge uh which is formerly the giant river um otter and we're moving forward with that so i think of councilman sarmiento's happy to his ward

also the san anna zoo master plan that we've talked about and so that's exciting as well as the south main street corridor improvements that we've been working with the south main street merchants and then the civic center bike corridor a project and so these are some highlights of course we have a lot of other projects that are we're still trying to receive funding or we have received funding and we're taking the next steps and so I just wanted to thank our staff and for providing that update and hoping that if the community wants more information because I know this has been in the

pipeline for quite some time other than that mr. mayor I move the item forward

is there a second second we're on 19 C C those in favor please say aye aye Aye. Motion passes. Let's continue.

Next item, Mr. Mayor, is 19E, which is the strategic plan. And I just wanted if I could have Robert Cortez come up here very quickly. And as you all know, we've been working on the strategic plan for quite some time. And so we have some milestones. And I was just hoping that our staff can provide us an update with those milestones and where we're at. So if we can get a report for 2017 and what was accomplished so that we can share that with the public. then as well we're moving forward toward another strategic plan we're almost at the five years and

so we have to go out into the community and moving forward so i wanted to bring that to the city council's attention as the staff is going to be bringing us a proposal to moving that forward and so very quickly um robert if you can just share with us because i know we have something in the sunshine ordinance as it pertains to the strategic plan and what are some next steps that we are going to be taking?

Sure, absolutely. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members. The five-year strategic plan is currently in process, and we are in year three, three and a half approximately, so we have another year and a half on the existing strategic plan. There are a number of strategies that have been accomplished. I want to say roughly 65, maybe 70 of these strategies have been accomplished thus far, thanks to the allocation of funding by the City Council of well over $2 million, we have continued the implementation of the strategic plan. The strategic plan is going to come due June of 2019, I believe.

So we will need to start working on what looks like to be the next five-year plan in terms of the city, the direction, the vision, the plan, objectives, and strategies. So that body of work under the direction of our city manager, we still need to put together a timeline as to when that will take place. One of the things that we do as part of the strategic plan is the Signsharn ordinance requires one meeting to occur per year. What we've done is we've taken it a step further. We actually have two meetings per year, and they typically occur in the months of March and October.

And we also share this information along with our budget and our CAP. That way folks can take a look and see what our budget looks like and how that ties into the full strategic plan that we have in place.

Great. Thank you. And I'll move the item, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Is there a second? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Next item, please.

Great, Mr. Mayor. The next item is 25B, which is the solid wage for consulting. And so our staff is recommending to authorize the city manager and the clerk to enter into agreement with Salone Vasquez for a total amount of $116,421. And moving forward with a total agreement of $281,000, which would cost us for these services as we move forward with our waste. I wanted to make a substitute motion. and one of the reasons being and before I read that motion is that the city council

you know and I was provided with a draft of the work that was done by Salona Vasquez but we never received a full final report and as I look at the attachment one which is a scope of work that was initially provided to the council to moving forward in supporting this. Certainly this consultant did part one, which was the rate evaluation and the solid waste program analysis. And then we had a part two, which was the city of Santa Ana would look at extension or renegotiation of the current contract.

And certainly we went through that process and we extended. Part three was to also complete the RFP process, which is here before us. And then, but in there, we were going to look and review the city's source reduction and recycling element, the household hazardous waste element, and the non-disposable facilities element, and then review the various laws and some of that was done, but also collect community data in regards to our waste and then develop new specs.

And so as I looked at the RFP process and what's coming before us later on, what I didn't see, and I think I was very disappointed because I think a couple members of the council, when we were going through this process we wanted to make sure that we were going to be able to look at an RFP process that was going to bring some innovation in regards to to to new programs in particular you know as we extended this agreement with waste management and it was supported by the council we did one of the things that we didn't see and I believe in many respects

as we negotiated this extension, we didn't look at our goals. And obviously, waste management has some issues in regards to diversion. But we did not set any goals until when we extended it. It remained status quo. And then here we are doing an RFP. For me, not being able to provide the city council a final report, and I'm not sure if any of my colleagues actually received the draft report or a final report, and some of them are shaking their heads that they never received it. Number two, no options, again, as I mentioned, for innovations.

As we look at new programs as it pertains to food scraps program, also making sure that we have zero waste goals, and looking to the council to move forward to doing a zero waste plan.

Michelle, if you can wrap up, please.

Mr. Mayor, that was never included or even talked to us before this RFP process was here. And so we're moving towards continuing to go to a traditional hierarchy of recycling and disposal. Instead of moving us towards a new paradigm that does source reduction, resource, that's not what's been presented to us. The report was not. And so I want to make a motion to do a new RFP for consulting services so that we can include all of this work. and get the input from the city council so that we can have goals ultimately if we don't do that we're going to remain a status quo and it's really up to the

to the consultant and our staff to provide us options and no options are really being provided to us and that's unfortunate let's see if there's a

second see if we even have a discussion mayor pro tem can you restate your

motion I'm a little confused my motion is to do a new RFP for consulting services and to also include a zero waste plan.

Instead of extending the existing contract. I'll second that. All right. Comment, Councilor Odio?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree with the motion and the broad majority of the comments. I think when I look at this humongous contract that really over time is like a billion dollar contract that's going to you know determine the services our residents and business receive for a long time I just did not see enough innovation in the RFP I'd like to see best practices of what other cities are doing I'd like to see and I mentioned this about eight months ago and it hasn't happened a survey of residents and businesses on okay this is your current waste service what improvements would you like to see

Do you want to see a bin for organics? Do you want to see a bin for styrofoam? Do you want to see on the business side different type of containers, containers for inside the business, or more robust outreach at the very most to get that kind of feedback? And we never saw it. I know in the staff report, or one of them, there's a little bit of mention of, well, there might be a container for used mortar oil in front of your cube. most folks don't do their own oil so although that's an option, it's really an existing option already or really not something that serves a broad audience

so I feel like it's a missed opportunity to go down this path of a major service for a long time and we haven't done a decent job of asking our residents what they want so for those reasons I'm very interested in a fresh approach with recommendations and that kind of outreach so we can see what our residents want I mean it's a it's a key service one of the biggest contracts the city has and you know we ought to do it

right thank you thank you can't service Armiento please and I think Fred was was going towards the podium so why don't you go ahead and prepare yourself there Fred just a couple of quick questions nothing nothing too painful but I also am supportive of the motion the only clarity I wanted to receive was going out and recirculating on RFP for another consultant. What's that going to do to our timeline that we discussed and adopted previously?

Thank you, Mayors and Council. That minimum four to six months before we go to our process, add a consultant, and then award the contract, and then it will be some time for them to also adjust to see what we have done so far. And so that would be expected delay of endgame. For that reason, instead of two years, we have two years with an option, another one-year extension. And we asked for extension. That must probably fall into that third year.

And I just wanted to provide just an answer, factual information of some of the questions that were raised. We've had seven or eight community meetings where we explain the current system. we asked what residents want and we took their input and we incorporated their input in this RFP. One other thing is we haven't restricted the bidders to specific items. They can be as innovative as they want. They can include a number of other things, innovative things, and provide it to the city and we'll bring it to the council to discuss whether they want to have those options

as part of this new contract. The point of the matter is we know about this situation like zero waste, source waste that was implemented by the City of Los Angeles. There was an article just recently. We have a copy of that. There's an increase in price, 150%. Exponential increase in cost in San Jose and also Oakland by providing that, which is a good idea, but it costs money. One other factual thing that I wanted to emphasize is that California in general has the most stringent requirement environmentally when it comes to solid waste.

And we made sure in this RFP, whoever is bidding this, meet those minimum requirements or the stringent requirement of a state. Anything over and above that, they can submit. All these bidders can submit anything they want. and we make sure if there is anything innovative, anything that you want to see comes to the council and the council weighing on it. I don't see why going through a process of RFP with a new consultant would help on any of these concerns that I'm hearing.

There's a lot of requests from the consultants. and you know it's the process the scope has changed and that's why we run out of money and now we're coming back because two years delay in the process and we're

coming back to extend the contracts with that thank you so for the record Fred just exhausted all my time so if we can start over but that was that was good information for all of us because I think we you know sometimes we don't glean all of that from the staff report, but I guess my concern is the adjustment on the timeline, right, and on the schedule that it's going to push it back another half year, and this is exactly what we were all worried about, is extending the time and prolonging the process, and a lot of us wanted to see this on the timeline that was originally scheduled. So I guess I'm a little, you know,

for the reasons stated before, I don't want to restate all the things that were said by colleagues of mine up here, I'm a little underwhelmed by the scope and the final product of the RFP. I did want to see something a little different. I wanted to see something a little bit fresher, I think something more contemporary, and there's a lot of good examples. There's a lot of cities not too far from us. I know Lake Forest did a very good job on theirs, and others. I mean, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to have that expectation that the final work

product was going to be something that would be different than what we circulated 50 years ago, right, or whenever we went out on our last proposal. So, you know, I'm not sure if there could be an adjustment made in the event that we decide not to change consultants at this point, if there isn't the support for that, but maybe have this consultant meet with some of us to see how we can address those shortcomings that we see. But if you look at the scope, if you look at some some of the criteria that I'm looking at on the evaluation. It doesn't talk about how we get greener.

It doesn't talk about how we take advantage of all the grant programs, of all the monies that are out there offered by the state. It doesn't talk about whether or not any of these, whether we're going to be asking the question, what sort of issues these applicants have had with respect to litigation and benefits and employment history that they've had with some of their staff. So I think those things are very important to me. I know there's a local hire mention here. I think there's something referenced here regarding the hiring preference. But I just want to see a little bit more detail and

something a little bit more tailored to what our community needs are. So to the extent that that happened, I mean, I think there's been some community outreach to the credit of the consultant. We just haven't seen what those results are, right? It doesn't seem to be embedded anywhere, so I just thought I'd put it out there for my colleagues.

So for the purpose of what you want, we want to make sure that this council actually see the final result before the new council come in, because that would be another delay in the process, because they have to get familiar with what has been done. The best, what my recommendation is to continue with the same consultant, and then have a meeting as you want, have some kind of a workshop, and then discuss all these possibilities. And then we go from there. That would be the fastest way to get to the end result.

Councilman Villegas and Councilman Benavidez.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Yeah, I was just going to say, why don't we just question the people that do the work? That's who we got to talk to. Yes. So I'm in agreement with that. I mean, because everyone here has questions, they have expectations, but yet no one's met. So that's all I have to say about that.

Councilman Benavidez.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

so you've addressed Mr. Mosavaport some of my questions with regard to the impact to the timeline and such and I do have a question about and I understand some of the questions that are being posed ultimately we want to be able to demonstrate just the the the commitment to advancement and just the way we process things just progressive initiatives within the city be more environmentally you know friendly just a number of different things as an org at the city as an organization and out in the community as well with our residents in a number of different ways and one of

those is in waste collection so I understand the questions that are being posed by my colleagues and there's and from what I'm hearing from you is that there are still opportunities to incorporate which is a good thing I wonder about I'm not completely opposed to idea but just the impacts to to

changing consultants sort of mid-course and the impacts you know to that to the whole process and that there is has been an interest by the council to expedite the process not slow it down granted this is my my the follow-up question Granted, we have actually, clearly the process has not been as expeditious as it could have been. And there's been a number of different kind of trip-ups along the way. And I, as a member of the council, I know that we've got to take ownership of some of that because I know we've continued this item from several times.

However, the initial contract was, if my math is correct, about $164,000, I believe.

About two years' worth of work. I think part of that work was to be able to go through the process, the RFP, and help us conclude that. We haven't even initiated it. So my question is, what has been, I know there's been some work that has been done.

However, given that the process has been slow, it has been prolonged by the city, what all has the contractor been doing? How have the hours and the contract been exhausted? I know in time maybe it has been, but as far as cost, since there hasn't been as much work, since we haven't gone off to RFP,

and how is it that the,

what's the vendor going to be doing over the next nearly three years, it looks like, given that some of that is issuing an RFP that we've already pretty much completed as far as the RFP itself, and then there won't be, there are months before we complete the process to receive RFPs. In essence, it seems like there's a lot of time that we're going to be paying for

that seems it could be a bit excessive to me if there isn't as much work to be completed during that period of time. Yeah, we asked a consultant to do comparison analysis with all the cities. So because every city has different programs, there are different bells and whistles in the program. We needed to understand that, so we'll see what we have so we can compare different scope and a different price. So that took a lot of time to do. And remember, these contracts are hourly contracts. I mean, at the end of the day, we don't have a lot of work for the consultants after RFP. We're not going to pay them the full price.

We're going to pay for what it's performed. So it's not, you know, they pay a certain amount no matter how much time they spend on the program. That's all I have to say on that front. And the RFP is completed. It's a pretty exhaustive process. It's a lot of work to generate those RFPs, and it's a lot involved with that. And again, I want to emphasize that every bidder have an opportunity to be innovative and bring out-of-the-box ideas.

and when that arrives we're not going to not bring it to the council we're going to bring the council and say these are the ideas and this is the cost and there's ample opportunity to talk about all of those ideas all of those out of box ideas if I can just a brief brief follow-up just for clarification myself and my colleagues what the original RFP did it include reviewing the the RFP applications from applicants? I thought that it was from beginning to end, that that was what the contract was supposed to do. Yes. Let me have the consultant here also because we're going to ask him some questions as well.

It included there, but as I said, the scope increased because we've gone through this process several iterations. There were requests were made, all kinds of things that happened during the process that we didn't expect. So the scope increased, the cost went up, we run out of money, and that's why we're here.

If I could jump in here just to answer your question, Council Member, I think you were asking about moving forward, you might anticipate that there might be some dead time while we're waiting for the proposals to come in. So if I could just comment on that, I don't have the history of this contract, but moving forward what I see is when you have a complicated project or program or contract like this, we typically get, you release your RFP and if it's complicated you're going to get a bunch of questions and maybe things that sort of are unintended. We didn't anticipate that somebody would interpret it that way

or this way. So there's usually a process, usually you have a kickoff meeting and there's a process that folks request questions, request for information. You evaluate, you answer, you answer to all. So there's a process there that does consume quite a bit of time, usually by the designer of a project, or in this case, the consultant, the designer of the RFP.

And I understand that, you know, prospectively, looking back, I just, because we didn't actually go through the RFP, and the original contract was to do that, so in my mind, and if I'm hesitant, the idea of switching consultants mid-course, but at the same time, and if some of these questions can be answered to be able to give clarification, help me kind of rest at ease, maybe it'll help me and my colleagues,

But what I'm missing is the original contract was for nearly over $150,000, $160,000 to be able to take us from beginning of the RFP process, developing that, issuing it, reviewing applicants, and helping staff make a recommendation to council. We've only at this point completed the RFP itself. It hasn't even gone out. So how have we expended all of the cost on the original contract if, to me, it seems like there's been some dead time, some lag time there? That's what I'm missing.

I asked the same question when this contract came before, and I don't have the details, but basically the short answer is that there was extra work for the contractor or for the consultant to perform at our request, apparently.

I guess our director can give us details, but I asked that same question. Is there any budget left over because of the delay? But in addition to delay, there has been also work.

So let's bring the consultant here and we ask them because he would explain better than the increase in the scope of what it was all about. Maybe they'll be able to help. Sure. Thank you, Fred, and thank you, Councilman Benavides, for the question. When we originally proposed on the original RFP for consulting services, there was a specific scope of work that was given, and that's specifically what we bid upon. And then we were actually supposed to have been completely finished with this and have selected a new contractor back several months ago, according to the original timeline and according to our original schedule.

But then without going into all the gory details, there were a lot of issues here in the city that had to do with changing personnel and so forth. And we multiple times got going down a particular path, and then we had to change paths. And then we had to meet with a city manager, and then an interim city manager, and then an assistant city manager. and there were just multiple times that we had to change tracks, change, I guess, tacks, you would say. And so over the course of this, and then as well in terms of public meetings and meetings with staff

and those types of things over this protracted period of time, plus an expanded scope of work, which we would be happy to provide for you, that's consumed the hours. That's consumed the hours that were in the original contract. The proposal that we gave to complete this, to take this all the way through the selection of a new contractor, is based upon the number of hours that remain ahead of us in order to get the process completed. And just by way of example and to confirm what your city manager just stated,

We're currently right now managing three municipal procurement processes in Northern California.

And in each of those processes, from the time that the RFP is actually released, it hits the street, until the RFP is submitted, there's an incredible amount of work. There's so much work that's going on because you do have, as Raul mentioned, you have the kickoff meeting, and then immediately following that you have a protracted period of questions and answers where people are going through this large document that you have right here, and they're asking questions. We're fielding those, answering those, issuing addenda to the RFP in response to those questions and so forth.

So there's a lot of hours that are expended between the time that the RFP is issued and the time that you actually receive the proposals. When you get those proposals, if you look at that document, you know, it's 100-page RFP and another 100, 150-page contract, you can imagine the proposals that you get in response to that. The analysis of those proposals from everybody on our staff, if we're going to do a good, deep, detailed review and bring you back the kind of information you need, it takes a lot of time to go through each one of those.

So I'd be happy to go through it with you in detail, but in the interest of time, unless you'd like me to carry on, I just say that the hours that were in the original contract were expended by a change of scope and a protracted time period, and that what we have remaining to finish actually is squeezed down considerably. We proposed to do this additional work on a turnkey basis, meaning that we promised not to exceed that amount.

But our original estimate of the number of hours that it was going to take to get us all the way through the contract is considerably more than we've proposed. But we've agreed to limit it to that.

Any other thought?

It's not, I think. Look, the only thing I was going to say is that anytime anybody bids on a proposal, especially with a public agency, you know these things are going to happen. The expectation is built into the scope of work. You're going to have personnel changes. You're going to have people that come in and out. Government bodies change. And that's something that we, as stewards of the public trust and public money, have to protect and we have to be vigilant about. So I'm a little troubled by saying a lot of it was caused by some of the misdirection here, maybe changes in staffing. Look, that happens everywhere.

That happens at all levels of government. So the only thing I would say is I'm really troubled by having to prolong this another six months. That's what's making me hesitate because I'm just very underwhelmed by the performance that's been done up to this point. To the extent that maybe we can sit down and see what we can do to negotiate this, because I don't want to negotiate this in public, but see what we can do to reduce this. Maybe that's another option that we can have to preserve the timeline that we've already agreed to.

Council Member Solario? Yes, just a couple of quick points. I do worry a little bit about the delay as well, but we gave the current company, Waste Management, a two-year extension. So we definitely, I think, could get through all this before then. And I know the RFP for this scope is largely already written, too. So I would just ask that staff work with our city attorney to come up with a more accelerated process. Or maybe from the last RFP, maybe there's a way we could pick the second-ranked firm or something. Also, too, I don't want to make it seem like the consultant in the entirety did inadequate work.

I mean, you work at the direction of staff in this body up here. But I just kind of feel like we're here two or three days later. We've spent close to $200,000. We're not done. We didn't have any innovative ideas, any innovative savings. And, you know, I think we could benefit just from a fresh approach. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I just want to just say a couple quick things. Because I understand wanting us to go in a new approach. And I agree. and as our city manager sometimes says do you either want to be you do you want to choose the the restaurant or you want to choose the menu right and obviously on um here you know we want to make sure that we move forward with new innovative policies and goals we have not established that and we're going out to to to to to these trash haulers and you know mr director and I have so much respect for you and what you do, but we're not documented on there,

so you're asking them to go do something, but they don't know what the goals of this community are or really of this council, and so that's where I have a problem, and the other thing I have a problem is that there was a change in scope. That never came before the city council, so I'm very troubled by that as well, and then finally, within this RFP process, we talk about that we can make some possible changes and have these folks bring in some new innovative ideas but in this RFP process we never even included an innovations clause that the

contract to allow for city flexibility to address issues and change service terms to to make sure that we take advantage of the innovations without having to renegotiate the entire agreement that in itself should have been in this RFP because we know that state law is changing time and time again this RFP didn't come before the city council we get this on Thursday you know you all are off Friday and Monday you know and so um I respect the work that you all have done but I'm just just very troubled that the city council didn't get was wasn't able to share its perspective and its

possible goals and what it wants to see moving forward as it pertains to making sure that we're able to support our residents and the business community with new programs that will help us reduce waste. And, you know, none of that was included. And you're saying that we can have these ongoing conversations. And I'll just end with this, is that based on all the information that's been provided to us thus far and never receiving a final report, I just can't see myself moving in this direction.

And so I know half my colleagues are wanting to move forward with the new process. The other half is basically what I'm hearing is that we wanted to expedite this process so that we can go ahead and vote on this, but not having any new policies or innovations and not choosing a new direction and path, I don't think it's going to get done with who we have at this moment in time. And so, Mr. Mayor, I still move forward with my motion to do a new RFP with the consulting with a very strict timeline. We already have a lot of the information and basic scope of work.

there are a lot of other consultants that we can get to help us move in the

right direction is there a second for the motion I'm going to second it okay

those in favor information that the mayor pro temp provided thank you those in

favor discussion discussion okay go ahead merit and and and that mayor Prodempted. I completely understand the questions and she also accurately I think presented that there is at least a few of us are wrestling with the decision and potential impacts of timeline and all and also I have I don't know the the contractor other than this project but but as I'm doing research it seems like this is a reputable firm so my comment backs my question is first on

the on the council is whether a continuance to be able to address to see if some of those questions can be addressed would would help you know as far as innovation as far as even the renegotiating I think Councilman Sarmento suggested I guess that that's my question to us as members of the Council on the dais if a continuance again of 30, 45 days would. If I may just add one point here. There is clear communication with the bidders that they are very well encouraged to bring in new and innovative ideas as part of this RFP. It is in there.

and we have to choose whether we want to dictate what they should bring in or we should allow the market to bring what's the most innovative ideas that are out there to bring to us for evaluation we chose the second one council has obviously the option to direct us that we want to instruct specifically what kind of programs they want to bring in and we certainly would would do that But as far as the content of RFP, we cannot approve the RFP, which is another report here, and we can extend that for another two weeks.

We can have a workshop with members of council, and we can get all your recommendations, and we incorporate it in the RFP before we advertise it. Even if we advertise it, we have ample opportunity to provide amendments for three months to the RFP itself that would be incorporated and the bidders would take into consideration. So there are ample opportunities to answer and include all the concerns that you have without jeopardizing the timeline at the end of this process.

I think if I may, Mr. Mayor, it sounds like we have a couple of discussions or a couple of things that I'm hearing. I'm hearing sort of not a buy-in, a lack of buy-in by the council in terms of the policy objectives here that this RFP is supposed to accomplish for us. And if that's the case, that's a fundamental question. And so either way, whether we continue with this consultant or go with another, I suggest that, just like the director suggested, we do have a work-study session. Maybe we review what the policy goals of this RFP are.

Right now, from what I know, it's to comply with all the state mandates and any anticipated mandates that we know of. So that's one of them. The other is to enhance, to maintain or keep the current services and then enhance with additional services. That's sort of, I'm being very brief here, that's sort of what I've seen. If that is not, you know, covering all of your policy objectives, then this is the time to stop. I think that this contract is too large and too important to rush. My counsel, just like I mentioned to the Mayor Pro Tem, you know, picking the restaurant in that analogy was picking the vendor.

but you should really agree on the menu because that determines which restaurant you want to go to. We can't go out and shop for Chinese food and then end up we want something else. So I'd rather have that fundamental workshop first and talk about your policy objectives and then we can make the decision on whether to go in a different direction with the consultant or not. I think we should at least take the time out to do that first. This is a very important and long-term contract that I think we should really be all on the same page in terms of what we're trying to accomplish.

I think you make a good point. So I would propose a recommendation to my colleagues is to perhaps, and to the maker and second of the motion, to perhaps pause on changing course right now with regard to the contractor. Give us an opportunity to count to a work study session. And really, at this point, I think that the contractor realizes and knows that they're on the hot seat, and for them to come in and be a part of that work-study session, again, I've heard that they're reputable.

So that would be an opportunity for them to present and guide that conversation, bring some ideas, and at that point, whatever the outcome is, if they are impressed, council and bring some ideas and help us go through a process that is that brings the innovation brings what's being presented then you know we can when we do make a decision on this contract we would factor that in not then that might be help us decide on what direction the council will want to take with regard to the contractor so I think if you have an opportunity to withdraw the motion if you want if you have an opportunity to have the workshop and go

through what's in there, including areas of Integrated Waste Management Act, mandatory commercial recycling, mandatory organic recycling. I think a good portion of your concerns and questions would be answered. So we get an opportunity to have the workshop, go through the essentials, and then see if we are the same place. And then you ask the direction what to do next.

The only thing I was going to say, going through a work study session, I mean you're going to come back to us in two weeks or 30 days. You hear us, you come back, bring something back to us. we have to review it again. I mean, look, we're down the same extended path. Isn't there a way, I mean, a lot of us know what we believe is missing from the request for proposal. Couldn't we just make those suggestions? I mean, it's on us to communicate with the staff and the consultants to say, this is what we believe is lacking. And if we don't say anything,

our silence speaks volumes. That means that we didn't pay attention, we're not reading our material but if we're all paying attention and we see what what we feel is missing can't we do that in the next couple of weeks and the onus is on the consultant to go ahead and produce a better product

all right well look um why don't we right now see where the council is overall um we've had a lot of you know suggestions good suggestions um i happen to believe that you could potentially have both You could have an RFP that's very specific, and you could also let bidders say, you know, if they have additional things they want to put on the table, that you leave that door open and that you make sure you get, you know, the best of the best. I also want to make sure we don't end up with a more expensive contract at the end of the day because we're, you know, potentially not handling things well, and that's possible.

We're all thinking we're going to go forward. We could go backwards if we're not careful. And so, you know, the reason I kind of think we need to maybe shake things up and a new consultant would shake them up is that for whatever reason, maybe it's been a lot of things outside of the consultant's control, things maybe outside of our control, really. But, you know, this is, you know, we just did a two-year extension recently, recently, you know, for the haulers themselves. I think if we concentrate, we ought to be able to figure out within a parallel period of time. But if we don't, soon, I mean, right

now I just heard of a third year being mentioned. If you're not careful, all of a sudden you're going to have to do another extension to the other contract because this went too long. So I kind of want to make a decision and put us on a better path than the one we've been and on so with that you know we have a motion a second let's just see where folks are at um

if if i if i if i made marin and it sounds like the maker of the motion is not interested in rescinding the motion i i would be interested because mayor pretend did make another has made some very good points on some of the elements and i would be i think it would be a benefit for us to have because of the importance and the size of the contract ultimately to have a more extended conversation to what we're looking for do you want to restate her motion well no i i heard her motion but the mo the motion is to to to not move forward right with this so so uh i i'm going to propose

see where where that goes a a substitute motion to allow for us to have a work study session have the discussion uh and in a very whether it be the next council meeting or following but very soon to be able to have this conversation and then subsequently agendize what we're going to do with this with this this uh

I have a second to the substitute motion

well I technically don't I mean I know where the council member is going and I agree I almost think that what the council member wants to do is something that I want to do is see if the consultant can cure the problem right and but I don't want to go through a whole work study then come back Because that's another, to me, 45 to 60 days. So to the extent that we can maybe provide some information to the consultant within the week, he goes ahead and prepares it for the next meeting. I mean, look, you've done a lot of the legwork already. I mean, a lot of the findings are there.

I don't know if that's something possible, whether it's even available or something that you and your staff could do. If you.

Sure. Thank you. Councilman Sarmiento, thank you for the question, and the answer is affirmative. Yes, of course we can. This document that you have before you is, and I won't go into a big defense of it, but the intention of this document is not to be prescriptive at all, but to be very open-ended and allow the marketplace, which we know there's probably six or eight really fierce competitors that are going to be brought to bear on this process. You're going to get a good result from it.

But not to be prescriptive because each one of them have different approaches to how they want to deal with organics, to how they want to deal with renewable energy, all of these things that are going to be of interest, those are all going to come to the fore through this process.

Republic Services has one way of dealing with organics. Athens has another way. Waste Management has another way. CRNR has built an anaerobic digester out in Paris, and that'll be their way. So everybody will have different ways of going about this, but the way that we wrote it intentionally, as Raul had described, is that we took the state of California, which of all the 50 states in the union, has the very most, and I don't know if you want to call them onerous or applaudable, environmental regs as it relates to solid waste management,

but the state of California far exceeds every other state's requirements. The way that this was written was to assure that every aspect of AB 939, AB 341, AB 1826, the new organics recycling law, and other laws, including dealing with the state. It's not a mandate, but the state goal of 75% diversion would be met through a response to this RFP. So that's what it's intended to do. Those specific things that I've heard mentioned up here, the zero waste plan and those type things, those are council directives.

Those are policies that would be set by you folks and could be included in the RFP, but you don't have those policies currently.

so the last thing i would say because i think we need to move on okay um would you know one last option and i'm not sure if we could do a substitute substitute motion but if you could come back to us at the next meeting after having conversed with some of us who have problems with what we see with this product and maybe bring us back a different version of that or an improved version of that with some of the issues with some of the issues that we've raised today look a two-week continuance for me is not going to damage anything. If we still aren't satisfied, we still have the option

of disengaging at that point. Certainly. And we can certainly respond in that time frame. Thank you.

All right. Well, we have half a substitute motion. So I'll resend mine and allow Councilman Sarmiento to make his continuance, and I'll second that one. So moved.

So the most substitute motion is for two-week continuance, ultimately, Mayor.

It is just for a two-week continuance to see if the consultant can cure some of the problems that we've identified here tonight. And in the interim, we go ahead and communicate with the consultant to see if we can help make it a better product. If we come back in two weeks and we see it's still flawed and it doesn't meet our expectations, we can disengage at that point. That's still available to us.

All right. So we have a substitute motion for a two-week continuance on the whole thing, basically. so those in favor of the substitute say yes or aye no those against no you or no so it's four no's three ayes back to the original motion those in favor please say aye aye those against no original motion that's on the The motion by Mayor Pro Tem. Those in favor of the motion by Mayor Pro Tem, say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Those opposed? No. So we have three no's and four a's on the original motion, so it passes. So with that, what's the next item? All right, so let's go. Are there any other items on the consent calendar that... Yes, Mr. Mayor.

...on the consent calendar, believe it or not? I'd like to record an abstention on 11A for the reasons stated at the last council meeting. And did we do, well, I almost feel like I don't want to call one more, but did we do 25E, by the way, Madam Secretary? Madam Clerk?

Yes, I got approved.

Did you want to abstain? No, no, no. I just was asking if we had addressed that consent item.

It was part of the consent calendar item.

Right, but we haven't voted on the consent count. We've only voted on the ones that were raised by Mayor Pro Town. Correct.

That's not part of her list.

Correct. So it's still open.

Got it. So that was the only one I was going to pull.

All right. Any other items? Councilor Salorio, please. Yes.

A couple. One 20Bs regarding the Roosevelt Walker. I know there's a lot of excitement about that. If staff could give us an update on what this project is. I don't know if we want to have staff respond to that now or go ahead just okay so that's one item and then the second item is item 25g I know I had asked city staff a question and haven't received the response so we can do that Q&A here as well and I'm fine with the remainder let them so you

had what was the first request for them the Roosevelt Walker item 20 B all right so we have our our illustrious director stepping forward yes sir the

school district informed us that there there needed to be an additional amount to the project of about 400,000 to finish the landscaping and it's part of the requirement the original requirement for the grant that we received five million when they went out to bid it was more than five million and city council added uh two and a half million so the total was seven and a half million now there's an additional 400 000 to this to the reimbursement agreement to be able to complete and they're almost done they need a few more a couple more months and that's why the ribbon cutting was extended because they informed

us they needed more time okay very good with that i'll make the motion on that madam all right so So we have motion, is there a second? Second by Sarmiento. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. Next item.

Yes, on item 25G, it's an amendment to the MOU with the Santa Ana Police Officers Association. I know the staff report presents this issue as a technical, unexpected thing. my question to staff and I don't know if you received it was the staff report says that there's no new cost to to the city and I my inclination would be that if it's going to create more pergible time that officers have that there would

be in the short term or long term additional cost to the city and that just implicates our understanding of this issue and whether there's going to be an appropriation needed as well and then whether any of the other recent MOUs had a similar wrinkle with PERS.

This isn't going to create any new cost. It's just continuing with the practice and the agreement that we already have. This is simply cleanup language to comply with PERS's requirements that we phrase increases that are personable appropriately. Specifically, they wanted us to divide the language into two separate sections. So that is all we're doing. It's just a restructuring of the language. And yes, there is probably going to be one or two additional MOUs that we might have to come to you with the same exact restructuring.

See, and if that's the case, I would feel more comfortable discussing all of them as well as what costs there might be, because I don't know then in totality the cost before what that was and what it might be now. I mean, I hear you saying that that was probably our intention, but I don't know really whether there are any cost implications or not. And now I'm hearing that there's multiple MOUs that might have the same issues. So for those reasons, I'm not in support of this item today. Thank you.

All right, so you want to move? Is there a motion on this item?

No.

Okay.

I already voted no.

You voted no early. I already voted no. She voted no early. What's the pleasure of the council?

Somebody has to move the act.

Right.

I'll second Solorius. Why don't we continue it for two weeks?

Well, if that's your motion, make that motion.

Yeah, so I'll make a motion to continue for two weeks so we can have more analysis on this and see if there are other agreements that may have the same wrinkle, because it could have been unintentional. But, you know, this PERS issue is a big issue, and pensions issues are big issues. So I do want to then move to continue this for two weeks. I second that.

All right, those in favor, please say aye. That's to bring back. bring it back in two weeks. Not just this one, but it would bring back all the contracts.

Our city manager will assess whether there are others, but if there are others, they should come all at once. And it requires a closed session discussion. That's, I think, something that needs to be analyzed as well. And for this item and another two, I had suggested that these kinds of things too should be discussed in closed session because of the nature. Well, I see some nodding heads that will be brought back concurrently.

So, yes, we'll be happy to bring it back to close. So with that, those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries.

Now, I think we're done with the consent calendar on that. No, we have 25E as in Edward, Mr. Mayor. Got it. Okay, let's go to that one.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I wanted to just pose a question to Madam City Attorney on this. This is a matter to retain special counsel. I just wanted to get some background because the RFCA is a little thin. And so I see that we are going to be retaining counsel, and it's a three year commitment. So if you can, just provide us a little bit more information.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Mayor and council members, the person that you would be retaining under this agreement was an attorney that you met in closed session, Mr. Ramirez. He primarily handles police matters and police personnel matters. This case is related to a series of cases that we've briefed you in closed session before. So it is special litigation. We were really hopeful that we could resolve that litigation. That has not been the case, and some of those cases continue to go on. We usually propose that we do a three-year contract with all of our service providers, just because that's the standard time.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

But I hope these cases will be resolved much sooner than that.

Yes, and it's funny, because one of our former council members always had a problem with having extended terms. And after he mentioned it so often, it did kind of, I think it kind of ingrained in our minds. is there any way that you know again not to say that this firm isn't reputable nor the council that's going to be assigned to to address our concerns isn't competent i'm just saying what if some at some point madam city attorney you and your staff feel like maybe there's not the performance that's being done is there any way that we can uh make this either a three one

year contracts or a two-year contract with a one-year renewal i'm actually i just think i'd

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

have any problem doing it. We just used a standard form where we do three years for efficiency, but I'm pretty hopeful that we can resolve this within a year, so if it's the council's pleasure, if you'd like to reduce that to the January 1st, 2019, I'd accept that change.

And with that change, I'll go ahead and move the item.

Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. As opposed, motion carries. Now around 55A? Okay. I would entertain a motion on item So moved. Second. Motion by Villegas. No, motion by Sarmiento. Okay, those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. 55 Villegas and Boy, I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. This is 55C, the San Juve Giant River Otter Exhibit. So moved. Second.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. So, Laura may have joined on the auto vote, right? Yes. He did vote, he did join. Okay, 55D as in David, I would entertain a motion. Move the aye. Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

And those opposed? Motion carries. 55E.

Move the item.

I just have a, I'm just going to make a statement here on this one. I too feel like this item should be a closed session item because there may be a particular item we want to discuss in detail or maybe I can ask them in closed session but.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

So Council Member I did receive your email prior, like the day of the posting of the agenda, it might have been the day after the posting of the agenda, I don't recall now over the long weekend. I did go back and take a closer look at this issue. So the issue that we have here is whether the City Council may go into closed session to negotiate with unrepresented employees. So you have a series of unrepresented employees here, so you may do that. The question is whether the city council would be negotiating directly with them or not. And what I concluded was apparently the city council had adopted a resolution last year,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

and the resolution last year made it such that some of these changes were going to be automatic. And it wasn't because you can't go into closed session to have discussions with unrepresented. Now, if it was the council's position that you wanted to negotiate that provision again, kind of either take it back or reconsider it or give more, and you wanted to do that, then you could go into closed session. But it has to be the voice of the city council saying to the unrepresented employees, we the council want to negotiate directly with them.

And just as another item related to this too, I agree with about half of what you're saying, but for example, in this item is also recommendations related to our city clerk who has her own contract with the city council. And so I still be new, for example, I don't understand why we would not have discussed her compensation as part of an evaluation or a separate conversation rather than rolling it in with something else that maybe as a policy we do tend to do a Me Too with what others do,

but again, when it's presented in this manner and there's a bunch of things rolled up into one, it then makes it more difficult for us to divide some of these issues, understand cost implications. there's other folks that have separate contracts with us directly including

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

probably yourself in the city's provision in the Brown Act that pertains to closed sessions that would allow us to go into a closed session to decide if we can be in closed session it's kind of a funny provision which rarely used but if that is provision that the council would like to take advantage of you can direct me in the city manager to do that I can talk with a few of you a little bit more about what you want to discuss and we can notice it more broadly sure and what would happen then is if the council said no we really aren't comfortable then we

wouldn't hold that closed session right and that's so I'm really just a for my colleagues I have concerns with this item as it includes various items into

one and that what would we do right now could we continue it and and seek

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

options from I think you would direct me in the city manager to determine what portions of a discussion could occur in closed session and under what conditions and to post that on the agenda in two weeks all right can that be your motion mr mayor i have a discussion

go ahead i'll second the motion yeah i was going to vote no and obviously last year the city council approved a resolution understanding that um there was essentially a me too for the executive management and now we're here it's not like that it's news you all voted on that last year and I was very specific in my comments when we were giving raises that this was included but you all still moved forward with giving employee raises and now this is across the board and so I'm voting no because I've been consistent but obviously if you guys are not in support of that resolution

you need to bring that back and make those changes in the revisions instead of going into closed session because this is an item that needs to come out to the public. And so I just wanted just to put that on record.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

And I want to be clear with that. Remember that the only reason you go into closed session is to negotiate or give your negotiator direction. But any action taken by the council must be taken in open session. And that will be done in public. Must be taken in open session. And it will.

And it will. So we have a motion right now and a second. Those in favor, please say aye.

I'm a no vote.

Those opposed, there's a no vote and an abstention. So with that, let's go on to item, I believe it's 65A. Is that correct, Madam Clerk?

Yes, that's correct.

I'm not sure if you all have given recommendation to the clerk on any dates, and if not, I guess we're not going to cancel any during this summer, and I'll make a motion to move forward as status quo is on the recommendation.

i'll i'll second for discussion purposes um as of right now what uh we don't have anything scheduled to to end to close off in in the summertime correct that's correct okay i'm going to create a substitute motion that we uh do not have a meeting on the first uh or the in august meeting in august yeah the reason is that's right before everyone comes back i agree i'll i'll

second your substitute although you are the second to the original motion that was for discussion

purposes got it all right all right any other changes if not those in favor of the substitute

motion please say aye aye those opposed motion carries

now 65b so it looks like we're going to hold off on this mr mayor yes

continuance how about what's an appropriate uh just a table for now or what yeah table table for now is that your motion yes let's have a two-hour discussion about he's david was just getting going i want to get you guys out by 9 30. no way okay so uh those in favor please say aye aye aye those opposed motion garries 65 c i'm going to turn it over to mayor bodem i know just a receiving file but i did not vote on the original item so i'd rather not participate so you've got it 65 c

thank you mr mayor and this is a receiving file report regarding the proposed sales tax loan agreement between the city of santa anna and the auto dealers association

Second.

We have a first yes, comment? Yes.

So, I just want to be clear before we go ahead and take the vote. Mr. City Attorney, or City Manager, so my understanding is this particular item, what we're going to do is we're going to loan, give a loan out for that sign, but they're paying us back, correct?

That was the original proposal, yes.

Has anything changed from the original proposal?

Well, a couple of things have happened. We became aware that we needed to file a community benefit statement. Okay. And we're going to do that through a public hearing at the next meeting, the first meeting in February. And since we had to reconsider it, because that has to be adopted first before you can approve a loan or any kind of subsidy, it gives us another opportunity to take a look at this. And so what I did is, now that I've gotten more familiar with our budget, I'm not comfortable recommending a loan from our general fund. And so we are proposing that the auto dealers take out their own loan.

We still have, we still make available to them a sales tax sharing measure or agreement like we had originally. And we can be flexible, we can renegotiate another term for that, a longer term if they need it. but that would be the new framework under which we would assist them.

So I know this is a receive and file, but my concern is that this came before us, and as a council we voted for it, we voted in support of it, and then now we're going to change our minds? It just, you know, this is an organization or this is an entity that brings in a tremendous amount of tax dollars into the city. And so my concern is, I mean, we've already, I'd like to have more discussion. Maybe we can meet and talk a little bit more. But it just doesn't seem right to not continue to move forward in a manner by which we've already voted.

Councilman Sarmiento. City Manager.

Yes, because of this requirement, we have to redo that vote. And so at this point, we're just filing this report to let you know that we've uncovered this requirement. And we're going to plan to bring it forward. And I'm also saying that my recommendation would be not to have a general fund loan, but to restructure it so that they take out the loan. But we still help them pay for that loan through the sales tax sharing.

No, I understand, and I understand that you're protecting the city. I understand that. No, no, quite honest, and I mean that with all sincerity. What I'm concerned with, and this is what I'd like to do, is to sit down with some of the folks from the dealership and to see where they're at on this, to see if this is still going to work for them. Again, there's some things here within our city that we have to start to change as far as customer service goes. when you have an entity as large as the mall, for example, that brings in a significant amount of tax revenue, for them to have to stand in line in our business department,

it shouldn't be. We should have an appointment process. And that's something we can talk about as far as creating a better customer service. And that's what I want to do. I want to make sure that we still are going to have a good relationship with this group who is consistently bringing in revenue towards the city. Okay. That's my piece.

Councilman Sarmiento?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. And, you know, a lot of what the council member said I agree with. I just am confused by this motion because we're not dealing with the substance of the issue or the agreement here. This is just a receive and file on the report. So what the council member was referring to was that we saw this agreement come before us, I believe, in early December or late November. I forget.

But, you know, so we had a discussion, a pretty robust discussion about the benefits and maybe the harm that, you know, of working with this revenue generator, which is probably, you know, the largest in the city, if not, you know, if not the second largest. But I think we had a discussion about the investment and economic development. And I agree with a lot of what said about the source of the revenue or the source of the loan. but again I just think that you know it's really difficult for us to this is coming back to us because we missed something right and that's something that

I want to have on the record is that this isn't coming back because something the applicant did it's something that we did and it's not to be you know harsh on staff or anything because things like this happen but that's why this is again coming back to us for us to now have you and your staff say look change in circumstances were a lot less able to to fund this through you know from the reserves or the general fund but this is something that was caused as a result of something that we missed as as staff

right that is correct yeah that's why we have that's why we're given i guess the opportunity to reconsider right and uh this did come before us at my first council meeting it was november 7th or so it was my very first i remember it was my very first council meeting and um it was right so

we missed something and now in the interim we say let us cure this problem we come back and in the interim we realized sorry we're not in as rosy a picture as we thought we once were and now we're gonna say no deal right that

would be my recommendation and I fully intend to meet with them where I know that our Community Development Agency director has reached out and and called

and informed him of this but I'm just trying to set the record clears because it's not clear from this but so that's where we are so yeah I would appreciate if you go back and sit down and see what can be done with discussion with these folks, because we've already spoken with them, and we've extended them an opportunity, and now we're saying we're not going to do it. And that's something, again, I think that is a bad look for the city, right, to the extent that sometimes we have changed circumstances, and they're valid and they're legitimate. I get it. but this seems to be a pattern in practice

and I want to make sure that we try to stay away from that to the extent possible. So I'll support the receive and file because it's a simple matter of just recording this. Great.

Councilman Benavides and Councilman Solorio.

Thank you, Mayor Porto.

I'll be supporting the receive and file simply because it's that we're receiving it and acknowledging it. However, I do have problems with what's being described by staff as to what's going to transpire, what staff plans to have transpire. Council has given direction, has made a decision already. It's done. We voted on that. Some folks may have not been unanimous, but Council did give direction.

I don't think that staff can now unilaterally go and change the direction that council gave.

If recognized that we need to go and fix the fumble here by staff, so we need to go and take a re-vote. I think, and maybe the city attorney, well, I'm not going to put anybody on the spot right now, But I think if staff, the recommendation, the action that council already took previously, that clear direction that we already gave, I think that needs to come back. If staff wants to present an alternative recommendation, perhaps that's an option that staff may choose to pursue.

however to speak for council and and and change something that we've already taken action on I don't see that as being appropriate I don't see that as being something that that should take place ultimately staff does have full right to make recommendation to to to council present information and if there's new information staff would like to present certainly it would be welcome but to change the direction to attempt to change the direction that council already gave I do have a problem so I'll provide that information and definitely interested in having follow-up

conversation outside of tonight's meeting yeah two things number one just in terms of form you know if there's an item on an agenda that says receive and file it typically should be a very non-controversial item consistent with previous council policy rather than modification of something that you know was well discussed you know on the dais the action was reported in the media and I think we probably and we still stand by our our policy call I do appreciate that if there's the view that

there should be also a public hearing to further discuss public benefit may then that could be additional information that we do something in addition but we did discuss you know public benefit as well and so maybe even for this item maybe we continued as well to get more legal clarification as well whether it's necessary to have more discussion regarding public benefit but the finance and then the respect to the financial outlook element I don't know that really between November 7th and now anything has fundamentally changed if

anything yeah maybe some things may be plateaued or less but other things are better for example we had a very successful launch I think of our cannabis commercial operation that's gonna vote positively for the city as well as I know city manager through your efforts and the police departments that the marshals contract is is is doing well so I don't know that really the financial outlook has changed that much that there would be a new recommendation but and you know and then you know we had an agreement with the Auto Dealers Association so us you know wanting to renegotiate that as well in terms of

form we should have had these conversations then I don't know if our city attorney is able and willing to now discuss this issue whether we need to have more discussion on the public benefit element of what we did last but you know on November 7th both our city manager and our city attorney approved as to form and substance the recommendations then because it was a staff recommendation so city attorney would you like to comment yeah

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

subsequent to the council's adoption of the proposal I think we phrase them as loan agreements, it came to our attention that these loan agreements would be viewed as a subsidy. There was a change in the law after the dissolution of the redevelopment agencies that require cities when they're going to offer a subsidy to a private business to prepare a public benefit analysis and to have a hearing on that public benefit analysis. We did go back and try to identify how this might have happened. We think our only explanation for that is that this item was not handled by the normal

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

departments that would handle an economic development agreement. We don't know why. The former interim manager sent this item through the finance department. It was treated more as just a simple loan agreement. And so the people who touched it didn't have their CDA hats on. When we looked at it from the CDA perspective, it was very obvious to us that it needed the public benefit analysis. We did the legal review and we advised staff that they needed the public benefit analysis. So we had recommended to staff that what they do is schedule this item for the public hearing.

Yeah, and I would think that that would be the cleanest way to follow up on the council decisions that have been made to do that kind of agreement, but to do a public hearing with the appropriate analysis so we can be in full compliance with the new requirements. I mean, that would be how I would approach it rather than also trying to redo the substance of the deal.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Right, and I won't speak for the manager. this is received and filed, but I do believe that maybe there was a little projection into maybe looking at the finances and saying, okay, some of those requirements and findings you need to make to show the public benefit, perhaps there might be some challenges to that, and so maybe that was the reason for looking at this. But this was brought to our attention, and I believe that an outside financial advisor who took a look at it was of the opinion that we'd have to have the public hearing, and that we may want to re-examine the assumptions that we made. So that was the

And if I may add, I probably should have framed this instead of a receiving file. It should have been a different title there. The reason for bringing this forward, even though there isn't an action for council to take, in terms of the public hearing and all of that, was to solicit input. And also to communicate in a very public way that I was looking at the finances a little bit differently than when I first got hired at my first council meeting. but this is what I intended to get as input from the council and I fully intend to meet with the ownership and membership of the auto mall and to have a discussion

with them and certainly if it's the will of this council to continue to pursue the original agreement then that's what we'll bring back but I just wanted to bring it on and have this discussion and feedback for all of you and for me to give you the feedback that the budget looks a little bit differently than when I first got hired, and that I was proposing something that I was going to go propose, something that would still allow them to benefit from the sales tax revenue, the increased sales tax revenue sharing agreement, and that we were flexible in terms of a different term there.

But I have not personally spoken to them by intent to do that.

With those clarifications, I'm comfortable supporting this just as a receiving file, But I think you received ample input on different ways of moving forward. And that was my goal.

Thank you. I still have a comment, as I think was the only dissenting vote. And I did mention in my comments that this was a subsidy and that we needed to do a community benefit. And I'm the one that brought this to the attention of the city, that we bypass the public hearing process in regards to AB 562. And it's unfortunate that we continue to move in this direction and not really holding ourselves accountable, that we have to follow processes so that we don't put ourselves in these positions. and again I'm not a city staffer I'm a council member but I try to do my due

diligence and do my research and wanting to make sure that we're getting when we're giving public funds that the the constituents and our residents have the opportunity to make comment and making sure that it's a community benefit we have a responsibility and we took an oath of office to make sure that we do that and so moving forward again on issues that have to do with economic development they should never go directly through the city manager's office or to finance that this should have gone to our economic development department and why that was bypassed

i don't know never had the conversation with our interim city manager and as we move forward i hope that we put policies in place to make sure that things like this don't happen in the future and And with that, I think this is a receive and file. I just want to put my comments on the record.

There is no vote. It's a receive and file. You still need a vote?

No. There's no vote. Do you want to take a vote on this? I would take it.

Oh, she does. Okay. So there was a motion and a second to receive and file. All those in favor, indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

No.

No.

Just trying to keep you safe.

All right.

85A, is that our next item, Madam Clerk? Let me turn it over to either Mayor Poutin, Calo Sarmiento, or Solorio.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'll go ahead and kick it off, I guess, and there'll be comments from my colleagues. You know, many of us have learned that the county is going to be moving to clear the riverbed of the homeless encampments there. And I thought it was important that we start providing some direction to staff on these items that may impact us and are already impacting us, but may impact us even more severely after the 22nd of this month. So, you know, what we have before us is not just a homeless problem that is affecting the Civic Center,

but it's a problem that's going to be affecting, and it is already affecting the entire city. So we've addressed some of the issues in the Civic Center, but I think we need to look at a more comprehensive approach. Right now, we're spending about $2 million in the Civic Center in the JPA area. So we know that if there is an increase in the number of homelessness, homeless population in the city, that number is going to be much, much larger. It's only going to multiply itself. Right now we provide about 600 beds for the homeless, 400 in the courtyard, 200 in the armory, about 75 in the Salvation Army, and 50 vouchers.

I know for me, and I've heard from many of my colleagues, that many of our calls from constituents tend to be dominated by homelessness impacts, whether it's neighborhoods, whether it's businesses. But we just see that those are escalating, and we see that the population is going into places that they normally didn't in the past. So we need to start looking at a more equitable way of working with the population and working with the agency that's vested with this right, which is the county.

So one of the things I think I'd like to recommend for staff to do is to find out how much money the county has available to address this social service because they are vested with this right. They receive money from HUD to address this. And I don't know what that number is. I've heard that $15 million was recently received for mental health issues, and we know that's part of the homeless problem as well. I think what we also want to do is see about creating some sort of relationship, whether we want to call it a task force,

whether we want to just call it conversations between the city and the county, to look at not just law enforcement impacts, but a way to address this problem in a much more broad fashion. You know, one of the things I'm concerned about is as the riverbed population of homelessness starts being removed, cities are going to start picking these folks up and they're going to drop them off somewhere. And where are they going to likely drop them off? They're going to drop them off in the Civic Center. They're going to believe that that's where all the services are and that's where they should be.

So that's something that we need to be prepared for. And I know that I also would like us to look at what our standing is if we decide to file a lawsuit against the county. This isn't unprecedented. The city of L.A. in 1993, I believe, sued the county of L.A. for no other reason but just to have a seat at the table so they can be present on how the funds are allocated to address these social services. So I think we have plenty of standing. I think the issue is ripe. I think we have incredible, incredible harm that could be thrust upon us and damages that we could be looking at.

I know the city of Irvine has already filed a lawsuit against the county, and Anaheim is contemplating it as well. So for us to stand flat-footed does an incredible disservice to our residents, our businesses, and our community, and I think this is the time that we have to prepare ourselves. So I just wanted to make sure we give sufficient findings to staff in order for them to prepare us with some options and what they believe would be best in order to address this problem and make sure it doesn't escalate any further. Thank you.

Jose?

Yes, I do want to thank my colleagues, Council Members Armiento and Mayor Patel Martinez for taking the lead and bringing this item forward. I mean, this is a crisis, and I know this council has declared this time and time again. I'm very concerned, as most of our residents, about the county's effort to clear the riverbed. And as Council Member Sarmento said, you know, we're going to receive some impacts on that. I know literally in the first six months of last year, we received close to 7,000 calls for service related to homelessness issues.

issues and the situation can possibly only get worse if we're not on top of this. I know too that our county when they put their resources together like guides and whatnot they really are still directing everybody to the courtyard because it sounds like well they got 400 beds but you know what those 400 beds are largely full and so we don't want county agencies to or the city nets or the 211s to keep forwarding folks here and do we do need to work with the county collaboratively on solutions including for a more permanent place for that facility. I know there's also

been discussions on we do have vulnerable people in our community like homeless students and families and we ought to be worried about our homeless veterans, our homeless students, our homeless individuals rather than just the county-wide or Southern California need. Also, I know that our city staff and PD has done some initial research on panhandling ordinances in Sacramento. They kind of have a state-of-the-art ordinance on where our appropriate places are or are not for panhandling. I know more and more folks, myself included, are seeing a lot of our streets and

freeways. People are literally on the streets panhandling, and that's very unsafe. I know you know we talk about the public safety and the anti-gang and the gun element but vehicular traffic is also deadly and for us to enable and allow folks to be in sensitive areas is not good also a lot of the you know 6 000 plus calls for service are folks being assaulted i know just literally about you know 10 minutes ago i heard that some homeless with knives were assaulting you know local property owners and so we gotta care a little bit more about how

we address that and then finally I know in the city of Anaheim which has the issue probably not as big as ours they have like a monthly report of metrics of number of calls issues different things and so we need kind of our own dashboard of what areas do we care about how we measure them and how we move the ball forward in a positive way for our neighborhoods and our business communities. So with that, again, this was an opportunity to give feedback. Also, I know there was a recent article about us receiving money from HUD. If staff could give us an email or a memo regarding how that may be used and how we

could partner with the county. Thank you. Thank you, Jose. So just my comments real briefly are going to be on the monetary side and probably possibly some of the reasons why I agree with Councilman Sarmiento that we may need to remedy or move towards some litigation. The City of Santa Ana, in regards to the amount of money that we are spending to address the homeless issues, and I'm not even sure if we've been able to, you know, add up all those calls, but from a law enforcement perspective, from a code enforcement perspective, you know, within our CDA staff,

You know, you're looking at our public works department and our city attorney's office, our OCFA and the amount of calls that we're receiving. At that money, that's millions and millions and millions of dollars that the taxpayers of Santa Ana are paying for a regional issue. and the county knows that they have issues at the courtyard but they are in their recent newsletter they were talking about how a success the courtyard was and so I was just kind of appalled like wow you know what success have we seen we've had more issues and calls for service and and that trend

continues but more importantly the issues that are happening here in the Civic Center and the Riverbed but citywide you know homeless are taking over you know our bike trails you know our own private bike trails the Golden Loop off of Alton they've taken over our business corridors whether it's on on First Street or whether it's near the train station or it's on or it's on Edinger and Flower you just name it they're everywhere they're sleeping on our bus stops we have to contact our third party to go and help them remove that the amount of calls

that we're receiving from our constituents in regards to this issue and email that takes a lot of manpower and time and energy for our staff and the reality is that we have financial constraint and we're dedicating a lot of our time and resources and manpower to this issue something has to give. We cannot continue to move on this path not being able to be reimbursed for these major issues. And so, you know, I would ask our staff to give us some options. And it's all fine

and dandy having task force. And I'm going to wrap up. But ultimately, you know, that's not going to solve our monetary issues. And so we really need to get aggressive. We need to hold the county accountable and figure out strategies of how we're going to recuperate our funds or we're going to have to make a decision here if we want to dedicate the amount of time that our city staff is currently investing in our money we need to make that decision and make it public to to our constituents and finally you know i do want to thank judson and jack chula that we are moving forward with

our dashboard and um you know we've requested that information they're working on it and so I just wanted to thank Judson and Jack for moving us forward and hoping to get that criteria soon. Thank you.

Thank you. We've got a couple folks who want to speak. I believe you first and then Dean I have.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted some brief comments.

I'm not in favor of suing anyone, especially another government agency. I'd rather reach out and try to work with them and see how we can do this. I'm now the incoming chair for the JPA, so I'm going to get on this just waiting for the meetings to come. But suing someone, suppose we do win, and then they give us money. Then we're going to be really tasked with taking all of the population in this issue. Then you're really going to have this. Last year we had 43, I called the coroner's office, We have 43 deceased transients in the city of Santa Ana.

So, you know, you're going to invite more. You can possibly double that. I don't know. But we don't want that. We don't, because, you know, the reality is these people are living out in the street. And, you know, it's sad to say, but they die on the street. So we don't want a whole bunch of people passing away in our streets. So I am not in favor of that. Those are just my thoughts, my comments. I will be reaching out. I'd rather work with the county and resolve this. Because if not, then they'll just throw money at you and then we're going to be stuck with the problem. And I don't see it that way.

So those are my comments. I understand we are taking a big brunt. The OCFA and the Santa Ana Police Department are overworked. There's thousands of calls. A great majority of, you know, are reference to homeless, and they're going into homes. And drivers, believe me, I feel for them. I feel for the residents and the business owners here and the people that come down here and visit. This is a big issue, but I don't think that lawsuits are the way to solve this. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Councilor Tinajero.

do you want to yeah i just had one one thing that um i think we've failed to have been mentioned in the conversation i know this was something that was important is that i don't think anybody wants to criminalize a population or blame that population we simply want to compel the county to fulfill its responsibility and its obligation they're vested with this right we're not so if we had the funds directly given to us by hud then we'd be addressing the problem the other point is that we already burden most of that, or we're already shouldering most of that burden, right? We already have a number of beds. We have multiple shelters.

Other cities, there's 34 cities in this county. Some of them don't do anything. All we're asking is that the county implores the other cities to do the same as we do. So the problem could be a shared responsibility, and the burden wouldn't be solely shouldered by us. and the thing about not getting their attention look it's been years so we've been very kind we've reached out we've called we've uh declared a crisis a public health crisis i don't see them coming here and saying what can we do to help we're your neighbors from across the street this

is a shared civic center this is a jpa never once have i seen any member of that board of supervisor come before us and it's been a multi it's been a you know a decades-long problem and they don't reside in this area. So they don't see it. It's something that they don't think they don't believe they need to address. So I don't know how else to get their attention. Nobody's trying to be hostile. We're just trying to help them, have them, compel them to do something that they're supposed to be doing.

Mr. Mayor. Go ahead. Thank you very much. And I was speaking with some council members from Fullerton where they've seen their population explode near the railroad tracks in downtown, and they were very concerned, and they asked what it was that we were trying to do here to solve for this. The reality is that we all know that there is an issue that we are dealing with, and the homeless crisis, and I will call it a crisis, in our county is not a very cut-and-dry situation. It's very complex, and it's multilayered.

What I do believe is that we do have to sit down and have a very serious discussion with other city leaders as well as the county. I do agree with Councilmember Sarmiento, and I do agree to a certain extent with Councilmember Villegas. I do not like to sue another entity. I don't think it's the best way to go.

However, when you have an organization, a government organization, that, as Councilmember Sarmiento stated, has not come to the table, and they are going to enact a process right now to start removing people out of the river trail without a plan on where they're going to go or what services we're going to provide, I think we need to get their attention. and maybe if we get their attention then we can start to create some type of solvency it might not be the solution that solves everything but at least we have some revenue to start to work

towards a solution and so that that is something that I think I think we're having a great discussion I think part of democracy is to have different points of view I've been here now for quite some time and I agree I don't see them coming to the table I don't see an urgency As a matter of fact, one of the things that really bothered me was there was a presentation that was given about what they were going to do at the River Trail. And I don't remember if it was the undersheriff. I want to say it was the undersheriff, but I don't want to misquote him.

But there was a member that came to that meeting, and I'll wrap with this, when they said, what are you going to do? the very first question he asks is how much room do you guys have in Santa Ana at your shelter? So that was their remedy is to send them our way. So we need to step up and we need to you know this filing a lawsuit against the county if they're unwilling to help us with funds is standing up for the citizens and residents of Santa Ana as well. And sometimes you have to take that type of approach.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. One final comment. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I understand that, you know, we no one here really wants to sue anyone. And, you know, you want to get their attention over at the county. But like I said, you know, it's better to reach out and try to work with them and come up with a solution, even if it means that this co-counsel meets with the entire board of supervisors just to talk.

hopefully they would be open to something like that. Or if not, at least our district supervisor, Supervisor Andrew Doe, who is a supervisor for this area, and we work with them. And I pledge to go out there and do the best I can to try to work this together. But like I said, if we end up going to court or you end up even winning, they're going to start giving you money and they're going to say, well, it's your problem. And they're really going to start directing everyone down here because they're giving you cash. And I don't think that's going to work. You can throw a lot of money at this. It's not going to be the solution.

So I just caution that I really, really, there is no one solution to this, but you have to keep that in mind that we don't want that to happen. And at least I don't. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Let me make comment, then I'll go to you.

Look, I think the homeless problem has never been as bad as it is. I've seen the city for many, many years, and it's just everywhere I go, there's a problem. You know, they're in grocery stores, they're in neighborhoods, they're in parks, they're around schools, they're around businesses, everywhere. And many of these individuals are very aggressive. You know, they pull knives on people, they steal and they run. just all the worst things you can imagine they are doing so we've got to do whatever it takes to

you know step up efforts to try to get things back under control at least the way they've been in the past I know we're not alone I know you know cities up and down California are suffering from this to levels like they've never seen before you know part of it might be you know the you know the weather. California is a great place to be. About a year ago, I invited about six homeless people up to my office here at City Hall, and I asked them, why are you here? And they said,

number one, it's great weather. Number two, we feel relatively safe. These were civic center homeless. They say the area is well lit. They said we get fed three times a day. um you know if you're going to be homeless not a bad place to be homeless i also asked them how many are from santa anna zero zero none from santa anna um we've done a lot already i mean if you talk to our housing people we've used section eight vouchers to try to amass them and find uh you know

housing for some of them we're look we're working with mercy house probably like nobody else in the county if you want to count the number of beds in the city that are that are supported nobody else even comes close so you know we are doing a lot but if we do it alone all we do is we become a bigger magnet you know people talk to each other and i don't want us to become a bigger magnet we already have i think way more than our fair share i think we've got to get tough i think we've got to push back i think we've got to you know talk more aggressively with the county and um and we

need to ask for plans now just a couple questions for our city attorney i believe you had some contact with the county um can you talk a little bit about what's going to happen on the 22nd because I understand that they're going to be moving some people out of the riverbed and some they've already got plans for, but I'm concerned about the 300-plus that might descend upon our city and what that negative impact might be.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

So I'd just like to start by saying City Manager Godin has had some of his staff attend a meeting and may have more details about the specifics of the county's plan. I did have an opportunity on Friday to meet with county staff, as well as Supervisor Doe, and some of the information they provided I thought was helpful just in terms of having some factual information. We were told that in the last count that the county performed on the riverbed, there were just a little over 600 homeless individuals there.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

It was represented to us that about 24 percent of those individuals have been removed and services were found for the individuals. I think they said about another 21%, it's kind of close to 50%, were in the process of receiving services from CityNet. One of the things that we discussed was trying to get a commitment from the county. We were hoping to get that in writing today, but a commitment from the county that they would not direct those individuals to come to Santa Ana on the 22nd when they begin to remove them from the riverbed. it was our understanding that when individuals were removed from the

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Fountain Valley area that it might have been easier for those individuals to make their way here to the Civic Center or here to the city at least it was some thought was given that that might not be as easy given where they are over there by Anaheim Stadium that they might actually go to other cities that are closer to that location of course there are no guarantees I'm just I'm just summarizing some of the highlights from the meeting we are I know that our city manager also had a conversation with the CEO and he may be able to give you more information on that.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

So the goal at this point is to make sure that they are not directing the individuals to come here primarily first and foremost. And then I guess city manager can fill in some more information.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I did have a conversation with Mr. Frank Kim on Friday and shared our concerns, the concerns that I've heard from all of you. He shared that the county does not want to encourage any more folks to come to the Civic Center. And he clarified that the meeting on Wednesday was a narrowly focused meeting, dealing just with security issues around their operation. He also committed, I had a conversation with him, I said I think it would be helpful to try to maybe work towards what's happening in Riverside, where the city of Riverside and the county get together

and they allow the city to provide input into how the county spends those resources that were discussed earlier, he was open to it. He also was open to talking to the other city managers in the cities of Orange and Anaheim with respect to this particular operation. He sent me an email to confirm the conversation, and we were looking to, he was on vacation, he was looking to set up a meeting with all three of us this week. So I'm looking forward to taking him up on that offer and reporting back.

thank you so look I'm in favor of this motion I'm not in favor right now of pushing a lawsuit but but I am in favor of let's do everything we can to protect our city councilor Benavides more than anything marriage want to just echo

what's what's been said and and I think just for I completely understand and would agree with with councilman uh viegas it's ideal that example you just presented uh the city manager of the city and the county actually working together and collectively looking at how we're going to address and solve this uh this issue that that is uh has been growing to become more serious issue that that is ideal uh some of us have been here for for some time and uh unfortunately we have not been able to get a a response and to work collectively and collaboratively we uh you're the first councilman who's serves on the on the jpa so

hopefully maybe you've got the magic touch and can help you know bring us together make it happen hope that that is the case because being in a lawsuit is not going to uh that's not ideal uh but we do have to get ready for for any you know uh options i think city manager city attorney uh police chief uh just as we're dealing and preparing for january 22nd and just addressing what we have already in our hands, but looking at all creative solutions to ensure that we are proactively taking some tangible and real steps towards ultimately getting some action and some collaboration, whether it be voluntarily

or through the courts. But that's only comments.

Thank you. Do we have a motion on this item? There is a motion, and I think what we wanted to do is just direct staff provide some direction. I think they've heard, I don't think this is a solely lawsuit-based recommendation. This is just to include a lawsuit as an option, because it has to be an option. As we're going to look at other resources that we can use, other remedies that might be provided to us, that has to be one. And it's not necessarily a monetary-based lawsuit. It may be an order from the court to compel the county to urge our sister cities to do their share, just like we are.

I mean, we don't need the money. We're already housing enough. We already have enough shelters here. What we want is we want the other cities to do the same thing that we're embracing. So if another forum, because we haven't been able to create a forum where we can discuss this, if we can bring them to the table, and if they're willing to sit down and do it in a very amicable way, but in a serious way where they say, yes, let's put a shelter in every one of the five districts, then that would be a solution, I think, almost a total solution to this because as they bring people here to Santa Ana

once the courtyard and the armory and the other beds are full we can take them to some of the other sites and that way but right now there aren't any solutions

with the exception of that so well let me go to Solorio and then Martinez so

just to finish up that's the multifaceted motion where it's not just a lawsuit based motion that's one of the one of the resources thank you you know and I

think too you know that this this item is just to give direction to staff obviously on many fronts and you know part of it too is just these issues are all developing and so we all got to be fluid and keep giving ongoing direction I think too on terms of the legal issue I don't I don't know that for example I want us to the county but I do see that there are some scenarios that if some of our concerns don't get addressed there may be legal disputes because I for example before have raised we're spending a lot of time with the river issues with courtyard issues a bunch of stuff and so I've said it before we

should seek reimbursement on some of these items including our law enforcement considerations and costs also I know the county kind of politically said oh we're not gonna tell the homeless to go to the courtyard but there so they say we're gonna send them to two one one and CityNet well guess what they're gonna say you know where the biggest center is and there might be space is the courtyard so go there or their services over there so go there and so we need to talk to them uh you know that the county uh i think they're willing to help and you know i've

also said look before we do if we were to do a big loss we got to say these are our issues and this is what we want i mean it's not right to us practically say you know we're going to see you if we've never given them an ask list uh and i do want to stay for the record that you know Supervisor Andrew Doe, anytime I want to meet with him on this issue. He's cordial. We meet. He's collaborative. We do want to work on some things. And part of it is, too, we're waiting on this homelessness coordinator that we approve, gosh, in September or October to hire this homeless coordinator.

And I'm a little frustrated it's taking so long to have that person on board because that person is needed now. and once we have that person too I think they can help us shepherd through some of these things and figure out what our game plan is because we don't really have a coherent game plan I mean there's been a lot of focus on the Civic Center but we still need to keep working on this all right let's try to wrap up I

would just make it just a recommendation for staff to give us some some options based on the information that you all can provide us based on the amount of manpower and resources that we are actually spending to address this issue to then move towards what does that reimbursement cost look like so that we can put it out there. The second thing that I would ask is that I did have a forum and met with various cities and we did that. And it was kind of just, you know, nothing moved forward. Certain council members said, yeah, we have an issue,

but no one took responsibility wanting to go back and wanting to do things in the rest of the county. So I would implore us to figure out how can we work with the ACOC, who's really been championing and tackling and have a homeless task force. And I know our city staff do participate, but how can we figure out if we can work with them as they're working with the other cities in South County and figure out a strategy of how can we come to the table and have these honest conversations as Councilmember Sarmiento mentioned, because we've already done it once. And we hosted it here, and we provided some best practices.

We have folks from San Diego come, and how can we come together? And obviously, there are going to be some cities in this county that don't want to shoulder this responsibility. But the ACOC has identified cities that want to work, that want to make sure that the county is able to address all five districts as it pertains to shelter support, on and so forth. So I think it would help us if we're able to communicate. The ACOC is actually going off to San Antonio this Thursday to look at some best practices. And so they're doing a lot of work, and I just think that we need to partner up with them.

certainly we're not members and we should consider being members because they can provide some valuable input and resources and leverage opportunities of partnerships with other cities

that they've built that we don't have all right so with that i believe we have motion a second correct so those in favor well it's just to give direction but those in favor please say aye Aye. Aye, those opposed? No. Motion carries six to one. So now let's go on.

Okay. Consent counter, I thought.

No, I don't think we voted for that.

Oh, on the balance.

Move the aye. Move the balance.

Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, those opposed. Motion carries.

very quickly just on item 85B I had requested a big place there in order to potentially give direction to staff regarding implementation of adaptive reuse ordinance I am comfortable at this moment that I think staff is working on on a plan to address these issues on a short-term basis so I'm just going to go ahead and pull the item and not not engage in that discussion at this time I would now recess City Council and convene the Housing Authority meeting and are playing a motion on items 1 and 2

motion to approve those in favor please say aye aye aye those opposed motion carries unanimously motion on item number 3 motion to approve those in favor please say aye those opposed no i'm a no motion carries five to two um any housing authority member comments seeing no i will uh you know adjourn that come back to uh city council meeting and uh dale uh halvig please followed by jeff dresser

come on down

Good evening, Mayor Polito and Santa Ana Councilmembers. The North Santa Ana Alliance is still concerned about the 2525 Main Street development. The developer continues to skirt the Sunshine Ordinance by not providing their presentation made on November 15th or providing an accurate account of the meeting, and we would like to see this changed. I'm also concerned when I hear from the City Council, you really can't discuss or comment on this issue.

But then in the December 19th meeting, when you guys were discussing the Tiny Tim development, one of the council members said the process had gone way too far to stop it now. And so my concern is I don't want to have this comment come up on the 25-25 development. I want to avoid that, and I'd like to do that by talking to each one of you individually, set up a meeting with you guys to discuss this development. I've already received feedback from one council member. I'd like to receive feedback from the rest of you. We've submitted email requests and personal requests, and hopefully you guys can follow up on that.

Thank you, and thank you for your work on behalf of the community. Jeff?

Followed by Scott Kandel.

Hi, thank you. I reside in the Park San Diego neighborhood, and I'm here in opposition of the 2525 North Main Street development. I want to talk about the developer's failure to comply with several sections of the city's Sunshine Ordinance. First, as you know, the Sunshine meeting is supposed to be held no later than 20 days after submission of the application. I confirmed with the Planning Department that the developer submitted the application on October 18th of last year. Twenty days after that would have been November 7th. The meeting wasn't held until November 15th, which is eight days late. So that's the first violation.

Secondly, the Sunshine Ordinance states four days following the meeting, the developer shall submit to the city under perjury an affidavit stating the meeting was held in compliance with the Sunshine Ordinance, along with all documents related to the Sunshine Ordinance, including a copy of the minutes and a written record of all responses to the public comments. On December 7th, which is 22 days after the Sunshine Meeting, the developers' responses to the public comments was finally submitted. That's the second violation. Third, the ordinance states the developers shall provide a copy of the meeting minutes

and the written record of and responses to the public comments made at the meeting. I have here a copy of that document, and this document in no way meets that requirement.

This document is nothing more than propaganda provided by the developer. Several of the developer's responses on the notes that are provided are literally a copy and paste verbatim of a previous response from an earlier question from within the meeting. In fact, even copying and pasting eventually got to be too much for whoever prepared the notes, and instead of providing the actual response, they just started saying, please refer to responses to comments 4 and 5, or please refer to responses to comments 21, 23, and 24.

These are not the responses we got from the developer while in the Sunshine meeting. Councilman Solario, you attended the Sunshine Meeting and did you ever hear Mrs. Cepetto say in response to a question, please refer to responses to comments 21, 23, and 24. If you can please wrap up, Jeff. No, you didn't. Other developers have provided actual minutes and transcription of what was said during the Sunshine Meetings. This meeting and what was actually said becomes part of public record and our questions and objections need to be accurately documented.

My concern is that if the city can't enforce the requirements of something as simple as its own Sunshine Ordinance and the developer is already cutting corners and not being held to some minimum standard, what's going to happen when we get further down the road? If you can wrap up,

the light's been right here for a few minutes, please. I have a few more sentences. Fast, fast, fast.

How are we the people supposed to have any faith and confidence that other corners won't be cut? How are we supposed to trust any part of the process going forward if you're already letting the developers slide on something as simple as the Sunshine Ordinance? So my question is simple. What action are you going to take about the developers failure to satisfy the Sunshine Ordinance requirements and when are you going to take that action?

Thank you. Scott.

Scott Candle, Nathan Birnbaum, followed by Sal Garibay, Jr., and then Daniel Ramirez.

Good evening. My name is Nathan Birnbaum. I am a member of the Board of Directors for the Orange County Needle Exchange Program. In November, we applied for recertification from the California Department of Public Health, and this past Friday we received word that we have been reauthorized to continue operations in Santa Ana. For the last two years, we have served over 200 people on average each weekend in a manner that is consistent with our harm reduction philosophy. We are here to keep our clients safe.

We are here to prevent the spread of infectious disease, and we are here to advocate for a more sane, just, and compassionate drug policy in the face of an opioid epidemic that has claimed far too many lives. We are a site for needle disposal. We have provided hundreds of referrals to substance abuse treatment, and together with the Solace Foundation of Orange County, we have been a hub for the distribution of Narcan, which has resulted in the reversal of thousands of overdoses.

We are aware of this council and this community's concerns about our physical location, and we share in your concerns about needle litter in this city. On January 2nd, we sent a proposal to Council Member Solorio regarding these two issues, and that has subsequently been shared with the Chief of Police. We view this list as a beginning point for discussions. As we have always been, we are committed to working together with this community, with the City Council, and with the Police Department.

Our reauthorization by the California Department of Public Health only makes that more important at this time. Thank you, and we look forward to collaborating with you as we work towards our shared commitment to the public health of the Santa Ana community. Thank you, Sal.

Daniel Ramirez.

Good evening, Mayor Pulido and City Council. My name is Daniel Ramirez. I'm a resident from Park Santiago, also part of the North Amsonana Preservations Alliance. And I'm just here to oppose the development on 2525 Main Street. And as you guys were mentioning, Mr. Solorio, by getting input from the community before you make a decision on the waste management issue. You are getting the input from your neighborhood for the people that you represent. And we oppose that development. I heard somebody else over here too saying that it's important to go back to the community and ask what they want and see what are their needs.

And we're expressing those needs that we don't want apartments on 2525 Main Street. And so we ask you to please don't change the rezoning and also to reconsider consider what can be done in that area. The Discovery Science Center, it's a great asset for the community. That would have been a great place to extend parking lot. That place is filled right now with people that come and visit the center. So that would have been a great option for the city to invest on that and be proactive before somebody else purchases the land

and then we're dealing with problems that your neighbors are. So I ask you guys to please vote against that project. again we put you up there and you know hopefully we can keep you up there by you're listening to our needs and our wants as far as changing that rezoning or building the departments thank you thank you Mona Ron Gotti Bay so with

that I'll bring it back to city manager's comments yes mr. mayor I just

have one announcement the Pacific Electric Park ribbon cutting event will take place January 20th at 9 a.m. and the park is located on the corner of Orange and McFadden Avenue. The park is themed after the historic Pacific electric train which once passed through the area. We'll have a bunch of amenities. It has native plants, playground, exercise equipment, community garden, restrooms, benches, drinking pounce, and overall we just invite the community and all of you to come out and attend this great event. Mr. Mayor, on

Yes, go ahead. On that item, and maybe it's necessary or maybe not. I know that same morning there's a major event in the downtown, the OC Women's March that probably some or many on this dais and others probably plan to attend and there's probably other competing events. I don't know if we ought to consider maybe doing this a little bit earlier or figuring out just the timing of some of the other opening ceremonies. We don't need to finalize this now, but I just want to put that on staff's radar.

I think our director has already taken that into account. But come on down, please let us know. And then your five minutes will start, and I'll go ahead and call on you in a moment.

Yes, we originally had it at 10, we changed it to nine. So now the event is at nine o'clock.

Do we know when the general ceremony is for the big event?

I believe Mayor Portem you probably know very much in detail right?

Yeah so the speaking will start at 8 30 and then the march at 9.

So doing this, either item at 9 is still...

Yeah but we're opening it up.

But the march is for like from 9 to noon I understand. And then at noon there's going to be another program? That's what I've heard.

Slow walkers looks like.

yes so well i it sounds like you know and we'll keep monitoring and i think i know they're still finalizing their their items as well so i i i'm glad you're thinking about it yes thank you so

just very quickly i did get a text message from the organizer and she just mentioned that it would be great if the ribbon cutting for us you know if it could be at 10. obviously we have it from 9 11 And I shared with Director Moet that by the time the program starts at 8.30, I'm not sure how long it's going to take you guys to walk a mile. But we could have enough time and ample time between 9.45 and 10 to do the ceremony where all the council is able to speak.

So the actual ceremony probably will be closer to 10, around 9.45 or 10. Yeah, the actual ribbon cutting ceremony. That works. That works. 9.45. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Solorio.

Yes. a few items. Number one, and it was referenced earlier, we had a speeding car that flew into the second story of a building, unfortunately, and thank God no one was fatally injured. But we have a lot of drag racing in the city and a lot of speeding in the city. And I know that throughout the city at night, you can hear these cars and it's regular. And I know I've talk to PD about it and they kind of say yeah we know it occurs and yeah we kind of monitor it but we're not doing enough because I'm sure it's the same strips the

same type of folks the same social media or other outlets that coordinate some of that stuff and this also relates to we're still tremendously understaffed in our police department about 60 vacancies even though budgeted and you know we've stopped mentioning how many non sworn vacancies we have but we have some as well and so we need to keep doing better by then this gets to the vehicular traffic issues and maybe we need to reconsider you know red light cameras maybe we need to reconsider other street calming devices but uh we need to do something i think that just highlighted for

the community this issue um the issue of the needles uh you know i was going to speak to that a little bit but uh the folks that were here have left um two final issues uh i noticed that in the governor's proposed budget they have in mind seven million dollars for grants for cities and local governments to work on the census and I think you know our legislative advocate ought to push for that and make sure that there's a kind of criteria that's going to be beneficial to us so we get a good count I know the last time I told the mayor that our numbers were down he was not happy

about it about it so we want to work practically on that finally maybe a workshop or maybe a memo with options but you know I'm concerned about pension costs that we have in the short term and in the long term and I think we need a really now start as we're gonna work on this next budget in the out years figure out what kind of options that we have and and not just as a cost-cutting measure but retirement security you know I want to make sure that when folks retire you know or whether it be SCIU employees or POA employees or fire

employees or our unrepresented employees that when they retire that the money's going to be there and that we don't cut it back in the future so we haven't really had a robust discussion on that I know every now and then we'll hear tidbits about and I know mayor Patem Martinez that keeps bringing this up but we really haven't had a real policy discussion or analysis one memo or workshop isn't going to solve it all, but it'll be at the beginning. Thank you.

If I may, Mr. Mayor, just coincidentally today we were discussing that same issue. We were talking about bringing a work study session in February between the two meetings, between the two scheduled council meetings, on the budget and a specialized discussion on just the retirement, the first situation.

Thank you, Councilman Villegas.

Thank you. Same thing from Councilman Benavides.

is shop santana oh my god that's amazing that's amazing go ahead councilmember vince armiento thank you mr mayor and i wanted to start off by wishing everybody a happy new year this is um i think we can still say that through the month of january um but i do want to thank everybody who did a lot of work last year and is going to be um busy this year with a lot on our plate And one of those things I just wanted to remind the city attorney was that I know there was some discussion sometime last year about district elections. And I know that we received a letter.

And we also received a letter inquiry from Congressman Correa's office. So I know I've been contacted. And so to the extent we can maybe follow up on that, that would be great. The other one was just simply, you know, we heard a lot of very troubling comments by our president. I was very, very disheartened over the weekend to hear, you know, the way some countries and some folks are being referenced and how they're being described. It is very unsettling for our population because we have a community of color where 80% of us are Latino and racial minorities.

And that's just not a good environment and not a good conversation to have with young children who wonder why, if they're brown or they're African American, why they should be treated and looked at differently. So to the extent that we can do more to sensitize our staff, and we have many staff that work with our community to make sure that we don't embody any of those ways of describing people of color. It's very difficult for us. It's very difficult, again, to describe to children the rationale behind that.

And so it has a lot to do with demeaning people and just damaging their self-confidence at a very tender age. So it troubles me because I do respect the office. But at the same time, to be silent is to be complicit and to acquiesce on something like that. It's almost condoning that type of discussion. And look, I don't know how low that bar can be set for somebody who just continues to amaze me. It's just very, very troubling and difficult for me to explain to my kids how we should respect people who are elected, people who are in office and in power.

I think, you know, government is still a noble pursuit. Unfortunately, you know, somebody who's really making our vision decay about that is unfortunate for all of us. So with that, I'll bid everybody good night. Thank you. Thank you.

Now, Salvador Tinajero. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We had our public safety meeting this last week. We had a, I wanted to congratulate Council Member Villegas, who was elected as the vice chair, who's actually running the meeting and doing a heck of a job. So congratulations. We did speak about the shot spotter update. We also talked about the new strategies that the police department is going to incorporate as far as recruiting new officers. We did spend quite a bit of time on the needle exchange program and also was happy to hear that we are really cracking down on the illegal cannabis shops.

And some of them that I knew were still open have now been closed. So congratulations to our law enforcement for doing the job well done there. and as we move forward into a new year I have to kind of, well not kind of, I agree with Councilmember Sarmiento. I was in Europe for two weeks, it was the first time I'd ever been to Europe and the headlines in every country that I went to and I was at four different countries was in regards to the type of rhetoric that's coming out of our leadership, our highest level of leadership and it is

having an effect worldwide and it's not making us look like the the beacon that we have always claimed to be as far as inclusiveness and and what has built this nation so I think we have to continue to speak and we need to continue to demonstrate through our actions what it is like to truly govern in a dignified manner thank you mr. mayor thank you mayor pro tem thank you mr. mayor very

quickly you know we had the opportunity with our key staff to go and visit the city of riverside in regards to a one-stop shop and what they're doing and their innovative approaches and how our city can move forward towards customer service and different innovations and making sure that we move in the right direction and i thought it was a really great meeting they also were able to share some of their leadership that they're taking in regards to homelessness and so homelessness and so we learned a lot from them I would just ask our city manager if we can please just write a letter thanking the mayor and council

and its staff for hosting us certainly we learned a lot and we could agendize at the next EDBT meeting of what we learned and what we can do to move in that direction as as we move forward and wanting to make sure we have good friendly business practices here in the city and being able to expedite a lot of the processes that we have in regards to development in small business. Next, I just wanted to also make sure that as we were talking about medicinal cannabis and where we're at, you know, we've accomplished three years.

If I wanted to ask our staff if we can get a report about, you know, some of the best practices, things that we've learned, also the costs associated, and how much money did we generate in regards to medicinal? And then also as we're moving towards recreational and the retail component, and we've received a brief update of who has been able to get those licenses, but I think from other issues in regards to manpower and resources and who within our city staff is in charge of, and I know we have a task force,

but the kind of manpower through planning, through finance, on and so forth in the city manager's office. And the last thing that I just wanted to speak about was the parking issues. Certainly, I have brought this up to our city staff. And I think a couple council meetings ago, Councilman Solorio and Councilman Villegas talked about probably doing a parking management study. I sent a comprehensive email to our city staff in regards to moving in that direction, but that process may take long. So looking at doing a pilot, a study of some of these neighborhoods that have parking permits

and those that don't. And so I look forward to meeting with our staff and discussing what some next steps are. And with that, Mr. Mayor, I wish everyone good night. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I hate to do this. I agree with Mayor Patel Martinez. You hate to agree with her? No, no, no. I hate to interrupt before you speak. Go ahead. I know I and others have had this concerned idea, and I know they keep putting off this citywide study because, oh, it's going to take too much time. But if we never start, we're never going to finish it. And I understand we've got to do some short-term stuff, but we've really got to start on the scope. I know there's vendors out there. I'll follow up with the city manager with some thoughts. And in terms of resources, you know, there's money.

And, you know, maybe we need to take it out of the police department, you know, out of the police motor traffic enforcement element. I know you're down some officers, so that's creating some savings. And so we can take just a little bit of those savings that are meant for keeping our streets safe. And we're literally having violence with folks fighting over parking spots late at night. and it's unfortunate and there's many fights including with a lot of you know young women or folks that get home late and it's uh we got to address it thank you is that like uh like taking a

chip and putting it like in guacamole or something and then taking a bite and then double dipping

on the time i'm just giving you a hard time because they're telling me hey he's beyond the red light man it's just additional time it's additional time yeah but that's the

The mayor pro tem left some time. She didn't take all her five minutes.

That's true. All right. Start the green light. All right. That's the green light for me. That's a 10 minute. I'm kidding.

Well, start again. Start again so that I get a clean. All right. Here we go. so so look um in a lot of uh some of our neighborhoods on the north end close to the riverbed close to the creek there's a lot of coyotes that are moving into town and i know that we got like tons of problems we got the homeless we got everything else but if you look at like fisher park west floral park floral park park santiago to some extent there's cats and dogs that are getting eaten every day every day so i know i some years back i think we

hired a tracker or something happened they captured the coyotes i think there's three of them as best i know a couple now there's a baby but the baby is so strong you know he can jump over fences and get into people's backyards and you know grab the cat or whatever and jump back to the creek so nature is wonderful except when it gets too close and in this case i just want to see if the city manager the city attorney i know city attorney told me she had done something in the past in your belinda where they had a similar problem so if they can come back with a suggestion as to

what you know what we might be able to do as a city i would you know be appreciative and as i'm sure a lot of other people would as well. So with that I'm going to stick to respecting the time. Mr. Mayor since you still have a little more time. You can take it because you didn't take much earlier. Go ahead. You can double dip. I'm just laughing here. Are we going to put an ordinance against coyotes? No, but there's three of them. There's three of them. I think we just have to get them out of town and take them up into the Santa Ana mountains somewhere else where there can be coyotes without, you know, people feeling that

you know if you leave your child out or something and they can get it that you know these are strong

beautiful wild animals you're gonna go dump Santa Ana coyotes in another city no in the mountain

up in the unincorporated county Vince you like dumping them in the county territory all right so with that this meeting is adjourned

Transcription by CastingWords

But even if we aren't even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even even

Thank you.