Read the March 16 meeting.

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Thank you, Madam Clerk. Let me go ahead and call this closed session meeting to order for today. March 16, 2021. Let me go ahead and begin with these opening comments, which in accordance with California Governor's Executive Order N-25-20 regarding the Brown Act and guidance from the

California Department of Public Health on gatherings. This meeting is taking place entirely by teleconference via zoo. The council chambers are closed. The public is accessing the meeting

via the standing and youtube channel or the city's website the council members and i along with the city managers the attorney city clerk and the executive team are all in different locations

and again as a reminder please bear with us as we may have some technical difficulties

and i'll go ahead and turn it over to the clerk so she can conduct roll call

thank you council member becerra council member hernandez council member lopez council member mendoza council member fan mayor content and mayor sarmiento

Thank you. I just want to go ahead and ask the council, are there any members of the council that would wish to abstain on any of the two items before us in closed session?

Seeing none, we'll go ahead and see if there are any members of the public that would wish to address this before we go into closed session. Madam Clerk, is there anybody that submitted

any written communication or would like to address this before we go into closed session?

We received no written communication. For any members of the public that have joined Zoom, if you would like to provide a comment on closed session item only, please dial star nine to virtually raise your hand or select the raise hand feature on the Zoom application. If you would like to speak on any closed session item, please select star nine or select raise hand from your Zoom application.

Mayor we did not receive any one virtually raising their hand wanting to speak on session item.

Thank you for that. Why don't we go ahead and recess this portion of meeting to consider the items on closed

session so I guess we all stay put until the virtual room is cleared.

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Okay, Mayor, we are ready.

All right. Give me one second.

Great. Let me go ahead and call this regular meeting of the Santa Ana City Council to order.

Let me go ahead and begin with the opening remarks here. In accordance with the California Governor's Executive Order N-25-20 regarding the Brown Act and guidance from the California Department of Public Health on gatherings, this meeting is taking place entirely by teleconference via Zoom. The city council chambers are closed. The public is accessing the meeting via Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. and the council members and I, along with the city manager, the city attorney, and the executive management team are all in different locations. And as usual, we will ask that all of you bear

with us with any technical difficulties that we may have, although they're becoming less and less as we're getting better at this. So I hope everybody is doing well. Good evening to everybody. We hope everybody is safe. And I'll go ahead and turn it over to the clerk of the council to call

role thank you councilmember basira here councilmember hernandez here councilmember lopez here councilmember mendoza councilmember fan here mayor pro tempina losa here and mayor sarmiento

Here. Madam Clerk, I know that I believe Council Member Mendoza will be joining us sometime during the meeting, but in advance of that I think you have a comment to make before we begin with the

Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation. Thank you. Before proceeding with the meeting, I'd like to announce that the public that was able to begin was able to begin joining the speaker queue at 4 30 p.m. in accordance with council procedures, calls will be locked and no additional calls will be accepted after the public comment session has begun. Therefore to be sure that you will be in the speaker queue, you must join the meeting by 6 p.m. To request to speak, dial star 9 from your phone or virtually raise your hand from Zoom. After the clerk confirms the last three digits of the caller's phone number or Zoom ID and

unmutes them, the caller must press star 6 or the microphone icon to speak. Callers are encouraged but not required to identify themselves by name. Each caller will be provided three minutes to speak otherwise indicated by the mayor.

Great. Thank you for that. And that's on the agenda as well for everybody to have notice of that. Why don't we go ahead and if you'll all please join me by following me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Let me go ahead and do this. If you'll all please rise, place your hand over your heart, and repeat after me, I pledge of 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.

And if you'll all please remain standing for the invocation that's going to be given to us this evening by Father Abel Lopez of the Church of the Messiah. Father Lopez, thank you so much for joining us this evening, and I'll go ahead and give the floor to you so you can address, sir.

Thank you, Mayor and Councilmember Phil Becerra for the invitation to do the invocation this evening. May we join in prayer at this moment.

God of justice, peace, and love, on behalf of all who are gathered here today, we offer you in prayers our sense of gratitude for the great gift of life and for the interconnectedness of our lives. Thank you for calling us to honor women during this month and celebrate their many accomplishments and gifts that they offer to make this world a better place. I ask that we do not only honor and celebrate them, but also join in the struggle for greater rights.

From you, we know that women's rights are human rights, so inspire us to strive for justice and fairness for women, for all your children, especially the most vulnerable among us. Help us to fulfill our calling in life to make this city a place of creativity, imagination and innovation. Give us enough strength to face the challenges ahead of us and in doing so help us to respect the dignity of every human being in everything we say and do.

We also thank you for our rich diversity, diversity of opinions and people, backgrounds, and for assuring us in the recesses of our souls that we all belong and that we all are your children. We thank you for calling us to turn the human race into the human family. May this meeting and all persons gathered here tonight be able to align our ideas and our actions with your inclusive, unconditional love for the entire human family. Amen.

Thank you, Father Lopez. Thank you for joining us tonight and sharing your words, inspirational words. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilmember, for the invitation extended to Father Lopez. Let me go ahead and begin with our ceremonial presentations. And the first one is going to be presented by Councilmembers Lopez, Mendoza, and Fan. It will be a proclamation to Wise Place, recognizing them for Women's History Month.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Thank you, Mayor. I will start with this. I'm so excited. All of the women on this dais, our virtual dais, are very excited to celebrate Women's History Month. Women make up more than half the population. We help run households, we work, we raise children. We are doing incredible things, yet there are still so many barriers in place. I know that as a woman and a woman of color, I've experienced a lot of those difficulties, And I'm so proud that not only do we have three women on the dais, but the three professionals

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

reporting directly to the council are women, you know, Sonia Cavallo, Christine Ridge, and Daisy Gomez. I'm so pleased to have these incredible folks working with us. And so Women's History Month grew out of the need to recognize the achievements of women in history. A lot of the history that we learn, whether it's from the founding fathers to the incredible, you know, the founding of our country, to the civil rights movement, much of it is

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

the work is emphasized on the actions of men. And so a lot of the contributions by women in history have been forgotten. So I hope that all of you can spend all of March thinking about the contributions of women that are either newly unearthed that have been forgotten, or that we have just not previously recognized. And so with that, we wanted to present this proclamation to Wise Place as they are, and a proclamation to Batil Agassi, the chief executive officer of Wise Place. Because Wise Place has been dedicated to transforming the lives of women,

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

those who are experiencing homelessness, many of whom have experienced domestic violence or are disabled. So for more than 90 years, WisePlace has served as one of the largest and most overlooked underserved communities, which is single women. Many single women who are homeless do not receive the same services as those who are parts of families. And so WisePlace is really filling in that gap. 76% of the vulnerable women served by WisePlace transitioned to stable, permanent housing with increased income and savings. They are changing the lives of these single women to ensure that they are contributing

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

to our community, to our neighborhoods. And I'm so excited that they will be celebrating all of our women, women's history, and will continue to support, to fight and strengthen our families, communities, and our workforce. So congratulations to WisePlace. And with that, I would like to call on my colleague, Councilmember Lopez.

Thank you, Councilmember Fan, for bringing this item forth and for allowing me to present alongside of you. I really want to echo all of your words and just add that there's unfinished business when it comes to achieving a parity for women in our country, and I know that we're going to continue to fight for that. You know, I have a quick story about White's Place. I was a young student at Santa Ana High School. When I first learned of the organization, I was part of ROP, and I landed my first internship with Wise Place. And so I quickly learned about what they do and

the services they provide. And I was so honored to service the women of Wise Place at such a young age. And I understood that the challenges that they face, anyone can face them, honestly. And so So as Councilmember Phan said, every year more than half of the women they serve experience domestic violence. And so it's really important that we support organizations like Wise Place. I believe in the power of second chances, and I know that the people here do too.

And so thank you for standing with women, for supporting us, for uplifting us, and for all that you do here in the city of Sana'ana.

I will kick it off to Council Member Mendoza.

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to present such a wise place. It is with great honor that I participate in bringing this very special recognition to this organization because for many years they've provided so many services to the women of Orange County.

And it's such a crucial time during times that White Place has been there and in bringing the appropriate services. So we thank you and all the women, especially during this, in March, in recognition of Women's History Month. Thank you. and we hope to continue to refer the much needed women to your place. And thank you and keep up the great job.

Great. Thank you, council members. And we got most of that, council member Mendoza. You were kind of going in and out, but we got the effect and we got a lot of the background from your colleagues on the council that did an excellent job representing this presentation or presenting this to Wise Place. So thank you, council members. It's an honor to serve with you guys. And I couldn't think of a better recipient to receive this proclamation for Women's History Month. Moving along to the second item on the ceremonial presentation, the certificate of recognition presented to Paula Falco

by Mayor Pro Tempeñolosa for her outstanding contributions.

David PenalozaItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to take the opportunity to recognize a Wilshire Square neighborhood resident, Paula Foucault. Paula Foucault has been a longtime resident and diligent advocate in the Wilshire Square neighborhood for decades. Paula recently stepped down as a chair of the Christmas wreath decorating committee for the neighborhood. She took this lead on this committee in 2005 from the previous chair, Jim Kendricks. The committee leads the efforts each year in placing Christmas wreaths on each of the light standards in the Wilshire Square neighborhood.

David PenalozaItem 2

Paula has diligently organized volunteers each year in the meticulous effort of installing the wreaths in the beginning of the season and removing them at the close of each season. In addition, once removed, all the decor was cleaned, refurbished, and stored in her garage for most of that time. The entire community truly appreciates the efforts put forth by this committee and all of the holiday cheer that it brings to the neighborhood. Ms. Fakou has been a trooper all these years, quietly coordinating this task, which takes great deals of time and persistence, and her efforts have not gone unnoticed.

David PenalozaItem 2

Ms. Fakou lives in her childhood home that her family has lived in since 1922 for over close to 100 years. So she is truly lifelong resident of the square and will always be a part of our Lady of the Wreaths.

David PenalozaItem 2

The plaque that is visible on the screen was presented to her by the Wilshire Square residents, which I think it's beautiful and clever. They were able to put a little wreath on there. But for those familiar with the neighborhood, she was basically in charge voluntarily of installing these Christmas wreaths on each light post. and during off-season, she would store them in her garage. I believe from one of the neighborhood association meetings that I was president at virtually, I know that it was close to, if not more than 100 wreaths that she had to store in her garage

David PenalozaItem 2

and also clean and prep for the following Christmas season, which, you know, if it's anything like my garage, My garage is full of junk and it's clutter and I can't fit anything in it. So the fact that she was a trooper and was able to do this for the residents and the neighborhood, you know, I applaud her and the Wilshire residents also thank her for her efforts. And I know that at that last neighborhood meeting that I was at, they were discussing of who is going to take over, who trying to find the volunteer in the wilshire square neighborhood to take

mayor pro tem

David PenalozaItem 2

i think we may have lost the volunteer efforts of of taking care of the wreaths did i cut off

yeah you did just a little bit towards the end there oh sorry you're back you're back

David PenalozaItem 2

I just got a thing that says your connection is unstable. So, but I know that she, that they, the residents of Wilshire Square were looking for another neighborhood leader to take over, storing these wreaths and taking care of them the entire year for that Christmas season. I know many of us on the council have participated in their Wilshire Square holiday parade that they put together every year.

David PenalozaItem 2

and just driving down each and every street in the parade, you can tell how great these Christmas wreaths look and how festive and cheerful it looks. I'm a big fan of Christmas, so any holiday cheer that I see throughout our city is always great. So, Ms. Paula, I thank you. The city of Santa Ana thanks you. The residents of Wilshire Square thank you. and we're hoping that whoever takes over

David PenalozaItem 2

knows that they have huge shoes to fill and you've set the bar really high for them. So thank you. And on behalf of the mayor and the city council, I present you with the recognition and the Wilshire Square neighborhood presents you with the wreath plaque. So thank you.

Great, thank you for that presentation, Mayor Pro Tem. We certainly wanna thank Paula for her efforts and her successor will need to have as big a heart as she does and a big garage as well. So thank you Paula. Moving along to the staff presentations, I'm going to just take a couple of these out of order. Basically I'm going to have the COVID-19 update follow the two other public presentations. So why don't we begin with number four which is the neighborhood beautification contest presentation. Certainly honorable mayor,

mayor pro tem and council members. Nabil Saba, your public works executive director, We'll do both four and five and they are both about beautification within our city. So with that, I will turn it over to Nabil.

NABIL POTEMPTAROVSKY- Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp. I am trying to get the screen up and share my presentation with you.

Do you see my presentation?

Yes.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Potem, and members of the City Council. Tonight I would like to present to you a new initiative to beautify our neighborhoods and communities by introducing a neighborhood beautification contest. This contest is meant to be fun, friendly, and to bring a community pride to our community. It is called a neighborhood block beautification contest. We'll give you an overview of what we have in mind. It is

an agro neighborhood block bonification that will launch citywide in early 2021. It's sponsored by the City of Santa Ana Public Works Agency. The contest is designed to encourage and promote community involvements in keeping Santa Ana a beautiful place to live, work, and play. The NBBC will recognize and reward residents for winning neighborhood blocks whose properties reflect their community pride and have aesthetically pleasing appearance.

All residents are encouraged to participate.

Residents within a neighborhood block will be asked to assign a block coordinator who who will be responsible for ensuring eligibility requirements are met and for submitting blocks entry forms. Entries will be judged by the Environmental Transportation Advisory Commission.

The city manager, public works executive director and corresponding council member will recognize three winning neighborhood blocks per ward with installed signage and $100 gift certificate for participants.

The parameters of the contest, it is citywide. Oops.

Anyone can participate. 50% of the homes on the block need to participate to qualify.

A block is defined as a section of home separated by street at each end. This is a sample of a neighborhood block.

Block coordinators will be responsible for completing and submitting the entry form, which will include detailed information as well as before and after photos. Purification of parkway, fencing, front yard, and home are included. it. Conditions of streets and sidewalk will not be affected in the judging. The timeline for the contest starts, promotion will start March and April of this year. On May 1st,

the contest begins. On May 21st, which happens to be the end of Public Works Week, is the application deadline. May 21st through May 31st, we will be reviewing the applications. June 1 through the 7th will be judging by ETAC. In July, a sign will be unveiled and gift certificates will be presented to the winning blocks and the participants. The winning block will be presented with an installed sign at each end of the block, two signs commemorating

the neighborhood block community pride. The final decision on the location of each award sign will be determined by the city of Santa Ana Public Works executive director based on various factors including American Disability Act, Safety, Visibility, and Aesthetics.

This is the proposed sign and we will be installing those again at the beginning and the ending of the winning block. The sign will be fabricated cast steel aluminum mounted on a single pole just like you see here.

that concludes my presentation i would like to ask for your support very soon public works agency will launch the promotion of this contest and we're hoping to be a success with your help

and i'm open for any questions great thank you for that presentation director saba that's a good looking sign, man. I like it. And NBC, we've already got an acronym for it. All right. Yes. Okay. Oh, NBBC, right? Okay. Let me bring that back to the council if anybody has any comments or questions for Director Saba. Mr. Mayor? Yes, go ahead, Narek Korten.

David PenalozaItem 2

I just wanted to thank Director Saba for this. This is great. Just to echo the mayor, that is a really good looking sign. And I'm excited to see where they pop up throughout our city. I'm hopeful that we're going to have a wide range throughout of these recipients. I would hate to be that one hoarder house on the street that we oftentimes see in our neighborhoods. There's always that one house that just sticks out. But looking forward to this, I'm excited. Hopefully our residents participate and look forward to it. Thank you.

Any other council members wish to comment?

All right. Hearing none, seeing none. Thank you. That's a great way to build community pride as well. I think before it was just a single home and now doing it with a block or doing it with an area, it kind of brings together camaraderie amongst neighbors and that's always a good thing. So thank you, staff, and thank you, Director Saba, for that. I think, Director Saba, you have the next one as well, right? It's the 55 Improvement Project? Yes. Go ahead.

Let's see.

Do you see my presentation? Yes. Okay, again, thank you for the opportunity. Nabil Sabah, Director of Public Works. The Costa Mesa Freeway Improvement Project, I'd like to at least to show you what we have accomplished working with OCTA and Caltrans on providing some aesthetic features to this project. A background on this project, The goal of the widening of the 55 freeway is to increase the freeway capacity, increase mobility and reduce congestion.

The funding is through Measure M2, $411 million worth of improvement. It is scheduled right now for design and right of way acquisition. construction of the project should commence sometimes in 2021, this year, and should end in 2024. Throughout the widening of the 55, we have found working with OCTA, a couple of opportunities where we can include some aesthetic treatment on the retaining walls when the freeway is widened.

The first location is along Hutton Center. And as you can see in the red line here, this is the retaining wall, the new retaining wall, that where aesthetic treatment will be added.

Drivers on the freeway will not be able to see the aesthetic treatment. However, drivers on Hutton Center will be able to see the improvements. In another location was included along Grand Avenue. And again, it is where the Grand meets the Alton Street on your left-hand side. There will be a retaining wall that will include those treatments right here. So we came up with four designs that these walls will receive.

and those are the four options and all four will be included in the design the first one shows the Bowers Museum along with Jaguaranda trees and the Japanese hibiscus and the parrot in addition to that you may want to see the Santa Ana wins on the design so the second one is the Spurgeon clock tower, followed by the elevated tank, followed by the county courthouse.

So all of those pictures are contiguous, and Caltrans OCTA will be able to join them together to give us a continuous view of all four pictures on these walls. We're looking forward for those to be completed through the expansion or widening of the 55 freeway. I'd like to thank staff OCTA and Caltrans for working with the city on accomplishment of these designs. In addition

to the retaining wall designs, we also have, we will be adding the seal on the piers or the the columns of the bridges or the bridge just on MacArthur, Dyer, and Edinger through this State Route 55. That concludes my, I'm excited about this because Santa Ana never got anything on the freeways. And finally, we're going to get something. Although this ones are not exactly on the freeways, but they will be seen by the resident of Santa Ana on those retaining walls.

And that concludes my presentation. Thank you, Director Saba. Let me bring it back to the council if there are any questions or comments.

David PenalozaItem 2

Mr. Mayor, no questions. I just want to say that I'm happy to see Santa Ana written on the water tower of those designs, Nebio. So thank you for that.

Thank you.

any other uh comments or questions from the council i

hearing none seeing none uh uh director saba so just a quick question i may have missed this so you said this design is it going to be on the interior of the wall so not facing the freeway or is it going to be on the on the side facing the freeway it would be the side facing the street Got it. No, it's a great looking design and I really like the parrots on there as well, on all of these. So it's a good look. I know that there was, we're giving a nod to the county on

that last one though. So we got to tell them, hey, we're keeping them, we're giving them a little something here. Anyways, I think that Council Member Lopez has a comment or question as well,

but great work on this. I do and I know you can't see the full screen because of the presentation, just wanted to give you a heads up to Council Member. Sarah also has a question. But quick question, Director Saba, are there going to be any land acquisitions that we do through the improvement project? Yes, there is. The land acquisition is being done by the OCTA for the widening of the 55 freeway. And that's why it's taken a little longer because they have to acquire land to actually expand or widen the freeway. Okay. And then my second comment would be

that I'm really liking seeing the banana seal, but that's because I think it's one of the best ones in Orange County.

Nice, thank you. I believe so too. Yeah, thank you, Council Member. And just to go a little further, yeah, OCTA is taking, their partial takes are not, you know, full takes or anything, and they're very narrow along the 55, a little closer to the five freeway, but they just needed that additional space for a shoulder. So I think everybody's been able to work well with the property owners so far. Councilman Sarah.

Phil BacerraItem 2

They want you to stop. Mr. Mayor, Nabil, the designs are great. I love all the acknowledgments of these designs towards all these different things of Santa Ana, whether it's the built environment, whether it's our jacarandas, whether it's our parrots. I think it's great. It's just, it's a nice design. I think it's a lot better than what we'd see on other freeways throughout Orange County or Southern California. and Mr. Mayor, I don't mind them showing the county courthouse on there because our town founder gave them the land to put it on there. So actually they're welcome. And so

Phil BacerraItem 2

I'm happy to see that put in stone for everybody to see. But no, I completely, I understand your sentiment, Mr. Mayor, and I agree in certain regards, but I do love the true story of the fact that that courthouse sits on land that our town founder had the vision when he saw along with others for Santa Ana to be the county seat. So again, I just want to bring it back to saying thank you for showing off that design to the council and to the community. Thank

you. You're welcome. Thank you. Good call. Good comments, everybody. Yeah, and I really like the way the seal looks on those columns. I think those really stand out and make a difference, let everybody know where they are when they're driving through our town. So thank you for that, Director Saba for both those presentations. Let me move along to the final presentation, and that's the COVID-19 update, and that'll be presented by Madam City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor and Council members. Tonight's COVID presentation is going to focus on vaccine efforts, and it will actually be given by Daisy Perez, who is assistant to the City Manager. She was instrumental leading the efforts, and she has a lot of good information to report tonight. So with that, I will turn it over to Daisy.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Can you hear me now?

Okay. Yes. Thank you. Okay.

Okay. Tonight I'll be providing an update on COVID-19 vaccinations and the significant progress that has been made under the leadership of the city council.

Daisy, do you want to switch it to slideshow?

Oh, just, it should be. Just a second.

How about now? Perfect. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. As many of you know, COVID-19 vaccinations are one of the most important tools we have to end the COVID-19 pandemic. The state is prioritizing vaccination for equity distribution to everyone in California who wants it. The California Department of Public Health expects to have enough supplies to vaccinate most of Californians by May of 2021, just around the corner. As you can see, the state and county have recently opened up vaccinations to phase 1b

and individuals 16 to 64 with certain medical conditions. Pfizer is the vaccine that has been approved for the 16 and 17 year olds and Moderna and Johnson and Johnson have been approved for individuals 18 and over. So in the meantime, Santa Ana residents should sign up now on the county's vaccination appointment website, Othena, in order to get an appointment when one becomes available. Othena is now available in Spanish, English, Vietnamese, and Korean. And if anyone

needs assistance signing up through the Othena website, you can call the county's hotline. It's 714-834-2000. The city also has a supplemental hotline that we've opened up to assist folks navigating through this system. For that line, they can call 714-667-2273.

We are really happy with this map and to show that there are over 50 vaccination sites It's within a 10-mile radius of the city center. This is comprised of healthcare providers, pharmacies, community clinics, the county, all coming together to provide vaccines in Santa Ana. So Santa Ana residents can look up the closest vaccination site to them using the Vaccine Finder tool available through the county's website. The federal, state, and county governments are all working feverishly with us to bring more vaccines to Santa Ana.

Our hope is that soon we will have enough vaccinations in Santa Ana for all the residents who would like one.

According to data available through the Orange County Public Health website, we're able to see how many seniors in our city have been vaccinated. it. There currently isn't information available right now for any of the other age groups, but we hope it'll be available soon. So based on the map that I just showed, you can see the percentage of seniors that have been vaccinated in Santa Ana. Keep in mind that these figures are only the figures that are being reported through Othena. So we can safely estimate based on what the county and Dr. Chow have told us that the actual numbers are between 20 to 30 percent

higher than the numbers indicated above. I also wanted to note that the lowest zip code on here, 92705, most of that zip code is actually unincorporated Santa Ana and doesn't fall within our city limits. We have actively been working with many public and private partners to bring more vaccines to our residents. The mayor has recently brought these partners together to form a Santa Ana vaccination task force. The goal of this task force is to improve communication amongst our partners to more effectively navigate our residents through the vaccination process.

As more supply becomes available, we hope to continue to expand the options our residents have access to. Most recently, we partnered with Memorial Care to offer two vaccination clinics at our very own Southwest Center.

Oh, there we go. The first clinic took place last Saturday where over 275 Santa Ana seniors received their first dose of the Moderna vaccine. The next clinic is scheduled for Saturday, March 20th. We anticipate that 1,000 vaccinations will be given to residents over 65 and those 18 to 64 with severe health conditions. Staff from the police department, neighborhood initiatives, housing, and the city manager's office rolled out an extensive outreach campaign to promote the event. Staff also piloted a new texting service to expand our reach to seniors in the city.

I am happy to report that at this time, all 1,000 slots have been filled. and for residents that would like to sign up to our waitlist for this event they can text 323-601-8377 again for residents that would like to sign up for the waitlist in case we have cancellations they can text 323-601-8377

as you can see our residents were very happy and appreciative to have had the opportunity to be vaccinated and we hope to vaccinate many more santaneros in the near future

as a reminder i would like to remind everyone that we still have free covet 19 testing available as well and we have five kiosks that are placed all throughout the city to schedule an appointment for testing you can visit the website on the screen or you can call 1-800-446-8888. That concludes my presentation and I am available for questions.

Thank you, Daisy. Thank you for that. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the council because now I can see everybody. I appreciate it. Great presentation, by the way. So let me bring it back to others. Does anybody have any questions or comments for Daisy on that presentation or the city manager.

Council Member Pham.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Daisy, for that presentation. I love seeing the vaccination numbers go up for our residents. So a couple things. One is for those testing kiosks, how often are they being used? Because I know we had the special meeting early in the year to allocate funds toward that. I just want to make sure that folks know you should still get tested because the vast, vast majority, 90% of Americans, 90% of Californians have not been vaxxed. And so you want to keep getting tested to make sure that if you're having any symptoms, you're not transmitting that to others.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

So I guess, how often are they being used? Are we still continuing to promote them?

Yes, we received our monthly report. They've been up for about a month now, and the numbers of folks getting tested has significantly decreased from when we launched the kiosks, and much more so than even what our testing volume was in December. That's why I wanted to include it in the presentation, because it's still very important that residents are tested, and the testing kiosks are still scheduled to be up through the end of the fiscal year, which is the end of June. I can pull up the numbers if you'd like to see or I can send those to you and the rest of the council at our later date.

And what we can also do is for transparency and open government, share the report that we received on our COVID-19 website.

Thai Viet PhanItem 3

Yeah, that would be really helpful. And I just want to reiterate that testing right now is the best way to lower transmission to continue to ensure that we remain in the red tier or even go down to even less restrictive tiers. But without testing, we won't know who's getting sick, who's ending up in the hospital, and we can't keep each other safe for those who are not vaccinated. So please use those resources. Otherwise, thank you so much, and please keep sharing these maps with me because they bring a lot of joy. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Phan. Any other questions or comments from the Council?

So seeing none, let me just say thank you for that presentation. That slide that you showed,

50 sites where people can access vaccines is really, really a great site to see because I I wish we would have had a before slide that showed just even a few weeks ago what it looked like and now. So I want to begin by just thanking all of you who signed off on a letter along with our colleagues from the school, Santa Ana Unified School District, along with our colleagues, our Santa Ana colleagues from the Rancho Santiago Community College District, basically urging more, you know, more attention, more vaccines to be sent to Santa Ana. I think

because of your voices and our collective voices, it really made a difference. I think that's why we saw that slide so filled with sites where people can access vaccine. I know that, you know, I was at the Southwest Senior Center on Saturday, and it really is moving to see somebody who gets vaccinated walk out the door. People are get, you know, teared up. People get very emotional, home. And it is emotional to somebody to see that as well. So I just want to thank staff for everything that they've done and also our partners at Memorial Care who decided to come

and work with us on this. And the good news is, or the great news is that I just heard today again as what Daisy said that all thousand spots for vaccines are now filled, where I think this past Saturday, we struggled a little bit to get those spots filled. But I think what happened in the course of that was we learned a really, really valuable lesson and found a valuable tool. And I want to, you know, applaud staff for that because I guess there's this, you know, whole texting, you know, approach that we learned about. And it's a great tool. It's a

great way to access, you know, people in their neighborhoods, in their blocks, in their census tracks in their zip codes, but it really is a deep dive into who's in our city and a really effective tool for us to use in the future. So I really want to thank you guys for working that end of it, because as I've always said, emails don't work in our town. It's just not as effective. And I think this texting, from what I understand, has had some great results. And the hotline that we have, a lot of people are really happy with that because it's just helped both in English,

or excuse me, in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, for somebody to be on the line with you and walk you through makes a huge, huge difference. So I think we've really changed the tone of where we were to where we are now. So I just have to say real proud of everybody's efforts and real grateful to staff for their work. And just a shout out to former council member Sal Tina Harrow, whose wife works with Memorial Care and helped us engage with them and help bring that attention to Santa Ana because when nobody was here, they stepped up and said, hey, we want to help Santa Ana.

And they could have gone to any other community and they came here to come help us out. So thank you for that presentation, everybody. We should look forward to more of this good news and good stuff as it comes before us. So I think that's it. seeing no other comments or questions, let me move it along to the city attorney. So let me go ahead and ask the city attorney if she has anything to report out of closed session. Mayor, we did discuss

two items in closed session this evening. We do not have any reportable action under the Brown Act, but I understand that the city will be working on sharing some information with the public.

Great. Thank you for that. Moving along to the public comment section of the meeting, this is for us to hear from members of the public on agenda and non-agenda items. And we'll go ahead and any written communications will be taken into account. And the public comment line has been open since I believe 5 p.m. as Madam Clerk has said. And Madam Clerk, are there any members of the public wishing to address the council at this time.

Yes, thank you, Mayor and Council members. There are speakers ready to provide their comments. To request to speak, dial star nine from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom. Please do not call or Zoom to only listen to the meeting. Before unmuting callers, I'd like to begin by reporting the following summary of the emails provided as of today. We received one Santa Ana resident and one Sierra Club

supporting climate change resolution and two residency not disclosed. We received the non-Santa Ana resident providing a passage celebrating Women's History Month and then two residency not disclosed in support of the Immigration Legal Defense Services Agreement, Item 28. and we received four Santa Ana residents in opposition to item 34 rebuild handball courts at Chepas Park. We also received the petition with 35 signature all Santa Ana residents in opposition to rebuilding the handball handball courts at Chepas Park. And with that

Zoom ID Donna if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. to unmute your call and you may proceed with your comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. Thank you.

Okay, so I am requesting the handball courts to be rebuilt. It was unfair to our community to have them torn down without any notification and without getting the community's opinion. The majority spoke at the last meeting that we wanted them back. So I feel that if they're not rebuilt, it tells us that you guys are not representing us and you're not addressing the desires of the Logan community. Just today it took us two and a half hours just to speak on this one event. And at the last meeting it took a couple hours as well. Where was

this time before they were knocked down. It's very disheartening to have to beg and plead when there was no time taken prior to them being torn down.

And that is my comment.

Thank you.

Caller with the last three numbers 010. If you would please dial star six to unmute your call. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Hello?

Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. You may proceed with your comment.

Yeah, David, Victor Mendez, I want to just give me a little bit. I want to add something to the COVID-19 that's very important. I just want to let everyone know that, yes, the COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in downtown Santa Ana at first in Maine. I was heartened to walk into the pharmacy this afternoon and be given a slip saying, are you here for your vaccine appointment? And I thought it was for 65 and only, but nope. Anyone 18 to 64 or whatever can get a COVID-19 appointment at first in Maine. And they simply need to, and they don't have to go through any texting, any internet. They only need to call 1-800-746-7287.

1-800-746-7287. You know, I was listening to the comments, and, you know, the process seemed a little kludgy, but at least the pharmacy on Maine and First has something really straightforward, and they're ready to start administering the vaccine. So thank you so much for that effort, and, you know, let's get at this. So thank you. Now on to my comments, if I may. I just heard a comment on item 30, the debt pension fund. As I commented earlier, I still, I like the solution. I like what we're thinking here, what staff is thinking, but I still believe you're moving

far too fast and this report kind of has a sense of urgency that I don't know, I'm just not sensing this needs to really be there. You know, this action will push your credit limits to the max. It's going to tap out your water fund reserves and therefore sacrifice future water projects, which means perhaps less clean water for our children down the road, as well as our ability to tap into other bonds for our roads and other infrastructure. Like I said, it's a good initiative and should be diligently pursued, but let's break it down a little bit more methodically.

Make sure you have everything in place, because it's a very complex undertaking. And please bear in mind, this is going to be a 25-year endeavor. But you're about ready to set a 25-year precedent for future councils. So just make sure you're doing it right and you're absolutely confident in what you're doing. You know, the other thing that concerns me that of late I've noticed a lot of gaps in the financial analysis coming out of staff. For example, a couple of weeks ago there was the estimate for the revenues. And from what I can see, they really didn't incorporate the cannabis revenues.

as probably as best they could. There was a gap with respect to the third and Broadway project where they forgot to put in the $600,000 in lost revenue, things like that. So let's just make sure it's done right and it's done correctly. And everyone on council knows exactly what they're doing and fully, fully understands what they're voting on. And it's all right to say, I don't know. That's okay. It's complicated. But make sure you do know before you commit the city down this path, which, like I said, would be a 25-year path that would be very hard to correct down the road if

you're wrong. And lastly, there's a lot of viable options to reduce costs right now. Look at your $4 million cost in Metro with the police department. 15 seconds left. Okay. And the $7.5 million in vehicle costs. Or perhaps look at the revenue side for increasing cannabis. A lot of things can be done right now, and if they put that much energy into it, I think you'll achieve a lot of success. Thank you.

Thank you. Zoom ID Isaac Monzo, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Zoom ID Isaac Monzo, if you would thank you. You successfully unmuted yourself.

Okay, good afternoon, everybody. So I'm in favor of rebuilding the Hambo Corks. Prior to them being knocked down, as they mentioned before, the community wasn't notified. The Neighborhood Association has not been transparent with their actions. They didn't notify the people of the action of knocking them down. Two, on the last meeting, there was an overwhelming support to rebuild the Corks. When the whole community was informed, Jonathan Hernandez, council member, went throughout the community and passed out fires for other people to participate. And two, the notion or the information that has been provided to the council members

that the courts bring a negative or criminals to the environment is false.

There's police records that corroborate this claim. The courts are not dangerous. There's no tie or correlation between the courts and criminals. Google reviews, other websites that do park reviews have the park listed as a four out of five, eight out of ten. And there's no mention of a park safety or handbook courts bringing negativity to the community. And three, I know there's been mention of that the courts were knocked down. Well, now that they're knocked down, there's going to be an increase in playground because the majority of the people in the community are children. That's not the case.

The most recent demographic of the Longue neighborhood suggests that 30 percent of the The community members of Logan are between the ages of eight and 25. So these people aren't going to go to the playground. They need hamburg courts, which was the popular sport in this neighborhood and was used to steer young children away from criminal activity. And also, I was made aware that there was a petition passed out today against the hamburg courts. I want to reiterate that the neighborhood association didn't notify any majority of the community that there was this petition nobody knocked on my door nobody knocked on my neighbors

doors this um it's just the neighborhood association is misleading the council and that's all i have to say thank you

zoom id jo andrade if you would please select the microphone icon on your device

Yes. Yes, my name is John Drotti. I'm from the Logan neighborhood. We have gone out and we've taken a petition. We found out the majority of the people here have signed it. And I think you said it wrong when we came into it and you guys were saying about the petition. It is against putting the handball courts back. And the reason being is, yes, we have new apartments over here, too. We got a lot of children there. We want to make it friendly for the people, the kids, and safe.

We have so many people around here that have been so happy with the quality of life they have now. They don't have to hear everybody cussing, everybody drinking, everybody doing drugs. I don't have to go out and pick up needles or call the city to come and pick them up. It's been a beautiful time. So, yes, a lot of people that they didn't go to and ask also had the problem. The meeting he's talking about is the one that Jonathan had. I happened to be away at that time. The meeting was one-sided because not enough people were informed about the meeting.

So, yeah, it's going to go one way. But if you look at all the petitions and everything that's going on and all the people that signed and the people that are going to call in today, we don't want it. It's just, you know, the undesirable just come in. So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Robert Herrera. Our caller with the last three numbers, 627. If you would please dial star six to unmute your call.

Caller with the last three numbers, 627, thank you. You've successfully unmuted yourself. You may proceed with your comment.

Thanks. Hi, City Council. My name is Roberto. I'm with Resilience Orange County and the Orange County Rapid Response Network. I am speaking on item 28 that's on the agenda. It's to approve the agreement with immigrant defenders for the Legal Defense Fund. And I just want to applaud the City Council for the past years to kind of increase the funding for legal defense in regards to folks that are in removal proceedings. As a part of like the Orange County Rapid Response Network, we've been able to identify by Santana residents that are being impacted. And we built that trust with them

for them to like reach out to us. And we're always helpful and thankful when we find out that folks are from Santana because we know that the city is behind them in providing that legal service. And so I'm just calling, I saw it on the agenda and I just wanted to kind of, you know, applaud you all for continuing to support the program. I know the program itself was created under and in response to the Trump administration in kind of the ramp up of deportation.

But I think in the switch of this administration, I think that immigration enforcement, as we see, still continue to some extent. And so I don't want you all to get the impression that because we have a new administration, that immigration enforcement is not going to continue and that Santana residents aren't going to be impacted. So, you know, I would encourage you all to continue the funding levels that they are. And if, you know, if possible, increase funding. I know that's something that, like, may come up in budget advocacy talks as we move into, you know, May, June.

You know, I'll continuously come back and make those requests for additional funding, as needed because I think in regards to the funding, I think there can be more funding allocated to support more Santana families and keeping them together. So I just wanted to call and just hope you all can move forward in this agreement and in the future have an increase in the funding for the Legal Defense Fund. Thank you all so much.

Thank you. Zoom ID Tony O, if you would please select the microphone icon to unmute your call.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we could hear you. Thank you.

Hello, thank you for having me. I'm just calling about the handbook for the record for the handbook.

Hi, Tony. It seems like maybe your signal is not strong because you're coming in and out.

Oh, we lost the caller.

Oh, there you are. Tony?

It looks like we cannot... Hello?

Hi. Yeah, it looks like you're coming in and out. I think maybe the signal where you're standing may not be strong.

Yeah.

The Andrade family has always created a rift in the neighborhood. As far as things that should go down in the neighborhood, it seems like they have a personal agenda for themselves. And whoever's against that agenda, they know to include. So they themselves create this rift that has always been there for years. They're unapproachable when it comes to anything in regards to the neighborhood. And handball is actually a cheap sport that a lot of kids can play, especially nowadays in Santa Ana. A lot of families are struggling. It doesn't take much.

A lot of families don't have the money to, you know, provide for their kids to play other sports that are extremely expensive. Again, I grew up there 20-plus years. All my brothers grew up there. They're all professionals.

I myself work in a trade. Everybody there in that neighborhood, as was stated by Joe, is not a gang member. Yes, there's always going to be bad people that show up. That's going to happen regardless of whether there's a playground there or a handball court or whatever location you're at. There's always going to be people that are going to come in and try to create a ruckus. That's not going to change. and I think by them providing benches and playgrounds, as they say they're gonna do, it's actually gonna create more of an issue. More people, more homeless are gonna hang out there

and yeah, I think the handball court should be rebuilt and that's all I have to say, thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Leonardo Benilla, if you would please, thank you.

Okay. Hello. Can everybody hear me, Kurt? Well? Yes, we can hear you. Okay. I'm just going to begin. My name is Leo. I am here in support of rebuilding the handball courts. I'm just going to state this. We've gone over this before. The Andrade family has tried to mislead the city council by claiming to speak for the whole community before. They did it in the early 2000s. We found out, and then we showed up to the city council meetings. and again, right there, there was overwhelming support to keep the handball courts. Then after that, they tried again in 2015. Again, we showed up, there was overwhelming support

for keep the handball courts. The city has done countless surveys in the area and every single time there has been overwhelming support for keeping the handball courts. This time, again, this time, it was difficult for us to show up and have any kind of communication or to show our support since there was a lockdown. So we couldn't be going out anywhere and there was no signs. Nobody in the community was made aware of this. Most of the community was made aware of it when the courts were actually being knocked down. They were awakened in the morning to sounds of construction happening and nobody knew what was going on.

And again, we went out, we got signatures. We've had the support. Council Member Hernandez held a listening session with members of the community. The Andrade family was all invited. All the people in the apartments were all invited. All the people that wanted to participate were allowed to participate. And that listening session, again, overwhelming support for keeping the handball courts. This is the third time we've had to go over this. And this is the third time that there has been overwhelming support for keeping the handball courts.

All these claims that there's illegal activity, gangs, drugs, alcohol use, there is no precedent for that. And in 2015, that was one of the things that they brought up. So the city council agreed to put up lights and cameras, and they did. So if there was any kind of proof to support these claims, it would be there. It would be in the police records. And as soon as I found out of the handball courts being taken down, I requested police records for the past four years. And in those four years, there's nothing indicating that there's any of this activity happening in the park. And so again, we've gone over this.

This is the third time now, and again, we have to prove yet again that one family is misleading the city council and not speaking for the whole community. That is all I have to say for right now. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Dolores Amaras, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Yes, good afternoon to all. Very nice to meet you for attending to us and our community.

Thank you, Jonathan Hernández, who has a favor of us to listen to us. And the Mr. David Peña Loza, who I have previously talked to him. My name is Dolores Almaraz, for you to serve. My name is 909 East Washington, Santa Ana, California. I am president and funder of a club of women in progress. I have more than 20 years participating in the community of Santana and serving in different events for my community. I do it with passion for the reason why I now am going to the fight for the handball. This is the fourth time that I have fought for the handball.

In the past, the Mr. Andrade had the same attitude to derribing the handball. desafortunadamente el señor tomó la decisión junto con una confusión que tuvo el señor david peñalosa y de tomar una mala decisión de derrumbar las canchas en septiembre del 2020 desafortunadamente ya no estaba pero anteriormente yo pude colectar más de mil firmas de personas que utilizaban las canchas tanto los mismos residentes del vecindario como personas del and that they come to study at San Jose, people who have their time to lunch and come to play the game.

My job as leader of the community has always been to protect the areas green, to seek resources and activities for our youth, to seek activities for a restorative justice, which is what motivates me, because the camps are of much useful for our youth. Desafortunadamente, el señor Andrade ha tomado un liderazgo en el cual no hace partícipe a nosotros los residentes. Yo soy vecina de aquí, de este vecindario. El señor nunca toma ninguna decisión. Todas sus decisiones que él toma como iniciativa como presidente del vecindario, que nadie lo ha nominado, lo hace a través de su familia.

Entonces creo que es muy importante que ustedes tomen conciencia y escuchen a los jóvenes. anteriormente el 23 de febrero el señor jonathan hernández se hizo una junta virtual en el cual el señor andrade no se le invitó y no participó estuvo en su hijo del señor andrade escuchando la reunión por lo cual él está en una forma él entendió que las canchas eran importantes para nuestra juventud y el señor andrade dice que nadie le invitó y el señor jonathan hernández no le

no le invito y no le tomo parecer cuando se le dio la invitación personalmente casa puerta por puerta cada casa pidiéndoles que se conectaran a la junta virtual invitando a los vecinos para que participaran para que también tuvieran ellos su voz y voto y el poder escuchar a ambas

with the interest of listening to the community. 15 seconds.

So, please, think about our youth. The youth, the Canchas are of vital utility and, as well as part of the history of Santana, as leader of the community, represent the community of Logan and the community of women, which we are in favor of that they will be reconstructed.

Thank you.

Yes, good evening. Thank you for listening to us. I am from the Logan community. And thank you to Councilmember Jonathan Hernandez and Mr. Peñalosa as well. My name is Dolores. Thank you for listening to us when we come to you. My name is Dolores Almaraz. I live I live at 909 East Washington, Santa Ana, California, and I'm the president of a migrant women group for Progress. I've been serving the city of Santa Ana and the Santa Ana community for over 20 years, and I'm here once again to fight for the handball courts.

This is the fourth time that this has come forth and that Mr. Andrade wants to take down the handball courts. when he made a decision based on some confusing information that was given to Mr. Peñalosa. And this happened in September 2020. And unfortunately, I was not in the area. I was not here. But in the past, I've gathered over 1,000 signatures from users of the courts from the neighborhood and from the people from Taller San Jose and people who take their lunchtime to play a little bit on the courts as well.

I am a community leader that is concerned with protecting the green areas in the area and here supporting restorative justice. The courts are useful, very useful for our youth, and Mr. Andrade does not consider the residents when he makes all of his decisions. as president of the area. And I don't know who elected him president. He wasn't elected by anyone. He only considers his family. And you need to listen to the youth. On February 23rd,

Mr. Hernandez had a meeting, a virtual meeting, and Mr. Andrade said he was not invited. His son was there and he said that he needs to be understood and he mr andrade said he was not invited when everyone was invited we went door to door to invite people to join the virtual meeting so the voice of the people uh you need to listen to the voice of the people the voice of the community so i'm asking you for the youth that use the courts they're very useful for the young people in Santa Ana and they're part of the history of Santa Ana.

Thank you. Zoom ID, Francisco Manzo, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device to unmute your... Thank you.

Hi, how's it going? City of Santa Ana staff members along with mayor and to all the community out there. Hi, I'm just in all favor to build the handball courts. I believe there has been a mistake in with what Mr. Andrade said. Unfortunately, there is plenty of people who support the handball courts, and there's plenty of people who utilize those handball courts as well. I myself drive around the area, the park, on a daily basis, and it's if it's not either morning going to work or coming back from work.

And while the handbook courts were built, there was always activity people using them if it wasn't for racquetball, handball, or even playing dodgeball, kickball. And the ages actually went from young kids to pretty old adults getting their exercises there too. not just people from the neighborhood play those handball courts. There was people playing from around the construction areas, some buildings. There was plenty of workers that would take their lunch, either play a little bit, do a little bit of exercising with playing handball or soccer,

such things, sports like that. With what I'm trying to say is that I say we should get the handle courts back, not just it helps with more activities for kids and adults, but it does a good part for the community along with the neighborhood. There's always people out there having a great time. There's people taking their kids, playing around. So I do not see any bad situations coming along, which I never really saw anything bad. Yes, we do

get homeless is look where we at we're in Santa Ana. Santa Ana has been a big problem with homeless um so as long as we have homeless there is going to be homeless walking around everywhere. They are going to be sitting down where they're seat benches and where there's a park. It's normal I guess in a park uh and nowadays so for me it doesn't bother me um they just want to hang out and just see what's going on in this life and just have a view and just relax sometimes. But for me, I'm just on and off in the favor of the handbook courts.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Donna.

Hi. Did you already speak? I did. I just raised my hand to respond to a comment.

No, I'm sorry. You're only given three minutes to speak. I thought it was another Zoom ID. Okay.

Zoom ID, Belen Vasquez, if you could please select the microphone icon on your device. Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon. So I am in favor of rebuilding the humboldt courts. I'm actually a next door neighbor of Mr. Andrade and have never had any type of conversation with him or anything involving the handball courts. If that petition that went out there was indeed for all residents of the Logan community, why was I not informed? I have been living here for about 19 years now.

The Logan Park, Chepas Park now has been a very big part of my life growing up here. That's where you meet your friends and that's where you grew up with to hang out. There's also that small community center that is very helpful with children in sports, homework, and extracurricular activities as well. so definitely family here of 1018 Logan is in favor of rebuilding those handbook courts. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Ms. Marla, if you would please select star six to unmute your call or select the microphone icon on your device.

Ms. Marla, Zoom ID. Thank you. So I'm in favor for rebuilding the handball court

in Logan. I myself have been living in Logan for 20 years. One thing that is a big task, the city is trying to eliminate other handballs in the other areas. So as said in the other meeting, just about a month or a month or a half ago, I believe, there will no longer be other handball courts for people to go play at eventually because this is an ongoing thing from neighborhood to neighborhood to neighborhood. So if we don't stop it here with Logan, where is it going to stop? They're after every single other handball court stating the same thing. So soon, there's not going to be anywhere for the youth to actually go and corrupt,

to actually get their energy out. So I'm completely in favor of rebuilding the handball courts in Logan. It's bringing in so many communities. as I said, they're eliminating them. They're pushing them into pretty much extinction, as they're doing in the LA area as well. So I just feel that this is an ongoing thing from community to community. We really need to sit together as a Logan neighborhood to make sure that they don't take away our tradition, something that brought so many of us together, it grew up together at that park. I used to play with Daniel. I used to play with Francisco, Yadira,

a whole bunch of the neighborhood children growing up though. None of us being related. All of us have amazing careers now. I'm just completely and totally in favor of the handball courts being rebuilt. I did see negatives, but I also see negatives right behind Floral Park Creek. That's why they built those large walls guarding the creek from the homeless going in. So as you see, it is an area all over that is impacted by the homeless. It's not just because the Humboldt quit freeing that type of people. It's a whole citywide problem to be honest. So blaming all of that on the Humboldt isn't really the best way to keep them away.

It's a citywide problem, not just the aerial problem. That's all I have to say at this moment. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID Eloy Reyes, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Eloy Reyes. I grew up in the Hembo Court, playing Hembo. I'm in favor of rebuilding the Hembo courts in Santa Ana. I grew up there, like I said. But my dad grew up there playing handball. And I'm 27 years old now, and I didn't grow up to be a criminal. I never did criminal activities at this party. We just go there and have fun. I believe the handball courts kept me from doing these criminal activities that people say. But you get criminal activities everywhere.

And I don't think the humble courts are, you know, involving all these things. But that's my comment. I'm in favor of building these courts and hopefully we can work something out. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor, that was the last caller.

Thank you, Madam City Clerk. Why don't we go ahead and bring it back now to the council members and go to the consent calendar items of our agenda. And I believe there is an abstention by council member Fan on item number 26. And I'll ask if there are any other abstentions made by members of the council on any items.

and also well why don't you go ahead and state your abstention uh council member fan and then i'll go back to the council to see if they want to pull any items off the off the consent calendar

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

great thank you mayor um so i am abstaining from item number 26 because tetra tech and somas are clients of the my employer a firm that i work for rattan and tucker before and I don't represent them, but the firm does. And so because it is the consent calendar item, I can still vote with the rest of the group on the consent calendar, but my vote will be

considered abstained for this item. Thank you. Great. That abstention is noted. Mayor Pro Tem,

David PenalozaItem 6

Penalosa. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to pull items one through 20. I'm kidding. just number 25, please. 25. You scared me there. You scared all of us.

Yeah. Thank you. So item 25 will be pulled by merit pro tem. Members of the council, any other items you'd like to pull off, Council Member Lopez?

Yeah, I'm going to pull 14, 15, 16, and 18.

Were you kidding or was that real? No, I'm just kidding. 14, did you say 14, 15? 16 and 18. 16 and 18. Got it. Thank you.

Any other? Councilmember Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I was also looking to pull item 15 and 16.

Great. Okay, those items are pulled. Any other items either to abstain on by any council members or to pull? Seeing none, the only item I'm going to pull off is item number 28. So I'll go ahead and entertain a motion to adopt the balance of the consent calendar.

David PenalozaItem 6

Motion to approve, Mr. Mayor.

I'll second. I heard multiple seconds. That's Mayor Pro Tem. I believe I heard Councilmember Hernandez with a second. Madam Clerk, will you please call roll?

Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Hernandez? Yes. Councilmember Lopez? Yes.

Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Pham? Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa?

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. Thank you. I believe the first item is item number 14 and I believe that's Councilmember Lopez's item.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to start by saying that I'm always very appreciative of folks who seek to serve our city. I know from firsthand experience that it's not easy and it's very time consuming. But I'm pulling this item for one particular reason. I think like most people, I think it's hard to say that, don't really know what the workforce development board does. And in doing my own research and Googling, I noticed that Mr. Beaver represents Cherry Aerospace.

And so for those that don't know, Cherry Aerospace was involved with the plume contamination that was released into our community. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe that they were sued by the Water Board District because of the water contamination. And you know, I personally cannot be a council member that talked about climate justice and environmental justice and inequity and healthy communities and help necessarily put Cherry Aerospace on a pedestal.

So, you know, I don't feel comfortable with this particular appointment. So I think that I have a lot more questions and concerns in regards to this. I did speak with the Delhi Neighborhood Association chair, and she shares the same concerns as other folks do. And so those are my thoughts for the moment.

Great. Thank you for those comments, Council Member Lopez. Any other questions or comments from the council?

So a question for staff on this. You know, to the extent that these people serve at the pleasure of the council on the board, on the Workforce Development Board. You know, it sounds like the executive committee makes the appointment and then it comes back to us for us to ratify or approve. Are we under any obligation to maybe defer an appointment, maybe reconsider, or, you know, what's our, I guess, what are our options on this?

Thank you, Mayor, for that question. I will turn it over to Stephen Mendoza, who works with that board.

Thank you very much, Mayor and Council. One appointment, if we had one vacancy for a while, would not interrupt our ability to conduct business. We would bring forward to you another replacement. That was the desire of the entire City Council.

Thank you, Mr. Mendoza, and thank you, staff. So I guess, you know, for full disclosure, when I was president of the Orange County Water District, there was and there continues to be ongoing litigation for contamination under the groundwater that does encompass sort of the southern part of the city. And also for just more background, it's not just Cherry Textron involved in that litigation. I know that there's several other manufacturers that unfortunately contaminated a lot of the groundwater there and some of the soil.

I know MB is another named defendant on that and several others, but it is true that Cherry Textron also was a defendant that settled. They never admitted any admission of guilt on that, but they settled the matter. So yeah, I understand the council members' concern just because we are going through a discussion having to do with the environmental justice question, contaminants being found in the not only in the groundwater, but in the soil as well.

So look, to the extent that maybe we want to maybe defer that appointment or leave that open, maybe that's something according to Mr. Mendoza we can do, that seat can be filled if that's the decision of the council. Council. I see another hand up, Councilmember Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 14

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It might have just been my air net connection, so I'm going to ask my colleague, Councilmember Lopez, which name did you have a concern with?

Phil BacerraItem 14

Mr. Beaver. Mr. Beaver. Okay. Okay, Doug Beaver. Okay. If you'd like to make a motion that we approve the rest of them and if you wanted to disclude Mr. Beaver I'd be happy to second that.

Thank you for your feedback Councilmember Bessara that's what I'd like to do. So I'd like to make a motion to approve the rest of the nominations and defer with them the particular one that we

Phil BacerraItem 14

mentioned. I'll second with comment and then just thank you for bringing that forward because I think many of us on this council have concerns when it comes to some of the actions that certain entities have taken here in Santa Ana when it comes to their disregard for the quality of life for our residents. And so it would just be absolutely hypocritical of us to appoint folks who partake in those sorts of actions. So I want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Lopez, for pointing that

out. And I'd be happy to support her motion. Great. We have a motion and a second, a motion by Lopez, a second by Becerra. Seeing no other comments, Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Hernandez? Yes. Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Fan? Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa? Yes. Mayor Sarmiento? Yes. Thank you.

moving along to item number 15, the approval of destruction of obsolete city records. I believe that's Councilwoman Lopez as well. Yes, it is. Thank you. So I don't think it comes to any

surprise for folks to hear me say that I'm really pushing for a citywide parking study. And I know that nothing has been set in stone. It's a conversation the entire council has to be a part of. But, you know, if hypothetically we were to move forward with that, I'm just wondering if these records would somehow be a benefit to us, you know, if they contain the time, the place and the code violation that could help us really focus on the neighborhoods that are having issues with the parking. And so I guess my question is, do we have those records and the database?

And then my follow up question to that would be, is are we having any like archivists review the files before they're destroyed?

Thank you, Councilmember, for that question. So this, for the police department, the records that are being destroyed are citations, parking and traffic citations that range from January 27, 2007 to August of 2017. It's basically 39 banker-sized boxes. But prior to it reaching the level to come to you for approval, it's already been reviewed to meet all of the record retention requirements it's also a routine matter that the city attorney's office reviews to make sure there isn't anything that is being destroyed that would be needed for litigation purposes it wouldn't be

these citations that are in these banker boxes they wouldn't be archived i don't know how many of them actually deal with the nature of your inquiry which would be parking tickets not just other traffic citations. I really don't know what value they would be on a parking study because when we did the pilot parking study what we really are focused at looking at is the number of vehicles given in an area and the actual measurements along the street for how many vehicles could park along the street to determine the deficiency. I don't know if that answered your question.

Yeah, it definitely clarifies it. Thank you city manager.

Thank you, Councilmember Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I had an interest in this item because there were classifications that changed in 2019. And when California lawmakers approved SB 1421, they did so with finding that the public has the right to know about officer-involved shootings, serious uses of force, and to see how law enforcement agencies are policing themselves. And most notably, the city of Fremont had made a decision to destroy training review board files, preventing the public from examining how shootings were reviewed by police departments,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

as well as how they respond to mental health crisis. I had a keen interest in learning if there were any of these potential police misconduct, police-involved shootings, anything related to that in these records, Ms. City Manager?

So no, if you review the staff report and the applicable attachments, it does have the identification. It does include, it is a little bit misleading, It does include an exhibit J, a record retention schedule that lists all police department records and what the required retention are on each one of those records. But the item that's before you for the destruction is strictly the parking and traffic citations. And certainly I can defer to the chief if he wants to confirm that as well. Thank you, Madam City Manager.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

An additional question I have because a concern that I've seen in the past that I've seen echoed through community members is how we've had deportations be linked to your regular police stop in a community if you have a broken tail light, et cetera. And I would hate to see any records be destroyed that could potentially be linked to deportation cases or cases where folks were detained. Is there any records that are in relation to that?

I don't believe that is a practice of our police department, and I will certainly let the police chief answer that. So associated with parking and traffic citations, sir.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

Okay. I'm also going to express an interest that I know that policing is something that that is very complex for just our regular community members to understand, but there's so much that intersects when dealing with our law enforcement. I'm interested in learning about the data that these records may obtain around traffic citations and the details of the people who were pulled over and the reasons why they were pulled over. I just, I want to be on the side of transparency and having a government that works for residents. And if there's any way that

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

we can look into this to see the extent of what these stops were, I think it would be to our benefit to the department it'd be to our benefit of our community members so that we can have a comprehensive approach to really making this community safe i think part of that strategy is having to check our balances multiple times so um that that is my my commentary madam city manager

okay would you like the chief to respond i know you had about about three questions in there

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

if he's able to if he's available yes go ahead jim yes can you hear me

Yes. Yes, sir, we can hear you. Okay. Yes, thank you for the question and comments, Council Member Hernandez. So this request as a city manager has indicated is a standard request in compliance with our retention policy. Has nothing to do with SB 1421. None of the provisions that are protected for retention and transparency are covered by this request. And none of the content also has to do with any activity related to deportation. In fact, again, the city manager is correct.

We don't engage in that activity. So this is, again, in compliance with our normal policy and protocol, traffic citations and parking citations. That's simply what it is. So we're well aware of SB 1421 and all of the provisions therein, and we certainly are in compliance. And for a future conversation, I look forward to that conversation with you. Thank you, Police Chief Valentin. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for those comments. Any other members of the council wish to make a comment or question on this item?

Mayor Potem?

David PenalozaItem 15

Mr. Mayor, I would just like to make a motion to approve item 15. I was going to say 14, but that was a previous one. Yeah.

I can second. This is why do you have a bad?

I think that was a second and a third. So we have a motion and a second. I, you know, the comment I would make is, you know, to SB 1421, I think we all understand it. We all know we're all very sensitive to it. And I appreciate the comments that were made by Council Member Hernandez and Lopez. And I echo those as well. I think, you know, anything that is helpful, you know, chief, that you can make sure we segregate from that, you know, and we know that we're, you know, it sounds like, you know, what inventory that we are, you know,

destroying or doing away with doesn't impact our ability to do, you know, analysis, you know, again, on anything that we can make improvements on as a practice, as a department, I'm sure you're going to identify. I appreciated the memo being attached here because it clarified for me that we're not talking about any incidents, any, you know, officer involved shootings or any other incidents that could be critical to any of your work and anybody else's work looking backwards. All right, we have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, will you please call roll?

Member Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 15

Yes.

Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Fan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa?

Yes.

And Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. Thank you, everybody. Moving along to item number 16, I believe this is also Councilmember Lopez. This is the Cannabis Public Benefit Fund for Youth Services update.

It is. And first, I just want to thank Director Rudloff and the rest of city staff for all the great work. There's a lot of really great public benefit here. And I just have three requests. If we can keep an ongoing list of what projects have been supported through this funding, I think that it would be really beneficial for the council when we discuss any future updates to our city's cannabis policy. And then the second one is making sure, I know somewhere in the report, it talks about the handball court outreach. So if you can just keep us updated on that, that would be much appreciated.

And then the last one, I really want to expand the youth public policy internships for the city, with the city for early BA, MA students. I know it's a comment that I've spoken with city manager about, I've shared with her about the interest that young people and send me messages to see if there's any internships, availability. And so I think that we have the money for it. And so I think as policymakers, we should strive to help the young people of Sanana with their interests and with their studies. And that's going to conclude my comments. Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Thank you. Councilmember Hernandez. Thank you, Councilmember Lopez, for pulling this item. And thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. This is a really important conversation that I think oftentimes is overlooked. And I think in due time, other cities will take notice that there's a lot of opportunity for government to create infrastructure that is going to really transform cities into places where people can feel safe and have more access to college and the trades and opportunities.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

The Cannabis Fund, could you give me some numbers, Madam City Manager, manager on how much money we've been able to garner through this fund.

I might have to defer, council member, to our finance director. Are you talking in total or the third dedicated to youth programs?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Dedicated to youth programs.

Okay. Finance director, do you have a total, I know the first year I believe it was three million, but I know it has grown since then. Do you have a better total on the one-third

youth? Thank you. I do not. So far, I know that

almost 14 million has been deposited to the fund, so theoretically, half of that is for youth, but I can certainly get back to the city council with that exact number.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Okay, wonderful.

The programming for the staff report that was before you, Councilmember Hernandez, that was 3.3 million.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Thank you for the clarification. I just wanted to echo, I think that right now is a time more important than ever for us to get innovative when it comes to funding essential resident services and helping our children. As evidence, this cannabis fund has been extremely beneficial for our city. I think it would be wise for us to discuss as a council ways that we can increase the youth funding. Maybe we take a look at other funds, I mean, from this cannabis fund, where other funds

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

are going, and maybe we look to decrease some there and increase it in youth services. Maybe we introduce more intervention and prevention programs as part of youth programs. I just think right now during a pandemic, it's shown us more than anything that we need to have stronger infrastructure for young people. I can't think of where the Cannabis Fund is right now. I was driving through the community a couple weeks ago, and I saw in the Delhi and the Madison area, there was graffiti all over these apartments. And it looks like violence on a wall.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

I mean, it's only a matter of time until folks start coming at each other. There's very, very high tensions in these neighborhoods. And we need to have a strong approach to reducing crime, to mediating it, and to helping young people. Because the probability of this being young people, you know, behind the graffiti, it shows that there's a desire for people to want to, you know, engage in the arts. And rather than just criminalizing them, I think we can be preventative in trying to reach these young people. But there's a real struggle when it comes to funding.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

I would love it if we could find a way to increase that funding for youth services through the cannabis fund.

Thank you, Councilmember. Great comments. Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 16

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Councilwoman Lopez, for pulling this item. One thing that I've been so passionate about, and I know Director Sternberg from our library department could vouch for it, and you, Madam City Manager, is just increasing our overall library system in our city. You know, one of the largest cities in the state, and for the last 10-plus years, we've only had one full-time library. And we've gotten better. We've now increased that to two full-time libraries with the New Hope improvements and everything that's coming along with that, and I'm very happy for that. And I'm anxiously waiting for our book,

David PenalozaItem 16

the return of our bookmobile that I've been, I mean, I feel that every time I see Director Sternberg, that's the first thing I ask. When's this bookmobile coming? You know, is it done? When is it getting delivered? And I know that last time we spoke, it was getting fitted and under construction

David PenalozaItem 16

somewhere on the East Coast, I believe, which I'm very excited for. And just wanted to point out that on the staff report, on the last page, I believe it was, page 11 of the staff report, where it breaks down the budget, the adjustment and the revised budget, Madam City Manager, under the library book Tecmobile, I know that the original budget was $350,000, and the adjustment was $112,870 with the revised budget of $237,000.

David PenalozaItem 16

Now, I wanted to ask, is that because we realized we didn't have enough money for the bookmobile, or was the bookmobile, was it cheaper in cost than we initially anticipated it was going to be, or why is there that difference?

Thank you, Councilmember. I believe it was less money, but I will defer to Brian Sternberg who can give you more details. Thank you, Council Member, and good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members. Yes, it was less money than we initially had budgeted for in the $350,000. We actually used a little bit more of that money to make some additional improvements to the vehicle after we started working with the vendor. They had some really great suggestions for us about still being able to allow, even though it's a large van, they found a way where we could include some Bodie doors, which are some school bus style doors

to still allow some children and families to come onto the vehicle because it's still a really neat experience to be able to come on there. So we used about an additional $8,000 or so to upgrade the vehicle for that. But yes, they did come in as less than initially budgeted for.

David PenalozaItem 16

That's really good to hear. I mean, anytime something is less than what we budgeted for, I mean, anywhere, in families, in the business, and I mean, that's what more can we ask for, right? But Director Sternberg, remember when we sat in your conference room at the library and we were going over the design and how this bookmobile was going to look? Like, if you recall, the one thing I asked, and I was like, why can't we just get two, you know? Order them. I mean, it's such a large city with, I believe, nearly half a million people that we service. The more we can have, especially now during COVID,

David PenalozaItem 16

that our libraries have essentially been closed to the public for the last almost a year now, a year actually. You know, the more that we can have to bring out to the neighborhoods, to bring into our areas where people live in apartments, where they don't have access to a car to get to our library, to our neighborhoods, to our parks, where we could pop up, have essential library pop-ups. I know that having one bookmobile in a city of our size, 27 square miles, I mean, we're going to be putting in some miles into that bookmobile. So if we have some money left over, let's get creative.

David PenalozaItem 16

Let's see where we can, as we move on to this budget discussion, which I'll bring this up in the budget discussion, but let's make sure that we could, again, it's a large city, lots of kids that could benefit from this, from having mobile libraries. as well as I know that in the staff report, I also saw mentioned something that I brought up with the Memorial Park Neighborhood Association meeting a couple of weeks ago was mobile traveling zoo. I mean, we have Santa Ana Zoo. One thing that I mentioned is me as a lifetime Santa Ana resident, I never went, I never knew there was a zoo in our city

David PenalozaItem 16

till about the age of 12, 13 years old when I was at the library and I was like, we have a zoo? like how like what you know my i knew there was an la zoo and a san diego zoo but i had no idea that santa anna had a zoo um so wherever we could be creative with this i mean that'd be great but i'll i'll get off my soapbox and and uh and uh but just keep that in mind as if we have money extra let's let's use it let's let's get us a second one that's it madam city manager thank you director Thank you so much, Council Member.

Great. Thank you for those comments. Yeah, I remember those bookmobiles way back when, so they were popular.

Just a couple of quick things. Any other questions or comments from other Council Members?

Seeing none and hearing none.

Just for those of you who, as Mayor Pro Tem was talking about libraries, I know that a A few years back, what we tried to do is increase the number of spaces for kids to be able to do homework, access a computer, be able to study. And what we found is to be able to create or construct a new brick and mortar library is tough. So I see the value of a bookmobile. I see the value of spaces. But what we saw is that there are a lot of libraries already in the city, and they're within schools. And so what we did is we activated those libraries within some of the campuses and we extended

the hours and worked with the Unified School District to be able to use those in a joint use agreement. So not only were we working with the schools and their campuses to use their field space jointly, but we also were using the library to open up after hours to be able to provide a safe space for those kids who had parents who were working late hours. And it's right there in their neighborhood. It's right there on campus and they could access those. And because funding became scarce, we had to cut that off. But I know that was getting a lot of use.

And that's where I would just give a nod to the council members who are going to be working with the ad hoc committee with the Santa Anita Fight School District to maybe talk about these creative options because there's already a lot of open space in town that's controlled by the school district. There are a lot of libraries controlled by Santa Unified. And if we can partner together, which I think we can, you know, there are a lot of things that we can do together and jointly on these things. And, you know, they're already set up. And, you know, they're already embedded in our neighborhood. So something to think about.

So Madam City Manager, I believe this is just a receiving file. Is that correct?

Or do you need some direction on this?

Sorry, I didn't realize I was muted. You are correct, sir. It is a receiving file.

Great. Do we, we don't need a vote on this for whatever reason. This says, okay, I'm looking at number 18. All right, so let's move on to number 18. I believe, I forget who called that. Was that Council Member Lopez? Was that yours also?

Yeah, yeah, it's the last one from the consent calendar.

Let's blame this one on Council Member Hernandez because he also wanted to pull this.

I just quickly want clarification. I think that this is great, but I want clarification on the applicability of the funds. It does say in here that the program will target restaurants along or within 500 feet of First Street and depending on funding availability, restaurants along or within 500 feet of 17th street um so city manager i just i you know i thought i was under the impression

that i was only for dtsa restaurants um certainly so i'm going to partially answer that question and then i will let stephen mendoza answer the other um you may know that we did a program where we did provide parklets for a lot of the restaurants in the downtown area this is additional dollars that the county of Orange is providing us out of their economic assistance. And with that, they did have some parameters on the use of it. So I will turn it over to Stephen, if maybe you can shed some light on the locality of the 500 feet on 1st and 17th.

Sure, I'd be glad to. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members. The Orange County Supervisor's Office for the 1st District has generally offered these funds to kind of augment and supplement what we did downtown. They wanted it for a very specific region. So we created, we selected the 50 restaurants that we found on First Street as a good region to start. We think we'll run out of money by the time we are complete with First Street. And then after that, we would go on to 17th Street as a secondary option. As you know, with the downtown program, that was focused on parklets in public parking spaces.

So it was off of their property, and those parklets were constructed on city property parking spaces. This program will be for the private parking lots or their grass areas that they're currently using for kind of makeshift outdoor spaces. This would formalize those outdoor spaces and make them look more uniform, more permanent, and more durable for weather conditions that they're currently going through.

Any other? Great. Thank you, Councilmember Lopez. I see Councilmember Lopez's hand.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 18

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Quick question, Mr. Mendoza. So with the 1st Street and 17th locations being chosen here, what is the borders? of this agreement? Is it 17th between X Street and Y Street? I want to know those particulars because there's a number of fantastic restaurants that are on 17th Street that provide great service to the community. I mean, most notably, I can think of as like people in Iowa. I mean, it makes sense for places like that, right on 17th Street. There's lots of great places. I just

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 18

want to make sure that this process is a fair process for restaurants.

Well, first of all, there's so many great restaurants to choose from in Santa Ana. We all know whether it's Harbor Boulevard, Euclid, but we had to come to a decision. We found more more appealing and the sheer numbers of restaurants on First Street, so our impact would be greatest to start there. And then the supervisor's office did want to in a very specific area within their first supervisorial district. So we started on 1st Street, and hopefully we can use less money per restaurant so we can get to 17th Street.

Thank you for the clarification.

Sure.

Great. Thank you, Council Member. Any other? Mayor Pro Temp?

David PenalozaItem 18

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Very quickly, thank you for that, Stephen, that clarification, whatever we can do to just make everything look the same. I know that even going through downtown, there are some on the west end that have the nice parklets that the city provided. And there's some on the east end that still have ugly white canopies and plastic chairs. So whatever we could do to just, whoever has these outdoor parklets to make sure they look the same so that there's some kind of flow going between these restaurants. But thank you for that. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for that comment. Yeah, the only, seeing no other hands raised or any other comments from the council, I simply want to say, yeah, uniformity is important. It always helps the look of the city. It doesn't look so, you know, sort of, you know, lack of consistency makes it look kind of messy. So I think anything we can do to make it consistent always helps. I think the dining furniture outside some of the restaurants in downtown make it look a lot better. So, you know, really good big props to everybody who's working on that.

But I do want to also give some credit and give credit where it's due. Supervisor in District 1, Doe, made these available and wanted to make sure that, you know, he addressed this. I think first the focus was going to be in downtown, but also as everybody said, the need is so high everywhere and we have great restaurants. I think Councilmember Hernandez mentioned one, Pico de Gallo, but there are so many deserving ones that are worthy of this. I think the 500,000 will go really quick. It's probably not going to be able to address all the needs we have, but to the extent that

this is something that we certainly appreciate the county and the city collaborating on and and the support of the supervisor in this district is certainly recognized by me. So in any event, I'll go ahead and seeing no other questions or comments, I'll go ahead and entertain a motion to approve. A motion to approve. I'll second, Mr. Mayor. Great, thank you. We have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, will you please call roll?

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 18

Yes.

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza?

Yes. Councilmember Fan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñolosa?

Yes.

Mayor Sir Manoj?

Yes. Thank you. Moving along to item number 25.

I'm not sure whose item this was. I think was this yours, Councilmember Hernandez? It was mine, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem, I'm sorry, go ahead.

David PenalozaItem 25

All good. So 25 is approve agreement with Kim Lee Horn and Associates for the Warner Avenue Protected Bike Lane Project in the amount not to exceed $93,990 for a three-year term. The reason why I am pulling this item and Madam City Manager, I briefly discussed to you my intention to pull the item was just to get some clarification and maybe set a standard on what the city would like to see as part of these protected bike lanes. The reason why I'm bringing this up, Director Saba and Madam City Manager, you've heard me say this before.

David PenalozaItem 25

When we installed, when the city first installed the first protected bike lanes back in 2018, I know that none of us were actually here. You know, we have different city manager, different public works director, different council. But when the protected bike lanes were installed and unveiled back in 2018, the first ones on Bristol and 17th Street, you know, they're great. I drive by them all the time, and they have landscaping throughout the center. They look beautiful.

David PenalozaItem 25

I mean, it makes me want to ride my bike, you know, and it just makes the street look nice overall. I mean, with the landscaping, anytime you add any green to any part of the street, it looks great. So we had a great, you know, ribbon cutting and press was called and, you know, made a huge thing about it. And I believe that now as we move forward, we use pictures of those protected bike lanes to go after these grants for additional protected bike lanes.

David PenalozaItem 25

But the ones that we've built after are not as nice looking, you know, as those that were initially built in the beginning. They're all cement, all ugly. We have the plastic delineators that go throughout and now on most of them on Ettinger have been run over and removed and are no longer standing. So I don't see the same standard in the bike lanes that we continue to see being built as the ones we saw in 2018 on Bristol and 17th Street. So, one thing that I would like to see from the Public Works Department is that as we

David PenalozaItem 25

move forward, that we remove protected bike lane from our vocabulary and we add protected landscaped bike lane into our vocabulary. Adding that word landscape and keeping that in the back of our head as something to shoot for. I know that in, uh, Director Saba, you have brought up that there's a lot of areas where we don't have enough space for landscaping, but I mean, we, we, we gotta get creative because these specifically the ones on Edinger, I mean, it was six months of construction and

David PenalozaItem 25

they were, they looked great for a couple of weeks and, and, uh, it, it ends up not looking as nice. So, um, Director Saba, do you guys know if you have plans to have any landscaped protected bike lanes in the near future?

Yes, in this particular project, from Grand to Oak on Warner, it will have protected landscape bike lanes. However, I have to caution you that sometimes where we don't want to take too much properties along the path when we're widening Warner, we would, at some certain section of it, will not be landscaped. It will be protected. However, it will have concrete or stamped concrete on top of it. But when we have the ability to expand it

to about three feet, it will have landscape.

David PenalozaItem 25

Okay, thank you for that, Director Saba. The reason, I mean, because I'm just thinking of Bristol Street right now. Bristol Street from, I want to say Edinger to, and correct me if I'm wrong, to Civic Center, where we're seeing a construction going on right now that just started last week, protected bike lanes. They're going to be protected, but there's no landscaping because of lack of space that we have. And I'm just thinking, if we're going in there and investing into our streets to bring these protected bike lanes to our community, I mean, we should just

David PenalozaItem 25

shoot for the best where we can. I know that the lack of space was cited, but along Bristol, I mean, we own most of that land that runs along Bristol. So wherever there's room to get an additional foot or two to add landscaping to part of these protected bike lanes, because we don't want to just see protected, and I'm saying we as I'm speaking for the whole council. So I personally, not sure how my colleagues feel, don't want to see just bike lanes being built just, you know, on the cheap and very quickly.

David PenalozaItem 25

But where there's room to add landscaping to them, like we did at Bristol and 17th Street when we called the press and did ribbon cuttings and took pictures, I mean, that would be great. Because our residents want these things to look nice. They want our streets to look better. It's a street with limited green space. not that this is going to increase the green space for kids to play on. It's a middle of a road. But any green that is visible when you're driving is always a plus. So that would be my ask, is that we just remove protected bike lanes from our vocabulary

David PenalozaItem 25

and add protective landscape bike lanes wherever we can. Not sure if any of my colleagues feel the same, but if you do, please speak now. But those are my comments, Director Saba. And I figured this was a perfect opportunity because it is, you know, approving an agreement with the design firm that will design, be designing these protected bike lanes.

Thank you, Mayor. May I add, Councilman, Mayor Pro Tem, that I checked with staff on the Bristol Street bike lane that is under construction right now. 70% of the protected bike lanes will be or will have landscaping in it.

David PenalozaItem 25

That's good. That's good to hear. Thank you for that. I just keep thinking of the ones on Edinger between Bristol and Fairview. And I mean, half of the delineators are gone now. And it's been less than a year. So wherever we can do that. So thank you for that, Director Saba.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 25

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree with Mayor Pro Tem in the sense that when we're talking about these protected bike lanes, especially along arterials like Bristol where we own so much of the real estate, it's not like we can't go in a little bit further and go in by about a foot or to and make them more attractive and beautiful. At the same time, I appreciate what Director Saba was saying in regards to the fact that if we just for some reason don't have the right-of-way width to do it, I think being able to at least go beyond what Mayor Pro Tem's concerns are on

Phil BacerraItem 25

Edinger with those flimsy, what almost feel like temporary delineators. I mean, those things don't look like something that should be there longer than 30 days, let alone you know, 30 months. But I like what you were saying in regards to concrete, maybe with like a stamp pattern on top, just to at least give it something. Because I think what we've done in our city, and I'll blame you, Director Saba, is you kind of set the bar kind of high. And we see some of these projects here where, you know, like Bristol, I look at Bristol from 17th to about

Phil BacerraItem 25

Civic Center Drive. It's a great standard here in our city. And I, you know, as we do some of these widenings, which, you know, I hope that we don't continue to keep widening and widening our streets, but where we do have to or where we decide to, I hope that we are looking at the design to be more in line with complete streets and that the bike lanes that are there are protected bike lanes and not just a simple strike down the side of the road. And it just, those don't work. Those are not safe. I think they are just, you know, something that we can aspire to go beyond. So those are my comments. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, council member. Any other questions or comments from the council?

Seeing none, this is an item that needs action. So is there a motion with those? I'll make a motion to approve, Mr. Mayor. I'll second. Great, thank you. A motion by Mayor Pro Tem, a second by Councilmember Hernandez. Madam

Clerk, will you please call roll? Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Hernandez? Yes. Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Pham? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa?

Yes. And Mayor Sarmiento.

Yes, thank you everybody, great comments on that. Item number 28 is the item I pulled, it's to approve the agreement with immigrant defenders for the immigration Legal Defense Services for two years, not to exceed $400,000. The only reason I'm completely supportive of this and I appreciate staff bringing this before us, I simply wanted to see, I know that when this items come up before us during budget discussions we've adjusted the amount and i didn't want to allow us that flexibility this next budget cycle as well and it looks like

there's a not to exceed language on the 400 000 for the next two years and to the extent that we stay with that or not i just wanted to allow the council the flexibility then when it does address the budget for it to have the flexibility to adjust. So I might my amendment to the recommended action would be to strike the not to exceed language and simply replace it and with language that says if we decide to provide additional services we will increase the expenditure amount just so it gives us the option to go ahead and revisit this suggested as we see fit when we when it comes before the council as a budget line item.

Council Member Lopez.

Hi, I'm going to defer to Mayor Pro Tem. I saw his hand go.

Oh, I'm sorry. Mayor Pro Tem and then Council Member Lopez. Thank you. I'm telling you, that little hand by the bear always throws me off.

David PenalozaItem 28

I changed its color. I made it yellow. So, but anywho, thank you for that, Mr. Mayor. I agree. I would want it to be at our discretion. I don't want to lock us in for two years and not be able to increase the amount. I know that as we move forward into the budget conversations, there will be room, hopefully, for us to increase different. And I know that Madam City Manager we did an RFP for this particular agreement, correct?

That is correct. In the past, we were doing just like one year at a time. And so this time we did it. And we are recommending a longer term just because cases are taking quite a while. And there's active cases that are currently underway. So we really wanted to get this put in place by March 16th so there isn't any lapse of representation for the current clients.

David PenalozaItem 28

Agreed. That's good. Thank you for that. One thing that I would ask is that as we move forward and we look at potentially increasing the amount, you know, that we maybe not necessarily stick to the same one, but if whoever came in second, if there was one, different organizations. Because I know there are dozens of organizations out there that do this type of work, and wherever we can look to bring other organizations into the fold would be great.

That's all I would ask. Great. Thank you for that comment, Mayor Proton. I appreciate that. Councilmember Lopez.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to vocalize that I'm fully supportive of your amendment. And I want to thank staff for the work that we're doing here to help our families stay together. And for all of the advocates that I know are on this call. for helping, you know, stand up for our families that need it. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Pham?

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

Thank you, Mayor. So I'm definitely in support of this item. It's one of the items as a even as a citizen. I went to speak to Council about it's immigration is really a core issue for me, my family, and I know our community in general. I know the director, founder of MDEF, she's incredible and all the work they've been doing both at detention centers with the child separation as well as here in Santa Ana have been incredible. I do want to make an ask of staff as well as with in-depth and I've heard that they are also looking to do this but I want to make sure that we're also

Thai Viet PhanItem 28

providing services or extending offering services to the API community, the Asian American community because I think based on previous reports, they have not had any clients in Santa Ana under this program who is Asian American or non-Latino. Obviously, I know the need is very high in both communities, but I just want to make sure that we do have some outreach and work with other community organizations also that may refer undocumented APIs to the program. That was all.

Excellent, excellent point. Thank you, Councilmember Fan. That shouldn't just be implicit, that should be hopefully expressed if we move forward. Seeing no other comments or questions from the Council, I'll go ahead and move the item with the recommended amendment.

So if I can clarify, sir, so the recommended amendment would be a two-year term for an initial amount of 400,000 to be increased at council's direction for discretion?

Yeah, it basically would be striking the not to exceed language. And as we increase the expenditure or excuse me, as we increase, if we so desire the additional services, we would increase the expenditure as well. I just don't want us to be sort of boxed in in the next two budget cycles to adjusting. And we may leave it as is, depending on where we are. I just would want to have that flexibility before us.

Got it. Thank you.

David PenalozaItem 28

Mr. Rotem? Yeah, quick point of clarification. I just want to make sure that as we do that, Madam City Manager, we let staff know that they should come back to us to council discretion of how much we want to, because I've seen this before on other agencies where we do things like this, but staff goes on and spends a million dollars and then comes back asking for permission after the fact. So I want to make sure that it's at council's discretion, but I'm very comfortable with that language. So very supportive. And I'll second the mayor's motion if there hasn't already

been a second great thank you for that so we have a motion and a second uh madam clerk will you

please call roll councilmember becerra yes councilmember hernandez yes councilmember lopez yes councilmember mendoza yes councilmember fan yes mayor potent panalosa yes and mayor sarmiento

Yes, thank you everybody. That ends the consent calendar. Moving along to the business calendar items. Item number 31, the general plan progress report.

Thank you, Mayor and Council members. This item is merely to authorize us to be able to submit the general plan annual progress report to the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development and the Office of Planning and Research. So certainly staff is available to ask any questions but we're just seeking authorization to file the report as required by state code

great let me bring it back to council any questions or comments

seeing uh council member i don't know whose hand went up first but let's go with council

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

member fan and then council member lopez thank you um and i'm not sure who can answer this but on page 31-8, it talks about traffic, parking and circulation element. And one of the items that I saw specifically discuss that the staff has evaluated the highest street parking densities in the city to analyze the ratio of the inventory of available parking spaces to number of registered vehicles in an area. I assume that's relating to the pilot study that happened that took place and not a citywide study?

Executive Director Min, can you answer that question? It's the last bullet on 31-8.

That is correct. Okay.

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

Sorry.

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

I should say the next sentence says that the city will follow up this analysis by partnering the public works agency with the planning and building agency to conduct a citywide study. I'm all for that. I've advocated for us working to deal with the parking issues in the city. Again, as I believe the only council member living in multifamily housing, this is an everyday challenge for me, my mom who lives in a duplex, who sometimes can't find parking on her street because they're so, and she's handicapped and because they're so full of cars that it's a struggle.

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

So I guess I just want to get some clarification on this because last I heard, we didn't have the money to do, or at least there was no current funding to do a citywide study.

So what the item really is addressing is that we're looking at not necessarily inventory, but more of evaluating our parking standards for new upcoming proposed development. We are actually underway right now and we have been working with Cal Poly Pomona with the graduate class as a capstone project for them to assist us in looking at the city's parking standards and evaluating our existing parking standards and evaluate whether or not we need to make adjustments based on parking needs and recent concerns regarding parking.

So that's what this item is referring to and not necessarily inventory the city-wise parking

Thai Viet PhanItem 31

status. Okay, great. That makes sense. And I'm sure I as well as many residents in our city We would love to see that analysis from Cal Poly Pomona because this is an issue that we've heard time and again. I attended the Sherry Lane meeting recently with Council Member Lopez regarding this very problem. So thank you for the clarification and I look forward to hearing about what we can do about this problem.

Thank you, Council Member Lopez.

Yeah, hi, Director Tai. I have a couple of questions for you. The first one is, are we going to have the opportunity to review and to comment on the outgoing RFP for zoning code update? I'd really like to be able to review and comment. So it is our practice that when we go off RFP and we seek authorization, we will take the requestful proposal to the city council for authorization. If the council's desire is to also review some of the nuts and bolts of the RFP, we can certainly provide that opportunity to the council historically.

We haven't really done it that way, but I don't see any reason why not if there's an interest in seeing the nuts and bolts of the RFP. Yeah, thank you for that. I'm definitely interested. Another question that I have is I wanted to know what the methodology was behind how the ADUs are placed in the very low income category that I'm seeing in the report here.

Mayna, I could speak to that if you'd like. Sure, Melanie. Yes. Melanie is our senior principal planner and she's with the advanced planning section and she can help address your question. Okay. Hi, this is Melanie McCann. And so the process is that we look at the square footage of the accessory dwelling units. And then we look up what the rental rate is on

Zillow and other sources and then we identify what the cost would be and then we work with HCD, the state HCD on a formula that they have to output the affordability level. And just as a background, the majority of our ADUs are affordable. just a couple of them are moderate, a couple of them are very low, but the vast majority are low income through that calculation. Does that help? I don't know. I guess, well, yeah. So,

you know, in talking about the price of like an ADU, can you give me a figure of what that would look like for a low-income category? When you say a figure, do you mean the- Like a dollar amount? I don't really have a dollar amount. I'd have to look at our table and sort that out. For you wanting to know what the rental rate for an ADU would be for, say, a low-income category versus a very low-income category? Yeah, or even a moderate one. I would have to get back to you on that. Okay.

Yes, please. I'm interested in seeing that breakdown. Just because of, you know, I actually looked one of these up, and I saw that one of them that's being categorized as low income is being advertised for rent at $2,200 a month. And that includes a $2,200 deposit. So, you know, to me, it doesn't seem like that's the right categorization for this particular ADU. So, which is why I'm asking about the methodology here. And if you can provide a breakdown of the prices between low income and moderate.

it. And, you know, and so I just feel really uneasy about approving incorrect data and sending it to this data. I'm sure you probably share the same sentiment. Well, we've, as far as the data that we get, it looks at the average rental rate for a particular square footage and number of bedrooms. So it's not an exact science, but it pulls from that area and it's a methodology that's been approved by HCD and other cities use as well. But I think we'd be happy to identify that

particular location and do a little bit more digging so that we can refine that calculation over time with HCD. Okay. Yeah, I think that would be helpful. Just so that, because sometimes I read about like what other cities are doing. I'm like, I don't know that we should be doing the same thing that other cities are doing. But thank you. That was my concern. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. Any other questions or comments? Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 31

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to go ahead and move that we authorize staff to submit this progress report to the state hcd and opr is there a second i'll second mr mayor great thank

you i i just for purposes of discussion i had some questions for staff as well just to follow up on council member lopez's question uh miss mccann to the extent that we started patching actual numbers or averages to what's above moderate what's moderate what's low what's extremely low. I think sometimes when we just simply put, you know, the categories, it really doesn't boil down to our residents who are reading these staff reports. They don't know what that means. And even some council members, right? I mean, you know, that is sometimes not clear.

So to the extent we can start doing that in reports, I think it's really helpful when we talk about AMIs, right? The other question I had for our director, Director Tai, if you can, this is simply a progress report that we have to comply with to go ahead and send this out to HCD in our goals for addressing some of what's been requested of or what's been required of by the

housing element. Is that correct? That is correct. Historically, it's been focusing on the housing element updates and this year we added also progress on other elements and that's a new requirement under the state law but still my primary focus is on performance in the housing area right so it's really looking backward not looking forward is that correct that is correct this is to really a way for the state to ensure that cities are actively implementing what they said they would do in terms of housing. In the past, there hasn't been a check by the state on the progress

after the approval of the housing element. The state is taking additional steps to ensure that cities are doing what they're promising in the housing element.

Got it. Thanks. And so, you know, because I know we're going to be looking at, you know, the general plan update and amendments, you know, later on this year and the housing element as well. None of this that we're, you know, sending as a progress report binds us to do anything or to box us in, I guess, as we move forward.

That is correct. This is, as you mentioned, looking at backward and looking at how we have performed as to our housing and other areas of the general plan. So we made significant progress this year. Year over year, we, in total, increased housing production by almost 1,000%.

Which is why we were able to win our appeal as well. So I think that those things are good, or at least uphold those appeals and those challenges. So good work on that. I think we have a motion by Vissera and a second by Mayor Pro Tem. Seeing no other questions, Madam Clerk, will you please call roll? Yes.

Phil BacerraItem 31

real quick i just want to add that you know as director ty just mentioned that we um have made significant progress in building one of the other reasons i think skag looked favorably upon us became appealed by the other four cities in orange county regarding our rena allocation was the fact that per the report that we are going to vote to submit to sacramento shows that we've built 19 times more than our rena allocation when it comes to low and very low during this rena cycle and I think that's very impressive and my hope is that other cities will look to us and see

Phil BacerraItem 31

that frankly they need to catch up. There are 33 other cities in this county and the housing crisis is not on an island named Santa Ana. We are here contiguous with all these other cities and they need to step up and do their part. So I just I think this report is that and I'm very proud that

we're submitting this to Sacramento. 100% I think you're right I think we want them to do their fair share as we've always said but man when I look at the above moderate that we built we've certainly exceeded that amount as well so you know we have to think about who are we building for moving forward that's a discussion that we'll have later but I think all points well taken um Madam Clerk

please call roll. Council excuse me Councilmember Becerra yes Councilmember Hernandez yes Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Council member Mendoza? Yes. Council member Fian? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa? Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento? Yes. Thanks everybody. Moving along to item number 32 to provide early direction on the preparation for 2021-22 budget. Thank you Mayor and Mayor Pro Tempe

Council members. This is an early peak and opportunity for staff to get some direction from you. Our finance director, Catherine Downs, will go over the presentation and she will cover a look at how we think we're doing and also seek your guidance on some reserve policy information as well as a question regarding our miscellaneous fees. What's most exciting that's included in the presentation is as i know you you all know that president biden did sign the relief package the american recovery plan and as a result we will be receiving quite a bit of money to help our

community recover from this pandemic and this will give you the first glance at what the parameters are of that program that we know of as well as some broad-based spending buckets so we're certainly excited to look for your input on that item as well and with that i've got to see cat i think you're one of the fastest at getting a presentation up on your screen so with that

please take it away thank you good evening mayor and city council this is the first staff report for the fiscal year 21 22 budget process we have some early information for you and a recommendation to adopt an updated budget and reserve policy. We also seek direction for cost-based fees and initial direction for $142.9 million spending plan from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The budget is the City Council's spending plan to achieve strategic plan goals. City Council provided city manager with updates to those goals on February 12th. The next several slides will serve as a reminder for existing goals along with the recent city council updates. You may notice an overlap of goals that support more than one strategic priority.

The financial stability priority includes goals for balanced budget, development, and modernize. The community safety priority includes schools that provide a safe environment for residents and visitors while reducing crime and addressing the impacts of homelessness. On February 12th, the City Council added a goal for school partnerships.

The modern facilities and infrastructure priority includes master planning and a new goal to bridge the digital divide. The efficient city services priority includes goals for technology modernization, effective, efficient policies and processes, and communication and outreach.

The economic diversification and expansion priority includes goals to enhance the city's economic vitality. The city council recently added goals to address housing challenges and parks, open space, and amenities. For fiscal year 21-22, all department budget requests will be measured against the city's strategic plan goals. On March 11th, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The $1.9 trillion stimulus package includes $65.1 billion for cities.

The estimated allocation for the city of Santa Ana is nearly $143 million. The federal legislation includes general guidance listed here, but detailed spending guidelines have not yet been published. In general, the money must be used to respond to the public health emergency or its negative economic impacts, government services, but only to the extent there was a reduction in revenue, and necessary improvements to water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. A community budget meeting is scheduled for March 25th in compliance with the

Sunshine Ordinance. That meeting will be the first opportunity for the public to provide input on spending priorities. Revive Santa Ana is a commitment to protect and assist the community as we emerge from the impacts of the pandemic and will be funded with the $142.9 million allocation. The city has identified five overarching priorities to address COVID recovery, provide assistance programs, address homelessness, provide critical infrastructure,

and address the city's fiscal health. In addition to the $142.9 million allocation, The city has received federal awards totaling $40.7 million, which is committed to housing assistance. An updated budget and reserve policy has been included in your agenda packet for consideration. It would combine the operating reserve and economic uncertainty reserve into to a single 18% reserve of annual recurring general fund revenue. The proposed policy also includes definition updates,

a requirement for a 10 year projection of the general fund and fund balance targets for all other funds. Staff prepared a risk assessment and cashflow analysis that supports the recommended 18% general fund reserve.

each year the city updates its cost-based fees these are fees to provide services to individuals based on the city's cost to provide that service the update includes new fees and recalculated fees we are asking the city council to determine whether we should also include a 1.67 percent CPI increase to help keep pace with increasing labor costs, which could generate up to $200,000 of additional cost recovery revenue. Finally, this report includes early information for the

fiscal year 21-22 budget. We start with the current year budget and subtract one-time items to arrive at a recurring baseline. We add early estimates of revenue increases, totally more than $9 million for the general fund. Then we increase spending by contractually required amounts, such as those previously negotiated with the employee bargaining groups, the required contribution to the employee pension plan, and the expected 4.5% increase for the cost of fire service. The budget will continue to evolve over the coming weeks, but early

information suggests the city may need to use the general fund balance in excess of the policy reserve to preserve service levels in the coming fiscal year. Your agenda tonight includes a recommendation to adopt a resolution authorizing the judicial validation required to refinance the city's pension debt. Staff will provide a more accurate estimate of savings and budget recommendations once the validation is complete, which could take up to six months, well after the City Council considers adoption of the fiscal year 21-22 budget. The next steps in the budget

process include two work sessions in May and a public hearing in June, with adoption scheduled for June 15th. That concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer your questions and take direction for the budget and the revived Santa Ana spending plan.

Great. Thank you for that, Director Downs. I know we probably have many questions and comments on this. I would assume that the council, well, let me preface that. Let me go ahead and just kind of begin by making a couple of comments and bring it back to council. So I want all of us to kind of consider this is a lot rolled into one agenda item. So I wanted to break it down a little bit because I think there is a request to adjust our policy on the reserves, which I think makes total sense.

I think that there are some good language that I saw here that we're still going to be able to look at this and have to declare a fiscal or a local emergency before we can address or use those funds in there. Or it would require a two-thirds vote of the council and a documented loss of revenue. So those are good safeguards. And I know that I I was on the council previously right after the recession in 2008.

And one of the reasons why a reserve policy exists is because we had to go through a very difficult time where the city didn't have any reserve policy or any reserve funding. So we got very low. I think we had about $3 million in our operating fund. And we all realized back then that we needed to have something like this for a rainy day. So we were somewhere in the neighborhood of about 20%. So I think 18% is very fair given where we are today. So that's one thing that we're being asked. And the other one is on the fees and whether or not we want to increase the fees by 1.67%.

And that's something that I think, you know, given what our, you know, city has been going through and others who want to do business with the city, I think, you know, it might not be a bad idea for us to leave as is and maybe not increase those. I think the last thing we want is to be increasing fees on those that want to do business with the city, those that are in the city. So I hope that we remain at the existing level. But I really want us to focus in on sort of an add-on to this item, which was the American Recovery Plan Act that we all know was signed

into law last week by the president. And we are going to be, cities and local governments are going to be receiving very, very large injections. So for those of us and those of you who are new to the council, this is probably one of the most significant decisions that you'll have to make. You'll probably never see in your careers, long or short, something like this being brought to a council. I mean, in my time here on the council, never anything like it. And I doubt we'll see anything. This is kind of a once in a century type of thing. And we can hopefully make it a

real transformational moment where we address some legacy problems, right? And reinvent the way we do business here in the city and really change the lives meaningfully of our residents. So it's a matter of not just restoring where we were pre-pandemic, but I think it really does offer the ability for us to build back better, but I'd rather say build back different and better, right? Because I think doing the same thing may not always work. And right now we have this really incredible opportunity to do things that are completely, completely unprecedented,

at least my time here. So just a couple of things that I would put out and I think that what we want to do is bring this out to the public. I think, you know, and maybe one of the first budget discussions include this to get some feedback from the residents on what they see. And, you know, we always say, you know, if you had a magic wand, what would you, you know, what would you dream of? Well, it's one of these kind of moments, right? We know there has to be a nexus to COVID relief, but nonetheless, almost everything that we touch right now is COVID related.

And there is some nexus, some are stronger than others. But one of the things I'd like us to consider as we start looking at these things is a local stimulus relief to our residents. This is their money. Many of them are hurting. Many of them haven't received anything. And I really think that it would be really important for us to provide economic stimulus to some of our neediest residents in the city who haven't seen any relief. Um, you know, and, and maybe we could think about a voucher or, uh, you know, a debit card that is

extended to them and they could use exclusively in Santa Ana businesses and, you know, and, um, and, and redeem those, whether it's grocery stores, whether it's buying goods or services, but that money would stay in the city. And I think that, you know, I've seen other communities do it really well, but it is to provide relief to those of our residents, um, that really have struggled. You know, another thing that we, you know, should think about is, you know, bringing back our furloughed employees, you know, who've been let go as a result of this.

Hopefully bringing back a lot of those, you know, employees that were let go during this time. You know, bringing back our service levels to where we were. I think we'll see a lot more activity. and I think when we talk about transformative moments, look, if there's one thing that this pandemic taught us is that the county really didn't handle the needs and the problems that Santa Ana has. And so if we could use some of this and a good chunk of this to do a feasibility study on what it would look like for Santa Ana to have its own healthcare department

and health department. I think that if we look at communities that have done exceptionally well and some that have done exceptionally poor, we would fall into the poor category because we all had to scream and shout and beg and plead for services for our residents. But communities like Long Beach and Pasadena that had their own health care departments and agencies within their city, they did extremely well. Long Beach is a model for the entire nation on how they did things to narrowly tailor the services for their residents. So something for us to look at and consider because

the whole idea of a pandemic and us dealing with health care issues going forward isn't going to go away. I think if anything, this is a precursor to other problems that we're going to be facing. And hopefully we can leave this as a legacy for other councils and generations to come that we will dictate how health care is delivered to our residents because we are so unique from the other 33 cities in the county. And we realize that there's always been tension between the county and the city. We could help address that with some decisions that we make now.

You know, the last couple of things, obviously, we need rental assistance to continue and we need, you know, support for our businesses. But I think that stimulus, you know, could be a way to, you know, help both. If we say, hey, this is going to be, this can only be spent in Santa Ana for Santa Ana businesses. That really does create an injection of money and keeps it here in the city for the town. And lastly, on infrastructure, broadband, bridging the digital divide, that is an express use of these funds that we could implement here. And we know what a large need that is here in our city. So those are just some thoughts.

I have many others, but I wanted to bring those because those are sort of high level things that we want to do, because I think we can spend money and backfill and do things and maybe wait to trickle down. But I've always thought supply side economics really don't work. I think getting these funds bottom up to our residents is really the way to solve people's problems and hopefully change their lives. And this is one of those moments when we can do that and also restore some of the revenues that we've lost as a result of the pandemic. So just some thoughts.

I wanted to preface that, this discussion with those comments because I just want you all to know how significant the decisions that we're going to be making on this are and how really transformational they can be going forward. So sorry to be so long-winded. I appreciate the indulgence that you all have offered me, but it is probably one of the most important decisions we'll all make as electeds here in the city. So with that, I'll go ahead and open it up for questions or comments. Councilmember Becerra, go ahead, please.

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Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to express my support for us to continue to adhere to those strategic plan priorities and goals that we set as a council and that we've asked our staff to address. You know, in looking at this report, seeing the expenditures being projected to continue to outpace revenue is concerning. And I would like to see city staff present us with a budget that works to reduce that structural deficit, because I think we have to think long term and think about the resilience of our city and what we can do to sustain ourselves.

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I know that the pension debt refinancing is one way that staff is attempting to address this issue. and I have faith that they are creative and they'll be coming back to us with other issues. I want to echo some of the comments made by our mayor in the sense that this is a huge infusion of money. And I think that while we're looking at ways to help our most neediest residents, I think for us being charged with directing policy here at the city and providing services, We provide services, at least what we can at the municipal level.

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And we hear people, I'm sure we all do, complain to us about certain qualities of certain amenities here in the city. And I think that with this, I think we would be doing a huge service to folks to make sure that we continue to provide the best services and improve where we can. And I also want to echo the sentiment from our mayor when it comes to bringing back some of our workers that we had because of the pandemic. And I think that by bringing them back and restoring those services would be a huge benefit to our residents. And again, that's what we're here to do is provide those services.

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So I think in a priority way, yes, let's make sure that we help those that are most neediest here in town and help them, whether it's maybe it's rent subsidies, maybe it's other ways that we can do that. But I really hope that we prioritize the investment in our services, because I think, you know, whether you're talking to Neville and some of the shape that our infrastructure is in underground, whether it's what we provide folks in our parks, and our community centers. I just want to make sure that as we're putting forward a budget, it's something that really shows that Santa Ana, just like we did during the pandemic,

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really stands out and delivers for our residents. And I think that with this help from the Biden administration, I think we have a huge opportunity to do that. So I agree with you, Mr. Mayor, that we have this enormous opportunity. And I hope that we look at what we've established as our priorities and our goals that staff has been looking at, and we follow those. In conclusion, I just want to also express my support for consolidating the two reserve funds and increasing the minimum overall general fund reserve requirement to the 18 percent. In talking with staff, it makes no sense to have that redundancy.

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And 18 percent, I appreciate the efforts of past councils to establish those reserves, And it's great to know that today, rather than talking about establishing them, we're talking about how to fine-tune those to better serve our residents and be able to continue to deliver our services. services. And while it's important to recover the cost of providing these city services, just given everything that's going on and how we're still trying to work towards recovery, I'm going to push for us to support maintaining the miscellaneous city fees at the current

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rates that they are at this time. It's a very small amount, and I think given the large amount of money that we're talking about here, this small amount for an increase, what is $200,000. I think right now we want to do everything we can to stimulate recovery here. We want to get folks excited about investing in town, building here, and making this place a great city for all of our residents and all of our businesses. So with that, again, I want to echo my support for the general fund reserve requirement being consolidated and put at the 18% level,

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and that we support maintaining the miscellaneous city fees at this time. Thank you.

Great. Thanks for those comments. Any other questions or comments from the council?

Council Member Fan and then Lopez.

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Thank you. And of course, I think all of us, first of all, I'd like to say when we have the trash hauling RFP. It's like the biggest contract we'll have to decide in our council careers and then now this. So a lot of changes here in the city and it's also an incredible opportunity for all of us. I'm very excited to be able to serve at this time and I do agree with you know pretty much everything that you and Council Member Seda have brought up in needing to provide services. I think one thing I'd really be interested in looking at as we're looking at this budget and

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the federal funding is an emphasis on how we can be creative with the limited amount of open space that we have in our city or encouraging green space and greenery. Obviously, as we saw with COVID, so many of our families are, you know, they don't have their own yards. We live in apartments and the only safe places to go are these public parks and there are not a lot of them. And that's always been a difficult issue because there's not a lot of space, but it costs a lot to buy land and anything like that. So I just like for us to kind of explore that and see

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what we can do because, you know, last council meeting we talked about being stewards of the environment and of the future. This is a part of that. I think that making sure we have safe places for families to be outside not only makes it healthier, you know, as someone who suffers from asthma. That's a big part of that and also ensures that it beautifies our city. I would also like to see, and maybe this is in conjunction with

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SCE or any of other utilities, is that as we explore internet access and bridging the digital divide, that we also combine that with improvements in public works and some of our really old pipes and and sewers and things like that. Let's kill two birds with one stone, or as an employer said, feed two birds with one stone. It might be a little bit of a less dramatic analogy, but that way we actually, some of these pipes are 60 years old and it costs so much to dig them up. It really interferes with our everyday lives because we're all gonna start driving back to work probably in the fall or winter. And I think that this would be

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a really fantastic opportunity, as Councilmember Bassetta said, to improve services, but also, like the mayor said, ensure that we bridge this digital divide. So those are just some of the, I guess I want to make sure that as we're going through this process that we look to partner with our other public agencies to see where maybe if they had some funding and we had some funding where we can work together to really get the most bang for our buck.

Thank you, Councilmember Fan. Councilmember Lopez.

Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to start off, you know, I saw the five categories and a suggestion that I wanted to make is maybe instead of having a homelessness category, having a public health one, and that way homelessness and everything that comes with that can fall under that umbrella. And maybe it would obviously be wider and it would give us a little bit more wiggle space. But I really want to echo the things that you brought up, Mayor.

Superful supporting like local stimulus, mental relief, and owning our public agency as well, and thinking about bringing back our furloughed employees. Another thing that I always hear here in the city is all the trash that we often see. And there's a lot of crime also that we experience. And so maybe working or contract trash abatement crews and hopefully hire high-risk populations to not only address the trash issue, but also help reduce any more crime here in the city by obviously hiring those high-risk population groups. Also, another thing

that I'm super interested in exploring is buying some of these troubled hotels so that we can address all of the issues that come from those sites. I think, as I said, having our own healthcare agency is something that I'm very supportive of. Maybe looking at the efforts of investing in a public bank for the city so that we can have the ability to loan out and invest in city priorities. I really think that we can be creative as well. And in terms of food security, you know, there's a lot of people I see online that say, hey, I have

lemon tree, I have an avocado tree, I'll trade you fruit or veggies, whatnot. And so, IDing those food resources and allowing people to have these pop-up stands. And at Santa Ana, families that are doing that within the city of Santa Ana, I think that obviously addressing the homelessness issue is going to be a priority for us. Any right to counsel, thoughts on that. And also early childhood support with a digital divide. I think that falls right underneath that.

And any community intervention, like violence intervention programs, I think are going to be beneficial for the residents of the city. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for that, Council Member. Council, I don't know whose hand went up first, whether it was Council Member Hernandez or Mayor Pro Tem. You guys want to draw straws or arm

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wrestle from afar? We can rock, paper, scissor. Mayor Pro Tem, do you want to go ahead and take

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it away? Go ahead, Jonathan. Council Member Hernandez,

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Thank you. Yeah, there's so much really good stuff being talked about today. And one of the things that I want to see us be more involved in as a city is early childhood development, early childhood education. I think one of the key components of keeping our community safe, there's always talks about public safety and gang violence and drug abuse, homelessness, right? But the key to making sure that our communities are safe is we have to start with that zero to five demographic. If children are not prepared for kindergarten, the first five years

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of your life prepares you for the next 80. I think it would be beneficial for us to invest in bringing Head Start programs to the city so that as families start going back to work where they're commuting, we as a city have infrastructure to help support their family by having Head Start programs. I think it would be fantastic for us to have more programs for single mothers and families, because there's a lack of it. And in addition to that, I think that there's a lot of opportunity for us to invest in more arts and music programs. Those are, they're very effective when it comes to

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moving people away from making bad decisions. It provides young people opportunities for them to safely express themselves, develop pro-social skills. And I think that as a city, we absolutely should be involved there. And I think the last part of my advocacy would be education. If we can have a stronger infrastructure of education for families and children, I think that that is going to be something that is very intersectional and helpful for the entire city. And of course, the digital divide is a huge priority to me. And I would

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love to see us introduce a program that is going to bring internet access to families. I think the most sustainable approach for us to take would be fiber optic. We do have infrastructure to support that. It allows us to create jobs for people here locally, stimulate our economy, put people back to work. And in addition to that, we're able to get rid of barriers for a lot of families. So those would be the top areas of priority for me.

Thank you, Councilmember. Mayor Pro Tem.

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Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Let me just first say that I never wished I had kids more than I did this week. The memes out there are great on the stimulus. I love them. They're hilarious. And And I'm happy that our residents are getting those. But with that said, I also want to, as we move forward with this, I want to keep in mind that, you know, these are one-time funds. And, you know, they will go very quickly once we start, you know, deciding of what things to pursue.

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I love what Councilmember Lopez, I mean, Fan brought up about the looking at, I mean, knowing that there's a health issue in our city, lack of open space, lack of quality open space, lack of quality programs out there. It's important that we, as we move forward, we start looking at areas. I mean, the city of Santa Ana owns a lot of land that is vacant lots, vacant plots of land that we're constantly trying to sell to generate revenue and whatnot. not, there's areas where we could develop those lands to a park. Central Santa Ana has zero park

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space, and it's one of the most dense cities in the country. So wherever we could find space where we could develop these lands that the city already owns, and if there isn't one that the city already owns, then we could possibly buy a piece of land and develop it into a nice park in Central Santa if there's anything available. Anywhere where we could look into investing in our infrastructure to provide service to our residents. I can't get tired of saying this enough and stressing on this, because we have the ability to provide great service to our residents,

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but we have an antiquated system across the board in every department. And I know we've gotten better over the last couple of years at improving that, But, you know, everything from if it's a resident trying to apply for rental assistance, I mean, there is so much red tape and so much outdated systems that they don't need to deal with. We should make it easy for them.

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And if there's areas where we can invest dollars into making these services that the city provides accessible, reachable, by the click of a button, by a text message, by a click of a website, bringing it into the neighborhoods, having pop-ups throughout the city every now and then to bring these services to our community, that would be great. any area where we could improve our green space, where we could improve our infrastructure. I think of just our overall city and the fact that it's over 150 years old. Just yesterday,

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it rained for 30 minutes and all the streets surrounding my house were flooded. I mean, it's like you would think it rained for a month straight. It's like, how does that happen? And And it's because of our just antiquated old infrastructure, antiquated city, antiquated systems, where we have to now, as a city, switch gears and try to fix problems that have been ignored for decades. And I feel like that's what we're constantly doing at City Hall is not doing new things, but just fixing, fixing, fixing, bandage, bandage, bandage, because we don't address the root of the

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problem, which is lack of green space, lack of open space, infrastructure investments, anything that we can do to help our overall infrastructure and our community's health would be great moving forward as we look at how to properly invest these dollars. I mean, we could give stimulus to our residents, a couple hundred dollars to everybody, and it'll be gone in seconds, and we'll have a bump in our sales tax, and that's about it. But whatever we can do to address the way we deliver service to our residents and our

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community. We'll open up staff time and free staff time to do a million other things. We'll open up staff time to provide additional community hours at our community centers. I mean, there's just so much we can do and a lot of areas where we could invest it in and 100% supportive of bringing back our furloughed employees as soon as we can. I know that most of we're in our parks and rec program i'm hopeful that as we move uh i don't even know if to say down or up the color tier system that we have um and more and more things keep opening our community

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centers our libraries our our we could we could bring back our programming and uh get get our kids back into to these after school programs and and community center hours and and art classes and and whatnot at our community gardens. I know that a lot of our employees that were furloughed were from our community centers and our parks. So the quicker we can bring them back, the better. And yeah, I mean, I'm open to any discussion, but all of them are great. So very supportive of them.

Great, thank you for that. I think everybody's spoken with the exception of Council Member Mendoza. Go ahead, Council Member.

Yes, good evening, everyone. Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I appreciate that we're looking at the mayor early on. I'm sorry. We always look at you early on, Mayor Sarmiento, but that we're looking at the agenda, that we put this on the agenda early so that we can start looking at the budget with a head start. And that's one of the reasons that we were elected. It was to represent our constituents in bringing services to improve quality of life.

So all the issues that my colleagues are mentioning is exactly what we're going to be working on. And hopefully with everyone getting vaccinated, well, the majority of the people getting vaccinated, vaccinated, we can get back to a somewhat of a normal city and to ensure that the budget is equitable in the many issues, especially for those that are more in need. So I'm really glad that we're getting this head start on looking at all of these issues.

And for now, I don't have any specifics, but we'll be looking at all of that also in conjunction with my, as an appointed member of one of the ad hoc committees with collaboration and partnership with the school district, I'm also working on bringing some more youth services in the areas of activities such as, I know that there's big issues with the handball, lots of controversy with the Logan neighborhood. And so I'm looking to see about bringing alternative activities over for our youth

in conjunction with our school district and utilizing the tennis centers for the pickleballs. And we will also be looking for funding to get some lighting in there so that the youth and other residents, it doesn't have to be just the youth, want to come and use the courts in the evenings for tennis and for pickleball. That's one of the issues where our committee will be looking at to bring some healthy alternatives.

I know that green space is limited, so this is another way that we can bring activities for our kids to get out and be physical and get some of that normalcy back into our lives. Thank you for the acknowledgement, Mayor Sarmiento.

Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you for your comments. Did you have something else, Mayor Pro Tem?

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Yeah, really quick. I forgot to mention, in regards to the miscellaneous fees, Madam City Manager,

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I'm still kind of contemplating whether we want to increase those fees. I do like the point that Council Member Becerra brought up in regards to we should be looking at ways to stimulate our economy and incentivize people to do business in our city and whatnot. But I'm not sure if we were moving towards a blanket approach of just raising fees across the board, but maybe there's areas where we could look at which fees maybe we want to increase some, decrease others, or keep some the same. Was that taken into consideration, Madam City Manager or Executive Director Downs?

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. So these are just miscellaneous fees. We go through other procedures to set a lot of the other fees. So I know, Kat, can you please do, or Executive Director of Finance, can you please give some example of what are miscellaneous fees? Sure. So these are fees for

services to individuals. So you're talking about permit fees or even as small as, you know, copying fees at the clerk's office, anything where we're providing a specific service to an individual, we're recovering our cost for these fees. And we do go through a process each year of each department looks at their fees and determines if there are some that do need to be updated. So to your point, you know, there may be some recommendations to increase a small handful full of fees based on some new information or some new way of providing service.

But again, we're limited by state law to recover our costs only for these fees.

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Okay. Thank you for that. Maybe if you want to maybe send, I couldn't see it in the staff report, not sure if it was in there, but maybe if you guys want to send a little memo breakdown down to the council, these fees exactly of what they look like and what they would look like. Because I'm open to it, but again, I wouldn't want to be increasing fees on little basic things like a copy in the clerk's office for our residents, because it's mostly our residents that are using that service or requesting that service. So whatever we can do to share that

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information uh executive director that'd be great um those are all the comments i have thank you

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great thank you um is there a councilman becerra uh thank you mr mayor i just you know uh i just want to say thank you mayor pro tem for those comments and yeah i think when it comes to those fees you know i i go back and forth because i i really believe in cost recovery but at the same time, just at this particular moment, are we really going to nickel and dime our residents at this moment? I'm more willing to forego it at this particular instance. And I just actually, Mr. Mayor, rather than ramble on, I just want to go ahead and jump in and make a motion that we adopt the proposed budget and reserve policy and that we direct staff

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to maintain miscellaneous fees at their current rates at this time.

Great. I'll go ahead and second that. I think we should maintain the fees as they are. I don't think they should be increased, especially given what they would render. And I think we also need to make sure that we try to stimulate as much as possible. So just a couple of things. I think everybody had an opportunity to speak once or twice. What I wanted to make sure, Madam City manager, you do, and I think this is important as you go out to the public, that we create this plan or this approach and effort, and it should be fairly big. I think this is an opportunity for

us to also instill confidence and trust and hope in the community that we're going to be working very hard for them, just like the federal government is obviously making this available to a lot of our local communities to do exactly that. So this should be a multifaceted plan that not only utilizes these federal monies, but also state county monies as well. So I know we have about $9.8 million that we have allocated for rental assistance and any other CDBG, any

other monies that we have, this is a $150 million plan that is to revive Santa Ana. So at the very least, and I think as we saw that the federal government extended these monies back to its residents or back to the folks here in the country, it is stimulus. So we can't forget, I think it was said $200 is not much and it's not going to do. well, yeah, to a family that doesn't have much and hasn't received any stimulus, believe me, that's a lot of money. I mean, some of our residents and households earn less than $20,000

a year. So to the extent that money could be re-injected back into the businesses and the community that some of them haven't opened up or some of them haven't had limited openings, that money stays here and it circulates and it multiplies and it keeps people employed. So also, this is an effort, again, to instill hope back in the community. I mean, they've had nothing but, you know, a shutdown economy. They've been inside. Kids haven't gone to school. This is really, really an effort to try to inspire people as well. So, you know, I hope that when we roll this out to the community, you know, we speak to them about this.

But also, as we message this to, you know, to our residents and to the press and to the media. This is a big moment for everybody. And so I think that there were some good comments made. I don't want us to think small because, you know, I think this is a moment to think a little bit bigger. We can do the infrastructure stuff. We can do a lot of those things. This is a big enough plan to incorporate all those principles within the strategic plan. But we can also think about reinventing some things that have gotten stale. And I think that if we don't use this moment wisely

and we don't be also courageous with what we want to do, look, this is a moment that will be squandered. And then we'll look back and say, yeah, we just did a bunch of small things, but not really the big things. And I think that, you know, I hope we, you know, we expand our minds, we were able to use this moment. I think somebody said, you know, this waste contract is the largest contract that they've seen. You're right. I mean, and this is like, you know, the largest injection of money we'll probably see. And then the next item is doing a pension,

refinance, that's probably going to be the biggest one that we refinance. So we are doing some super exciting things. I don't want us to lose sight of that. And being creative and obviously having a nexus back to COVID is going to be really the condition that we move forward on. But I think you've heard enough, city manager, from all of us. And hopefully we're going to obviously come back and we'll discuss how specifically we can go ahead and make these allocations. I believe these funds are going to be in two tranches. So we probably will expect some of it,

maybe half in the next 60 days, maybe the other part within six months or somewhere down the line. But the good thing is that these are monies that we don't have to account for for a while. So it's not like the CARES Act money from last year that you had to have an accounting and you had to have your disclosures and everything else ready by the end of the year. And it really made it difficult because you had to spend it and you almost had to spend it randomly. This we can

give some thought to and do it well. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you all council members and Mayor Patent for those comments. This really is a watershed moment. I don't think we're ever going to see in our lifetimes the ability to have this type of recovery dollar sent to us. And it is a great opportunity for us to completely think big. I like how you use that terminology, Mayor, because we can improve the city with one-time investments in all of the items that you mentioned, and we can emerge a stronger city that can meet the needs of our residents much better

in the future. I know I get tired of Mayor Pro Tem talking about our antiquated systems, but He is exactly right. We're an old government, and we've been doing things the same way for a while, and we're doing a lot of patchwork to keep up. And when COVID hit and the pandemic was devastating to our community, it really, from a government professional employee, it woke us up. And we quickly learned the things that we weren't very adept at doing and areas where we could really improve, whether it was just from outreach to get better information to

all corners of our community to just responding very quickly. As the mayor mentioned, pointing out that there were public health issues and we weren't equipped to be a public health department. So there is a lot of opportunity and I'm very excited. I know this was a lot of information that you took in tonight. It is just the introduction. We will take all of your feedback. We will garner community input on it and we will be returning with a single staff report that is solely dedicated to how we are going to program these funds to revive our community. So thank you for your input tonight.

Thank you, Madam City Manager. So we have a motion and a second on the floor. Seeing no other questions or comments, Madam Clerk, will you please call roll?

Councilmember Becerra? Yes. Councilmember Hernandez?

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Yes.

Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza?

Council member Mendoza.

Sorry about that. Yes. Thank you. Council member Pham. Yes. Mayor Potempeñalosa.

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento.

Yes. Thank you, everybody. Moving along to item number 33, which is adoption of a resolution to authorize a judicial validation for the proposed pension debt refinancing and related bond financing agreements. And I'll turn it over to staff.

Thank you, Mayor. We do have a very brief presentation from your executive director of finance. And this is just one more step on the path to do pension debt refinancing. I will turn it over to her so she can walk you through it. The item's been before you, and it will keep coming back to you because there still are a number of steps to do to accomplish this task.

And actually, thank you for that. I am going to turn it over to our Assistant Director of Finance, Sergio Vidal, to walk us through the timeline.

Thank you very much, Director Downs. Does everyone hear me? Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much, Madam City Manager, Mayor, members of City Council. Sergio Vidal, assistant financial director here with the city. And the item before you this evening is we're just going to give you a quick walkthrough of a timeline of events of what steps we have taken in anticipation of this potential pension debt reissuance. And then also some next steps and also we'll be available for questions.

Next slide. So this process has been about started about a year ago. So in April, we came back right at the onset of the pandemic, where we were looking for various, as a result, we were anticipating some revenues decreasing as a result of various items, including the pandemic. And we looked to see what are some cost-saving measures that the city could undertake. And one of those was a pension debt refinancing. So we requested for council consideration, and we received that consideration and that feedback to go ahead and consider pension debt refinancing.

that scene. Subsequently, in July of 2020, we came back to the council for consideration of approving a contract for a financial advisor, Urban Futures. The council approved that contract after a competitive process known as an RFP. And we started, we now started ongoing diving into the details of the city's pension obligations and developing that feasibility analysis towards the end of the calendar year. And subsequently we completed that analysis and also developed a policy in anticipation for council consideration in February of 2021 where we proposed that contract.

In addition to that, we proposed a contract to initiate a bond council and validation services this evening. Subsequently, and currently, we have also released another competitive process, an RFP for underwriting services. And this underwriter is the bank who will be selling the bonds on behalf of the city. This is really a key partner in the financing team for this potential pension debt refinancing. And fast forward to today, the item before you this evening is the request to initiate the validation process and approve related agreements such as the bond purchase contract

and the trustee agreement. I just want to just note that the item, the resolution before you is just signaling the intent for the city to start the validation process. It does not obligate the city to enter into any debt. And obviously, both the bond purchase and the trustee agreement will be subject to final after selection of the underwriter. And once we begin that process of issuing the debt, we'll come back to Council and finalize and firm up those terms and conditions. As noted, we anticipate next month we'll be filing that judicial validation process on behalf of the city with the county of Orange Superior Courts.

Right now, due to COVID, it's typically a 60 to 90 day process. However, we're unsure how long it would take. We anticipate maybe up to three to four months. And that is when the courts will bless or allow us, the city, to go ahead and start that process of initiating potentially refinancing its pension debt. Another fast forward to July, we do have the CalPERS returns that we're eagerly anticipating. Just to report some good news, CalPERS through this year, through its most recent reporting, has earned for this current fiscal year about 14% rate of return.

So it's an excess of its assumed rate of return of 7%. And really what that means is the city's pension debt is scheduled to go down if they remain on this trajectory.

August, September, we look in the come back to council. We assume that we will have that judicial validation process completed at that time. And at that point, we will be presenting the bond documents and finalizing what exactly is the amount that the city will be refinancing for potentially for his pension debt. Assuming council consideration and approval, we look to really gear up in October and finalize those bond documents, present to a credit rating agency so we can achieve the best credit rating which will result in the lowest debt service for the city, or at least that's

to hope. And finally, we anticipate if all goes well, the validation process does not take as long as we hope it doesn't take as long as we anticipate. We hope to issue this debt sometime in November.

And that concludes my portion of the presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. And also in addition, we have Director Downs and our Bond and Validation Council, Mr. Brian Forbath, shareholder who is also available here to answer any questions for council consideration. Thank you.

Thank you for that presentation. Let me go ahead and bring it back to council.

Does anybody have any questions or comments on this item?

Councilmember Pham.

Thai Viet PhanItem 32

Thank you, Mayor. CJ says hi. Thank you for that presentation. I guess one thing I wanted to address was, as we had gone through the last two presentations ago, about the refinancing process and whatnot, I believe one of the options instead of refinancing was actually to use our water enterprise fund or some of that money to pay off some of the debt rather than refinancing. We're not doing that, right? We're going, hey, let's consider refinancing instead of using funds that we have for a specific purpose.

Yeah, you have a very good memory, Council Member Phan. One of the ideas that we had was to use the accumulated cash in the water fund, and then we would do a tax-exempt exchange, issuing tax-exempt debt for the projects that were planned for that money. but it is a small amount of money. I'm not sure that it's going to be worthwhile to us, but that is definitely going to be one of the things that we'll continue to look at as time evolves and the market changes and we take a look at what we're looking at and see

if that can help us save any money. But as it stands right now, it's unlikely to be a part

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of the equation at this point. Got it. And I believe Mr. Vidal mentioned that CalPERS was saying that for this current fiscal year, somehow CalPERS had a bull market and might have a pretty high, it was a 14% rate of return, which I think a lot of us, those of us lucky enough to have 401ks are seeing that kind of return also. However, I would just like to reiterate that while 2020 or that fiscal year for them might have been great, we're, they're still saying that they're looking at a 7% or less return, right?

That is correct. Over the long term, their actuaries believe that they'll actually earn closer to 6%, even though their assumed rate of return is 7%. If you look at the history of CalPERS returns, they go up and down. So there are some years where they do exceed the 7%. This looks like it's shaping up to be one of those years. Our analysis indicated that through a pension refinancing that we will save money as long as they don't earn those high rates of returns

every year for the next 20 or 30 years. And what we've seen is that that does not happen. These years where they earn more than their assumed rate of return are unique, and we don't expect them to continue doing that every year for the next 20 to 30 years.

Thai Viet PhanItem 32

Right. And I think in the chart that you previously showed us regarding their rate of return, they had a couple years of bull market returns and then a couple really terrible bear markets with housing crash. But I know that's mostly addressed. My other question is, with the way that we see CalPERS going, do we think that we might go below 90% refinancing, or is that still kind of the recommendation from the city?

At this point in time, the way the numbers look, that's still the recommendation, but that will evolve. We have to get through this validation process that'll take some number of months. We don't know if it's going to be two months or six months, but as the market evolves, those numbers are going to get more and more fine-tuned when we come to the end of that process and we'll have a better idea at that point. But at this time, we are looking to maximize our savings with a very close to 90 percent refinancing. Great. And then also one of the comments

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by the public was that there was some concern about our credit rating, and please educate me because I know my own finances and we're refinancing our home. But, you know, they check your credit score and here they'll do your credit to the city's credit. But it seems like our budget has been quite healthy, especially in light of COVID-19, that I would imagine that us along with the other cities, I guess I don't know how they compare whether they go, oh, your budget was pretty much on track with what you estimated or did even better. Great credit rating or is there, you know, maybe that's too simple of a, you know,

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description of how they figure out our credit rating. They actually look into quite a few

factors. It is a lengthy process. You usually have a credit rating agency like Standard & Poor's or Moody's do it and you pay a good amount of money for them to go through that analysis because they do put a lot of effort into it. They look at pretty much everything, but we do have some very good arguments to earn a good credit rating because we have a good strong reserve. We've maintained that reserve, and that is something that they will definitely be looking at, and we've adhered to our policies as well. And so we do have some very good arguments to have a very good

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credit rating. Thanks. And I guess my last thing is more of a comment, which is, you know, I think there's a lot of concern for those who maybe went through a, you know, pension process back in the 90s and 2000s, and it's really changed. And for, I think, previous councils have really, I think, kicked the can down the road, and we're seeing a debt that is ballooning to a point that may become, in the near future, unmanageable, right? It's kind of like a house that's gone, I think, underwater. And so I think here, refinancing is really the only step I can think of,

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or, you know, that makes a lot of sense to take advantage of the great rates that we can get, and make sure that we don't let a council four years from now, or, you know, 12 years from now have to deal with an even worse problem. Let's take care of this issue now, especially in light of the COVID relief that we're going to get. We're going to be able to find ways to, even with the little cost of the bonds, we'd still be able to provide services. So I think it's a great opportunity

to do that. So thank you. Thank you, council member. Thank you for those comments. Any other comments or questions from the council? I just had a couple of things and I think, you know, So Councilmember Pham brought up an excellent point. I think what's happening now as well is that what's maybe driving our decision or maybe another good factor or variable that's changed from maybe years past are the conditions are so favorable to refinance right now, where they may not have been in the past. And I know that a lot of other agencies have taken advantage of this moment to refinance a lot of their debt, especially if they're able to.

and it's a good point that we haven't done a lot of that. So I think our ratings will come back relatively strong from the three reporting agencies. So I think our timing is good and sometimes timing is everything. So I just had a quick question for either Director Downs or Sergio. So we're also right now in the process of procuring an underwriter. Is that underwriter or

underwriters? It'll be up to the city council. So we have released the RFP. We've received proposals. They are currently under review. They will be ranked. Our financial advisor or municipal advisor is helping us with that review. And after they are ranked, then, you know, There are several of us that will be looking to narrow the field, if you will, and we are likely to come back to council letting you know that here are our top picks and here are the reasons why.

And the council may choose to go with multiple underwriters. This is potentially a very large issue, and there is certainly plenty of work for multiple underwriters. An underwriter basically buys the bonds and then sells them to their clients, their investors. And so when you have multiple underwriters, you are increasing the number of investors that will be looking to purchase your bonds, which means you could get more favorable terms because they will be more in demand with more investors shopping, if you will.

So multiple underwriters in this case can be a very good thing. And we will definitely bring back consideration for the city council.

Yeah, thank you for that answer, Director Downs. I think I know when we went out and refinanced some debt at the water district, we saw that there was some benefit to having more than one underwriter work and sometimes they have different areas, right, and strengths, and some of them have weaknesses. So I think the automatic is kind of to go with the big firm, but we don't always want to do that as a knee jerk. We want to see what competitive edge we can get from multiple firms that work with us and hopefully will generate

a better result. So perfect. So seeing no other questions, I'll go ahead and entertain a motion to adopt staff recommendation for the resolution.

We have a motion by Council Member Fan. Is there a second?

I can second.

I second. Great. We have a second from Council Member Lopez. So Madam Clerk, will you please call roll?

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez?

Yes.

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Fan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñonosa?

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. Thanks, everybody. That brings an end to the business calendar. And now we're on item number 34, which is to discuss and consider the option to rebuild the handball courts at Sheffield Park in the Logan neighborhood. and I believe that's Councilmember Hernandez's item. Councilmember.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 34

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon, colleagues, and I want to thank all the residents that took time from their day today to discuss this item. I know that this has been a hot topic across the city where we are seeing handball courts being removed, and although these may seem insignificant to some, these were very impactful for many residents in the Logan community. And, you know, my story is pretty simple. Much like the residents of Logan, I grew up right beside a handball court at El Salvador Park. I'm proud of it.

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And residents in Logan, you know, they grew up playing handball, and it's a very cost-effective sport. I didn't know that the handball courts were taken out. I actually learned about them in doing a meet and greet with the Logan Neighborhood Association. We were doing a community walkthrough, and we walked past the courts. I saw they were taken out, and I was a bit surprised. But as I became more comfortable with my role here at City Hall as a council member, I began to do more research.

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And what I came to find was that I felt that there wasn't a due process for residents to have their community input. And what I found was that, unfortunately, there was not much opportunity for residents to champion these handball courts. And I think that had that dialogue been had, this item wouldn't be here today. And what I'm going to present to my colleagues today is a high-level overview of the feedback that our office has received in regards to the handball court removal at Logan Park. I held a listening session at the end of the month of February.

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I personally walked, along with my commissioner, Sui Vasquez. Thank you, Sui. We personally walked the Logan neighborhood. We handed out flyers. We personally went to every single door. We went to the apartment complex as well. We didn't go outside of the Logan vicinity. We stayed right within it. And we reached out to residents and made sure that we knocked on their doors, socially distanced, proper PPE equipment, and we invited them out to participate. There was a number of ways for residents to participate. They could dial in. They could participate by being part of the listening session. Or they could send me an email.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 34

I'm going to present three different outreach that I received from residents. Number one, the neighborhood listening session that we had, approximately 25 residents attended. 11 residents were in support of rebuilding the courts. Two residents were in support of the removal. There's meeting audio that we do have, and it is accessible to the residents as well. Number two is email correspondence. Our office received a total of eight emails on this matter, eight of which were in support of rebuilding the courts. Two emails were in support of the removal.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 34

A copy of these emails, we do have them if residents are interested in taking a look at that. Lastly, there was a petition that was submitted today, March 16th. We received copies of that petition with 39 residents supporting the removal. I just wanted to provide a correction to the Madam City Clerk. The petition was not entirely made of Santa Ana residents. Three of the resident signatures are from residents who do not reside in Logan. One of the resident addresses is a business. A total of eight addresses provided signature of residents sharing the same household.

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In total, that's 19 signatures. 19 of 35 signatures come from shared households, one signature being a resident from our neighbor city of La Habra. All in all, the petition includes 15 addresses within the Logan neighborhood, three addresses outside of the neighborhood, one from a different city, and 19 from shared households. Overall, including the number of signatures on the petition, the results and feedback are as follows. This petition contained 17 comments in support of rebuilding the courts, 39 comments in support of removing the courts.

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As we broke down that 39, we were able to find those discrepancies. With regards to the concern of the handball courts attracting crime, there is no data that reflects this information. In addition to, there were comments today that since removing the courts, the neighborhood has had no issues. Over the weekend, I received a text message from a neighborhood leader who called in today saying there was no issues. This individual sent me a text message followed with a picture of graffiti that took place at Chepa Park. This is an opportunity for us to bring people together, create infrastructure to support

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families and children, and to support a community during a time where we have a spotlight shined on our lack of green space. This is an opportunity for us to create more youth sport programs, and it provides an opportunity for residents to meet in the middle. We need to bring people together, and given the history of how residents have fought to keep these handball courts and have succeeded on three different occasions, I think the right thing to do is give the people what they want. I don't feel that taking away this from, I feel that taking this away from residents

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erases a part of their history of this neighborhood. We should work to find solutions to improve our communities. And if there's an opportunity to make better infrastructure with these handball courts, let's introduce more sporting programs so that we can properly utilize these courts. We aren't looking at an issue of handball courts equaling gang members and violence. We know that all of those things happen as a byproduct of divesting in community. This is an opportunity for us to really do right by the people. And that is all.

Thank you, Councilmember. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the Council for thoughts and comments and questions.

Any members of the Council wish to address the item?

Thai Viet PhanItem 34

Councilmember Pham. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councilmember Hernandez, for bringing this forward. And thank you for doing the work, the outreach and whatnot. I, myself, will be doing some outreach this upcoming weekend. So I guess one thing I want to say is I am happy to have whatever sports, outdoors, infrastructure that the neighborhood wants anywhere in our city, right? That is my highest priority. If you want tetherball, hopscotch, pickleball, I had to look that up. I wasn't sure what it was. You know, bocce, whatever.

Thai Viet PhanItem 34

But a couple of things I do want to remind, you know, I have to remind myself as well as I think for the community is one, I think there's history and then there's nostalgia. and sometimes in wanting to preserve something, it's a result of the nostalgia that we have for what we used to do, but not where our kids, our families, or where we are today. You know, I can tell you how many memories I have of playing handball in school or tetherball and things like that, but I can say that since I graduated from high school, I don't play handball

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or a tetherball. And so I think that's one thing I want us all to reflect on and look at as we decide what kind of outdoor infrastructure we have for our parks. But on top of that, I think that, and I reached out to Director Rudloff about this, is that we have a Parks Master Plan that is currently in the works right now. In fact, I had a meeting with the consultant on that issue, and they're going to be presenting and doing community outreach specifically to see what kind of infrastructure resources or services we want in our parks, what kind of amenities.

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And I think that would be really great to make sure they, you know, this handball court situation or whatever we want at Chappas Park or what kind of art services is part of that parks master plan so that the city and staff can look at where the funding can be, where we can find grants potentially to really invest in those kinds of items. So I guess that's the one hesitancy that I have with this is just to say, well, we already have a process that is ongoing now. I can't speak to what happened before, but what I can say is that there is this process in place and the public

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will have many opportunities to reach out. And I'm sure all of us, or many of us will, I myself will, talk to residents to see, you know, what do you want at your local neighborhood park? And that way we can make sure that's incorporated in the parks master plan. So that's the only thing that I would want us to do rather than kind of having dual processes and kind of working on things piecemeal. We can look overall throughout the city and where we can make these improvements And if we want multiple handball courts in multiple parks, then maybe we go out to an RFP for a particular provider and we get that all done at once, right?

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So I'm just saying those are all options there and could be really useful for the city. Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Fan. Councilmember Becerra and then Lopez.

Phil BacerraItem 34

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I will be echoing a lot of what Council Member Phan just said in regards to, you know, we're here to provide parks to be used. And we want to make sure that we have the amenities in the parks for folks to use them. If there's a demand for handball, then by all means, let's put handball courts in our parks. If folks are clamoring for basketball, for soccer, for whatever it is, let's provide folks in our community what they will use, what they desire. I appreciate Council Member Hernandez going out and doing the legwork. I mean,

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he just got done with an election. It's like he couldn't get enough of walking the community, so he's back out there hitting the streets again. So my hat's off to Council Member Hernandez for doing that legwork. But again, I'm going to echo a lot of what Council Member Pham said in the sense that I think it's important for us to be organized in how we address the concerns of our parks. And I got to tell you, I know that the city council approved going forward with the parks master plan just before this current council was seated. And I was very excited about this idea

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because one, I didn't realize we didn't have such a process in place. But the idea that, you know, with Lisa Rudloff bringing her experience in and trying to organize us in a way so that we can provide these resources to our community in a very organized, very deliberate way, and with this master plan, doing it with community input. So as we're talking about this one single item in one park in our city, I envision that this master plan will take that and amplify it throughout the city. So whether we're talking about Santa Anita, Chepas, Thornton

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parks, there will be this opportunity for all of our residents to weigh in on what we provide. And so I, again, I appreciate Council Member Hernandez bringing this forward, and I appreciate his effort to get input from the community. But I think that the more responsible way for us as a whole council, looking at the whole city and all the parks within our city, is I think to really allow the park master plan process to go through and let's monitor it closely. And before I conclude, I want to ask Executive Director Rudloff, the item, or maybe actually

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City Manager, this item, the parks master plan, it's not that the consultant is going to go out, do the work, put it together, and then that's it. It's going to come back to council for adoption,

correct? Yes, it will be a multi-stage process, but the goal is to seek citywide input from the individual communities as to the amenities they want in their nearby park. Okay, so I feel like

Phil BacerraItem 34

there's a lot of checks and balances here as far as how this proceeds. So I, again, before this item was brought to us, I've been really excited about this process going forward because it'll be great to see what types of amenities our residents want programmed in the parks. Councilmember Hernandez got a little bit ahead of us, and he's already done some legwork in one park, and I appreciate that. So I would just say that while Councilmember Hernandez got ahead of the rest of us, I really would throw my support behind. Let's see what comes out of the parks master plan, and if the folks in Logan truly want

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handball courts, then so be it, then we need to look at how we put them in there. But let's wait to see what comes out of the Parks Master Plan.

Thank you, Council Member Lopez.

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Hernandez, thank you for all of that data that you provided. I think it's really helpful to hear the numbers and to actually hear from residents that live in Logan, I know that there was a big emphasis of saying, you know, tune out the no is right. If you don't live in this part of the area, your concern doesn't really matter. And I think what we're seeing here today is exactly that, is Logan residents saying this is what we want. And so, you know, and the spirit of honoring what they want, I definitely want to support

your item today. And, you know, when we tell people, come to the council and express your thoughts and concerns and your needs, we can't turn around and then essentially say, well, you know, we'll think about it. So that's where I'm at at the moment.

Thank you, Council Member Lopez. Any other comments from the mayor pro tem?

David PenalozaItem 34

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to also echo a little bit of what Council Member Becerra and Councilwoman Fan had. We definitely understand the need for additional green space. Where exactly those priorities land, on what type of green space, that's up to debate. And I think that's important to look at as we move forward with the master plan, with the parks master plan, of what exactly we want to see in these areas. Because on one side, I'm hearing from a lot of members in that neighborhood that they want expanded children's playground area which was

David PenalozaItem 34

the whole intent and goal of this. So definitely supportive of incorporating what kind of that question of what kind of amenities do we want to see in our parks master plan and looking forward to seeing that soon from the parks and rec director and the city manager. So

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 34

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. And thank you to my colleagues for their dialogue. The dialogue's important and it's needed. And part of why I felt so passionate about bringing this forth is because I don't think we would be having this conversation today if there was a democratic process. There was no check and balance. These courts were just knocked down.

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and I don't think that's right. And that's why I ran for office is to do right by the people. I know that if this were to happen in El Salvador Park, there would be an uproar. There'd be tons of residents that would be upset about it. And I want to stand right by the people by giving them exactly what they've fought for for decades. They've had to go through three separate petitions to keep these courts. And here we are. And, you know, me being a newly elected council member, I just, I couldn't fathom just telling these residents, it is what it is. This is politics as usual.

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And I dare us to be great and to send a message to the residents that we do listen. and that our job is not to impose, but to propose. And that is all.

Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Mendoza?

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. This seems to be a longstanding feud in the Logan neighborhood, and the city council is right in the middle, because I've heard from several of the residents the opposition to the handball courts going up again, and they've expressed issues with the men who come to play there, being adult men and having issues with climbing over the fence and disturbing the family's quality of life

and issues with drugs and syringes. And so this was an issue that was long before I was on council. So it would be, I'm in agreement that we need to take a look at it and look to see what the majority of the residents want because we're hearing two sides of the story. And I see how both sides are correct because there has been illegal activities at these handball courts. I've been part of that. I grew up in the San Tanita neighborhood.

Our handball courts were very similar. Us as teenagers, we could not play because there was older people there. you know, older men and there was dry some drinking. But on those days that where the handball courts were available, yes, it was great. We really enjoyed it and it was something for us to do, especially during the summer months. And I would like to know how it was that

these handball courts were taken down. If the residents did want them, I mean, what happened, this is a major issue that should not have slipped under anyone's purview. And so now the city has expended a lot of money in tearing them down, and now we want to put them back up. So we need to take a really hard look so that this issue is resolved and it doesn't occur anymore.

We need to get together with the residents and come to some kind of compromise that's going to make this neighborhood happy and like it was previously. And obviously it was a very involved neighborhood because it is named after a community leader who is a historical part of this neighborhood. I mean, who doesn't know who Chepa was?

And was this a park that was built to honor her, to honor Logan's bond with one another, with neighbors who enjoyed each other's company? And now we have a feud going on.

And I want the residents to know it's not that we're not listening to you. it's that we would like to do what is best for you. And we need to find out, because at least I'm getting different stories from residents. And today I heard more in favor of building the handball courts again. But then again, we need to go look for the funding. I mean, as it is, finances are always an issue of delicate nature.

And how is it going to look for us, city council? We just tore something down only to put it back up. So I agree with my colleagues in that we need to maybe have a deeper study, deeper analyze the issues, sit down with all of the residents, not just a few, and let the issue stay on the master parks plan and perhaps we can do something even better there

at CHEPA, something that will satisfy both sides of the opposition and we could bring these neighbors together again. Because I don't want to do something that is detrimental for the neighborhood. But then again, I don't want to have something built that's going to be contributing to the delinquency because we know it does. Because it provides both, it provides positive and negative results. And so if we do have these handball cords, they're going to have to be monitored constantly.

And it would be a good idea to take a look at how many police officer calls have occurred in the past maybe a year prior to the handball cards coming down. what kind of issues were there? What kind of people are coming to use the handball, or coming to use the handball courts? Were they residents, or were they people coming from other neighborhoods? And I also want to emphasize that as part of the Ad Hoc Committee for the collaboration and partnership with the Santa Ana Unified School District, and the city,

and we're working to find alternatives for the youth and adults also for activities so that we don't have these kind of issues, that we don't want our kids going to handball courts and only to be turned away or chased away because there's adults there not just playing handball courts, but there's other activities going on. And so let's put it out to staff to analyze, to really review and to bring it back with suggestions so that we could all have some

input not just the city council but all of the residents there in logan and and i think we we uh should have open communication so that we can find member mendoza are you driving yeah well let

me go ahead and uh i think council member were you are you done with the comments you talking to me or Council Member Mendoza? No, no, no.

Yes, yes, Mayor. Yes, Mayor Sarmiento. Thank you very much.

Great. Thank you. I think we're all worried for you. We see you're in a dark space, so we want to make sure you're safe. But be careful out there and hopefully get to someplace that's well lit. We want you to be safe. Listen, I think everybody's had a chance to comment except myself. And I actually want to agree with Council Member Mendoza in that I think what Council Member Hernandez was intending to do with this item was simply do what I think she was asking, which is there is some confusion as to what this neighborhood wants at their park, right? And it's a city park, and I get it. We all get to use it.

It's not just for members of that neighborhood. So we have to understand as a city park, people from other parts of the city can go and use it. And I think that that's important. And I also think that, boy, as somebody who's used handball courts, I don't think there's anything inherently bad about a handball court. In fact, you know, it's funny, my dad used to play handball a lot. I wasn't a big fan, but I used the handball courts to play racquetball. And I loved it. And it was a great sport. And it is a great sport. I continue to play. But I think that I've seen bad things happen on basketball courts.

I've seen bad things happen on soccer fields. I've seen bad things happen on baseball diamonds. Do we do away with those? I guess, you know, I don't want this to be a narrative on, you know, handball courts bad, other courts or space is good. I think, you know, what really happens is, you know, maybe some spaces are designed more poorly than others. And I would fall back on, how do you design an open space, right? Do you create, you know, pockets where they may not be visible to the public or the neighbors or other things? I think we can design things a lot better.

I would prefer to do what everybody said, which is, you know, look at this a little closer. But I think that this fell on the council member's lap, and he's doing what any one of us would do with something in your respective wards. When somebody calls you and says, hey, there was an amenity here that many of us enjoyed, and all of a sudden it's gone. And I can tell you, I was on the council when this was gone, and myself as a council member didn't even know they were coming down. So I don't know if the removal of those handball courts, were they part of the

master plan? So look, there's too many uncertainties here. There's too many odd things that happened on how this went down. That's why I think people are upset, right? Because all of a sudden they're there and then the next day they're gone. And so that I think troubled a lot of people because some people didn't like them and some people did. So there was just a difference of opinion. I don't think there's anything wrong with going back and saying, hey, is everybody good with them not being here or being here again. So I think that, I feel bad that the council member

had to do this outreach because this is something that should have been done before the removal and done well, and it wasn't. So I think that what I see is that the neighbors should really dictate what happens here to the extent they can't, but we also have to be mindful that, look, it is a city park and we all have to have an opinion of what we wanna see in our parks. So I think this could be rolled into the parks master plan in some way, but this has to be seen sort of as a unique challenge because I think Council Member Mendoza is correct.

I think that there is a division of those neighbors on what they'd like to see in their space. and I think there's strong opinions about it. So I think there's no reason why we couldn't go out and maybe canvas, maybe not this time, maybe not the council member do it, but maybe staff do it because that's what we're gonna do in the park master plan with other areas. But paying special note of this one because it is become sensitive. And I think, again, this is only being brought to us because residents are coming to the council member saying, what are you gonna do about something

that we want back as an amenity in our park. And that's something any one of you would have to be responsive to. So, you know, I think it's, it's worthy of, you know, whether it's being an element of the park master plan, knowing that this is maybe more sensitive, maybe this is maybe we, you can, you know, work on work with what's been gathered already, maybe, you know, gather more information. But I think this is simply to request that staff bring something back, some options back to us. So I think that's all that seems to be the request of this 34, item 34, which is to,

you know, have the city manager come back with some options on whether or not to build or rebuild, whether it is to roll it into the master plan, whether it is to maybe canvas and do a little deeper dive on this one because it's gotten complicated. So I'm supportive of having staff bring back some options for us and have us reconsider this a little bit more in detail. So I think all of us have spoken. Council Member Hernandez, did you want to say anything further?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 34

Yes, thank you. Your hand is up. Thank you. Yeah, a lot of dialogue being had, and I think that this is exactly what we need to see more of when it comes to topics like this that are very nuanced. My only concern is if we wait for the parks master plan outreach, it's essentially going to be the same result.

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It might actually be more overwhelmingly in favor of it. My concern is that what's happened today is going to derail any resident participation and belief in government, because they've already went through a petition on multiple occasions. There was a petition that happened that was submitted today, where as evidenced by feedback from residents, they were not included. There's a number of concerns here. But how many times is a working class neighborhood going to have to champion what they want? And if I were in their

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shoes and the parks master plan was happening, I probably have no faith in it either. And that's why I brought it to council is so that we can give some direction to the city manager. What I would like to motion is that we look at meeting in the middle and bringing back one court and working with residents to identify another amenity. So that way everyone can be happy.

Well, Council Member, I think we can't really take any action on this item because it's only a requested item that we're requesting staff to bring back some options for us. So maybe staff can take note of what you're requesting and staff, City Manager, if you can maybe come back to us with some options, whether it's to roll this into the master plan, whether it's to take it as an isolated case, just whatever you've heard tonight, might maybe come back to us and have us deliberate on it once it's agendized and once it's noticed so we can take action on it that way, if that makes sense. Councilmember Mendoza.

Yes, Mayor Sarmiento, I think it's a good idea that we have staff do the campus scene and bring back those options. And we're just going to have to take away the pros and cons and find a permanent solution because we cannot put them up and then take them down again in a few years. We have to be realistic and we need to think of the greater good for the entire neighborhoods. I know we're going to have to make some compromises and some adjustments.

And I think we can find a resolution that is going to make a local neighborhood happy again.

Great. Thank you for those comments. So, Madam City Manager, anything further?

Since this is such an important issue and it is a divided community, I want to make sure that my direction is clear. The discussion item was to direct the City Manager to direct staff to provide options to rebuild the handball court. I've heard various input, but I think what I heard, and I want to make sure I get it right, I heard the majority was saying, since we are kicking off the master plan, which is going to go in and interview citywide in the same manner all of the communities as to what types of amenities they want, which goes far beyond just the question of handball court or no handball court.

I thought I heard at least four people make that request, and I want to make sure I get it right before we leave tonight. So if I could seek some clarity, please.

Sure. I think as divided as that neighborhood is, I think this council is kind of divided on where we'd like to see you go. That's why I thought maybe it might not be a bad idea to bring back some options for us because, again, we can't take action on this tonight. So to the extent that that could be a possibility that we could all agree on where you bring it back and we can deliberate it fully as to how we'd like to see this go. But let me bring it back for one more short round for everybody. I think I seek Mayor Pro Tem's hand and then Councilmember Mendoza.

David PenalozaItem 34

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was kind of trying to understand where the direction was going. City Manager Ridge, I'm not comfortable directing you to come back with multiple options of whether we want to rebuild the handball courts or knock them down again or whatnot. But incorporating the master plan into this, I think, encompasses all of that because the master plan is going to be that, a master plan of what we want to see in our parks. I know that this decision wasn't made from one night to the next.

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There was years and years of hearing from multiple residents in the neighborhood of the desire to have them knocked down and whatnot. And now we're hearing about another group of residents. And it's totally right. It's a divided neighborhood there of what they'd like to see. So I think the best route to take is rolling this into the master plan. because I've also heard from many that want that playground area expanded. So what is it at the moment? I can't tell you because there is a divided neighborhood.

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So I think rolling it into the parks master plan is the best route to take.

All right. Thank you for that. Any other clarification? I don't know if there was a majority, but I know, Councilmember Phan, your hand is up, so maybe we could take a straw poll, I guess. I don't think we're too far off from what we want to see in any event, but go ahead, Councilmember Phan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 34

Yeah, so, I mean, obviously, as the first person to talk about the parks master plan, at least tonight, about this issue, I actually also agree with the mayor that I don't think there was a clear majority of saying, you know, it has to be master plan or not. I actually would like to see a couple options of what we can do. One, if we do roll it into the master plan, how long would it take? What would it look like? If the residents say they want a handball court or something else, how long would it take for us to secure funding and get that building? and maybe because this has been an ongoing issue,

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we can prioritize that park over maybe some other nearby parks. I'm just throwing out some ideas there. If we do wanna talk about Parks Master Plan, because I want residents to be able to see and anticipate what's gonna happen when. I don't want it to be something that happens a year from now and they're without that amenity. But I also would like to see, what are the options and costs if we decided to just do this as an individual piece of building and we go out and try to look for some grant funding to pay for it or out of the American

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Rescue Plan. That's not my current preference, but I'd like to see that. I think that's what, based on listening to all my colleagues, that's what I heard may be something that they prefer. So I think having those options would be really helpful. And those are just two that can come off the top of my head.

Thank you, council member. That's kind of where I was going. So I concur with what council member Fan said. Council member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 34

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I tend to agree with Mayor Pro Tem in the sense that I really don't think that I would want to see our city manager continue to put more time into this when we it'd be very duplicative i think that we're already analyzing parks throughout the city i i understand councilmember hernandez's concerns that based on input that he's heard he believes or he's been told that these handball courts were taken down without the majority of support from the community if that's true that that stinks that's awful but they are down now and we are looking forward

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we're looking towards the future and what we're going to put in all of our parks if we're going to support this I guarantee you all of us are gonna get calls and emails from all of our respective constituents are gonna say well in our park we want this why don't you put that on the agenda for the next meeting it really were we were already spending money we're already committed into this process of a parks master plan, and now we're just gonna go ahead and go the chaotic route of everybody spitballing what kind of amenities they want in their parks based on individual council members' outreach. I just, really at this point,

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if we're gonna go down this path, let's start talking about, do we wanna do a parks master plan? I think that's obviously something we wanna continue to do. I think it's the responsible thing to do. I think it's the right thing to do. So I just think that right now to do these one-off items here and there, look, I just don't think it's a responsible thing to do. I think we need to continue forward on this. I know that we can have the city manager go back and we can have her present us options, but at some point we're going to be right back here where we are today.

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And we have to say, are we going to commit resources to this one amenity as we look at the citywide network of parks and all the amenities associated with those parks? So I hope that we ultimately go down the path of allowing the parks master plan process to go forward. And I really don't, I think we undermine the process when we, from the outset, we haven't even done the community outreach yet. We haven't even received any input back from the consultants as to what they ascertained from the outreach. And we're already saying that, well, you know, people are just, they're not going to do the

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process or they're not going to have faith in the process. The check and balance on this whole thing is it's going to come back to the council. We will be able to vote for these things. And at some point, if there is still a strong desire for handball courts in any of our parks, we can vote to incorporate them into the plan at that time. I don't want to punt it off unnecessarily, but I just think it's the responsible thing to do to go through the planning process. I mean, that's we do that for land use. And I think it makes absolute sense to do that as we plan our

parks throughout the city. Great. Thank you, Council Member. I think we have Council Member Lopez as well. We're going on our second round. So the only thing I was going to say, Council Member Becerra, is that the unique difference between this and other parks and maybe other neighborhoods coming back to us is that other parks didn't have an amenity taken down. So that's what I think triggered this, which may be a little different than others. And I agree with you. If a baseball diamond was removed from somebody's neighborhood park, we probably would get a lot of calls on that.

But I think that's what makes this a little unique. And the other thing I would say is that as we would canvas this neighborhood or come up with options, that could be rolled into the parks master plan as what this neighborhood desires for its park. So I don't think it's duplicative work. If this were done now, it just doesn't, you know, it's saved and reserved for being an element of the parks master plan. So just a thought. Council Member Lopez.

Thank you, Mayor. I was actually, you know, I'm hearing a lot about, let's honor the parks master plan process. And it made me think, well, when was it adopted? When did the city Council adopt this plan, right? When did they know that this was going to come into effect, and when did the handball courts get taken down? And so the park semester plan, if I'm not mistaken, was adopted December 1, 2020, and the removal of the handball courts came after that. So I think it's sending a confusing message to say, well, let's adopt a park semester

or plan, knowing when people knew that this was going to be an option for people. And I think we are doing duplicative efforts. If we're, again, going to have staff, the same staff that we talk about being so busy and we don't have enough resources out there, if we're going to ask them to go out and essentially do this canvassing on our behalf, if we're going to continue to ask the Logan homeowners to say, well, what do you want when they have already explicitly and very clearly and loudly on multiple occasions have said, this is what we want. From the beginning, there was no information

given. It wasn't a fair process. It wasn't an equitable one. It wasn't a transparent one. And so for me, it's just concerning that we talk about duplicative efforts. We talk about honoring the part-semester plan, but we've done these things knowing that this plan was in place. And here we are talking about this. And so if we really, you know, if honoring the process was, if that would have been honored from the beginning, maybe we wouldn't be here. And I think maybe Councilmember All of Us wouldn't be in this predicament and Councilmember Hernandez really wouldn't be faced with a really hard, difficult decision that he's

being faced with. And, you know, in terms of if other folks want to reach out about what they want in their neighborhoods, it's literally our job to be able to listen to them and to welcome their feedback and to be problem solvers. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 34

Mr. I just want to clarify one thing real quick. The plan has not been adopted. We're going through the process. So everything that you're talking about, that's what we're going to be doing. we're seeking the input or we're going through that process but we're doing it city-wide we're doing it in an orderly way so i i just want to make sure that everybody understands in december we kicked off oh we didn't kick off we we um selected the consultant we approved the contract to proceed we don't have a parks master plan that's correct you're correct let's go through

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the process to get to that point so i just want to be clear that we we didn't solve something or or plan something in the dark without the community's input, and then somehow the handball courts went down. The handball courts went down, but we are embarking on this process. And regardless of how the courts came down, which, as the mayor mentioned, this was something that the council was not presented with an item or a choice to vote on this item. It happened. It was It was based on input staff received, and whether they were right or wrong, they proceeded. But now we need to look forward.

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And I think that's what this Parks Master Plan is an opportunity. And that's why I see it as. It's an opportunity. But I just, I'm sorry to keep going on, Mr. Ray. I just wanted to clarify that the plan was not, or has not been adopted yet, and we are still going through the process.

Got it. Thank you for that clarification. So, Madam City Manager, I'm not sure if we're any closer to answering your question. But look, I tend to agree with Councilmember Fan, just if that'll make things any clearer for you. I think that just having some options here, because we could go on and on about this, but to the extent that we have some options to actually deliberate on and take action on, I don't think we can do that tonight. But I mean, we certainly can talk about this ad nauseum. But if we had an agenda item, I think then we say, look, let's not do any more canvassing let's roll this into the master plan.

Let's talk about maybe some of the other options I think Council Member Fan had identified and just bring some things back to us that we can actually deliberate and give you clear direction on, right? That would be the only, that's kind of what I try to distill or maybe make sense here at this point. Because if not, we all have, I guess, strong opinions on this and we're probably not gonna get anywhere closer than where we are right now.

Got it.

All right. All right. Thank you, everybody. Let's go ahead and move along to closing comments. City Manager, I'll go ahead and turn it over to you first.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Potem, and Council Members. Just three. I only have three announcements. First, update you. The general plan update. As part of our comprehensive general plan update effort city staff will be reaching out to santa anna's environmental justice communities it's 17 neighbors in 21 census tracts and it's for additional feedback on the environmental health and quality of life concerns that are affecting neighbors 10 virtual meetings are planned to be held through may with the first meeting on march 30th and meeting notices will

be mailed to approximately 32 000 residents and owners over the next two months an online survey will also be available later this week to engage residents in environmental justice communities the meeting notices and surveys will be available in english spanish and vietnamese and the feedback provided by the ej communities will be used to strengthen our draft general plan policies and implementation actions on the housing element update the kickoff for the mandatory housing element update will take place in late spring and it will include facilitating a number

of roundtable forums with a variety of community stakeholders, building industry representatives, and housing advocates. A citywide virtual town hall meeting and online survey are planned for residents to participate in and provide comments on housing policies and programs. And the goal is to complete both of these planning documents and present them to the city council by the end of this calendar year. And my last item is the Public Works Department is hosting the sixth annual youth water poster contest. It's a water poster contest that's open to all youth ages five to 18 residing in Santa Ana.

And the contest provides an opportunity for young people to become more aware of different water topics through artistic expression. This year, the theme is Trust the Tap and winners will receive one of the following awards, a Nintendo Switch, an iPad or a gift certificate. And the deadline for the entries is 4 p.m. on Friday, March 26. And for more information, you can visit SantaAnnaWater.org contest. And that's all. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Madam City Manager, for those updates and comments. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 34

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to begin my comments this evening thanking our police for all the work that they've been doing reducing the street activity that we've had here in the city. Through their efforts, they've partnered with, I think it's 10 other agencies, including the Highway Patrol. And this year alone, just this year, I mean, they've started this last year, but this year alone, I think they've had over 300 citations from what the chief had informed me of, almost 100 arrests and about the same amount of vehicles impounded related to street racing. So

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we've seen such a significant reduction in this activity because of the efforts of our police and their partnerships with these other agencies. So I just wanted to thank those police officers who've been working to reduce this very dangerous activity that's taking place here in our city. And since we won't be having another council meeting until April 6th, I wanted to take the opportunity to invite everybody to join me on Saturday, April 3rd at 10 a.m. for my monthly virtual community office hours that I've been doing via Zoom during the pandemic. Prior to that, we were doing them in person, but it's just a nice

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opportunity to informally get together and just chat about any issues that you have of concern or of interest to you. The Zoom link will be available sometime next week. And then I wanted to wish those who celebrate St. Patrick's arrival in Ireland or those that celebrate the heritage and culture of our Irish friends and neighbors, a very happy St. Patrick's Day. But, you know, as we always talk about with St. Patrick's Day, we encourage each other to celebrate responsibly, but I think that means so much more this time around. Given that Santa Ana and Orange County have moved into that red tier, we can't get too comfortable

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and let our guard down against COVID. So please, as we celebrate, just continue to wear your mask, maintain safe distancing, and wash your hands often. Good night.

Great. Thank you for those comments, Councilmember. Councilmember Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 34

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I just wanted to thank all the residents that took time out of their day to get involved in their community and stay up to date with all the changes that are happening in our city. I just want to share a message of perseverance during trying times for our residents. I was recently out with my family and I saw some young people going through a tough time over the weekend, and it just reminded me that there is so much work to do in the city. And my message to anybody going through hard times, whether you're struggling with mental

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health during this pandemic or whether you're struggling financially, is that it is always too soon to quit. just keep on pushing and we are we are going to do everything that we can to help.

Thank you, Councilmember Hernandez. Councilmember Lopez.

Thank you, Mayor. Again, I just wanted to thank all the residents time and time again to show us and provide...

I don't have any updates. Just, I guess, repeating what I said last meeting that we'll be sharing the upcoming Rector Control presentation for the MI social channel. So beyond the metafone.

Great. Thank you, Councilmember Lopez. Councilmember Mendoza?

Yes, Mayor Sarmiento. I would like to ask that this meeting, let me turn on my video.

Okay.

Yes, I would like to ask that this, that our meeting today be closed in honor of a dear friend and companion. One of our fellow veterans passed away on March 12th from complications of Parkinson's due to being exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. He was our past commander of the United Mexican American Veterans Association and very much committed to our country, to our community, and to service to the public.

And so in honor of his life and in dedication and service to his country, I'd like to have this meeting be closed in his honor. His name is Sergeant Ralph Lopez Colleen. And I would also like to invite the public and all of my colleagues for my council office hours, which will be virtual. And it's on Thursday, the 18th, from 6 to 7 p.m. and the virtual or the Zoom link is available on the website or through Nixle.

Thank you and have a good night. Be safe, everyone.

Great, thank you, Council Member. Council Member Pham?

Thai Viet PhanItem 34

Thank you, Mayor. CJ's being very needy at this time. So I do, first I want to say we adopted her four years ago this 18th, March 18th, and so she's been one of the greatest joys in our family, and I hope that those of you who can please adopt dogs and cats. You know, they're going to bring a lot of joy, and I think for many of us who have them, they've been great during the pandemic. My comments are really heavy. First, I'd like to say that on Sunday, I was a part of a rally,

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and anti-deportation rally for 33 Vietnamese American refugees who were deported back to Vietnam, many of whom arrived to the United States as a result of the Vietnam War prior to 1995, like myself. And it's really unfortunate that, you know, as the current administration seeks to find a more humane approach to immigration policy, that this is still happening. And it's happening during a time when we've seen, I believe it's a 4,000% increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans as a result of the last administration's targeted hate

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speech against Asian Americans with the pandemic and the trade war. And on top of that, as soon as I was out of closed session, I was getting text messages and my partner was telling me that there was a shooting spree in Atlanta, Georgia, in which there were eight women who were murdered by a white male, and six of them are Asian American. This is Atlanta, Georgia. The Asian American community is not that huge. While there is a

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significant amount of Asian Americans, it's not huge. This is not an accident. This is a targeted act of hate. And I hope that they find out exactly why that occurred. And I hope that they, that he faces justice. But I say that because today we need to make sure that we look out for one another. Thank goodness, at least here in Santa Ana, I haven't seen firsthand or heard stories of how our Latino American, white Americans, and Vietnamese and Asian American communities have been getting along, and a lot of the stories are not in our city, and I'm so

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thankful for that. Thank you. But I hope that we all watch out for one another, and that if you see someone experiencing hate, please speak up, because many of them speaking out might result in death, death, because that is exactly what's been happening all over the country to especially older Asian Americans, seniors. So with that, I hope that we can reflect on this and that all of us do better and that we really think about how we move forward when we talk about race and diversity and equity and inclusion in our city. Thank you.

Thank you for those comments, Councilmember Fan. And I think that all of us join you in and our outrage on what's happened in Georgia. But I think that as hopeful as you are, we unfortunately still get some pretty bad emails about what people think about what we do and how we try to stand up for people who are underserved and underrepresented. And so not everybody is as positive as we would all like them to be. So we always have to stand firm against that.

So to the extent that you would like us as a council to take any position on any statements, any public condemnations, I think that we've done that in the past because there has been some outrageous conduct that we as elected officials have a responsibility to at least voice our concern on. I think it's totally warranted. Anyways, thank you for those comments. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa.

David PenalozaItem 34

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't have much to say tonight. I just also wanted to reiterate a little bit of what Councilmember Becerra said. I know he mentioned St. Patrick's Day, but also Easter is coming up as well. And as we all know, Easter is a very, very busy and popular holiday in our city. And I know that back when we first moved into the red tier late last year. Did I freeze again? No, you're good. Well, you were good.

David PenalozaItem 34

Did I freeze again? Yeah, you're good now. I was going to say that back in late last year when we moved into the red tier the first time, it was right before Thanksgiving and we all saw what happened after that. And I mean, this virus is still very present. I'm hopeful that as more and more of us get vaccinated, we will eradicate it, you know, at least in our city or really minimize its existence in our city. But it's still out there. If you're going to celebrate Easter,

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you know, do it safely. And let's try to move, you know, to the orange tier and not backwards, but that's going to take all of us to be safe. So with that said, I will turn it over, Mr. Mayor.

Good night. Yes. Thank you for those comments, Mayor Pro Tem. You're right. Let's, you know, let's all be responsible. Let's make sure that, you know, as we move into less restrictive phases of this. Let's be hopeful, but let's be cautiously optimistic as we go through this. And I think when we've gone into less restrictive tiers in the past, the one difference is that now we have vaccines. And I just want to thank everybody who's made vaccines more plentiful in the city. And I think that's the real game changer here. So to the extent we can get people

inoculated as quickly as possible and as equitably as possible. And I think that's what was missing here for a long time. So thank you for all your voices and thank you to staff. You guys have presented us with some pretty amazing things tonight. I think we'll look back and reflect on some of the big decisions that we're being asked to make. And that's all thanks to you all. So bringing it to us in a way that's clear, that's imperative, but more than anything, it's going to be game-changing for all of our residents. And I'm talking about a lot of things that you guys

have done between the last meeting and this one. But I also just wanted to make a quick note to Chief Valentin. I want to thank him for his dedication and commitment to transparency and openness. I know he had a press conference just last week, and I believe Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member Mendoza joined me there, and he was talking about some of the spike in homicides that we've seen. And I think he broke it down really well, but not just explaining the analytics of what happened and his responses to it, and his department's responses to it, but it really was more of a message saying that we are going to continue

to be more committed and connected to our community. And I think that was the underlying message that was received really well by a lot of people. So thank you, Chief, for doing that, because I think in the past, it's been, you know, let's just not say anything. Let's, you know, see if it'll go away. And that's not the type of department I think that would make all of us proud. I think the fact that, you know, we talk about things when they're challenges and when they're, you know, when they're successes, I think, you know, we have to tout them just the same and and we have to disclose those to the public. So thank you for that.

Let me just go ahead and end on talking about somebody who's left us as Council Member Mendoza mentioned. We also want to adjourn tonight's meeting in memory of Mario Cuevas Zamora, who was the Mexican consulate of Orange County here in Santa Ana, and just had his services yesterday, and a little brief bio on Mario, who I considered a friend of mine and a friend of many of ours because he represented the Mexican nationals here in Santa Ana, but in all of Orange County.

He was born on April 4th, 1954 in Mexico City. Mario Cuevas served as the Council of Mexico in Santa Ana since June of 2015. He died on March 3rd at his home. surrounded by his family. He was 66 and is survived by his wife and their two daughters, Valeria and Paola, and his son-in-law, Alvaro. He worked in the public sector for more than 40 years, including 30 years as a member of the Mexican Foreign Service. His job took him around the world and his posts included a Mexico mission to the United Nations in Geneva,

the Consulate General of Mexico in Montreal, and consulates in San Diego and New York. As the council in Santa Ana, Mario Cuevas saw his mission as helping to improve the lives of Mexican nationals and those of Mexican descent, groups that make up close to one-third of Orange County's population, as we all know. And one thing I would say about Mario was that he ran the office very differently than many others. He opened the doors to have health expos at the Mexican Consulate's office.

They're doing COVID testing along with us at their site. They do food distribution. And he holds art exhibits and has held art exhibits at his site. So he was a very unique, unconventional diplomat. Some of them just closed their doors and just do their work and shut it down at five and everybody goes away. This was a place where people gathered and gather, and it's a place of trust and safety. And I think he created that space, that safe space for a lot of people. So he will be missed, and we will adjourn tonight's meeting in his memory.

and we will have our next council meeting on April 6th and adjourn this meeting in Mr. Cuevas' memory. Thank you, everybody. Have a good night.

Thank you.