Read the May 18 meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm going to start the meeting. It's rolling.

Great. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to tonight's meeting. We're going to go ahead and have a few minutes to start with the meeting.

the city council meeting for may 18 2021 and i'll go ahead and just start with some housekeeping language here before we have roll call in accordance with california governor's executive order n-25-20 regarding the brown act of guidance from the california department of public health on gatherings this meeting is taking place entirely by teleconference via zoom the council chambers are closed to the public and the public is accessing the meeting via the san youtube channel or the city's website so please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting

i'll go ahead and have madam clerk call roll before we ask for any members of the public to

comments the council council member Becerra here council member Hernandez council member Lopez yes council member Mendoza here council member fan

mayor Potempeñalosa here mayor Sarmiento here thanks everybody and I just I just want to request for the council is there anybody that wishes to have stain on any of the matters around the closed session agenda

seeing none hearing none I'll go ahead and have madam clerk call on any members of the public that wish to address this before we go into closed session go ahead madam clerk thank you

caller with the last three numbers 073 if you can please select star nine a star six to unmute your call or select the unmute feature on your device caller with the last three numbers 0 7 3 thank you so much if you could please state yes we could hear you if you could please state your name for the record and if you reside in the city of Santa Ana and also you have three minutes thank you yes my name is Victor

I'm Peter Payan and I am a resident of Santa Ana in the East Side Pacific Park neighborhood and I am the Executive Director of Media Arts Santa Ana. Thank you for the opportunity to address you all. I wanted to comment on the historic Cyprus fire station and again lend the voice to request saving the building as a public building for public benefit and public use. It's a historic building. And I'm sure you've heard from a lot of members of the public as to various reasons why it is critical. I wanted to lend another one which I don't think has been addressed yet.

And that is that in the portrayal of this property that I've seen in the public discourse, it sounds like it's in severe disrepair. And it makes it sound like it's been abandoned for a long time. But it was occupied for 20 years and until 2013, as recently, by a local affiliate of a national nonprofit called Rebuilding Together, whose mission was to restore and repair homes for those that didn't have resources, a volunteer-run organization. So it's very ironic that an organization whose mission was to repair and restore homes, that that building would go into such disrepair in only eight years.

So that is not a natural timeline for a building to go into disrepair. There had to be some kind of mess up somewhere that allowed this historic resource to be unprotected by the city. And I think city manager Cavazos came in in 2013 also. So I don't know how this happened, but the community should not pay the price. The history of Santa Ana should not pay the price for this decision that impacted the future, the fate of this building. Now, in 2016, Gerardo Mouet, who was head of Parks and Rec at the time, had proposed to the Arts Commission to turn the building into a community gallery and a history room.

And this would have been just recently vacated and the building would have been in fine shape. So again, I don't know who made the decision not to follow up on that, but that's only, you know what, five years ago. So that's five years that this building has gone into disrepair. And if the city had moved forward to do that we would have had a really wonderful community resource I know the Arts Commission was very excited about this at the time as as was I and like I said as the head of a media arts Nonprofit any space where you can do community programming

15 seconds left

And so I urge you to just consider this in deciding the fate of the building and to preserve it for community space We can turn it into a residency we can do a lot of things for arts and culture and the city thank you thank you

mayor that was all the callers we had at this time however we did receive some written communication closed session one Cypress fire station five Santa Ana residents requested to not sell the property it needs to be served to the community closed session two various cases on homelessness Santa Ana one

and a resident comment on city's homelessness response and request update on

and that's all we have mayor

yes and I will disconnect to the public from the public

Thank you.

We'll see you next time.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you I miss you

I miss you I miss you I miss you

I miss you I miss you I miss you I was holding it in too long. It was so good. Okay.

Yes.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 1

Okay, let's...let me see what we got.

Hi, Mayor.

We are getting ready. We're live, Mayor, so you can start the meeting.

Great. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Good evening, everybody. We apologize for starting a little later than usual. We were in closed session. The item that we were discussing took a little longer than we expected. So let me go ahead and call this regular meeting to order of the Santa Ana City Council for May 18th, 2021. Let me begin with some housekeeping language before we start and let me make this recital that we've all gotten used to the saying before the beginning of every meeting. 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 Zoom. Council chambers are closed to the public. The public is accessing the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. And as always, we ask you that you bear with us in the event that we may have any technical problems that may disrupt the flow of the meeting. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and ask the clerk to go ahead and call the roll of the City Council.

Thank you. Council Member Becerra? Here. Council Member Hernandez?

Here.

Council Member Lopez? Here. Council Member Mendoza?

Councilmember Fan? Here. Mayor Potempeñalosa? Here. Mayor Sarmiento? Here. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I'll go ahead and turn it back over to you for some direction for those members of the public that wish to address the council.

Thank you, Mayor. The public was able to begin joining the speaker queue at 4.30 p.m. in accordance with council procedures. Calls will not be accepted after the public comment session has begun. Speakers who are not in the speaker queue by 6 p.m. will not be permitted to speak. To request to speak, dial star 9 from your phone or click on the button labeled raise hand from Zoom. You will be asked to announce your name and ward or neighborhood you reside in within within the city of Santa Ana for the record. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Let me go ahead and begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. And if you'll all please join me by facing a flag near you, placing your right hand over your heart, repeating after me, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with justice for all. Thank you everybody. And if you can please remain standing for the invocation portion of our meeting, and that will be delivered to us by our police chaplain Bob Barnett.

Chaplain Barnett, the floor is yours.

Being mindful Lord God that last week was national police week. We wanna pray tonight with gratitude for the men and women in law enforcement who serve and protect us around the clock. Every one of us rests better each night and we go through our daily lives in great safety knowing that our police and law enforcement are mere phone call away from us. We ask a special blessing of strength and protection over all of them Lord God and I pray for us Lord that we would all have a renewed sense of the complexity and enormity of their job. We thank you for each individual who's answered the call to this crucial service for our city

our communities Lord God and the spirit of service that they exhibit and Lord tonight I also want to pray blessings and protection upon all of our first responders the fire departments the people involved with emergency medical service bless them Lord protect them be with their families always Lord and last tonight Lord I want to thank you for all of our city leaders the city council the mayor our community Lord all of the people that faithfully make our city a and bless him. It's in the name of the Lord we pray, amen.

Thank you, Chaplain. Thank you for those words.

Moving along to the ceremonial presentation and I'll turn it over to Council Member Becerra who's got a presentation for National Public Works Week. Council Member.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I believe we have a video ready to be queued up.

Phil BacerraItem 1

May 16th through May 22nd is recognized as National Public Works Week. This year's theme adopted by the American Public Works Association is Stronger Together. This is a very appropriate theme because by working together, the impacts that residents and our public works professionals can have on our communities are enormous and results in the ability to provide services that at times are thought to be challenging. Public Works plays an important role in each of our daily lives by contributing to the improvement and sustainability of our public health and safety. Public Works provides, maintains,

Phil BacerraItem 1

and improves the structures and services that assure a higher quality of life for our residents and our businesses. The City of Santa Ana's sidewalks and roads help to provide vital links to each other and opportunities and our city's clean water and sanitation services keep us all healthy and allows the golden city to thrive and prosper today i would like to present our public works agency director on behalf of the san diego city council in recognition of may 16th through may 22nd as national public works week i want to acknowledge work that you and all of your employees in the Public Works Agency.

Phil BacerraItem 1

I want to express appreciation for those who we partner with within our community to ensure the health, vitality, and resiliency of our community through the provision of these essential services.

Thank you, Council Member Becerra, and thank you for the City Council, the Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and our City Manager, Christine Rich, for this proclamation. We continue in the Public Works Agency to strive to provide the best service we can to the community of the city of Santana. And thank you again.

Great. Thank you for that presentation, Council Member Becerra. And thank you, Director Saba. I joined the town hall that Public Works had last week. It was an excellent, excellent gathering. So let me go ahead and now turn it over to a council member Hernandez, who's going to be delivering a certificate of recognition for Sarinana's tamale factory. So council member-

Mayor, I believe there is a-Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead. There's a presentation from Nabil on public works week, if you don't mind.

Sure, sure. Go ahead. Sorry about that.

Yes. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Potem, members of the council can you see my screen yes tonight I would like to share with you our Public Works Agency award-winning project for the year 2021 Public Works Agency received three American Society of Civil Engineers and two American Public Works Association Awards.

The projects are the Bristol Street Improvement Phase 3B and the Edinger Avenue protected bike lanes, the I-5 Central Corridor Project and the Santa Ana Del High Channel Diversion. The Bristol Street Improvement Phase 3 is a $20 million project that was funded by Measure M2 and the gas tax. It won both the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Public Works Association Awards.

It included transient bus stops, protected bikeways, and drought-tolerant landscaping. The Edinger Avenue protected bike lanes, a project is a $3 million project that included a bikeway, protected parking, raised dividers, delineators,

delineators and striping separation and green bike legends. One key feature of this project is that it was led by the youth of Santa Ana. Bike at Santa Ana is a group of individuals and youth that developed surveys and created GIS maps and led the community outreach and prepared active transportation grant and application for the bike lanes. The youth led also educational workshops and bike safety trainings. The goal of the project was to reduce collusion. This project won

the American Society of Civil Engineers award. Again, thanks to Bike at Santa Ana, the youth team worked with Kids Works, Santa Ana Active Streets, Latino Health Access, and the community to help define this protected bikeway project and advocate for safety access to active transportation in in their neighborhoods. The youth, junior and high school age students helped obtain this ATP grant and active transportation grant

and identified it as one of the top three proposed bike lanes.

Again, the project did include a protected, what they call a floating protected parking for the bike bikers.

Those are the lanes. The third project is the I-5 HOV Central Corridor project. And you'll see now in the video how this on-ramp was demolished.

This project was an engineered demolition of the main street ramp. It happened at 4 o'clock a.m. and the final thump of the last piece.

This project was in coordination with OCTA and Caltrans and has won a state-level project partnering awards and the a a s e c e award american society of civil engineers award it is a 41 million dollar a project that received also federal and measure m funds it did implement ultimately a second carpool lane in each direction on the five freeway from the 55 to the 57 which speeds up commuters and alleviate bottleneck on the I-5.

The last project that one also is the Santa Ana del Hai channel diversion project. The project is in partnership with the cities of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, County Public Works, Orange County Public Works, and also Orange County Flood Control, the Irvine Ranch Water District, and Orange County Water District. The project is a $10 million project. Again, it was meant and was designed to protect the upper Newport Bay from pollution and enhance the local water supplies.

It has a unique in channel diversion and the trash capture system that diverts approximately 2.9 million gallons, MGD million gallons a day of dry weather flow of urban runoff from the channel to water treatment and reuse. The project again won the APWA award. Finally, I'd like to congratulate and say congratulations to the City of Santa Ana Public Works Agency team for the five award-winning projects. A special note of gratitude to the mayor and the city council, the city's executive management

team, and all nonprofits and volunteers, including Kids Work, Santa Ana Active Streets, and Latino health access and to the residents and businesses for fostering an environmental of safety environment sorry of safety quality of life and aesthetic improvement in our community and that concludes

my presentation thank you very much okay i so thank you director saba so stronger together i I like that theme and I know that at the town hall that was repeated by many. And we know that public works is the one agency that touches everybody in the city. So it's especially notable that you mentioned all the community members on that. So thank you. I apologize for cutting you off. Nobody told me that there was going to be a presentation, but I like it. So thank you. Now let me go ahead and move on to council member Hernandez's

recognition of Sarinana's Tamale factory. So council member Hernandez, it's all you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And congratulations to director Nabil Saba. And thank you for the fantastic work that you do for our city. Now with that being said, it is with great pleasure and it is truly an honor to be able to present a certificate of recognition for outstanding contributions to the community. To Teresa Nieves, who is the owner of Sarinana's Tamale Factory. This is something that I'm immensely proud of being raised in the Artisa Pilar neighborhood. I grew up growing to this place. It was a staple for my family.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

I remember my grandparents always enjoying their tamales. But Sarinana's Tamale Factory was originally established in 1939 by the Sarinana family. Juan and Felipe Sarinana, a young couple who immigrated to the United States from Mexico's state of Durango. In 1921, the couple would arrive in the city of Santa Ana. Felipa began cooking tamales in their small home, and Juan would often travel into different neighborhoods of Orange County to sell his wife's home-cooked tamales. Now, more than 80 years later, the Sarinana family have built a legacy located at 2218

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

West 5th Street in Santa Ana. To the menu they incorporated their homemade tamales, menudo, and tacos. All recipes were created in the traditional style of Durango where the family originated and in 1985 Ms. Teresa Nieves took over the family business and helped continue the legacy for her four children. Fast forwarding about 30 years the small family investment that that began in 1939 is still going strong and it is now seeing its fifth and sixth generation. Congratulations, Sarinanas Tamala Factory. And another fun fact that I'm proud of is that Sarinanas is the oldest Mexican owned restaurant

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

in Orange County and proud that it's in our backyard.

Council Member. Oh, I'm sorry, Mayor and Council Member Hernandez. is we also do have a representative from Sarananas Tamale Factory who wanted to also provide a comment.

Please.

Hello this is Jeriza Nieves.

As the owner of the Sarananas Tamale Factory I'd like to ask, sorry I'm so nervous, since 1985 I'd like to thank you to all my, especially my husband, my family, employees, and all my customers. They're being supporting Sari Nanas since 1939.

Is this our five, six generations. I'm very, very honored. And thank you very much for all the support or for all my customers. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And wow, what a great presentation. And thank you for those words. I can't believe you guys are 81 years young, man. You have got the best tacos that I think I've ever tasted. So I stopped by the other day and we're at some. Yes. Thank you for being a part of the community. and thank you council member for bringing this to our attention and recognizing Sarinanas. I just always mispronounced the, is it Sarinanas?

Sarinanas. Sarinanas. Well, there's a little over the first end. So I always want to make sure I'm pronouncing it correctly, but excellent presentation. Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

And lastly, Mr. Mayor, for folks that are listening, check out their hard shell tacos and their tamales outstanding. I can assure you you guys will love them.

Good stuff, good stuff. I know council member Mendoza was having a little trouble logging on. I think her device was kind of glitching. So I'm not sure if council member Fan is able to go.

I see a hand raised before we leave this item. Mayor Pro Tem, did you want to say a little something?

David PenalozaItem 2

Yeah, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to thank Council Member Hernandez and maybe I suggest saying the address of the restaurant because I've unfortunately never tried it and more I'm definitely looking forward to

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

trying them this week. Absolutely absolutely my apologies I did state the address but maybe my my microphone may have cut out for folks that have never been there it is 2218 West fifth street in Santa Ana. And it's right off of fifth street, right before you hit the recyclable location. It's right across from the Placita Cinco apartments that were just built. You cannot miss it. It's a fantastic destination here in the city. And some of my favorite food all throughout Orange County.

Great. Perfect. Well, maybe we'll all go there. So I think council member Mendoza is ready to go ahead and do her presentation and she'll be recognizing that any sequoia from El Pico de Gallo. So council member Mendoza.

Thank you Mayor. Thank you very much. I am honored to present a certificate of recognition for outstanding contributions to the community. This presentation is made to Berenice Cuellar, one of the owners of El Pico de Gallo Grill. She is the owner of Pico de Gallo Grill, which is located on the corner of 17th and Flower and has been there for many years now. El Pico de Gallo is a family-owned Mexican restaurant in the city of Santa Ana that has distinguished itself for serving authentic and fresh Mexican food and for its involvement in the community.

Rosa Lilia Pascasio de Cuellar is the matriarch of the family and it was her idea to open a restaurant. Her dream came true 19 years ago when she opened her first restaurant in the city of Garden Grove. West Minister followed and then Santa Ana opened its doors in May 2nd of 2008.

It is currently run by Rosa Lilia Pascasio de Cuellar, Adan Enciso, her husband, Berenice Cuellar, Rosa Lilia Cuellar, daughters, along with a dedicated staff, Mireya, Fidelina, Dominga, Gisela, Alejandra, and Carlos. Like many other restaurants, El Pico de Gallo has been confronted with the effects of the pandemic. pandemic. No one on their staff or family has gotten sick from COVID, but some of their dear

customers have passed away from it. They remember them and honor them. It is because of them that El Pico de Gallo started the Hero Lunch Program. With some of its own money and support from the community, they have donated over a thousand burritos to health care workers who are working during the front lines during this pandemic. El Pico de Gallo has also hosted a Thanksgiving feast, a free meal event to anyone who walks through its door on Thanksgiving Day,

which they hope to resume soon. Today in the audience is Averenise Cuellar and I would like to ask her to unmute so she may say a few words

council member mendoza i do not see that person on participating in the zoom meeting

All right. Well, I will just add a few more words in just letting the public know that this is what Santa Ana community is about. It's for businesses collaborating with their customers in helping one another, especially during these difficult times. El Pico de Gallo is a very generous and unselfish establishment. And so next time you're asking yourself, where shall I go to get a nice meal? We have this El Pico de Gallo, and then you just, Council Member Hernandez just mentioned the fabulous tamale place.

So leave your business here in Santa Ana and give them your business because we have some treasures here and they are actively participating in making Santa Ana the best city in the entire county. So thank you for that. El Pico de Gallo and Sarinanas.

Thank you, council member Mendoza. And I think you may have mentioned their address, but they're right on 17th on the corner of Flower. And I think it's a Northwest corner of 17th and Flower. So a lot of good places for us to go enjoy soon. Thank you for that. Let me go ahead and now turn it over to council member Fan. It's going to be presenting a, that we'll be presenting a proclamation recognizing May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. So council member Phan, it's all you.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you mayor. And we do have a video. So Madam city clerk, please press play.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Hi, my name is Tai Viet Phan, Santa Ana council member representing ward one. I'm the first Vietnamese American and the first Asian woman to represent the city of Santa Ana. So I'm very proud today to issue a proclamation to Issa Le, Executive Director for Vietnamese American Arts and Letters, and Christine Tran, Managing Director, recognizing Asian American Pacific Islander History Month. VALA was founded in 1991 by a group of Vietnamese American journalists, artists, and friends to fill a void and provide a space for artists to express themselves as a newly resettled immigrant community.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

The original mission of VALA was to support Southeast Asian artists with an emphasis on Vietnamese literature and visual arts. VALA is a community-based nonprofit organization historically run by volunteers. Over the years, VALA has collaborated with diverse community partners to organize numerous cultural events to connect and enrich our communities. These events have included art exhibitions, book signings, music recitals, plays, and annual events such as the internationally known Viet Film Fest and the Children's Moon Festival Arts Contest.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Recently, Vala participated in Boca de Oro and is currently accepting entries for Viet Film Fest. Viet Film Fest was created in 2003 by Vala. As the largest international Vietnamese film festival of its kind in the world, Viet Film Fest showcases the best creative work by and about Vietnamese people. In the midst of a difficult year of pain and fear, organizations such as VALA reflect on the traditions of leadership, resilience, and courage shown by the AAPI communities. Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month is not only a time for all of us to

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

learn and think about the contributions, culture, and history of Asian Americans here in the States is also to think about how we can participate and actively contribute to that history in the community moving forward. Thank you so much to Vala and I present you with this proclamation.

Thank you Council Member Thái Việt Phan and City of Santa Ana. We're very honored and humble to accept this recognition

excellent thank you uh councilmember fan did you want to say any anything live yeah just really

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

quickly Vala is still taking submissions for Viet Film Fest and this year they will be holding Viet Film Fest virtually October 15th to 30th and it will be online however they are doing a free screening this coming month so May and June so the city will definitely share some of that information it's going to be short stories sharing you know the history culture and stories of all all of our families. So I hope all of you can join because it's free. Thanks.

Thank you, council member. Excellent proclamation for, especially it couldn't have been more timely demonstrating all the recognitions and how important it is. We actually are living history right now, especially in the AAPI community as we speak. So we're in the moment. So that concludes all the council presentations. I'll move along to the staff presentation portion of the meeting. and that is the update on COVID-19 and I'll turn it over to the turn it over to Madam City Manager to go ahead and present that.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. I do have a presentation, so let's get it loaded for you. Tonight, I'm going to talk about vaccines. I'm going to talk about updated mask guidance and also go over a quick review of the city executive orders that were issued during the pandemic and what the status of each of those are. So as vaccination numbers increase and COVID-19 case rates fall, Orange County has met the required metrics to move into the yellow tier effective

tomorrow, Wednesday, May 19th. This means that bars may reopen indoors at 25% capacity and indoor live events may resume with limitations. Nail salons, dining, and many other businesses already open indoors may operate with greater capacity.

Although the CDC has released updated guidelines on mask wearing for fully vaccinated people, the state of California, the Orange County Health Care Agency, and the city of Santa Ana's mask guidance is still in place. Specifically, the guidance from the state that declares that if fully, for fully vaccinated people, face coverings are not required except when attending outdoors, except when attending crowded outdoor events. For unvaccinated people, face coverings are required outdoors anytime physical distancing cannot be maintained. And indoor settings outside of one home, including public transportation,

face coverings continue to be required regardless of your vaccination status. In comparison, the Orange County Health Care Agency's guidelines state you should wear a face covering when you're around other people who are not in your household and you cannot stay six feet apart, especially when indoors. You don't have to wear a face covering at home, in the car alone, or with members of your own household. Swimming, walking, hiking, bicycling, or running alone or with other household members, you would not have to wear one.

and then of course children under two and anyone that has any medical condition that's impaired by a mask does not have to wear them. So as a reminder in Santa Ana, all people within the city limits of the city of Santa Ana are required to wear a face covering at all times in public or when outside of their home except for certain exemptions.

I'm going to shift gears and talk about vaccine points of distribution. We do have some major sites that are going to be closing very soon.

So the demand for first dose COVID-19 vaccinations through the Athena platform at county super points of dispensing or known as pod sites has dropped by over 75% since the end of April. This indicates that county residents who want the vaccines and do not face difficulty traveling to the super pods have for the most part been able to do so. The super point of dispensing sites at Anaheim Convention Center, at the OC Fair and Event Center, Soka University, and Santa Ana College will shut down on June 6.

Vaccine supply has become more plentiful and alternate distribution channels such as local pharmacies, hospitals, healthcare systems, community clinics, and providers are more actively administering doses throughout Orange County. Consequently, the county has seen a decrease in demand that is also experienced in many regions nationwide. Further efforts to achieve mass immunity will require that Orange County Health Care Agency focus on more community and neighborhood-based vaccination strategies.

So Orange County as a whole has made substantial progress in its vaccination efforts, signifying the importance and effectiveness of the program such as Santa Ana Cares. Orange County has administered over 2.7 million vaccine doses as early as May according to California Department of Public Health data. 700,000 including first and second doses have been distributed since April 15th when all Orange County adults and workers became eligible. According to the Orange County Health Care Agency, 1.2 million people in the county have been fully vaccinated,

receiving both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccination. On Pfizer, we have information about Pfizer, which is now approved to be used on young adults. So as of May 10, FDA has authorized the use of Pfizer on individuals that are age 12 to 15. This move opens up the U.S. vaccination campaign to millions of more people. This decision was made after it was decided that the known and potential benefits of the vaccine in these young individuals outweigh the known and potential risk. Vaccinating children is a key to raising the level

of immunity in the population and bringing down the numbers of hospitalization and deaths. I reported last time that I was going to come back and share some stats with you on our COVID hotline that we established, and it has been a very active hotline. So since Santa Ana launched the COVID-19 hotline in August 2020 as part of our Santa Ana Cares program to help address residents' concerns about COVID, as well as spread information about our assistance and vaccination programs, programs. There have been 17,616 calls since their inception, with 4,000 of those being

just in this year alone. I will say I've listened to the girls answering the phones and we were taking calls from residents that are outside of the city of Santa Ana and they also provided assistance to them as to where they could seek vaccination. Now to shift gears and talk about COVID-19 related executive orders. When you declared a public health emergency, it provided me the authorization to issue executive orders so to date during this pandemic we have had 13 city executive orders created so to walk you through those briefly i want to talk first about

the ones that remain active in our city so active executive orders the ones on this slide are scheduled to sunset this year so the moratorium on evictions residential and commercial tenants goes until June 30th, 2021, and that is in sync with the state legislation. The six-month extension on various land use and planning approvals, that one will terminate December 31st, 2020.

Additional active executive orders. If the state fully reopens on June 15th as scheduled, the following executive orders will expire as they were tied to the state's guidelines. And that is the water and sewer service shutoffs and late fees, and then the citywide mask requirements. So that's one you'll probably want me to revisit because depending on if the state fully opens, if there is additional guidelines from CDC or OC Healthcare, we might want to look to see if there is a requirement with new guidelines that we might want to implement.

The executive orders that have already expired, the first one was suspension on residential and commercial foreclosures, street sweeping parking citations, rent freeze for residential tenants, live scans and criminal background check process for commercial and medical cannabis businesses, rent freeze for residential tenants, face masks for essential businesses, that was basically replaced by the other mask executive order, Emergency curfews, there were three of those and they were specific to a single day and time. And then the outdoor personal care services is expired.

One of the expired orders that staff is working behind the scenes on, as you recall, I issued an executive order that allowed restaurants to expand out into public and private property. based on the success of that staff really believes that there might be a benefit in analyzing that and determining if we can bring back to you more of an ordinance where we might be able to codify and keep some of those on a longer term basis so i hope to return with more information on that one for you and that concludes your covet update for tonight's council meeting i'd be happy to answer Is there any questions?

Thank you, Madam city manager. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the council.

Anybody have any questions or comments? Let me go ahead and start with council member fan and then go to Mayor Pro Tem.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

Thank you, Mayor. Madam city manager regarding that very last slide you had mentioned regarding the street closures. Do you mean to bring back an ordinance say, allowed making say third straight or parts of downtown Santa Ana like fully walkable or pedestrian because I was just at chapter one this past weekend and that whole street is closed and you know that kind of kept it vibrant outside even though we couldn't really be inside full in full capacity is that is that

what you mean yes councilmember we staff right now is analyzing the measures that we took in the executive order and trying to see what the impact would be if we did allow either egress out onto more public spaces or full street closures on a more a

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

permanent or longer term basis so exactly right and then my i would definitely be supportive i used to live in west l.a when i was an undergrad and you know just saw the vibrancy and the walk ability of third street promenade in santa monica was really amazing the second thing i had a question about is so I understand the major vaccine sites are closing and I do know we had kind of a localized vaccine site Delhi I know Santa Anita is working on one for you know look the local neighborhoods and whatnot how is the city or I guess as we move on are we going to

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

have our own type of you know vans or buses and stuff like that to help with vaccination or local

vaccination sites? So the Orange County Health Care Agency is planning to do some mobile vaccinations so we certainly will collaborate with them and then Daisy of the City Manager's Office has also been busy working with other collaborations particularly at the train station as you can recall we've facilitated some vaccinations so we will continue our efforts at smaller sites and definitely work with the Orange County Health Care Agency on those mobiles right now we don't we don't have the equipment to roll out the vaccinations due to some of the storage requirements of them in mobile but the healthcare agency does

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

and then just one last question is i know we talked about pfizer moderna i and i know that the hold on johnson and johnson has been lifted but there is you know a typical warning as you would with any type of medication are we looking to use that again or is that you know not really something that santa and is interested in using because it just needs regular refrigeration

compared to the other two vaccines no the um the actual vaccine for the events that we've collaborated with we didn't dictate which vaccination to use it was basically the provider that we were collaborating with had access to certain ones so I'm not sure I can answer the question is to if someone came forward with Johnson & Johnson would we would we collaborate with them so we haven't been approached for that at this

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

point in time okay well thank you so much that was all thank you council

member I took the J&J by the way I used to be right-handed now I'm left-handed just kidding it's all good I'm perfectly fine just just a warp sense of humor but that but that was pre-pandemic and pre-J&J go ahead and hair pro temp thank you Mr. Mayor just want to say that the

David PenalozaItem 5

sense of humor is appreciated a hundred percent and just wanted to say Madam City Manager that I'm on the same wavelength as Council Member Fan tonight I agree with the outdoor dining I think I think it's just speaking to a lot of the local restaurant owners and business owners. They all seem to be sharing the same message that they've seen their sales kind of increase and have more of a desire to dine at the restaurants with the outdoor dining experience. Definitely gives a vibrancy to our city that we hadn't seen in a while and across the town

David PenalozaItem 5

really different restaurants that have this outdoor option. So very supportive of seeing something like that, that could make it permanent, even seeing possible street closures, whatever we can do to help these businesses out. And not just necessarily in downtown, but anywhere else where restaurants are. I know a lot of them, now it gets into private properties and stuff and wanting to have that outdoor dining, but if there's a way where we could work with property owners about having that outdoor space available to these restaurants, that'd be really great too. So looking forward to seeing that come back. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you. Any other members of the council wish to make a comment or ask a question?

Seeing none and hearing none. The only few things I would say is that thank you for the presentation, Madam City Manager. And I echo what was said about the outdoor dining. I mean, I think, you know, as you do your evaluations or as your team does the evaluations with you, maybe it's a reduced patio and, you know, there's still some on some places, some still some ingress and egress on some of the arterials. I like the idea of there being some closures at some point. Our weather is great. We've kind of all gotten used to it. I like the, you know, outdoor environment.

You know, it's just one more thing that we can market as a, you know, as a city that has worked well. and it'll give people a boost and, you know, in their businesses, allowing a larger footprint inside and outside. So that was great. The other thing was, you know, I know that you said that 1.2 million people have been vaccinated in Orange County as a whole. How many of those have been in Santa Ana? Do you have that number?

You know what, we can look that up and if you allow me some time, I can come back to you with that. Sure. Thank you. No, no problem.

Thank you. And you know, and it's just to say, you know, I know that we sometimes get lost and you know, the county's data and I know our data is always, you know, different. Our numbers are lower. I heard somewhere where we're about 30% relative to other cities that have higher indexes of of vaccination. So we certainly want to increase that. And I know the, you know, American rescue plan money allows for expenditures for, you know, obviously, you know, vaccinations would be something that would be easily allowed under that. So something for us to think about with maybe partnering

with 360 that helped deliver tests that we no longer, you know, are using, maybe they can use their clinics. But the last thing I would say is, you know, mobile vaccines, any way we could do that, but also incentivizing people to get vaccinations. And I know what other cities have done with some of their places of interest. And for example, for us, it would be Bowers, Discovery Cube, the zoo, and others, maybe just allowing a free entrance to some of those venues that, you know, where people can show, you know, vaccination cards. And, you know, it's a way of just motivating people, number one, to go back to those venues,

but number two, just encouraging people to get vaccinated. And there's a lot of not only public health benefits, but benefits to be able to enjoy some of the things out in our community. So those are the last of my comments and I'll go ahead and move along. So thank you for the presentation.

So, Mayor, I have the answers for you. So 49.9% of the eligible population in Santa Ana has been vaccinated.

That's awesome. So we're, you know, we're, we're almost at 50%. So I think we're on, you know, right on the right path and on the right track to getting a lot more people as we get our younger people vaccinated. My 15 year old daughter was just vaccinated yesterday. So I'm very happy and proud of her. So thank you for the presentation. And thank you for that number, Madam city manager. Let's go ahead and move along to the closed session report. And Madam city attorney, is there anything to report out of our abbreviated closed session.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 5

Now I just like to report mayor and members of the council that we did have two items listed for closed session discussion. We did not discuss the first and the second item and the direction was given to legal counsel.

Excellent. And when we recess from open session, we go back into closed session, we'll address the first item on the agenda. Thank you for that. And now moving along to the public comment portion of the meeting, This is where members of the public will be able to address the council on agenda, agendized and non-agendized items pursuant to the Brown Act. City council may not enter into any discussion on any of those comments. And I believe the public comment line is now closed, but it's been open since 4.30. So I'll go ahead and turn it over to Madam Clerk to go ahead and take this portion

and allow members of the public to address the council.

Thank You Mayor, members of the council. There are speakers ready to provide their comments and to request to speak. You're dialing star 9 from your phone or please 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 emails provided as of today. We received one non-agenda a comment from a Santa Ana resident regarding parking issues around condominium complex item 22 the street racing spectator ordinance there were two Santa Ana residents in support of the ordinance and to an opposition Santa

Ana residents item 24 the budget workshop one Santa Ana resident provided various project ideas for budget spending one Santa Ana resident requested to make deportation defense fund permanent as part of the annual budget item 25 one santa anna resident in support of the resolution item 26 64 in support of the resolution for climate and public health emergency resolution 34 were santa anna residents 20 were non santa anna residents and 10 residencies were not disclosed and with that

Call her with the last three numbers 073. If you would please dial star six to unmute your call. Or select the unmute feature on your device.

Okay, hello. Let me see if I can hear you. Can you all hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. You may proceed.

Okay, so let me see here. All right. This is Victor Payan, the Executive Director of Media Arts Santa Ana calling. Hello. I'm resident of Eastside Pacific Park, and I'm calling today to talk about the budget. It's on the agenda today, and to talk about the importance of arts funding. The arts sector contributes to the Santa Ana and Orange County economy in a great deal, and the city needs to make it a priority and a pillar to allocate funding to develop and support the arts sector. It's in alignment with the general plan and the arts master plan, which is a 10-year plan. We're right in the middle of it, so it's not time to stop now.

This funding is not a handout. It is economic development. Funding the city has given to the arts is only a small fraction of the hard cash the arts sector contributes to the city's general fund. When you look at real estate listings for Santa Ana, they will inevitably talk about the vitality of the arts in the city, the artist village, and museums. And entertainment and digital arts comprise 56% of the arts sector in Orange County. And these are real jobs that contribute real money to the economy and bring business and support tourism. Nobody ever says they're against the arts funding, but it's time for Santa Ana to demonstrate

that there are strongly for arts funding. We know that funding for the arts results in real activities, stimulates the economy, creates jobs, lowers crime, increases mental, emotional, and physical well-being, and provides opportunities for youth to develop their passions into professions with well-paying jobs and change the course of their lives and economic well-being. You saw how the community rallied to save arts grant funding and we're all happy that the council directed the city manager to find surplus funds which were available to restore the arts grant funding for this year. Now we keep hearing that

the grant will not be funded and there is no budget for the arts commission programs in the city's budget. So we need to defend and ensure the money for the arts and there's a good crossover over from the recovery fund as well. While we keep hearing there's no money for the arts, we see that there's no shortage of city funding to give Downtown Inc. to do arts programming that should be done by the city, such as the arts directory and arts roundtables. These should have been public resources that were developed with equity and fairness and not with the agenda of promoting the interests of the people that run Downtown Inc., which

is what has happened. So public funding is important to defend equity, prevent exploitation, self-dealing, stealing the ideas of local artists and arts organizations. And it's the only way to ensure equity and to develop the arts sector for Santa Ana to ensure that funding is available to artists and organizations at all of Santa Ana's six awards. So I'm requesting that the Council allocate $200,000 for the Arts Commission to implement programs like the Arts Grant and other mural and economic development, professional development programs. We can bring Creative Capital, the National Association of

Latino arts and culture to do professional development workshops that are in English and in Spanish They're really helpful in developing the professionalism of the local arts sector. 15 seconds left Do we use a hundred point some of that cares recovery funds to create infrastructure and community spaces to support the development of Santa Ana's Important and historic arts sector together with the city support we can recover rebuild and rebound. Thank you. Thank you

Zoom ID Allison Vietreiz. Thank you. Yes thank you. Good evening Santa Ana Council members. My name

is Allison. I'm the youth organizing coordinator at Vietreiz. I'm calling on behalf of Vietreiz in regards to agenda item 24. First I also want to thank Councilmember Fan for your proclamation recognizing May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Vietreiz joins the OC Justice Fund, Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and Vera Institute of Justice alongside 32 other organizations to urge you to expand and make permanent the city's deportation defense fund by allocating funding every year at the level of

$300,000 starting in this fiscal year's 2021-2022 budget. In this time of increased racist violence against the Asian community, passing a permanent immigrant legal defense fund at the increased amount of $300,000 sends a clear message that our communities are valued and welcomed in the city. and the city of Santa Ana is taking concrete action to address anti-Asian violence on a structural level. Santa Ana is home to more than 25,000 Vietnamese residents according to census data. We believe that expanding the Deportation Defense Fund helps ensure that Vietnamese residents

receive critical access to legal representation and establish a bridge to foster trust, belonging, and a sense of community for Vietnamese residents in the city they call home. has met and worked with many immigrants and refugees who face the cruel double punishment of being transferred from local jails and state prisons to ICE detention, where they are placed in immigration detention indefinitely. Ensuring impacted community members have access to legal counsel increases their chances of release to return home to loved ones and their community while they await their deportation

cases and ensures refugees and immigrants have legal support as they navigate the complex immigration system. We urge you to expand and make the Deportation Defense Fund a permanent program at the amount of $300,000. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Jose Trinidad Castaneda. If you would please select the microphone. Thank you. You may proceed.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and staff. My name is Jose Trinidad Castaneda and I'm the Orange County Policy Manager with Climate Action Campaign, speaking on Item 26, the Santa Ana Climate and Public Health Emergency Resolution of 2021. Thank you. Thank you for considering the resolution before you tonight. Despite massive disruptions caused by the global pandemic, Santa Ana can lead the world in making significant progress in its efforts to combat climate change and build resilience across the city.

Just this morning, a landmark report from the International Energy Agency says countries need to move faster and more aggressively to cut planet warming pollution. They state there is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply. Achieving net zero, the negative emissions by 2050 requires immediate action. This is what this resolution means, that Santa Ana is taking a step forward towards immediate climate action on the world stage. We are making not just Orange County history, but global history as the first city to declare a climate emergency following this major global event.

recognize the depth and scale of local environmental injustice, and laying out goals and outcomes in line with the latest science, government, and industry reports. The resolution goes further in setting out a cost-effective, economically productive pathway resulting in clean, dynamic, and climate resilient energy dominated by solar, wind, and batteries. We will manage a path away from fossil fuels. Yes, it'll be a transition, but we also need a path to decarbonization and a zero carbon future with good jobs, clean air, safe, clean drinking water and safe, clean, renewable energy.

Building micro grids or studying the feasibility of that, addressing the EV infrastructure, all of that, that needs more of your support and more of your leadership in the city of Santa Ana. And so I urge you to pass the full language of the resolution attached in the agenda report. And thank you so much for your leadership in considering this resolution tonight.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Tristan Miller, if you would please select. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, everybody. I'm Tristan Miller and I actually live right by El Pico de Gallo. It's my favorite restaurant too. I live in Ward three. I'm a volunteer art teacher in our Santa Ana schools, a business owner, a resident and a parent. And I have to urge you to please quickly move from discussion and pass item 26, the climate and public health emergency resolution introduced by council member Jesse Lopez. It is supported by many, many community groups and neighborhoods in Santa Ana. And we actually sent hundreds of emails in support of this resolution. It's groundbreaking, solution-based. The community supports it,

and it's gonna spur our economy and green our city. Did you know that seven out of the last 10 years have been the warmest on record? The whole last decade was the warmest in history. Just last summer, we saw rolling blackouts in California, unhealthy levels of pollution, devastating fire season, and communities are suffering. There was also a recent study done by the University of Notre Dame, and it said that Santa Ana, our city, was one of the most at risk and least ready to address the climate crisis. And only 4% of our Santa Ana land is dedicated to parks and recreation.

This resolution addresses all of these issues with real solutions. The solutions are here. We just need to take the action and action actually improves our life, our community. It spurs the greener economy, cleaner air, more affordable energy. Our utility rates are going up and renewable energy will bring them down and bring more jobs. I just proudly also want to support item 25 introduced by council member Hernandez. We need to pass these resolutions. They should not be up for discussion. They should be already ready to vote on.

this is for the sake of our families we've got to address this with fierce urgency of now we cannot miss the urgency of this moment the solutions are already here let's pass this let's do this for our city thank you

thank you caller with the last three numbers 477 if you would please dial star six to unmute your call or select the unmute feature on your device

thank you you may proceed with your comment

Good evening Mayor, City Council, City staff. This is Dale Helbig, Ward 3. I'd like to start off by saying thank you to everybody at the city that was involved with the work that went on this past couple of weeks on cleaning up the Mexican Cultural Center tent and homeless activity that was going on there and finding places for those people to stay. that is a lot safer and more hygienic spots for them. So again, thank you for that, much appreciated. Regarding item number 16,

concerning the Santiago Park Main Street entrance design project, the project is laid out or the recommended action is to approve this for a three-year project with two one-year extensions. And I'm wondering why it would take five years potentially to come up with a design, especially seeing as how in the staff report, it looks like everything will be completed in one year. So I'm hoping that someone will pull this item to discuss it and find out why they think they need the potential five years to work on this project.

As you know, the current project that's going on at Santiago Park is underway. That is good as well. I'm glad to see that some care is finally being put into improving the Santiago Park area. So much appreciated. And again, hope someone pulls it to explain why it needs a potential five-year window. The last item is item number 26. I know that this is just a discuss and consider item that's being looked at tonight. There'll be no vote taken, but I believe that there are several things

in this proposal that are very good. So looking forward to seeing and hearing your discussions on this activity tonight. And that's it, wish you guys well. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Zoom ID Lisa Okamoto. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Lisa Okamoto and I am a directing attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, also known as INDEF, and I'd like to speak on item number 24. INDEF has been able to serve the community of Santa Ana through the Deportation Defense Fund that was passed by the city. I first would like to thank the mayor and the council for approving the deportation defense funding committing to supporting the immigrant community in Santa Ana for another two years. The city of Santa Ana has been a leader in universal representation for immigrants in the greater Southern California area and I command the city in continuing their commitment.

That said, I speak today along with OC Justice Fund Harbor Institute and Viet Rise to ask that the city expand its current funding level to total $300,000 annually and make the program permanent to address some unmet needs. First, the additional funding will provide for much outreach and services to the greater Asian and Pacific Islander community, particularly to the undocumented Vietnamese residents of Santa Ana. We stand with Viet Rise to address the equity gap that currently exists with this deportation fund. Second, additional funding will allow

MDAF or any service provider to build up an administrative system to make stronger referral, intake, and case management system. The program currently only funds for a paralegal position who is already working overtime to cover the administrative task of this fund. In addition to administrative staff, an increase of funds will also allow a legal service provider to staff up case managers for them to provide a holistic approach to representation as immigrant families often have compounding challenges like food insecurity, unstable housing, and education barriers on top of suffering from immigration enforcement.

Lastly, increased funds are critical to have financial resources needed to fight the case, including hiring country condition experts and psychiatrists to conduct evaluations and provide crucial evidence to support a person's immigration case in immigration court. These services often come at least at a thousand dollar cost that the families cannot afford. All of these will be investments that the city can make to further show their commitment to the immigrant community and therefore we request that the funds be increased annually. Thank you. Thank you.

Zoom ID Silvia Hernandez, if you would please select the microphone icon or the

unmute feature on your device. Thank you. Thank you. This is Silvia Hernandez from inside Sanana neighborhood. I would really want to talk about the Revive Sanana plan money. I really think that we need to spend that money in the community and programs like those who really help the community to heal from the awful pandemias

that we have been in in the whole year. Also we have a big big problem with the housing. You need to put that money to continue helping the workers, families that have been suffering and have been struggling to meet the end. Also, just programs because we haven't had opportunity to enjoy our parks. Also, I wanna say that in the survey that you made, you didn't include any issue about the housing and we really need to talk about that and resolve that problem for all.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Angel Ruiz, if you would please select the microphone icon or the unmute feature.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, we could hear you. Thank you. You may proceed.

Thank you. I just wanted to add some comments on the Revive Santa Ana Plan and where the money is gonna go. So I would like to add more comments on the survey. THE SURVEY WAS REALLY, REALLY GENERAL AND DIDN'T ALLOW FOR ANY COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO ACTUALLY SPEAK ON ISSUES THAT HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED. INSTEAD, THE CITY WAS REALLY JUST GIVING QUESTIONS WITH GUIDED ANSWERS INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY BEING A GENUINE SURVEY. NEXT ON, ON TO HOW THE MONEY SHOULD BE SPENDED. I think obviously programs that will help the community and not policing in Santa Ana.

Through this year we have seen the damages of policing and how it's affected multiple communities.

Obviously more money for youth, invest in youth, and programs for them that will help them. For example, a youth center or after school programs that will allow them to have resources to wi-fi tutors mentors so they could prosper in our community thank you

thank you zoom id carlos perea if you would please select the microphone icon

thank you hello good evening mayor and members of the city council my name is carlos perea with the Harvard Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, and I'm also a resident of Ward 1. I'm calling this evening in support of the Immigrant Defense Fund that the city has.

Yesterday, the Harvard Institute, along with other organizations like the Justice Fund, Via Rice, Immigrant Defenders, and 32 other organizations which include the UCI Immigrant Rights Clinic, UFCW, Local 324, Orange County Mobile Home Resonance Coalition and others in support of Santana expanding its Immigrant Defense Fund and make it permanent a core service of the city and also increasing it to the level of $300,000 every year. Immigrant Defenders, Lisa spoke earlier today about the gaps and needs of the program and you know it's the the program enjoys a strong support from residents in the city

especially being an immigrant community in fact in 2020 beta released a survey in which found out that 79 percent of santana residents support government funded attorneys for immigrants facing deportation again santana is the only city in the county that has this program since establishment 2017 every year community has shown up to ensure that this program remains alive and i think it is time now for this program to be a permanent program of the city i'm also calling

regarding the revived uh sometime spending plan for two asks one the the city ensures that this this funding goes directly to those most impacted by the pandemic and those are immigrant communities immigrant workers uh the the the folks the worker workers residents of the city um ensure that they have a direct economic stimulus financial assistance but also we have seen how the inequities around health especially in in the county of orange have impacted proportionately latino residents in the city so it's important that the city considers creating its own public health agency

that has the cultural competence, the cultural understanding of our community and actually has that intentionality in ensuring that our residents are healthy, especially in public health crises. So I hope that the council considers opening its own healthcare agency. Thank you.

Thank you. Zoom, our caller with the last three numbers, 340, if you would please select star six. from your phone or select the microphone icon. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Irma Hariki, a Wilshire Square resident and I think it's Ward 2. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm saying we can't be together, but time will come. I want to first thank you very much for the work you did in El Centro in helping the homeless move to a safe place with nobody hurt, but also bringing the community back into normalcy again, that was enormous work. We have worked in the past as well, the mayor's know and some of our council members, when we had the Normandy, we know that is a very complex situation, but in this case, your outcome was excellent.

And hopefully we can, the city can work again to help in the future. There's much work to be done in that area. The reason of my call is I am asking for all council members and mayor to reconsider keeping the Cypress Firehouse and not sell it to a private entity who only that entity would benefit in having it. The firehouse is a dream come true. We have worked before, those who don't know us, I'm from the Santa Ana Healthy Neighborhoods Alliance, past president of Worcester Square. We worked for nine years to bring the Pacific Electric Park to fruition. A dream come true. We have pride in the community.

We drive by. That is an investment that will pay dividends for decades and decades to come. That is the same dream we bring to you with the Cypress Firehouse. True in the past, there has been damage and cost, but that happens when you have empty spaces under the circumstances. But now COVID made it so patently clear that one of our densest neighborhoods, the Pacific Park, formerly Eastside, is in dire need of more services. And that is the thing I'm bringing to you, that in keeping the Cypress firehouse, we could have it a fabulous center for the community with a combination,

because it's one of the highest crime areas in that corner of Bishop and South Main, of a substation, police station in the back. It's a 4,000-square-foot building. My background is in real estate and construction. And that building is backed by an alley and the street. and the police department once they would be a stable part of the community in the old school of community policing where everybody knows the the officer on duty and we can have coffee and also I approached the broker of record for the dollar store and they were very enthusiastic

of considering having the owner allow public parking for the use of the community center seeing that would be a safe place to go working together with several of the members of the Alliance well then we look at the and then also another member will be putting ideas of having fabulous services a bibliothèque to raise the awareness and help the community within walking distance which as we saw with the park that can happen and would be totally utilized which would revive that whole area, bring a stimulus value,

property values, pride of values, and-Thank you. All the way around, thank you.

Thank you. Caller with the last three numbers, 528, if you would please dial star six to unmute your call. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Ana Ursula. I'm a resident of Ward 6 and the director of Cooperación Santana. I want to thank the council members and city staff who attended our celebration or in other ways showed your support for the graduates of our worker cooperative curriculum last night. Thank you. And I'd also like to speak on item 24. Housing, food and work. The pandemic exposed that these are major vulnerabilities and the first needs that people had to address when they were with no job during this health crisis.

In order to be forward thinking we need to not only recover but rebuild from the pandemic with long-term solutions that create more stability more opportunity and more ownership of existing Santana residents in the areas of greatest need. Two important infrastructures have been put into place that could support the stabilization of people in their homes through the purchase of their apartment buildings. One of them is a community land trust and the other a cooperative incubator and both have been established with the direct participation of

organizations and residents of Santana. Thrive Community Land Trust offers a mechanism to hold land to maintain it permanently affordable and accessible and Thrive facilitates participation and planning and development. As you know this is currently underway at the first site Leaves to Thrive which will be utilized for an urban farm but the Land Trust can also be an important partner for the acquisition of existing housing or for the development of new housing that people can afford like the cooperative ownership of multi-family dwellings. For food I would like to speak to an initiative

that launched during the pandemic to locally grow and commercialize food from a site of a local church in Ward 3. Crece Urban Farms manages an urban farm and a community supported agriculture program to provide families who subscribe with a weekly bi-monthly or monthly farm box of fresh vegetables and mushrooms. And this is an economic development project as well. I speak to it because an urban agricultural an urban agriculture initiative to utilize vacant lands throughout the city can begin to address this vulnerability of food insecurity and turn it into a sustainable local food system.

And lastly to speak about work during the pandemic Operation Santana SABHC in Resilience Orange County launched immediate response through an economic relief fund called Inlaqesh. Over 6,000 people applied and more than 1,500 people have received economic relief funds so many people in domestic work and restaurant industries and others have been impacted rebuilding also needs to be about the work and ownership opportunities that will be made available worker cooperatives are businesses owned by the workers that allow for more accessibility to starting funds longer lived businesses they increase local spending and

they provide higher wages one worker owned co-op radiate 15 seconds county has sure has already launched in the midst of the pandemic and others will come like a child care cooperative and a cafe cooperative my comment and some is to urge that the city's budget and the revised santana fund provide investments toward long-term solutions to rebuild from the pandemic that include community owned led at strategies around housing food and economic development thank you thank you

zoom id linda kramer if you would please select the unmute feature on your device or select the microphone thank you you may proceed with your comment

okay hello thank you mayor and city council members my name is linda kramer and i was born in santa anna i've been a long time advocate of reducing emissions in orange county due to having lifelong asthma. Santa Ana has been a leader in creating active transportation projects. We heard of some amazing projects tonight that were presented and a thriving downtown art and community hub in Orange County. Please move from discussion and pass item number 26, the climate and public health emergency resolution. According to a UN News article in September 2019,

cities a cause and solution to climate change. Cities are responsible for roughly 70% of fossil fuel pollution, but also can be instrumental in curbing these emissions. We need bold action now. Our South Coast Air Quality Management District area still has the worst ozone pollution in the country because we got a lot of cars powered by gas. Santa Ana can help lead the way to make Orange County a thriving, healthy, clean tech leader. One of the most important ways to start is adopt community choice energy.

CCEs have a proven record of bringing customer choice and significant revenue to cities for energy and transportation projects. Additionally, Santa Ana must lead the way to cleaner air, more tree cover, and green cooling spaces as we help our most vulnerable prepare for ever-increasing hot summers. Please make a bold choice to lead Santa Ana and all of Orange County into a cleaner, healthier, more resilient future by adopting the Climate and Public Health Emergency Resolution today.

according to another article just this april 2021 in the new yorker renewable energy is sudden suddenly startlingly cheap there's no reason not to pass this measure and you could lead the way orange county could lead the way thank you so much thank you caller with the last three numbers

870 please select the microphone icon on your device or dial star six

looks like that call dropped zoom ID Gerson if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Zoom ID, Gerson, if you would please, thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

the point number 20 in the agenda for the installation of the placa commemorative honor of Charlene Hanson in the agenda of this evening and I hope you and the congressman Lou Correa be one of us in the ceremony of inauguration. I want to take this opportunity to express my support and the ojo to a economic stimulus direct to the residents of Santa Ana. The Alcalde Sarmiento has shared this vision with us in some meetings with various religious leaders and we are totally agree with it, because it is directly aligned with our values of faith.

As I know, Santa Ana has two of the four social media posts most affected by COVID-19, according to the health and health conditions of the state.

Thank you. Our translator will go ahead and interpret.

Good night. I am a member of the church, and I am calling about the item number 20 from the agenda. And I hope that you are going to discuss about this item tonight.

Also, the mayor was last time at one of our events, and I am happy that the city or the councils agree with or are aligned with our faith. and I also wanted to mention about the the first zip codes in our city of Santa Ana are being more affected according to the report.

Okay thank you. Zoom ID Media Arts Santa Ana I believe you've already provided a comment did you have someone else there with you who was to provide a

comment. Zoom ID Blanca Jurelas, if you would please select the microphone icon or select the unmute feature on your device. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment. yet yes you may pursue yes for the one turn out con su comentario

well as tardes on over my job target when a star de sonable my yours arviento pcd con su mi nombre es la caro de las soy miembro de orange con y congregación community organización por sus siglas llamadas poco gracias les damos por trabajar las instalaciones de las placas en honor a la señora charlene jackson y aprecio

en las instalaciones y agradecer al ingeniero galvez que ya tiene los planos y las locaciones de la placa junto a las glorietas que han sido un trabajo conjunto con la comunidad y colaboración para dis disminuir el tráfico en nuestros vecindarios y recordamos a nuestro compañero señor forger rodriguez que fue un líder comunitario y antes de de decir muchas gracias le hacemos la invitación a que cuando se haga la inauguración de dichas glorietas muchas gracias

good night mayor and members of the council my name is blanca Ruelas. I am a member of the community church. The letters are OCO. And thank you for working on the installation to Mr. Galvez on the circle that they have worked together in the community to reduce traffic. And to Mr. Jorge Rodriguez. And I hope that they are going to attend the

ceremony to when they open this project and I thank you and have a good night.

Zoom ID Kathleen Trecedar if you would please select the microphone icon. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Kathleen, you've successfully unmuted yourself. You may proceed with your comment.

Kathleen Trecedor, you've successfully unmuted your call. You may proceed with your comment.

Oh, hello, sorry about that. My cat did that, I'm so sorry. Okay, so I am Dr. Kathleen Treceder. I'm the Howard Schneiderman Endowed Chair in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCI. I have a PhD from Stanford University and I've studied climate change for 25 years and I'm still mastering the mute button. I am calling in support of Agenda Item 26, the climate and public health emergency. So I work on climate change and there's this supercomputer cluster at UCI. And what it does is it runs simulations of the earth's climate.

And one of the questions that we're asking with it is, how much longer do we have to act on climate? When will things become, when will we reach the point of no return? And so I see the results coming out of it, and they're frightening, they're frightening. That's why I'm calling in tonight instead of spending the time with my family.

Definitely we need to reduce our emissions substantially by 2030, substantially, or else within our lifetime, we will have some serious, serious problems. And I know that sometimes when people hear this, they feel powerless, but you have a lot of power. You are not powerless. Santa Ana is one of the largest cities in Orange County. If you convert to renewable energy, that will be a great good. And in fact, you can do this without major expenses to the city or in your lifestyles. You could, for instance, join a community space energy program, convert within a couple of years to 100% renewable energy

and generate revenue for your people. You don't need to reinvent the wheel or do it alone. And you'll show leadership. other cities will follow. It will create a domino effect and the good that you do here can be multiplied within Orange County and across the nation. And I promise that you do, we will see a difference in the data coming out of those supercomputers. You will be able to tell your kids that you moved the needle on climate change. So please move from discussion and pass council member Lopez's resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. So Zoom ID Sunrise OC, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Thank you.

Hi everyone. My name's Alejandro. I'm with Orange County Sunrise. I'm a resident of Anaheim, but I grew up going to Santa Ana all the time. I've been to the therapeutic arts center, so I'm guitar growing up and everything. So I consider it my second home. I'm calling in in support of the Santa Ana climate emergency. I think as a city, there's a lot of work we need to do to make sure that we're doing our part in supporting our environment. And also specifically in making sure that our house-less neighbors are safe during the heat wave. So currently right now, there's a lot of sweeps going on

in which the police departments are taking away tents and taking away things that keep people safe. So people are gonna start dying from the heat wave. We're gonna have people laying on benches, dying from heat exhaustion. So we need to make sure that we're doing our part to take care of those in need or at least not bother them when they do take care of themselves. And I also do want to show support for the proposition by Jonathan Ryan Hernandez on transgender and gender not conforming. I think that's also a great proposition and Sunrise Orange County is also in support of that. Thank you.

thank you zoom id erica gonzalez if you would please select the microphone icon

thank you you may proceed with your comment yes hi my name is erica gonzalez i'm a lifelong santa nera organizer with chicanx unidex and a ward 6 delhi neighborhood resident and small business owner i'm calling today in support of item number 26 i stand in solidarity with Councilmember Jesse Lopez in creating a climate and public health emergency resolution of 2021. I would like to share the definition of environmental justice and environmental injustice. Environmental justice is a fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless

of race, color, national origin or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. environmental injustice happens when people are disproportionately impacted by the environmental factors because of discrimination such as socioeconomic status and human-made environmental hazards. Just recently there was a new report that was put out by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment or the OEHH and they updated their maps showing the combined pollution burden scores which is made up of indicators from the exposures and environmental effects components

of the cal enviro screen model the pollution burden represents the potential exposures to pollutants and the adverse environmental conditions caused by this pollution santana came in above 70 and most of those categories one of the categories that we came out the highest was lead pollution we were at 99 in some areas of the city like i said i live in the delhi neighborhood and i along with of many of my neighbors are concerned with the proposed cleanup program that is scheduled to take place at 2215 South Standard Avenue. The area is known to have some of the highest environmental injustices within our city.

And we're concerned that this project will only exacerbate the quality of living for a large number of Delhi and Madison neighborhood residents. We asked that that resolution, the resolution that Jesse Lopez is proposing be passed because we all know that environmental times are also, like I said, they're human made. So these go beyond just the environments that we live in. It's also the environments that we work with. We think we've all seen that with COVID, we can only rely on each other. We really only have each other. Mutual aid played a big part during this pandemic.

I myself received the Inla Kesh funds, and I'm not ashamed to admit that because I'm a single mother. I have four kids, and we all know that living in this patriarchal system, it's set up for us to fail. And like I said, we only have each other. And if we really want to move forward and lead the way, because we can, we are in a very unique situation and we have the funds, we have the resources, we have the people that have the knowledge. All we need to do is build those bridges, collaborate and include the community. When it comes to-

15 seconds left.

So I just want to end with, I really want this board or this council take a look at our current situation. We're the leaders. We all know that you guys can be. Because we're the situation and we can really build a model

Jessie LopezItem 5

where we have a circular economy.

We don't need to rely on outside sources. We can rely within each other because that's already something that we've proven that we can do. Thank you for the time for allowing me to speak. Have a good evening.

Thank you.

David PenalozaItem 5

Madam City Clerk, this is Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa. Mr. Mayor, just two seconds. I'm getting a lot of messages from residents that are getting kicked off the YouTube feed. It's lagging and it keeps giving them a network error. Not sure what's going on, but this is, you know, we want to make sure that whatever the issue is, we address it. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. We'll work with our IT on that. Thank you.

Zoom ID Connor Medina, if you would please select the microphone icon. or the unmute feature on your device.

Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Zoom ID Connor Medina. You've successfully unmuted yourself. You may proceed with your comment.

Hi, sorry my microphone button was off, but can you hear me now?

Yes, we could hear you, thank you.

Perfect, my apologies, thank you. Good evening Mayor Sarmiento, members of the City Council. My name is Connor Medina. I am speaking on behalf of Orange County Business Council, the leading voice of business in Orange County. We respectfully request that item 26, the direction to staff to agendize the proposed climate and public health emergency resolution be tabled. OCBC recognizes the importance of addressing global climate change as key to Orange County's environmental, social, and economic health. However, the resolution referenced in item 26 contains extremely ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals

that go far beyond the city's adopted climate action plan and are far more aggressive than even the state-mandated targets and plans. The resolution also contains many statements with broad-ranging policy implications that will negatively impact the ability for Santa Ana businesses to compete and for us to successfully advance the housing priorities that help meet the growing demand for housing for our current and our future workforce. Prior to bringing this item back before the city council for consideration, OCBC strongly requests that the city conduct a more inclusive outreach process

with members of the business and housing community to collect valuable feedback, that the city provide further explanation on any new policy implications set forth in a resolution and that any resolution presented at a feature date be accompanied by an economic impact analysis. Thank you for considering these requests and we look forward to working with the city on this effort. Thank you.

Thank you. And mayor and council members, just to follow up on the error messages, it does appear that YouTube is a problem right now. for some reason the feed isn't happening so for any of the callers who are listening to the meeting they can go to spectrum channel 3 or AT&T U-verse channel 99 or you can go to the santa-anna.org forward slash city hyphen meetings and you can participate by selecting the zoom feature thank you Zoom ID Rain Song, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Thank you.

You may proceed with your comment.

Thank you. My name is Rain and I'm a Santana resident. Firstly, I just wanted to echo my support for allocating $300,000 annually for the immigration defense fund. I think it only makes sense to do so and make it a permanent thing. Also, I wanted to express my support for passing the climate and public health emergency resolution. And then I wanted to talk about agenda item number 24 for the budget for the fiscal year. Specifically, I wanted to address the COVID relief bill that's being passed under the Biden administration

and how $143 million will be received to Santa Ana in the new stimulus. So I just wanted to express how I would like to see some of that money allocated, being allocated to real tangible solutions for the houselessness crisis that there is in Santa Ana that also allows people to, that is also like a dignified solution and not just some horrible shelter. And I know about that because I've worked in homeless shelters. So allocating money to projects like building tiny homes

or putting money into affordable housing infrastructure or I guess making more shelters like the Yale Shelter, but that's also staffed with mental health professionals. I think that's very urgently needed. Secondly, I wanted to address the very disturbing comments or the very disturbing social media post by Council Member David Peñalosa, and I will read it as follows. With the help of the abatement warrant approved by the federal district judge, I'm happy to announce the city of Santa Ana has cleared the encampment at El Centro Cultural de Mexico that was caused by negligence of the property owner.

It is a shame that the, quote, community organization, end quote, continues to lie through their teeth to discredit the city and gaslight the community into thinking they were doing the right thing. Nobody used violence and nobody threw away people's belongings without consent. Not even the belongings of the three registered sex offenders this community organization was harboring on their self-parking lot. And contrary, two flatbed trucks were filled with belongings which were begged and tagged and taken to storage for safekeeping. All 17 individuals were provided shelter, know how and where to retrieve their belongings.

I just wanted to say that I think it's like shocking to see how out of touch it is for someone to say that displacing a whole community and throwing away their homes isn't violence in it of itself. And experiencing homelessness in it of itself is also extremely violent. I don't know how you're not more ashamed of yourself for writing things like this. I just wanted to say that I was there on the day of the raid about like 15 to 20 police officers showed while everyone was still sleeping, threw away people's things, even if they weren't there.

15 seconds left.

So there was no consent being happened that was happened. Also, I think it was a very coercive and intimidating tactic for the police officer to tell people, are you going to go to the shelter or are you going to leave or get out? Also, it's not true that everyone else, that everyone was sheltered because through our own funds that we've raised through the community, we are housing people in motels.

Thank you for your comment.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Luis Sarmiento, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Good evening. Thank you, everyone. And I also want to back up the comments of my colleague, Rain, who just spoke earlier and thank Rain and our other friends who have been supporting folks that are on the street in this time of need. I also want to speak on item 24 and say that the responses to the needs that we see in Santana should be guided by those that are directly impacted

with the lived experiences to ensure that public funds are spent responsibly and effectively. I'd like to add the following comments that were not easily included in the revived Santana survey. Youth programs should be led by youth and designed by youth, for example. the use of public funds in support of economic development the development of housing and open space in the city should be directed by residents especially our low-income renters who have been historically excluded from decisions around economic development collaboration with our

local community land trust thrive santana can facilitate resident-led development on publicly owned land also the acquisition of existing existing housing and development of new housing all with the guidance of and to protect existing residents' right to remain and thrive in our city. The Mercadito is a long-promised development put forth by Thrive Santana, which could be developed with the participation of local vendors and cooperatives, providing much-needed economic opportunities and recovery in the coming years. And lastly, along the lines of what Rain was mentioning earlier, a low barrier shelter for our houseless neighbors

should be developed in collaboration with our houseless neighbors.

And yeah, I invite the city to put it in the groundwork or to partner with our community members who are working on the ground to develop solutions in collaboration with folks that are directly impacted by these things.

Thank you. Thank you. Zoom ID Elizabeth, if you would please select the microphone icon or the unmute feature on your device.

Buenas noches. Buenas noches.

the Magma Immaculado Corazón de María. I, as well as my colleagues from other institutions religious and religious of Santa Ana, I am here present to you, I would like to thank you for the point 20 of the agenda on the installation of the commemorative plaque in honor of Charlene Hanson and also of the Mr. Jorge Ramirez. In the agenda of this night, your support is valuable Ya que se trata de un esfuerzo que ha tardado por años en contactarse. Quiero aprovechar esta oportunidad para expresar también el apoyo mío de OCO para crear una agencia de atención médica de Santana.

Para priorizar la atención médica de las más vulnerables de Santana. Como nuestras personas mayores, niños y residentes en riesgo, incitamos a la ciudad a encargar estudios de facilidad para evaluar los servicios profesionales y fiscales relacionados en el establecimiento de la Agencia Municipal de la Salud Pública para la Ciudad y considerar la contratación de un coordinador de equidad e inducción. Antes de la pandemia de COVID-19, Santana ya estaba luchando con la presentación de servicios de salud pública adecuado en el condado de Orange.

Los primeros desafíos que se presenciaron durante la asignación de las pruebas de vacuna del COVID destacaron que nuestra comunidad está privada de derechos en lo que respecta al alivio de la atención de la salud pública en el condado de Orange. Los residentes de Santana son demográficamente diferentes a los residentes de los 33 ciudades de condado. Los residentes de Santana son el 80% latinos, más del 50% son inmigrantes nacidos en el extranjero. Muchos inmigrantes sin estatus legal y la mayoría ya padecen problemas de salud existentes,

subyacentes que incluyen en otros diabetes, obesidad e hipertensión. Además del COVID-19, muchos de los vecindarios tienen problemas de ansiedad y depresión. También tienen problemas de justicia ambiental como resultado de su proximidad a los industriales ligeros y pesados. Nuestros valores de fe nos exigen que estemos ante ustedes y aboguemos por ellos que más lo necesitan. a medida que se han canalizado recursos adicionales a la a la ciudad desde gobierno federal y estatal ahora el momento de invertir en aquello que más

han luchado durante los últimos años le queden 15 segundos quiero agradecer a la alcaldía vicente sarmiento por su apoyo a la mini thousand y gracias por todo su tiempo que dios los guíe en sus decisiones gracias gracias the translator

will now interpret.

Good night. My name is Elizabeth Martinez. I am the coordinator of Corazon Maria. And I applaud my other peers, my other, that are members of another religious. and I thank you for the plaque that was posed in memorial for Jorge Ramirez and all the hard work.

And I take advantage of this opportunity to mention about the medical assistance to all the people that are receiving medical health. In Santa Ana, we are fighting for the difficulties of health. In Santa Ana, there are a lot of residents that are, the majority are 80% are Hispanics and 50% of them are immigrants. And many of them are already elderly and they are not legal and they have issues with their health.

and we, our values are required that we,

that we fight or that we support them. And we have to invest for those that have worked hard in this city. And I thank you all for your time and have a good night.

Thank you. Zoom ID, Tim Rush. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. I am calling in tonight on several items. The first item is item 26, which is council member Jesse Lopez's proposal regarding the climate change resolution. Certainly it's a lofty goal, but I would concur with the comments made by the Orange County Business Council. This has been created in a vacuum without any input from all stakeholders. And I think that's a viable component.

So to only have a group of environmental justice folks commenting and you don't have any input from the business community or the housing sector within the city etc I think is very very lopsided so I would I would ask your consideration to table this matter I would also like to discuss item 27 which is on your agenda which is Phil Becerra's proposal regarding having the city take a look at district-wide parking studies.

So that instead of parking districts being set up street by street, block by block, that instead the city perhaps take a more global view because parking, as we all know, has become a critical component in this city in terms of how we develop housing, how people are living, etc. In my 34 years in Santa Ana, I've lived in three different neighborhoods. I've lived in Washington Square and I was very much involved. We were the first neighborhood in the city

where the city partnered with us on some very serious parking or really traffic mitigation as as well as parking issues. And that was successful and continues in its success to this day, still needs some modifications.

I lived in a French park and was involved with the French park neighborhood association there. And I know the city just installed some feet speed humps along Washington Avenue. And so, but anyway, back to the issue of parking. And it's a critical issue here in Wilshire Square where I've been for 17 years. And when I first came to the neighborhood, I begged the neighborhood association. I said, we have to get aggressive about setting up permit parking districts. And because it wasn't so much of a problem,

nobody paid much attention because that's human nature being procrastinators that we are, but it is, we have blocks.

15 seconds left.

We have blocks where fights break out routinely over parking. And I'm sure that's not unique just to Wilshire Square. So Mr. Becerra's proposal needs fleshing out and it needs a discussion by the neighborhoods and staff. But I encourage you to adopt a plan to look at this and change.

Thank you, Mr. Rush.

System. Thank you.

I'd like to take this opportunity to announce to all of those who are joining our meetings by Zoom and by TV channel that YouTube is down. It appears to be nationally or globally. So just want to make sure that you're aware any YouTube Live events will not be viewed at this time. We do not know the status of that. We only know that YouTube Live is down globally. Thank you. Zoom ID, Hilda Ortiz, if you would please select the microphone icon or select the unmute feature on your device.

Thank you. Hilda, you've successfully unmuted yourself. If you can go ahead and proceed with your comment.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Tarmento and City Council members. My name is Hilda Ortiz calling on behalf of Latino Health Access. The city today faced an incredible opportunity as we move towards the recovery phase of the pandemic with the adoption of the new budget and the receipt of the federal funds item 24 in today's agenda. We're thankful for the efforts that the city has taken and the partnership we've had in responding to the pandemic because as you know, Santana was amongst the most affected with high transmission case and death rate. Excuse me.

Now moving forward, it's important that we analyze the factors that put us at such high risk and vulnerability in the first place, as well as the services requested by the community and use it to plan for recovery and improvement. Based on our work at LHA this past year, bringing testing centers, followed by vaccine clinics and through our bilingual call center, we've identified that the services requested by community members were directly related to the disease. and request for basic services with the top three services requested in 2020 being food,

financial assistance, and mental health very basic needs. In planning for the use of the available funds we propose that the city invest wisely in addressing short-term needs by establishing and sustaining a safety net for families to work toward a full recovery and this includes rental assistance, universal income regardless of immigration status and free child care. And in the long term, we must address the compound effects of the pandemic through the following. One, chronic disease prevention and management and access to long-term health care services.

We know that the prevalence of chronic diseases in our community was high prior to the pandemic and the number of people at risk has likely increased.

Two, emotional wellness and mental health services for our families that have faced a year of individual and collective grief and loss. And based on our data, we anticipate that the need for emotional wellness services will skyrocket over the next 18 to 24 months. Three, community-centered community development that prioritizes opportunities to the most vulnerable neighborhoods, including reimagining the use of land and activating and protecting spaces to maximize access to affordable housing, open space, and alternative economic models that are sustainable, especially for undocumented families.

And finally, protections and resources for tenants by increasing the tenant legal assistance. 15 seconds left.

Thank you. Zoom ID Irene, if you would please select the microphone icon.

Zoom ID Georgia, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Thank you. You may proceed.

Hello, my name is Stephanie. I work as an organizer at El Centro in Santa Ana. So first of all, I wanted to say how disturbing and unsurprising it is that certain members of the council have chosen to publicly spread their ignorance and hatefulness towards the houseless community of Santa Ana. As someone who works very closely with this community, I know that the city did not find placements for all or even most of the people who resided at El Centro previously. They actually showed up by surprise with a bunch of police and scared a lot of people away.

So the city council members claimed that they were going to enact a room key. but they did not offer this to any of our community members at El Centro despite their claims that they have offered hotel rooms. There are also several people who I know who are still living out on the streets because they were not offered adequate resources by the city. So as much as like the city is like saying that oh we should be really happy with this like it's clear that this is still an issue like so just because we're not seeing this doesn't mean it doesn't exist just because we're not seeing it at el centro doesn't mean it's not a problem

so i would like to urge the city to use the biden relief fund um for the stimulus to enact like genuine and careful uh plans in order to use these funds to expand resources for our houses community members um many members of the council have made it clear that they don't mind this problem yeah as long as they don't have to see it but um i hope that not all of the members of the council feel this way and that they will actually put in genuine efforts to expand resources for people who have not been offered adequate resources and um that's all

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Irene, you're using an older version of Zoom, so I cannot unmute you. If you can please try to call in instead.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

I have a few people contacting me saying that the Zoom is locked so that people can't get in.

Correct. Everyone, yeah, whoever was not in before, or they had an opportunity to log in until 6 p.m. and then once the public comment period starts, that's when I lock the Zoom so that way there isn't any.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

just fine but now that youtube is down a lot of people don't have access to obviously our cc our tv and all of that stuff so it might make sense because we told them to go to our agenda and click on the zoom link um so there might be a lot of people trying to get access to the

zoom to watch the council meeting who can't yes and i will open up the zoom as soon as we're done with the remaining um six individuals that we have left on the speaker queue but that would

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

mean people cannot watch or listen to the public comments i think you can take the six people's names down and not call on the rest if that is the concern uh yeah i believe that youtube i've

just heard from um an announcement that looks like youtube is up and running again

so youtube live should be working

Okay, thank you.

Zoom ID. Francisco, you may proceed with your comment.

Francisco Islas?

Hello?

Hello? You may proceed with your comment. We could hear you.

Oh, hi. How are you?

Hello?

Hi. Por favor, continue con su comentario.

well well well in english but in spanish is the key to make a comment I heard with that the governor or I know it is also here in the county orange they want to take the mask because because supposedly many of them have been vaccinated but I really am very worried and many people are worried about my vecindario y comentarios en los trabajos de que no deberían de hacer eso porque mucha gente todavía no se ha vacunado y mucha gente desde que empezó la pandemia tampoco han usado la máscara

entonces todavía hay mucha gente que está infectada allá afuera tienen el virus uno no sabe entonces I would not think I would not have to take the restrictions, because then it will be going to be the pandemic when the time comes, and in the cold weather, when the pandemic is going to be the pandemic, like the last one that happened in December and January, that was very strong. I don't know if you can comment that with the governor

or to study the analysis of that there is still a lot of people out there that have not been vaccinated and never used the mask. I just want to say that, to prevent that there will be more infections in the future.

Thank you.

Gracias. Our translator will go ahead and interpret now.

Hi, my name is Francisco Islas. I just wanted to make a comment about the law that they're going to try to not to wear masks anymore because a lot of people have got the vaccine. I am very concerned because a lot of people at work, we don't know who has the vaccine, and there's a lot of people that still could have the virus, and we don't know.

And my way of thinking, I think if they get rid of that restriction, it's going to get worse when the time comes when it's more cold. for example in January and February that's when it was very high with the pandemic so I don't know if you can talk with the with the governor to make sure that we can still use the mask so we can prevent more infections in the future Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID Laura Pantoja, if you would please select the unmute feature on your device.

Zoom ID, Laura Pantoja, if you would please select the microphone icon or the unmute feature on your device.

Laura Pantoja, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Persona en el Zoom con el nombre Laura Pantoja.

Zoom ID Flower Park number two, if you would please select the microphone icon or the unmute feature on your device.

Yeah, my name is Eric. I'm a civil servant, et cetera, et cetera. Yes, I want to make a public comment about in support for the programs.

the arts one, also the immigration defense, and also the pollution one, these are good resources. I know you guys have to talk about the budget constraints and whatnot, but I just want to council also to kind of

reanalyze their use of the spending. I believe it goes in 2019, 2020, you guys did purchase or authorize a purchase of like a military style tank for the law enforcement. And I mean, within the last two years, I don't think there's actually ever been a real practical use of that. So just to be more efficient with the funds, I understand safety is a concern, but maybe we just, you know, not buy so many war machines per se for the community's defense.

And also in addition, I believe it was, yeah, ordinance number 22 where you guys addressed adding those sections 36 through 706 and titled street racing to the Santa Ana.

I mean, after checking all that out, it does kind of seem, yeah, it does sound good on paper, but to me and realistically, the whole council needs to examine and realize it's very similar to the war on drugs. Yes, it's true. You have to attempt or combat it, but really it's a failing war, basically losing resources. And also after examining it, they could basically classify any vehicle or and or person within 200 feet of these other reckless drivers or irresponsible

street racers. So that just basically gives more power or more jurisdiction to consider other people residents as criminals and offenders. As we've seen, history has shown the abuse of power of law enforcement. Also the experience of that other public commentator was speaking about the homeless. That yeah, law enforcement clearly does. And as all you all have seen.

15 seconds left.

Experience, oh, what was that?

You have 15 seconds left.

Okay. So yeah, how experience has shown that abuse of power is there. So I would say, you know, reexamine that or come up with other solutions because that just seems more ways to incriminate more residents rather than attacking an actual problem, which I mean, give me more tickets.

Thank you for your comment. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID Daisy Cruz, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Zoom ID Daisy Cruz, you may proceed with your comment. You've successfully unmuted yourself.

Zoom ID Daisy Cruz. You've successfully unmuted yourself.

If you would please proceed with your comment.

Zoom ID, Daisy Cruz, I see that you're trying to mute and unmute yourself. Perhaps it's the volume on your device.

Zoom ID, Karen Alvarado, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Oh, thank you. We could hear you now. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

My name is Virginia Bautista. I am a leader of the OCO and the Church Episcopal of the Mesías. I also am here to express my gratitude and support to the topic number 20 of the agenda of this evening. This is really a very valuable and important topic for all of us. I am honored to Charlene Hanson and my colleague Jorge Rodriguez, who has been in charge of years in this project, as she saw her obligation to do everything possible to protect her community. Unfortunately, no could see that the vision could be lived, but today we are all here with his spirit.

I, as Jorge, also believe in the value of the incidence and I want to take advantage of this opportunity to discuss other two topics that are of great importance. And that this Consejo has the power of going on with the additional resources that the city has received from the American Rescue Plan. los líderes religiosos creemos que se debe invertir en la creación de un programa de estímulo económico directo y una agencia de salud pública de la ciudad. No hacerlo continuaría permitiendo el racismo sistémico y la falta de oportunidades para nuestras comunidades de color de bajos ingresos.

all of you have the power of investing funds and adapt policies that can help our communities prosper. The data is clear and you know the people who represent you. So, I encourage you to put your interest and security. The security at a long term only can be done by a systemic change, but we need to be brave leaders to push that vision. A round is excellent to to address a problem of trafficking. But we need to work with our advice to address the system problems. Thank you for your attention. God bless you and bless you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And now our translator will interpret.

Good night. My name is Mr. Bautista. I am also here to support item number 20, and it is very valuable to all of us, and also with support to our colleague Jorge Rodriguez, who lived all his life to protect the community, and now his spirit is here with us. I also wanted to talk about other important topics, about the religion to invest in agencies to public health for the city because the system could create racism for other people.

And all of you know what you can do and how to utilize the funds to create your programs. And I urge you to put your interest in the security that we need leaders like you that are brave and to be working with all of us. And thank you and have a good night.

Thank you.

Zoom ID Fatima Paque, if you would please select the microphone icon. Thank you. You've successfully unmuted yourself.

Good evening, honorable mayor and member of the city council. My name is Fatima Paque. I am representing the Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Santa Ana and I am a member of the Orange Town congregation community organization as so now is OCO. Thank you for putting item number 20 for the installation of the memorial plaque honoring Charlie Hanson on tonight's Council agenda. We are very pleased to see your support for the plaque installation. Orange County Congregation Community Organization and St. Joseph Catholic Church

wishes to coordinate a ribbon cutting of the plaque installation for the city. We invited our city staff, community member, and Congress Lucoria. Charlene Hanson was a member of St. Joseph Catholic tour and I fast hit by the car walking home after attending mass on June 17, 2017. She working for the postal service for over 30 years, deliver mile to the Florida Park area

here in Santa Ana where her grandparents were living on Eleotropo Drive. She live in an apartment women which are overlooking her child, called Lacey Stray. Charlene, living her entire life in Santa Ana. She was only seven years old when she died. Charlene was the board and lawyer community member whose law was charged with the Santa Ana neighborhood she served. We request the plaque deinstallation on the south corner of Civic Center Drive in Lacey Street,

where Charlene was struck by the car and she passed away. We hope that the installation on the plaque will be a constant reminder for the old driver to be watchful for pedestrian and bicyclist. And that this is what the Civic Center bike line project is all about. with an air completion of the civic center bike lane project does include safety improvement for pedestrian and believe the plaque will be a visual remember all people pedestrian and bicyclists

safety in the community thank you for your support for the plaque installation thank you thank you

okay laura pantoja You can see this is

Gracias Buenas noches Concejales Alcalde Mi nombre es Laura Pantoja Soy residente de Santana y mi concejal que me representa es el concejal Hernández Y estoy aquí para hablar del punto 24 Yo trabajo y vivo en Santana desde hace más de 25 años Y este y los últimos años In the last year we have seen how our community has been impacted by COVID, how they have lost their brothers, their children, their children, and their children, and I'm glad to know that almost 50% of people who live in Santana

are vaccinated, but still we have the rest, that is more than half. So, I'm asking for support for people to vaccinate, and that they are accessible, right? I'm hearing that many people are going to vaccinate in their community clinics, but most of our people don't have medical insurance. So, I ask for help to get the vaccine to the residents who have been more impacted. I want to ask for support for the rent, We are going to be able to support the program that helps the rent, because the people have almost a year and a half.

Many families that work have no regreses to work, but they can't return because they are not going to be able to work. We have to define what is the public security. We have seen how the majority of the public budget is going to go and we live in the city more safe.

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I We have seen how families suffer so that the children can be in their classes in a single room. So I ask them to help you so that they can access the internet free to all the people who

live in Santana. Program for families, free to be in the community. The cost is very high and a family of four can't pay $200 per month for their children to the deportation of the activity. I want to ask you to have a bibliothèque in each district. This could be a good project for the young and young to have the books and computers. I want to ask you to have a program for the young people. It's our future. We have to invest in the young people.

We have 15 seconds.

And programs for the parents on prevention for alcohol and some of the dependencies.

Thank you and our interpreter will now translate.

Good night my name is Laura Pantoja and my My representative is Mr Hernandez. Mr Hernandez. I am calling about number 24. I am a resident of Santa Ana and I've been working here for more than 25 years. And it has been good years, but lately, last year has been more affected due to the pandemic. And even though 50% of the people has been vaccinated, most of the population, more than half, they haven't been vaccinated.

And I support that everybody get the vaccine. There are many people that go to clinics and hospitals because most of them, they don't have a medical insurance. And I thank you because you support the vaccine and to have it more accessible for a lot of people. Also, I'm calling about to support the rent for families to pay rent. Many people, they haven't returned back to work.

Some, they have more than a year and a half that they are not working and they are staying home to support their families and they're taking care of their children. We don't live in a city that is most secured, and I urge you to put money to have a city that is better secured. There's a lot of people that have been affected for COVID, and also putting the funds in programs for our youth and education for all children so they can have a better education.

also to have a better living because it is not possible for a family of four to be living in one room. And I urge you to put money also for these type of programs. Also for children to have access to a computer and other programs for them. Also programs for the parents like alcohol prevention. so we can have a better city and better equity for all of us. Thank you and have a good night.

Thank you.

Daisy, you may go ahead and proceed with your comment.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, we could hear you.

Awesome. Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. I was having some trouble with tech, but my name is Daisy Cruz. I'm calling on behalf of the Kennedy Commission. I'm calling on the adoption of the new budget item number 24. But I'd also like to start with mentioning that this Zoom call should have included the option for interpretation, where some residents were having a hard time finding where they could listen and participate in Spanish and likely other languages.

But as a city with 80% of renters that fall into moderate, low, and very low income, many of whom have also been heavily affected by COVID-19, the city's priorities should be on addressing the effects from the pandemic. Creating housing stability should be a part of the city's short and long-term economic recovery strategy that will directly benefit the city's residents. The creation of new land use opportunities, policies, and programs will directly benefit residents should be a priority, including that for youth, mental health services, internet access, and other services. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Victor Bustos, if you would please select the microphone icon. Thank you.

you've successfully unmuted yourself. Thank you good evening. Victor Bustos, resident of Santa Ana Eastside Community. I was just calling to voice my support for agenda item 26 and 27. I'll talk about 27 first. I really think something needs to be done about the parking crisis that we have. As one of the callers said there's fights that come out of people just fighting over parking space fighting over people reserving spaces so I really think something needs to be done about

that I I have relatives that have to park you know blocks and blocks away because they arrive home at a time that there is no parking available for them near their home so on item 26 I

I really, I heard a caller say that we needed to table, you know, public health emergency resolution. But climate change is happening right in front of us. It's here. So if we keep tabling it, when will we do something? It's like asking our kids, hey, let's table your health for later. You know, let's table your future for later. we'll talk about it when it's a bigger problem so um again just wanted to call and voice my support

for those items and thank you for your time thank you zoom id carla juarez you may proceed with your comment please press please select the microphone thank you you've successfully unmuted yourself

Thank you. Good afternoon. Good evening. My name is Carla Juarez. I'm long time resident of Santa Ana. I am in Ward 4. I am calling in regards to item 24 and also just touching briefly on other subjects. In regards to item 24, revive Santa Ana plan to use the 42 million from the American Rescue Act. I would like the funds to be used to support our most vulnerable. And I also want to voice my support in the immigration defense fund, the tenant protection fund, a community land trust fund,

a worker owned cooperative fund, the LGBTQ community protection fund, and also language justice, including Spanish, Vietnamese, or other languages that reflect the residents. funds towards building inclusive equity. There will be an eviction tsunami at the end of June, as we know, when the moratorium ends. These funds should be used to support residents, resident driven development. And yes, houseless folks are residents as well and our neighbors. Just because we don't see them don't mean that they're not there. Development without displacement, with community agreements,

Resident-driven development on public land. Santa Ana has an excessive amount of public land. Let's just remember what happened in Bristol. How many families did we not strip from their homes? And for some reason city staff, city officials are fixed on selling it and I don't understand why. Advertising the land will decrease and limit accessibility. equity, accessibility is the word. Prioritizing the land for profit will only allow those who can afford it to be able to enjoy it and share with family. Public land should be a public benefit.

Public land, empty lots, I've seen them with fences where no one could use them. That means kids can't play with them or we can even use them for parking if parking is such an issue and it is an issue. but they have fences on there. Tenants whose house are being put on sale, there should be a program like for the right to purchase program because they're being, there's just, it's so bad. The community, our renter community is very vulnerable. Santa Ana has more than 50% renters. And the community members, these are essential workers. They are our neighbors, they are our families,

they are our friends, essential workers. Santa Ana has more than 50% renters. Landlords are companies. They're no longer families or mom and pop. They're companies. Companies are buying the land and controlling the market and now bidding and now renting families out of Santa Ana. Please use these funds source inclusive equity. And I also want to echo when we say safe streets, we don't mean criminalizing our houseless folks. we don't mean criminalizing bystanders that are looking on or onlookers and when we talk about

the burden how it's being house burden we don't mean creating limits on leases because this is not the solution and this is not you have 15 seconds left thank you I just want to I want to leave please listen to your to your residents listen to your residents and even if we do get kicked out because we can't afford the rent or for whatever reason we don't leave our kids are still going to school here they have friends here they have family here and it will echo on thank you Carla thank you thank

you zoom ID Victor Valladares if you would please select the microphone icon Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Thank you. Greetings and good evening, honorable Mayor Sarmiento and council members. My name is Victor Valladares, a community organizer with Orange County Congregation Community Organization, also known as OCO. I'm here to address three things. First, like my colleagues before me from other faith organizations in Santana, I wholeheartedly appreciate the council for placing agenda number 20 on the agenda, which is the installation of the Memorial plaque honoring Charlene Hansen. You may or may not know Charlene was a member of St. Joseph's church, a devoted community member

who always worked to better Santana. Charlene tragically lost her life at the intersection of Civic Center and Lacey Drive, attending mass after attending mass on June 17, 2017. She lived her entire life in the Lacey neighborhood. The proposed plaque in her memory will forever be a reminder for the drivers and cyclists to be on the lookout for pedestrians and to slow down.

Charlene may be physically gone, but what she did for the community will never be forgotten. Number two, the stimulus. The American Rescue Plan Act passed by the Biden administration earlier this year was intended to provide crucial support for families disproportionately affected by the pandemic. One way we can do good for our community is making sure that the American Rescue Plan funds that the city has received would go for the hardest hit families in the Santana community and businesses to assist families

most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as those to provide an economic boost to our hard hit local businesses. Stimulus vouchers or debit cards redeemable only in Santana businesses to assist families most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as provide an economic boost to our local economy.

Third, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Santana was already struggling with delivering adequate public health care. services from the County of Orange. The early challenges that were witnessed during the allocation of COVID-19 tests and vaccinations highlighted that our community was disenfranchised and that it came to public health relief and the attention from the County of Orange. Santana residents are demographically different from the residents of the 33 other cities in the county. Santana residents are 80% Latino. More than 50% are Foreign born immigrants, many immigrants are undocumented

and many suffer from underlying preexisting health conditions, including but not limited to diabetes.

You have 15 seconds left.

Hypertensions. I wholeheartedly would appreciate for the city council to take into consideration to use these monies to build a healthcare clinic similar to what they already have in LA County, Long Beach to be specifically. Thank you very much and have a nice night.

Thank you so much.

Mayor, that was our last caller.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. And thank you to all the members of the public who called in. We apologize, obviously, for the technical challenges that we had. And I should have known about the YouTube. My daughter told me earlier today she was having trouble logging on. And so it sounds like it was either a global or a national glitch that YouTube was experiencing. So our deepest apologies to all the members of the public that didn't have an opportunity to access the meeting or give us a call. So these are challenges, unfortunately, that we're going to have to deal with as this pandemic continues.

But it looks like we will be alleviating those very soon as restrictions start lifting and as we start getting back to our normal routine. So with that, we're at the consent calendar portion of the meeting, let me go ahead and ask any members of the council if they wish to pull any items off the consent calendar or reflect an abstention based upon a conflict of interest. So members of the council, please let me know if there's anything you'd like to pull or anything you'd like to abstain on.

Council member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Hi mayor. I'd like to pull 16 and 17 please.

I'll go ahead and entertain a motion for the balance of the consent calendar.

Phil BacerraItem 6

Mayor, this is Council Member Becerra, so moved.

Great. Thank you. Council Member Becerra, is there a second?

David PenalozaItem 6

I'll second, Mr. Mayor.

Great. So we have a motion by Council Member Becerra, second by Mayor Plotent Peñalosa, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez?

Yes.

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Fan?

Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa?

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes, thanks everybody. I think the first item is item number 16 and that is the Santiago Park Main Street entrance design. And I believe that was council member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 6

It was, thank you, mayor. And just quickly, I guess, you know, to highlight Dale's point, if you know, city manager, if you could address that, or if you would like director Nabil Saba to address that, the difference in the three year commitment

in with the additional two I'm certainly councilmember this is for the doing the concept design and the design development and the contract documents oftentimes you still need access to the individuals that did the design concept throughout the construction phase so that's why you're seeing a rather LENGTHY CONTRACT PERIOD?

Jessie LopezItem 6

OKAY. SO THAT WAS REALLY IT. I KNOW IT'S A THREE-YEAR CONTRACT. THANK YOU FOR EXPLAINING THAT A LITTLE BIT FURTHER. ANOTHER THING THAT I WANT TO REPORT ON IS THAT I TALKED TO DIRECTOR SABIN. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE WILL HOPEFULLY SEE IS MAYBE A PUBLIC PRESENTATION FOR PARKS AND TRIGGLE NEIGHBORHOOD. SO WITH THAT, I'M I'm going to go ahead and move the item to approve.

Sorry about that. I was on mute. Thank you, council member Lopez for that motion. Is there a second? 17 seconds.

So moved. Second.

We have a second by council member Mendoza. Is there any further discussion or questions on this from the council?

Hearing none and seeing none, we'll go ahead and move forward with the roll call. Madam Clerk.

Council member Becerra. Council Member Hernandez? Council Member Lopez? Council Member Mendoza? Council Member Fan?

Mayor Potempeñalosa? Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. Thanks everybody. Moving along to the last item on the consent calendar, number 17, the template agreement for licensing of city-owned real property.

Jessie LopezItem 16

and i believe that's council member lopez as well it is thank you mayor um i just just want some clarification is the council gonna have the opportunity to essentially contribute to who is you know essentially getting to lease out the properties

no what's being recommended council member is the city council to approve a template license agreement therefore temporary licensing to use city-owned real property that the Public Works Department is holding for either other projects or eventual resale they're usually small lots and it's just a temporary license and it does generate revenue for the city so the idea is the recommendation is to have you approve this template of the agreement and then staff would be able to enter into those

Jessie LopezItem 16

Yeah, and I think it's really great that we want to lease the properties and collect profit. One of the things that I've always kind of heard is how does the city work with community organizations or coalition to help build out that, I guess that foundation where they too can have access to public land here in the city of Sanana. And so that's really the only concern that I have with this is I want to make sure that there's a process in place with established criteria that the council is aware of so so that so that folks don't have you know an opinion that it might

not be fair thank you councilmember I understand your concerns for this one it's not it's very short temporary licensing use agreements for example if we have an empty remnant parcel we might get contacted by a contractor that wants to use it for staging of construction equipment so pretty short term on that of course to the extent that we do have public lands that are going to be divested we have to follow surplus land acts we have to follow a number of other methods to do a sale where an individual would have an opportunity to express an interest or go through that process does that clarify

Jessie LopezItem 16

your question it does and I just wanted to make sure that but there was an establish process and place for that so thank you so i'll go ahead and move to approve we have a

motion by council member lopez i see mayor pro tem's hand up go ahead thank you mayor sarmiento

David PenalozaItem 16

i'll second the item um just so i could move on but just the comment i wanted to make is uh to the public works director and city manager as we move forward with this uh template to keep in mind the aesthetics of our neighborhoods. I can't I never get tired of harping on that. I know that currently on the north on the north east corner of Bristol and Warner there's a lot that's being used for staging for construction machinery and materials for the bike trail project just up the street which is great because it's temporary but you know that the you could see the machinery and the

David PenalozaItem 16

construction material sticking out over the top of the of the green mesh and there's single-family homes just surrounding the property across the street you could see it it's an eyesore if I was living in that on that street I wouldn't want to see that I drive by it it looks hideous I mean we already have a problem with trying to maintain the the beauty of our city and making you know making sure that it just looks nice and not dirty and and and full of trash everywhere and this just adds to that continued negative you know just visuals that we we see driving around so want to make sure that when we lease

David PenalozaItem 16

these small pieces of land for temporary storage you know we're being mindful of where they're at and how we could make it so that you can't see the construction machinery or material from you know driving driving by it so that's that's That's it, Mr. Mayor, thank you.

Thank you for those comments, Mayor Pro Tem. Any other comments from the council?

Seeing none and hearing none, is there a second on the council members' motion?

David PenalozaItem 16

I seconded, Mr. Mayor.

Oh, you did, okay. So just one final comment before we go to roll call. And this is maybe more for the city attorney. I see that the template agreement and it's got some pretty basic boilerplate terms and provisions. And just reflecting on this, I just want to make sure that it's flexible enough that again, to I think the maker of the motion's point,

maybe there is a group that wants to do a community garden and it's for a finite period of time, or maybe there's some other purpose that isn't to just stage equipment or to do something. And this harkens back to an actual lot on standard McFadden that was privately held. We entered, actually the city didn't enter, but that gentleman, that owner that knew that the land was going to be dormant, ended up working with the neighborhood church and the neighborhood association there. And they developed a park at no cost to the city. And it was a simple understanding that was based upon an agreement where the church

and the neighborhood carried the policy on it and maintained it but you know I can see a lot of that happening in the city where we know where we may know some either remnant parcels small parcels that aren't going to be developed anytime real soon and to the extent that they could be used temporarily at either as a pocket park a community garden or some other some other use that will benefit the city and the neighborhood is that is that uh do we have enough flexibility in this

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

template um agreement madam city attorney yeah yes that would and just also reminder to the extent that we are to ever do projects such as that that would require funding of course the funding would have to come to the council if it wasn't already in the budget so um the template does provide us the opportunity um to be creative and yet at the same time um council would be well aware of it if if it involved expenditure of funds.

If it came to, I'm just thinking, you know, look, we've got the new legislative ad hoc committee that's gonna be convening and meeting soon. If there's grant money out there for things like this, and I have heard that there is, look, we should apply and maybe that money could be used not only to benefit, I guess, use of that site, but also to benefit some of the community organizations. So with that understanding, I'll go ahead and support the item as well. Madam Clerk will you please call roll.

Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 16

Yes.

Council Member Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 16

Yes.

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Fan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa?

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes, thanks everybody. Moving along to the business calendar portion now, we're at item number 21,

I will turn it over to staff.

Thank you, Mayor. You are correct. This item was continued and the police department does have a brief presentation on the restroom replacement as there were several questions that were asked regarding this item at the last meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council and City Council. manager this item was in fact returned from the last council session I have commander Matt Sorenson on the line Daniel Salto if you can relinquish control of the screen to him he will go over that presentation give me one

One moment, I think he has access now.

Okay.

Okay, so now I have to figure out how to share my screen.

Daniel, can you put my presentation up?

I think Paul has it, and he'll go ahead and share that in one moment.

Thank you.

As this presentation is coming on, if I could just add some of the items that were called for were the need for the modular restrooms and essentially the extent of the usage of the Centennial Training Center, which in fact is extensive, involves various departments across the city. Additional detail was provided to the entire council prior to this evening.

Chief your presentation is up. Thank you. Commander Sorensen you are clear. Yes sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and the council. The presentation here is about 10 slides covering the background, our actual usage of the facility, the benefits we've seen from using the facility. And ultimately I also provided some outcomes as a result of the training we've conducted at the park.

Next slide, please.

So in terms of the background for the facility, It was deeded over to the city of Santa Ana in 1991, at which time the Santa Ana Fire Department took over operational control of the property and utilizing it as a fire training center. They developed roughly in 1995, and I'm basing this off of Google maps photos. They developed 1.2 acres of the property, which is the area that consists of two classroom bungalows and one restroom bungalow. We assumed that the police department, that is assumed operational control when the fire department was dissolved in 2013

and then parks and rack also maintains an office space on the north side of the developed area next slide please

this is an overview of the entire centennial park training facility you'll notice on the west side is the area allocated for the dog park. And then the area to the right on the east side is the developed area where you see the parks and rec building up on the north side, the two classrooms. And then in between is where the bungalow restroom is that we're looking to replace.

As far as facility usage, the next slide, please.

So the facility is reserved for all departments to use, but that's done through our Homeland Security Coordinator, who's Steve Reiner. It's reserved an average of 15 days per month with the police department using it, which includes the training division, our crime scene investigations division, Homeland Security and our Explorer program, along with other city departments being public works, the parks and rec, OCFA uses it fairly regularly for different fire training. Human Resources uses it for our PD officer testing, where we do our one day testing events. And then other county and state law enforcement agencies

use it as well when we host trainings for outside presenters or inside courses that we present to outside agencies.

Next slide, please.

So the benefits of the area for a training facility that's out of the way, it's secured, and we have secured parking there. It's an open area that provides our good space so we can conduct driver's training. We do actually behind the wheel driver's training. So does public works and so does OCFA. The police department uses the classrooms and the open area to conduct multiple scenario based training scenarios simultaneously. So basically we break our training students into groups and run them through multiple scenarios at the same time and then rotate between those instructional blocks.

Topics we present at the Centennial Park Training Facility is behind the wheel driver's training, interpersonal communications, critical incident and crisis intervention, arrest and control techniques, and tactical repositioning, which are all topics that are presented in support of our de-escalation strategy.

Next slide, please.

In 2018, the police department revamped our department ride training with an increased focus to reduce liability specifically regarding driver and use of force. The new new program reached full implementation in 2019. And just to give you some statistics versus 2019 versus 2020. In 2020, our officer involved collisions dropped 33%. Our at fault officer involved collisions dropped 44%. Use of force dropped 14%. In injuries to officers as a result of use of force dropped 26% and injuries to communities,

community members as a result of use of force dropped 22%. Next slide, please.

We have made some improvements to the facility. Like I said, the buildings were put in in 1995. So weather is taking its toll. The training division specifically has improved the classrooms with updated chairs and tables. We've done some painting over there and replaced some weathering siding. The roof and the floor was repaired in the restroom, but at this point it's reached the point of negative return on investment for replacement and it's operational, but it's presenting a safety concern due to the flooring being soft and the ADA ramp accessible being degraded.

Next slide, please.

It's my understanding that during the initial talk about the, our question about the facility, there was some question about where public restrooms were located within Centennial Park in relation to the Centennial Park training facility. The last slide, the next slide.

So these are just some photographs of the current restroom. You can see it's in a little bit of disrepair. The sightings been so weathered age that it's falling off in some places.

In the final slide please.

I took a drive around Centennial Park because I wasn't completely certain where the public restrooms were, but the Centennial Park training facility is located at the bottom. It's just outside the view, but all of the arrows point to public restrooms that are within that general area.

That's the end of the presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you need.

Thank you, Commander. Thank you, Chief. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the members of the Council, unless there's anything else. Anything else further, Chief? Or is that the presentation? That'll do it. Great. Thanks. Let me go ahead and bring it back. And does anybody have any questions or comments from the Council?

Mayor Pro Temp, go ahead.

David PenalozaItem 16

Thank you Mayor Sarmiento and thank you Chief Valentin and Commander Sorensen for that presentation and for your efforts really to keep our police department you know being actively trained throughout their employment here in the city and other agencies as well. This item from the last uh council meeting was continued at my request and i it's clear that those restrooms do need to get replaced i mean they've lived their their life expectancy and and are no longer uh

David PenalozaItem 16

you know safe to use i toured the the entire site about a month or two ago with um with city staff and went throughout that whole area even opened some of the shipping containers on there that looked like they haven't been opened in years prior them open but saw that those restrooms do need to get replaced however I think the question here comes from the the staff report that's attached to this this item and on page two it says the police department training division plans to conduct future improvements to the training facility and leasing the

David PenalozaItem 16

mobile structure offers flexibility and future improvement design and layout the restrooms are modular and can be relocated if needed so I think the question here is is I don't want to put the cart before the horse and I I know that that we've learned from the past where we make decisions and then six months down the line we see the budget before us and we see increases and we're sitting here scratching our heads like why is there an increase and I don't want this to be a precursor to say

David PenalozaItem 16

well you you approved the restrooms for a hundred and some thousand dollars and now we have a complete redevelopment of that one portion of the to you know improve the training facility but at what cost so I think that's where the where my hesitation is to to approve these restaurants because of that line in the staff report that says that there's plans to to improve the training facility in the future I guess I would want to know when are

David PenalozaItem 16

these improvements coming before us how much are they going to cost what what type of improvements are we looking at here I think that that's one of the questions that I had in in and kind of my hesitation for this because I don't want to green light this and then again six months a year down the line you know we have this expensive improvement of this training facility, and then said, well, you approved the restrooms, so we assumed you'd be okay with investing this money into the facilities and the ground there,

David PenalozaItem 16

which was one of the comments that I had or concerns. Another question, and this, I don't know if Chief Valentin wants to answer this,

David PenalozaItem 16

or the Director of Public Works or Parks and Rec, I think any one of them could or maybe the city manager. The I know there's there's a couple parcels of land back there. There's the there's that corner dirt lot. Then there's a police training facility to the west. And then to I mean to the east and then to the east of that, there's another portion of

David PenalozaItem 16

a cement area that's kind of barricaded. I from what I recall it's being used by waste management is is that what please correct me if I'm mistaken madam city manager do you know what that lot is is

being used for I'm sorry sir I don't know which lot you're referring to does

David PenalozaItem 16

maybe chief valentine or or director Rudloff could answer there's maybe

David PenalozaItem 16

So I guess it's not visible in that, but it's to the east of where it says modular restroom.

David PenalozaItem 16

Or that yellow. There's another area there that's, that's, um,

that's, uh, that's, uh, that's, uh, that's, uh, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the,

David PenalozaItem 16

that's being being that's not I'm not sure what it's used for I'm not sure if it's also used for for training or what that area is used for chief Valentin do you know yeah so I think what you're

referring to is there's there's another I believe parking area which is part of the broader centennial park what you see here is you know to the to the west is the is the designated dock park the existing centennial training center and then there is some parking I believe to the to the east of the centennial training center in fact some of that parking was used if I recall correctly

for the 150th city's celebration in the in the large green grass open area so that's what I with i think you're referring so it's not part of the immediate enclosed centennial uh training

David PenalozaItem 16

center that was for this purpose thank you for that chief i guess directly south to that parking lot there's another portion of land and it's city owned and it's enclosed uh with gates and that's the the and and i don't know if anyone has i mean if you have google maps in front of you maybe you could look up look it up but um i guess that's besides the point because it's not related to this but I was trying to get a general idea of the entire land area. So can you answer to the previous comments that I had? I mean what what kind of plans do we do we have for improvements? What costs? What timeline?

David PenalozaItem 16

Are we gonna see that at this time soon? Yes I can. Thank you for those questions

and so you know I first want to acknowledge Commander Sorensen's uh uh detailed comprehensive presentation which uh clearly delineates um the usage regular usage uh you know 15 days per month on average every month by by various departments uh so the any future um development or improvement would be wear and tear of existing

structures there. No additional structures. The restrooms in this case are 15 years old. Wear and tear as you have seen them yourself. They need to be replaced. We deploy people from the various departments in the city to that site to train in an outside environment after receiving in-class instruction. In addition to that, we train regional human resources from across the county on the tactical emergency casualty care and so that's what occurs there so

there's no plans to expand that current training facility the classrooms I will tell you are old just like in the school district when you bring in a bungalow asset it goes through wear tear through many years. And so is there is there a need to address, you know, some asset in the future? Likely, like any other asset that we have City Hall, Parks and Rec facilities, the zoo, etc.

David PenalozaItem 16

I hope that answered your question. Yeah, thank you, Chief. So as of right now, you don't have any, any, I guess, designs or conceptual plans of what those improvements would look like? No, sir. Okay. Thank you for that. And one final question, and I'll see if my colleagues want to chime in or have any other questions. But from that, and I appreciate the list you've provided of all the different agencies that use that facility to train. I mean, that's, like I said, that's great. I'm all for consistent training as times change and as procedures change. So I appreciate that.

David PenalozaItem 16

Do we collect any fees from those other agencies using this piece for training? I mean, I noticed that there was, you know, very numerous police departments throughout the county, the region. Or do we charge them for using this facility?

So the regional training that occurs is principally the tactical emergency casualty care that is sponsored through the WASI grant so that that covers those costs. We do not charge our internal departments fees, fire department, public works, city human resources etc. We don't charge them any fees um so that's that's uh that's where we're at with that okay so that that makes sense for our

David PenalozaItem 16

internal departments but my question was more towards the the other regional agencies which makes sense with the wassee grants what that would cover um i guess that's that's it for now uh chief those are my those are my questions thank you thank you for the commander sorenson for the for the um presentation thank you

Thank you Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Thank you Mayor Sarmiento. Thank you Chief and thank you Commander for that presentation. And Chief, I definitely understand your perspective. You know, I saw the picture and the bungalow looks pretty run down. I guess the question that I have for you is, do you know if the Parks and Rec building that is there within the proximity has a restroom inside?

It does. It does have a restroom. It is adequate for the personnel that are currently assigned from Parks and Rec. So when we bring in a training class, for example, you know, we're upwards of, you know, 25, 30 students. And so to expect them to all use the restroom facilities that are ARE LOCATED WITHIN THE STRUCTURE THAT PARKS AND REC HAS ACCESS TO IS CERTAINLY A BIT MUCH. SO WE'RE SIMPLY RESPONDING TO THE NEED OF THE LEVEL OF TRAINING THAT WE'RE PROVIDING TO THE

VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS HERE IN REPLACING THESE FACILITIES.

Jessie LopezItem 16

YEAH, AND THANK YOU FOR THAT. I guess I was just a little confused as to why Parks and Rec staff had one set of bathrooms and other folks had another set of bathrooms when we could share the restrooms and essentially use $126,000 to clean up Centennial Park. I was there. I toured it. And I do think that allocation of money could be used towards other things, especially given that there are restrooms on site already. So that's just gonna be my comment and go ahead.

If I could just add, so the other piece of this is to provide for a safe training environment. Example, when we're bringing in officers to train in hostage negotiations, tactical response incidents, they are wearing certain equipment, they need to remove that equipment. And so I think part of the previous conversation was, why don't we have folks, you know, share bathrooms, public bathrooms, et cetera. First of all, there are several public bathroom sites. And so we need adequate, once again, adequate facilities for people that spend upwards of eight to 10 hours at a training location.

And so we're simply providing them the necessary support and restaurant facilities that we would provide, you know, reasonably anyone else.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Thank you, council member.

Any other members wish to ask any questions or make any comments on this item?

For whatever reason, I can only see a few images. I don't have a full view of the council. I can't access my gallery, but anybody else, I'll go ahead and if you just shout it out, I'll go ahead and hear you.

I have a question, Mayor Sarmiento.

Go ahead, Council Member.

As Council Member Peñalosa pointed out, that facility is very old and it's a hazard. I mean, we do need to upgrade it because it's a liability and we do need to have that kind of public service near the training facility. And so I recommend we go forward with this issue because eventually it's gonna need it and it probably will be even more expensive. So at this time, it would be appropriate

to upgrade these facilities in my opinion.

Is that a motion council member?

David PenalozaItem 16

that is a motion to approve mayor sarmiento i'll second uh the motion with the with the caveat that when i i noticed that that the the the chief mentioned that it's about 15 days average approximately a month that these restrooms are are being used by or or the training facilities being used for various types of training i would ask that on those days when when that train when they're not being used for training that we as eventually as if if we move forward with that dog

David PenalozaItem 16

park in that area i know that when i take my dog to the the dog parks in other cities you know it's

David PenalozaItem 16

I want to keep an eye on him because, you know, it's a dog and it gets crazy with other dogs at dog parks. And I don't want to go far from if I need to go to the restroom, if that is a possibility, to make those restrooms available to that section of the park if and when it's not being used for training purposes. Is that something that could be done, Chief?

So we would have to staff that.

And I don't know how defensible that would be to pay a staff member to open and close those facilities during the actual days that they're not being used for training. THE OTHER PIECE WOULD BE A SAFETY SWEEP THERE AFTER BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW WHAT SOMEONE MAY LEAVE BEHIND IN THE RESTROOMS. AGAIN, IT'S INTENDED TO BE A SAFE TRAINING SITE AND WHETHER IT'S FIRE OR POLICE OR PUBLIC WORKS WITH EQUIPMENT, YOU KNOW, THERE'S A QUALITY CONTROL PIECE

as well and a safety piece an elevated safety piece and so you know if that's the desire of the of the council then it would require to pay staff to open close and man and you know staff step up those hours and days that you're requesting

mayor pretend may I suggest that when we get to the design phase of the dog part we can certainly evaluate that at that time if there's any feasible way to do a joint use of those restroom facilities there is on the one slide that was presented that showed where other public restrooms are there is one in pretty close proximity but we certainly can

David PenalozaItem 16

evaluate that when we're doing the concept thank you for that madam city manager i think the the restroom that's closest is inside the the soccer field area so people would have to walk down and into the soccer field so we could probably build a gate but I that's it for now I guess yes I'll

second Councilmember Mendoza's motion as is thank you for those for that answer Chief Allende

yes sir thank you Mayor Pro Tem and I don't think there's any other questions or comments from the Council the only comment I'll make is I'll be supporting the motion as well I think the Mayor and I think the Chief Pro Tem brought up some excellent points at the last meeting and at this one, as did Council Member Lopez. But I think for me, I've always been supportive of additional training as the Chief knows, to the extent that we can train our officers and de-escalation efforts in better support and creating an environment where those practices that we talk about making our community safer

and making our officers safer to the extent that this is another step in doing that as presented in the in the presentation from the commander I think that to me is you know is important I think expenses sometimes we you know we are very you know we we have a lot of scrutiny on certain things that we expend on but to the extent that we can have better trained officers that's always is an expense that is worth taking and making. So with that, Madam Clerk, will you please call roll?

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Yes.

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Fan?

Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa?

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. Thanks everybody. Moving along to item number 22, which is the ordinance prohibiting spectators at illegal speed contests and reckless driving exhibitions. Is that you chief as well?

Yes, it is. Again, thank you, mayor, city council, city manager. And so this item was agendized last month and is being brought back. And so we have some additional information, A BRIEF PRESENTATION. MY TRAFFIC COMMANDER IS ON THE LINE, COMMANDER CHUCK ELMS, AND HE IS READY TO GO. DANIEL SOLTO OR DAISY, IF YOU CAN PROVIDE HIM ACCESS, PLEASE.

ALL RIGHT. GOOD EVENING, MR. MAYOR, MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL, MADAM CITY MANAGER. I'M HERE TO PRESENT ON A PROPOSED ORDINANCE prohibiting spectators of street races or reckless driving exhibitions.

As you may recall, last year in July, we had two back-to-back fatalities of our community members due to street racing. At the same time, we noticed a significant increase in street racing and intersection takeovers that we're having almost a nightly drain on our resources. Next slide, please.

The traffic division in partnership with public works created STEER, strategic traffic enforcement against racing and wrecked driving. This three-pronged approach addressed the issue through enforcement, engineering, and education. One of the components of STEERD, and next slide please.

One of the components of STEERD, the enforcement component, we wanted to create a countywide law enforcement partnership. We knew we weren't the only agency having issues with street racers and intersection takeovers. We knew other agencies were having similar issues. We developed a partnership and as a result, we conducted 124 operations that has resulted in over 2,300 citations, 261 impounds of vehicles used for street races and reckless driving,

206 racing or reckless driving arrests or citations, and 82 miscellaneous arrests. And through the relentless enforcement involving all these agencies working together, calls for service in Santa Ana and street racing intersection takeovers has significantly dropped and not just in Santa Ana, but in all of the jurisdictions that participate in SCEIRD. Next slide, please.

So one of the goals of SCEIRD was to work with the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would hold spectators accountable for their involvement in street racing and intersection stakeholders. We drafted an ordinance similar to other law enforcement agencies in the region. Currently, law enforcement officers don't have the ability to hold spectators accountable for engaging, promoting, aiding and vetting in street races and reckless driving exhibitions. Spectators typically assist in the preparation FOR THESE STREET RACES OR INTERSECTION TAKEOVERS. THEY REPORT AND POST VIDEOS IN SOCIAL MEDIA,

WHICH FURTHER ENCOURAGES AND PROMOTES THE ILLEGAL ACTIVITY. THEY LINE PUBLIC STREETS AND INTERSECTIONS. THEY IMPEED THE FREE USE OF PUBLIC STREETS AND SIDEWALKS THROUGH THEIR ACTIONS, THEIR WORDS AND PHYSICAL BARRIERS. THIS OBVIOUSLY IS A NUISANCE TO OUR COMMUNITY, BUT IT'S ALSO A PUBLIC SAFETY CONCERN, ESPECIALLY FOR OUR OFFICERS THAT ARE OUT THERE ENFORCING THESE PRINES. Next slide please.

So a few things I want to point out about the ordinance. Officers are allowed to issue misdemeanor citations to any person who is knowingly present. And that's an important part of the ordinance. They have to be knowingly present as spectators of off street race or reckless driving exhibitions on a public street, highway, or off street parking facility. The other component that's important is the definition of present. A present is a person who is within 200 feet of the location of a motor vehicle speed contest or record striking and submission, or within 200 feet of where the preparations for the activity take place.

And the officers will need both of these to conduct enforcement, not one or the other.

Next slide, please.

The spectator is any individual who is present, and we already talked about what present means, at these events for the purpose of viewing, observing, watching, recording, or witnessing the event as it progresses. And spectator includes any individual at the location of the event without regard to whether the individual arrives at the event by driving a vehicle, whether they were a passenger in a vehicle, walking, or arriving by some other means.

Next slide. So like most of our municipal codes, a violation is punishable as a misdemeanor, subject to a maximum of six months in jail or a fine of a thousand dollars. And also per our municipal code, officers have the discretion to issue an administrative citation, a misdemeanor citation, or they can issue the citation as an infraction. And I understand some of the concerns that come along with this ordinance.

Having this ordinance in place will provide balance to our enforcement. Typically when there's two or 300 people at one of these events, we can target maybe two or three drivers and the other several hundred people leave.

If we are, if we have a tool in place to address all of these spectators that are there as well, we can provide a more balanced approach to our enforcement. I know there's concerns occurring from the community that we are just going to indiscriminately grab people off the sidewalk and issue them citations. And that's not the intent that would be ineffective for our efforts towards enforcement. We will also bog down the city attorney's office with cases that don't meet the elements. Just like any crime from a petty theft to a homicide, the officer will have to conduct an investigation

and ensure that the elements of the crime are met before they issue a citation. This would be just one additional tool for our ongoing efforts to get street racing and out of Santa Ana and out of the town. And with that, I'll answer any questions in my head.

Thank you, Commander, and thank you, Chief. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the council if somebody will minimize that screen. Let me go ahead and bring it back to everybody. I see council member fans up, so I'll start with her.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

Thank you, Mayor. And I'm not sure if this is a question for the chief or maybe the city attorney's office.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

But, well, first, I fully understand the need for something to deal with the street racing. I live right off Segerstrom and Fairview. And we would hear street racing off Segerstrom and Greenville all the time at all hours of the day. So I know that's an issue and I know it's dangerous. I am really concerned, however, with the definition of spectator as it deals with this type of event because, and again, this might be for the city attorney's office. I'm worried that using, you know, saying for the purpose of viewing, observing, watching, recording, or witnessing,

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

you know, what if it's a news crew or a reporter or student doing a school project? I mean, in my mind, it feels like it could potentially be a First Amendment concern in that space. So if city attorney can answer that or alleviate my concern, that would be very helpful.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

Yes, council member. I understand that and I must share with the council that upon my first review of this proposed ordinance for the police department, I had similar concerns because I'm very sensitive to the council's perspectives. And I do vividly recall a council's reactions when we brought forth the bicycle ordinance as an example. and one of the things that that we that you need to understand is that you there's the as written ordinance and there is the as applied ordinance. I think that we've done the best we can with respect to someone being knowingly

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

present and we included that standard to give us a standard to review. In terms of a spectator, if a citation is issued to someone before we actually file it with the court, these citations are reviewed by our office. So I think that concerns about whether a truly innocent, you know, news person, for example, or maybe a person who's just walked to the grocery store and is at that intersection, whether they would get caught up in this net, I believe that we as the prosecutor in the city would not file charges against anyone unless we felt that the standards of this ordinance were met. There's going to be a high

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

standard here being knowingly present is already going to be a high standard for us to achieve and so we're gonna have to look at certain facts so I just I understand the concern about an innocent person just being and walking through but I don't think that that's that's gonna pass our office and make its way to the courthouse to be prosecuted and you're okay if you read in the ordinance there is another section in the ordinance that talks about and notwithstanding any of the other provisions that we will be looking for additional types of evidence

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

you don't often see that this is in section 36-709 and one of the things that was really important to us was having in these other factors that would indicate that a person was participating in the street racing activities as a spectator

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

Okay I mean that that definitely is helpful to me and maybe it's my you know journalism and news reporting has been obviously attacked for many years now particularly in the last four and so for something like this it is interesting to see it reported on and important for people to know about and I just want to make sure that those who are exercising the First Amendment right TO REPORT AND TALK ABOUT THESE ISSUES OR NOT. I DON'T THINK THAT THEY ARE THERE FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROMOTING OR ENGAGING IN THIS TYPE OF ACTIVITY. THE OTHER QUESTION IS REGARDING THE CITATIONS. I UNDERSTAND THAT DURING THE PRESENTATION WE

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

MENTIONED YOU CAN BE ADMINISTRATIVE, MISDEMEANOR OR I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THE LAST ONE WAS. BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE AN AMENDMENT TO THIS THAT WE DO REQUIRE SOMETHING LIKE A AN ADMINISTRATIVE CITATION FIRST OR WARNING. I UNDERSTAND THE DESIRE TO HAVE SOMETHING THAT HAS A LOT OF TEETH TO IT. BUT I, YOU KNOW, AGAIN, I WONDER, BECAUSE THE GOAL IS TO DETER THIS ACTIVITY OR AT LEAST THAT'S MY, IN MY MIND, TO DETER THIS DANGEROUS ACTIVITY, NOT NECESSARILY TO CITE PEOPLE OR PUT, YOU KNOW, GIVE THEM A MISDEMEANOR RECORD OR CHARGE THEM FINES. WE WANT

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

PREVENT A DANGEROUS ACTIVITY FROM HAPPENING AND IF A WRITTEN CITATION WHICH WE WOULD HAVE ON RECORD IT WOULD HELP US DO THAT AND THEN BUILD A BASE FOR IF WE SEE THE PERSON THE NEXT TIME IT WOULD BE VERY HARD FOR THEM TO CLAIM I WAS JUST PASSING BY GIVEN THAT WE HAVE A HISTORY OF YOU BEING CITED FOR THIS OR AT LEAST BEING WARNED SO I WOULD LIKE TO SEE SOMETHING LIKE THAT BE PUT IN PLACE prior to some type of criminal misdemeanor citation as a matter of course not necessarily as a part of the discretion of the officer who's on the scene. Those are my comments for now. Thank you. Thank you council member. Council

member Becerra and then council member Hernandez. Thank you Mr. Mayor. You know I

Phil BacerraItem 16

want to first of all thank Santa Ana PD for the the amount of enforcement that has come towards the street racing activities here in Santa Ana especially you know where I think what I really saw our PD react was you know and unfortunately it took something tragic like the death of the former OC register editor Eugene Harbrick back in July of 2020 and it was just awful the tragic incident that didn't need to happen up on North Bristol and so I just want to thank our PD for reacting and for coordinating with the regional partners here in Orange County to pursue the enforcement to make sure that we try to

Phil BacerraItem 16

keep our streets safe and you know I brought this item up back well not the item that we're talking about here but the item of street racing enforcement back you know with a kind of a more nuanced approach with Public Works and PD being involved but one question I have you know because again PD has done fantastic job and for PD to bring this to us I want to ask is what's being proposed tonight is this something that other cities have used in their toolbox? Maybe Chief if you could answer that.

Yes thank you for the question. So currently the communities of Anaheim, Ontario, San Diego, San Marcos, Irwindale, San Jose, and Santa Clara have this type of spectator ordinance on the books. And again, as you mentioned, and then the commander in his detailed presentation, this is a tool. This is one tool amongst a whole host of approaches that we have. The first being the verbal communication and educating folks not to engage in this activity, right?

So there are, as the commander said, there are various elements that have to be met in order to apply this proposed municipal code section. No manly, as the city attorney said, is a very high standard. And generally what happens is there's a lot of intelligence that goes along with this activity. And so folks, this is not a situation where people are coming outside of their front door and they happen to come across upon a street racing exhibition event. These are planned events.

They're structured in terms of communication to show up at a certain location and certain people have certain roles. This is what the intelligence tells us. And so this is once again a tool for you as a council to consider to enable officers to have that, you know, at their disposal. And again, the threshold is very high to apply the section. So yes, it is currently being used in a variety of different jurisdictions.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Thank you for that, Chief. And Mayor, that's my only questions at this time.

Great. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you Chief Valentin for the good work that you do and I just wanted to to share some concerns that I have first things first we absolutely need to crack down on these street takeovers these are not car enthusiasts these events are dangerous and that's the last thing that our community needs is to put our residents in danger I want us to be responsive to this issue but also I don't want us to create a larger social and economic factor of concern for residents that whether

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

they're making a horrible decision by being a bystander and watching this i have to look back to you know living in this community my whole life i i grew up on civic center and rate i've seen tons of horrible things that i did not want to see but as soon as we heard something happen outside myself, my neighbors, my grandmother, my mom, we all would run outside and we would watch what would happen. And it would not sit well with me to see a cul-de-sac, have a street takeover, you know, unwillingly and residents, you know, come out of their houses or come out of their

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

business establishments and be fined. I wouldn't want to see that happen. That's my concern. I know that there are you know police officers are human beings at the end of the day and human beings make mistakes and I can assure you that we will have instances where the wrong people receive citations and I wouldn't want to see us have a greater impact negatively on their health because people with the rest who have greater health needs and you know six months of jail time is a pretty that's a pretty significant amount of time and we you that you can

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

effectively break apart a household with six months of incarceration. You can have a child go from having a single mother or a single father to living with grandparents or maybe the foster system. And I wouldn't want to put families in a position like that. I want us to have a solution for street takeovers. I'm just concerned, Chief, that this one isn't as comprehensive as I hope it would be. I would be on the side of impounding vehicles, absolutely. I'm just concerned that we would potentially find the wrong people, people that maybe just heard commotion and stepped outside.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

And even folks that, you know, mistakenly go out to these things, they're putting themselves at risk. I think there's just a different way for us to redirect them rather than potentially incarcerating them or putting them in a position where they have to pay a $1,000 fine. So that's just my comments, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, council member Hernandez. I think I see council member Mendoza's hand up.

Yes.

One of the main reasons of this street racing and one of the biggest attractions to the street racers are spectators. So it is putting these spectators at a in danger and risk of being hurt or killed so I believe that by issuing citations to those who violate the law is appropriate because it could be saving their lives and eventually it will

decrease the number of spectators thus there will be less of these car race car racers so it is better that we I mean the public is going to know that if they're out there specifically to watch the cars race that they put themselves at risk and that they may be issued a citation. I don't think they're going to be arrested. I think it's and it's probably going

to be a warning first and if the persons the people do not leave the area then citations will probably be issued and so it's uh it's uh um the police department has sworn they have they made an oath to protect the public and so in issuing citations that is exactly what they were going to they are going to be doing and i am in favor of keeping our residents safe and there is a there's a place for car racing and if the people are interested in such sport or activity

dangerous activity then go out to the racetrack because our streets are not to be used for racing it puts everybody in danger um the businesses uh um on the streets i mean um you've seen um and heard of and probably witnessed the destruction of property when the cars roll into businesses. And so I think we're putting out a very clear message that spectators who do not remove themselves

once more, that a citation is the next thing. And I didn't hear anything about any arrests. So I don't think that that will occur unless the person doesn't show up for his or her court hearing. So as a parent, I would not want my children out there, my adult children either. And if they were issued a citation for that reason, I would be very glad that that occurred.

Maybe it'll teach them a lesson and to be more cognizant of the realities of what could happen when high-speed cars are near the public. So I'm supportive of this motion. and if everyone's done with their comments, I will move the item.

Thank you, council member. We do have a couple of other people that still want to speak on this, but we'll keep your motion at bay for the moment. Council member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. Hi, Chief. You know, first I want to just say thank you to you and to the rest of the officers in our city who are using what we have in the books now. to enforce street racing. I think it's 100% obnoxious and unnecessary and reckless. And I think everybody in the council can agree with that. I think Council Member Hernandez, his common really took me back to my childhood, growing up in the , as we call them and running outside when something was happening. And even now I know a lot of my neighbors,

Jessie LopezItem 16

you know, they want to start their own like neighborhood watch program and they walk the streets at night or they'll walk their dog at night. And so keeping all of those things in mind, I have a couple of questions for you. And the first one being, can you share with us what the hotspots in the city are for drag racing?

So I would say that they are generally industrial areas, many major thoroughfares, for example, Maine and Ettinger, down on the south end, MacArthur, Bristol, Maine. There's a off of Majestic Columbine. There's various areas. We get complaints from business owners, from residents. They don't even have to see the actual events. They hear them as you pointed out. So they span across the city,

the takeovers that occur, as I said, there's this underground net and they go from community to community. Being the regional leader in responding to this issue, We know that what starts in El Monte, for example, very much could end up at, you know, 2000 North, North Bristol in our community. So there's no rhyme or reason. They do tend to concentrate on areas where there's less activity in terms of residential. So you're generally, again, could it happen? Sure.

But you're not going to see a street racing takeover at, you know, in the residential 400 East Pine. It just, we just don't see that based on our experience. And I can certainly, I have the commander still on the line. He can speak to it, but that's, I read all of the incidents. You all receive all of the activity that occurs, you know, seven days a week. And that's generally the experience.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Yeah, and I believe you. I was recently at a forum where they were talking about in Orange County, the main arrests are coming from Riverside County and from South County. You know, they're both to the point that you're speaking of. But, you know, I asked about the hot spots because for me, I'm very much about using the resources that we have. And so, you know, when we gather intelligence, I wanted to know if we're, if we know of these hot spots, if we know of where people are drag racing or creating these events, are we targeting those areas? Because for me, it's very important

Jessie LopezItem 16

that we go after the people that are behind the vehicle. I want to make sure that we target people who are actually doing this reckless driving. I want to make sure that as a taxpayer, where all of our efforts are being directed to the people behind the wheel, as I said, because that to me is how we're gonna address this issue and really reduce the street racing that we're seeing. And I think with COVID, Chief, people being bored, being out of a job, and just the street being empty was a really big incentive for folks. I think Council Member Mendoza makes a great point.

Jessie LopezItem 16

WE REALLY NEED TO DETOUR PEOPLE TO ANY TRACK RACE THAT IS AVAILABLE. AND I THINK ONE OF THOSE CLOSE, AND SO I THINK THAT'S ALSO A CONTRIBUTOR AS TO WHY WE'RE SEEING SEED RACING BE MORE PROMINENT IN ORANGE COUNTY NOW. BUT FOR ME, I DO WANT TO SEE OUR RESOURCES BE USED TO TARGET PEOPLE BEHIND THE WHEEL.

SO A GREAT QUESTION, COUNSELOR MITTALOMPERS. I APPRECIATE THE QUESTION. And yes, like a lot of what we do, we want to focus on data-driven responses. So I have investigators that work the intelligence side of this. They provide that to our traffic investigators and then our field officers. So we're not randomly driving around, right? We're looking at what is available on, and I don't want to get into too much detail, obviously, because it's a tactic that we use.

And so we're not driving around and the first person who comes out of their front porch, okay, you're clearly engaged in this illegal activity. That is not our response. And actually, Commander Elms is on the line still. if he can further elaborate on this point, because it's an important one. Chuck, are you still on the line? Yes, sir. Please go ahead. So with regards to targeting the vehicles, you're absolutely right, council member, and this is what we have been doing. We do target the drivers

that are doing these intersection takeovers. I just want to be clear, the chief had mentioned earlier that everyone plays a role, and he's absolutely correct. So a lot of these spectators are also drivers. They also have these cars that go into the intersections.

But at any given location they arrive at, they're going to either drive or be a spectator. The problem is we can only target maybe two, sometimes one, two, three, if we're lucky, vehicles. Because our officers have to navigate through three or 400 spectators. And the spectators, they're not just there watching, they also play a role. They're blockers. They block the police. They block police cars. They vandalize police cars. That's their job. That gives the drivers a chance to get away. So that's why I mentioned the balance approach.

We need to be able to not only target these drivers, which we have been doing, but also the spectators. If we start targeting the spectators, they will stop coming to Santa Ana. That's what we want. These drivers come because they have an audience. And so as long as the spectators are here, the drivers are going to come. Great point. If Santa Ana and AXIS is municipal code, then they're not going to come here. They're going to find another place to go do this. Was there another part to that question, Chief? No, that's good. I appreciate that. Thank you.

anything else council member lopez no no no thank you chief and commander thank you uh mayor pro

David PenalozaItem 16

10. thank you mayor sarmiento and thank you uh chief valentine for bringing this ordinance forward i know this is a a severe problem that we've had in our city for a while now and it just keeps getting worse and worse i want to thank you and your staff for the street racing enforcement events that you've had and carried out over the last year with allied agencies. I know that, you know, per the stats you provided earlier, I mean, the fact that you've, you know, carried out and done over 2,300 citations and over close to 300 arrests for DUIs

David PenalozaItem 16

and reckless driving and just in 124 enforcement programs that you've done with your police department. I applaud you for that. This is definitely something that I hear from residents daily about the safety and concern that they're feeling in throughout the city. It's something that we got to get a hold of. I know that about a year ago I went on a ride along with one of our officers and there was a call through the radio about a street takeover in an industrial part

David PenalozaItem 16

of the city. I believe it was off of Birch and Central kind of where the old Sears outlet is. It's just south of Warner and we were by the area and we drove in and as soon as we pulled in they all, you know, we saw the cars doing donuts and pulling out and hundreds, I mean hundreds of people surrounding the cul-de-sac, cheering, plotting, applauding, and recording on their phones. And as soon as they saw the police vehicle pull up, they all, you know, surprisingly, you know, not surprisingly, scattered. And I noticed that a lot of them had balloons with them.

David PenalozaItem 16

And I remember telling the officer, you know, how childish. Why would they be partying out here with balloons? And he's like, well, that's Nas. They're using it to get high. And at the same time, you know, participating in this behavior, challenging each other to jump in the middle as the cars spin around them. We've all seen the videos on Instagram and TikTok. And I'm sure a lot of these spectators do it to increase their views. And they're, you know, it's do it for the gram. that's what they're out there doing and it's a problem because it's a huge safety concern for

David PenalozaItem 16

our city so we we we end up following one vehicle that we zeroed in on and yeah there were there were four 20-some year olds inside of the car they all had you know threw balloons out the window we saw some threw beer cans out the window and they were they were not out there you know just being good members of society. They were out there drinking, driving, doing drugs and participating in this. We've all seen the videos of fights, deaths happening and it happens all the time and I know I've heard from hundreds of residents throughout the city that this needs to stop and I think this ordinance does

David PenalozaItem 16

serve as a deterrent. I definitely think that there should be a fine to anybody willingly participating and spectating into these events because just a simple warning is not going to be a deterrent because like I said there's hundreds of them usually at these intersections surrounding the cards doing donuts and for one to get a second you know citation or warning that would probably be near impossible so if there's a fine to it I think that definitely would be a deterrent. I do appreciate the comments that came in about working with public works to

David PenalozaItem 16

limit the size of our streets, street diets, protected bike lanes, roundabouts at intersections that could prevent this type of activity. That's 100% what we should do. We should work with engineering and public works to not make our streets a, you know, a desirable location for these street takeovers and street racing. The reason why they come and do that is because our streets are wide, our streets are empty, there's wide intersections, and that's, you know, an area that we have a lot of work to do. I know Public Works has worked extensively over the last

David PenalozaItem 16

couple of years to narrow our streets, protected bike lanes, speed bumps, street roundabouts, and those are all helpful. But, you know, the city is 27 square miles. I know that I'm not going to expect to see all these different changes come in overnight. Like I know the city manager doesn't like me repeating this but Bristol Street has been under construction since I was a baby. So that you know tells me these changes aren't going to happen overnight. So in the meantime we do need a deterrent and I think this is the right direction. You know if you're not out there

David PenalozaItem 16

you know spectating you know watching these and you won't get in trouble I mean it's as simple as that so with that said Chief Valentina if you're still on the line would was what was the reason why we came up with the 200 foot because 200 feet is pretty you know a large distance to me you know if you're thinking of an intersection or whatnot is there a reason why we came up with the at 200 feet?

So I'm going to refer to my resident expert, Commander Elms, are you still on? Yes, sir. So when we were creating the ordinance, we looked at what other cities that already had an ordinance in place, what their sections looked like. And 200 feet was pretty consistent across the board.

And it all plays into the size of, you know, intersections the different sizes of intersections and and how they you know they're always going to be within 200 feet of where the activity is happening and that was pretty consistent across

David PenalozaItem 16

the board with all the audiences we looked at thank you for that commander elms um i'll i'll finish with with the the comment you know if you think of you know people having illegal illegal rooster fighting. You know, when there's crowds there at illegal rooster fighting in backyards, I want everyone there accountable because they're there supporting the illegal activity. You think of somebody, you know, fighting pit bulls. That unfortunately exists, and, you know, when they're doing this in the backyard, I want people there watching to be held accountable because that's

David PenalozaItem 16

illegal and you shouldn't be doing that. The people doing these street takeovers and drag racing, they're not doing it just for themselves to entertain themselves and it's them by themselves it's to because there's hundreds of people that come to to be entertained they like that that high that feeling of entertaining these people and being cheered on and getting these views on social media and you know it's definitely very upsetting because they're putting lives in danger and you know they're doing it because there's there's there's people to entertain and they have an

David PenalozaItem 16

audience if that audience wasn't there i don't think they'd be out there doing it so with that said um i'll second council member mendoza's motion um and that's it mr mayor great thank you

for that we have a motion in a second i think everybody has has had a chance to speak so i'll go ahead and take my turn now um boy this is you know this is one of those simple things that come across our desk every once in a while so um let me take a crack at this so i understand the intent and I appreciate the chief and the commander's points and even the city attorney's efforts, but you know, cause we know nobody here likes these, these street takeovers or reckless behavior in a vehicle or outside of you. So I can, I understand the, you know, the efforts made to try to create some wobbler situations

where these things can be issued as infractions or misdemeanors. But, you know, I just have an issue with this being, this language being kind of arbitrary, you know, on the 200 feet, even though other cities use that. And one example is, you know, you're right, a lot of these street takeovers and street racing occurs on major arterials. I happen to live on one. And I think I told the chief about it, you know, some cars doing donuts right in front of my house. I didn't tell him that my son was out there and he was recording it because he wanted to show me what was going on.

And he was definitely within 200 feet because it was right in front of our house. So, you know, I know that that's probably an extreme case, but nonetheless, you know, we do find, you know, people that will do that. And it reminds me again of another incident where you have rubberneck, you know, there's an accident and people kind of stick their heads out and slow traffic down and prevents paramedics and other first responders from getting to that. So it does seem like we're punishing behavior that is maybe not completely culpable and not creating the situation, right? These are ones that are maybe, as I think was said,

maybe more of a nuisance violation. But a lot of what I heard was people blocking it, obstructing, vandalizing, possibly police cars that are there, and then maybe being, you know, drinking alcohol at these incidents. But we already have crimes on the books that address those. So if you're blocking, you know, access from a police car or another, you know, responder coming in, there's obstruction of an investigation charge that could be issued. When you're vandalizing, you know, a police car, you're obviously damaging public property. And when you're, you know, drinking, you're drunk in public.

So there's a lot of other crimes on the books or penalties on the books for doing that. I just don't know how some of these cities have been able to survive challenges on their ordinances, just because to me, it just looks very overly broad the way it's written. To say it's knowingly present, I don't know what that means to be knowingly present and to be within a sphere of 200 feet. It just seems like if somebody were to challenge these on again on on first amendment right to assembly um would be really really difficult i

think to to maybe um you know not overcome so i really appreciate what other efforts are happening and i think the chief mentioned this social media going after those that are truly culpable that are creating these situations and i think that's the intelligence gathering that i would really think our efforts should be spent in, going after those that are co-conspirators and that are people that do these in different cities, spending our efforts rather than these efforts on something like this to go after those that are posting things and that are setting these events up. But I like what Public Works is doing

and I've seen it done in other cities like Almonte where they have mobile speed bumps on those places where they have recurring street racing. Those don't cost too much to put those up and it's prevented a lot of what's going on there. I was speaking with the mayor about a moment and he told me that a lot of what they've done with respect to engineering has cured the problem. The street calming efforts that Public Works does with its roundabouts and other measures to slow things down, desynchronizing lights, all these efforts are really, really helpful. And I just think this subjective standard

is really something that makes me uncomfortable because I think that it just leaves too much room for, you know, subjectivity to be factored into this. And finally, what I would say is just the example of fireworks. So fireworks, we've increased, I think the fines were initially a hundred dollars and then we increased them to a thousand. Well, we didn't see any reduction in the use of fireworks in the city. If anything, you know, they just became more elusive and more of them came around. I'm talking about illegal fireworks.

So, you know, a lot of times when we, you know, try to penalize things to turn through, you know, through being heavy handed on some of these things and being subjective, it just doesn't give us the results that we'd like. But, you know, I certainly do think that we can use these efforts to go after those that are organizing this. and I certainly applaud the efforts of the city attorney's office and the police chief's office to try to address this. But I just think this is energy misspent. We could spend it some other way. And I just think this is a slippery slope. I don't know what we lead to next. Maybe we start

citing people who are contemplating going to an event like this. I don't know. It just makes me that we're going down a path that we don't want and that is dangerous. So I will respectfully not support the motion and I know my time is up. So I know there's a motion on the floor, I think it was by council member Mendoza and a second by mayor pro tem. So madam clerk, unless there's any other questions. Oh, I see council member fans.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

Quickly mayor, may I do a sub motion? Sure. a sub motion to amend the draft ordinance to require that we issue a

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

warning citation and council member I had that drafted language I was I'd asked if I could maybe be heard on that to offer you some I'm sorry about that since the attorney I forgot to call okay so yeah I think I drafted something just in response to councilmember fans earlier comments and also I think might address some other comments that were made in sections 36-707 and 36-708 you could we could rewrite that section to say those sections to say that a violation of this section may be cited under the city's administrative fines and penalties provisions or may be punishable as an infraction or as a

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

misdemeanor if prior to filing a misdemeanor against an individual the city shall demonstrate that it has previously issued an administrative citation or an infraction to an individual so I think that language would address councilmember fans concerns and maybe others concerns that we are taking an innocent bystander because you would have to be a situation where someone had been previously cited at a different location before they could be prosecuted with a misdemeanor charge. So I don't know if that's sufficient to address

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

all the concerns, but it addresses the comments that some of you made. Thank you so much, Sonia.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

I guess my follow-up question then, are administrative citations or infractions, do they

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

or infractions contain fines as a matter of course? Yes, as an initial filing They do. The administrative fines and penalties are handled. I think the first citation might be $100. Our practice is usually to give a warning before we give an administrative fine or penalty, and the infraction would be set under our current bail schedule, which I don't have that in front of me. Now, in terms of then using that as a protection against the misdemeanor, if anything were filed with our office, I would then make sure that those previous citations were made

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

before we would file the misdemeanor.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

Got it. So I would prefer a warning. So my motion is to amend it to require a warning prior to the issuance of an infraction or a written citation, administrative citation. I understand the desire to kind of throw down the hammer on something like this. But again, I know that these kinds of events often can also, you know, they are young people. And as someone who I know people who can't afford $100, you know, parking ticket or infraction. And so to me, I would prefer an initial warning prior to anything that comes with a fine.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

So that would be my motion to amend. So I'm okay with what Sonia said, but instead of infraction, I would like to see a mandatory warning first and we'll see if I get a second.

Thank you, council member Fan. And, you know, I really appreciate your efforts to try to find some balance with, you know, these interests that are both extremely important. So, so we have a substitute motion by council member Fan. is there a second to the substitute motion

yes i will second that motion great thank you council member mendoza so we have a

substitute motion by council member fan with a second to that substitute motion is there any

David PenalozaItem 16

further discussion seeing none mayor sabmiento just if we could get um if madam city attorney since that motion did second it can we get just so it's just basically adding that it will be a warning before any other citations right yes so because we

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

are required to put into the record on a first reading of an ordinance specific language I would put in that language that I'd read to you previously and then I would say that before a administrative fine or penalty or an infraction could be filed that there has to be proof of a warning issued to the individual so it would set up a three-part process so before you could even be subject to a misdemeanor you will have to have shown that there was an admin fine or a an infraction and prior to having that you'd have to show that you had a written warning so anyone who was ever going to be prosecuted under misdemeanor those

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

two conditions would have to be met they received a warning they then received a fine or a penalty or an infraction and then the misdemeanor and anyone who's going to get a citation or an infraction we would demonstrate that they've been given a written warning

David PenalozaItem 16

thank you for that

great um can somebody minimize uh well that sounded bad i was going to say can somebody minimize the city attorney but the image of this is the attorney. The image, I forgot to say that.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

So sorry.

Madam Clerk, go ahead and call roll on the substitute motion.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

No.

Council Member Lopez?

Jessie LopezItem 16

No.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Fan?

David PenalozaItem 16

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa.

David PenalozaItem 16

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento.

Yes. And I just want to say, Councilor, I'm sorry, no. I'm a no on that. I just wanted to thank Councilmember Fan for making a really concerted effort to reconcile a very difficult situation, but I will be voting no on that. So please, Madam Clerk, please mark my no. Thank you, everybody. Let's move along to item number 23, which is the pension debt refinancing update. and I'll kick it over to the city attorney, city manager.

David PenalozaItem 16

Mr. Mayor, really quick, can you, Madam City Clerk, can you read out the vote, please?

Yes.

David PenalozaItem 16

Did the motion pass? Did it fail? Did it?

Yes, I have four. It passed. Yes, four yes and three no with Council Member Hernandez Lopez and Mayor Sarmiento saying no, voting no.

David PenalozaItem 16

Thank you for that. so it comes back for a second reading in two weeks correct thank you great moving

along to item number 23 the pension debt refinance update I think I see Sergio

yes you do thank you mayor we have a brief presentation for this item and Sergio Vidal from the finance department will be presenting thank you madam city

City Manager, Mayor, Members of the City Council, good evening. My name is Sergei Vidal, Assistant Director of Finance here with the City. The item before you this evening is the Pension Debt Refinancing Update and Underwriter Selection. And a housekeeping note before we begin, the revised staff report related to this item was posted on the City Council Meeting Agenda website reflecting the updated or agreed upon proposed fee split between the three underwriting firms brought forth for consideration this evening. Next slide. As a part of our competitive RFP process or request for proposal, the matter

before you is a culmination of a process that began in March 2021 where a committee comprised of the city's financial advisor, urban futures, the city's financial, the city's validation Council Strangling, Yoka Carlson and Roth and City Finance staff which includes both the finance and assistant finance director. We as a committee reviewed 10 proposals from various banks otherwise known as underwriting firms. After review of the underwriters it was determined to interview seven underwriters based on the evaluation criteria which included experience with similar size debt

refinancing, investor outreach, ideas on how to best structure the proposed debt issuance, and the marketing of the sale of the debt. After interviewing the firms, it was determined that selecting multiple banks otherwise known as a syndicate would be the best approach in handling a potential transaction of this size. The three selected underwriters were Bank of America Securities LLC as the senior management or the lead on this proposed transaction, Also, we selected the committee selected Steeple Financial Corp. and Ramirez and Company as co-managers respectively, who are assisting us on the proposed transaction.

Next slide. Excuse me. Hey, Sergio, could you maximize your or show your screen that the actual PowerPoint show? Because right now, what we see are the miniatures of the slides and the notes. Oh, perfect. Thank you.

Is that better there? No, it's the same thing. It's the same.

and

sergio if you want to try it again it's the furthest to the right at the very bottom of your presentation if you close the screen. At the right. Go ahead and close this one and your slideshow. You can share your screen. And right here.

Let me, I think we got it there, no?

We don't see your image.

Okay, so on the very, yeah, there you go. That's the one. I didn't click on that one.

Sergio, we'll have Paul take over from here. Okay.

There we go. Slide three. I apologize, council. Members of the public.

To the presentation, as noted, the senior manager of the proposed transaction is Bank of America Securities. The B of A team is led by Ms. Holly Bockel, Mr. Jeff Bauer, and Mr. Jorge Rodriguez. As a group, they maintain extensive banking experience between 17 to 30 years, specific to the firm. As well, specific to the firm B of A, it is well-known brand known internationally and nationally and maintain a unique experience in handling pension debt refinancing for similar size government entities. Recent pension debt refinances for the team at B of A is the city of Riverside who issued a debt in the amount of 432 million. Next slide.

Steeple was selected by the committee as a co-manager for the proposed transaction. The team at Steeple is led by Mr. John Kim and Mr. Thomas Jacob who also maintained extensive banking experience in developing presentations to credit rating agencies. Recent debt issuances experienced for the firm are with local cities such as the city of Huntington Beach and the city of Orange who issued debt ranging between $286 million to $364 million. Next slide.

Ramirez and Company was also selected as a co-manager due to their extensive experience with the city and the city's credit profile. The Ramirez team is led by Mr. Raul Amesqua, Mr. Michael Mejia and Dr. Fernando Guerra. The Ramirez team maintains a multi-decade experience within the banking industry participating in debt issuance over their careers, totaling greater than $30 billion. The firm has also participated in the two most recent debt offerings for the city, specifically both the successor agency tax allocation refinancing and along with the gas tax refinancing as well. Due to the recent finance experience with the city,

the Ramirez team provides a unique and insider perspective of telling the story of the city of Santa Ana, which would be key when the proposed issuance is evaluated by a rating agency. Recent debt offerings for the firm include approximately 220 million in pension refinances during 2020 for the city of Pomona. Next slide.

Next steps. The financing team is moving right along, and we're anxiously awaiting a ruling from the courts. We are cautiously optimistic the city will receive a hearing date sometime in August of this year. Additional items that will impact the payment of the proposed debt refinancing process is the prepayment of the city's CalPERS payment for fiscal year 21-22, which we brought forth for city council consideration during the first meeting in June. If approved, the prepayment will result in approximately $1.9 million in savings for the city.

Another item the finance team is awaiting is a year-end CalPERS investment portfolio rate of return. CalPERS recently disclosed its portfolio rate for the current year is 15%, which is well in excess of its current target rate of return of 7%. If the optimistic news continues, the city's pension debt with CalPERS will experience a positive impact. Also, CalPERS will providing its annual valuation reports during the late July or August time frame, which will detail the city's current UAL payment for fiscal year 22-23, approximately about a year and a half from now. And it will also provide detailed pension plan information.

And finally, assuming positive feedback from the courts by August of this year, tentatively staff will bring forth for council consideration during September the documents related to the proposed financing, such as the preliminary official statement and the bond purchase agreement, which outlined the proposed transaction along with the terms of sale. at which point the city council will provide the final approval to go forward with the refinancing of the city's pension debt obligation. That concludes my presentation, myself and director Downs are available for questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Sergio. Thank you for that presentation. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the council. Council member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Thank you Mayor Sarmiento. I just said here, thank you for the presentation. Director Downs, thank you for the update. I really do appreciate it. Let's keep this moving item forward. You know, I've been supportive since the beginning and I will continue to be, thank you.

Is that a motion council member?

Jessie LopezItem 16

It is, I'll make a motion to approve the item.

Sounds good. Any other comments or a second?

I have a comment.

Go ahead, council member Nedoza.

Ramirez, the firm has been with the city of Santa Ana for many, many years now. And it would seem a better deal just to have them be co-lead this project. Because with the team, you have over 90 years experience. and this team has saved the city millions in the gas tax pricing and so they know what they're doing and they have always been with us we didn't have

the other two until recently and until the project became much bigger and so it it would be a much better solution for us to have just two and have them 50-50 as co-lead. And they're the firm that brought the idea to the city in the first place. And they are also the leaders in California re-guiding these kinds of finances. So it would be

it would be much more resourceful for the city and also for the taxpayers that we just recommend, my recommendation is to just include two firms, maybe Bank of America and Ramirez and make them equal leads in this.

Council member, is that a question for staff maybe to address that?

Yes, that would be, what would be the reasoning in using the third firm? Thank you, council member.

Manager, would you like me to go ahead and field that or would you like to reply?

No, please do.

Thank you. Thank you for the question, Council Member Mendoza. We did go through an extensive vetting process for all of the firms that submitted proposals and that we did interviews with. And it was an intensive scoring session. They all submitted very lengthy proposals. they demonstrated their creativity in the structure the marketing and we had a whole

team of professionals assessing those proposals and the interviews as well and quite frankly our rankings came down to B of A scoring the highest with Stiefel scoring next and then and Ramirez scoring third. And we certainly do appreciate the fact that Ramirez has served the city well, and we are happy to have them on the team. They will definitely add value to this transaction. For this size of transaction, three underwriters is certainly very appropriate

because each will have a different book of clients, if you will, and we should be able to obtain better pricing on our bonds because more investors are being reached by three underwriters versus just two but with that said the city council absolutely has the ability to direct us to do something different than the staff recommendation. Okay well it was just the

Ramirez firm alone who saved us millions recently so I still recommend that we go with just the two of two that I mentioned and we we can't forget that Ramirez has extensive experience in taking cities such as the demographics like Santa Ana to the market. And they are a Latino firm and they know our city. So my recommendation would be just to do the two

and to make them co-lead both joint leaders.

So council member Mendoza, are you making a substitute motion then to amend staff's recommendation to reduce it from the three firms to just the two firms of B of A and Ramirez to be co-equal firms?

Yes, that's my motion. My-

Substitute motion.

Subtitut motion.

All right. Well, is there a second or additional questions or comments from the council?

I'll go ahead and second that substitute motion just for purposes of discussion. Let me go ahead and bring it back and see if there's any further questions or comments. If not, I'll go ahead and ask the clerk to go ahead and call roll.

Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 16

No.

Council Member Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 16

Yes.

Council Member Lopez?

No. Council Member Mendoza?

Council Member Fan. No. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa.

No.

Mayor Sarmiento.

Yes. That substitute motion fails. Let's go ahead and bring back the original motion. I think by Council Member Lopez. I think we're still waiting for a second.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

I'll second it.

Great. We have a motion by Council Member Lopez. And a second motion. second by council member fan on the original staff recommendation. Madam Clerk.

Council member Becerra. Yes. Council member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Yes.

Council member Lopez. Yes. Council member Mendoza.

You're on mute council member.

That's a no. Council member Fan.

Mayor Sarmiento?

David PenalozaItem 16

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. Great. Thanks everybody. Moving along to Item Number 24. This is a workshop on the 2021-22 budget.

David PenalozaItem 16

Mayor Sarmiento, point of order. Yes. I think just for, because of the episodes we've had in the past, I think that the clerk should state the motion and the vote at the end of every vote. Just my suggestion.

All right, well, look, I don't know, is there a reason why there's lack of clarity? Have we received anything that people are unclear about our votes? I mean, are they recorded and the minutes are taken? I think that the voting has been clear.

Look, if you want to restate this one, we can go ahead and have the clerk restates. I know we need to do it on every one.

David PenalozaItem 16

Yeah, Mayor Sarmiento, the reason why is because members of the public do not necessarily understand or know the rules on every type of vote. Some votes require five, some votes require four, some votes require to pass or fail. And I think for transparency and to inform the public of what's going on. We should state whether a motion fails or passes after each vote and what the vote was, like we have done for years past. I mean, I know that we recently just started not just doing this and glossing over and moving on to the next item, but we should state the motion after it was.

Let me go ahead and when we take the vote, I'll say if staff recommendation has been adopted or if it's been approved, but yeah, we don't want to do this for every single vote. I think there's some that are mostly unanimous. Those that are a split vote, all announced whether the staff recommendation has been supported or if it's failed.

Phil BacerraItem 16

So-Mr. Mayor, if I may just-

Go ahead, Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Thank you. In the past, it's been my understanding that the clerk would usually read off the results of the vote. And I've heard it intermittently tonight, but not consistently. And I wanted to ask our city manager, I'm sorry, city attorney. Wasn't there a law at some point that required councils to

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

read off the results of each vote? Yeah, so there's two potential rules that apply. Our teleconferencing rules have been suspended by the executive order of the governor, but normally if we do have people teleconferencing for transparency purposes, a good practice, a best practice is to read a motion and take the vote so that members can hear that clearly, particularly those who are not present in the council chambers. There was also under the Brown Act a requirement that we have a roll call vote, which you have been having the roll call vote, or that you have an electronic board to demonstrate those votes.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

I do think that as a matter of good practice, when you do have a substitute motion made, oftentimes that is a time where you will clarify what the motion is, because we don't always have substitute motions. So that is a practice when that occurs. Okay, thank you.

Great. So, Madam City Attorney, so have we done anything that's violated any of those

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

rules? No, we're not. I heard the roll call, though, and that's what would be legally required at this point. But just to be for consistency purposes, what we may want to do if there's a substitute motion just to read that out. All right. Understood. Let me go ahead and

move on to item number 24. Mayor Sagnanto, point of order. Item number 23, the staff recommendation was adopted on a... Point of order, Mr. Mayor.

David PenalozaItem 16

Go ahead. I mean, I know that in the past, we've just, after every vote, the clerk of the council goes, motion fails, 4-3, or 3-4, motion passes, 4-3. If we talk a lot about Trump wanting to be transparent and accessible to the public and make it easier for our residents to understand what's going on, we should get into the practice of doing this like we have in the past. Go back 15 years in the recorded meetings and it's on there the way that the clerk reads off the record at the end of every vote. Just my opinion and I'll end it at that. Thank you.

Point taken. Let's go ahead and move along to item number 24 for the third time. the 2021-22 budget workshop madam city manager thank you mayor so this item

doesn't require an action from city council and there's two presentations one to talk about the revived Santa Ana spending plan and the one to present the draft fiscal year budget it's just one more opportunity to receive direction for staff to receive direction from you on things you'd like to see incorporated changed or more further explained. So I'm going to take the first half and talk about Revive Santa Ana. We'll continue our dialogue on helping our city and community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and since we last discussed this item we have received the guidelines on how these anticipated

federal dollars can be spent although clarifications are continuing and we also have the results of our community survey and other public outreach efforts. So the anticipated federal funding is the results of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. It was signed into law on March 11. It's commonly referred to as ARPA. Initially, we did believe that the city of Santa Ana would receive $142.9 million, but last week we did learn that our allocation will be $128.4 million. However, we are anticipating to receive an additional $21.5 million allocation that's specifically for housing.

The ARPA Interim Final Rule is a 151-page document. Our financial staff has been very busy thoroughly reviewing it, participating in webinars, and engaging in Q&A with the U.S. Treasury to ensure that any program or services that are ultimately approved by the City Council will comply with the requirements. We have identified priorities of focus for the initial budget appropriation of $75 million, about half the total allocation. The spending plan will have to evolve as we get more federal guidelines and adapt to new priorities.

The overall guidelines, ARPA funds may not be used to match funding we receive from other federal programs. Other prohibitions include cities are not able to use that money to pay off pension debt. It did clarify it doesn't apply to ongoing personnel cost, but it would be a one-time payoff of a pension that's prohibited. It also does not allow cities to park revenue into reserves from the money. Some good news is, however, we will have more time to implement Revive Santa Ana than we previously thought. funds must only be obligated by December 31st 2024 but we do have until the end

of 2026 to spend them and complete those programs and activities and of course with all of the funds from federal and state there are a lot of reporting requirements and performance monitoring so to give you a little more information on the ARPA spending guidelines this next slide depicts this is their categories that they are presented in their guidelines as to what the purpose of the funds are. It is designed to respond to the public health emergency and the negative economic impacts caused by COVID-19. The federal guidelines

group those allowed uses into three categories. The first one is responding to COVID-19. Items that are grouped under here are things that you you might could easily recognize and that is a prevention mitigation medical expenses this would be vaccinations testing those types of things it also does include other intervention early learning and then public safety payroll to the extent that they are COVID response related ventilation systems for public facilities green streets to direct filter rainwater from impervious surfaces the

The next bucket, according to the guidelines, is responding to the negative impacts. This area does include assistance to individuals, assistance to businesses, child assistance, enhanced services for academic and social development, and homeless assistance, affordable housing, housing vouchers. And the final bucket under the guidelines is premium pay for essential workers. A lot of it did focus on the workers that do work in the medical field, such as nursing homes, hospitals, home care, but it did extend to farms, food productions, grocery, restaurants,

janitorial, and then it did put parameters on the cap of what you could implement if you were going to do premium pay for any of those qualified workers.

On the next slide, diving in a little deeper into the guidelines, we did find they can be used for government services if there has been a reduction in general revenue due to COVID-19. They have specific definitions for what general revenue they consider, and this is good news because initially we were under the impression that for revenue loss or revenue replacement with these dollars, it would be just what you budgeted and then where you came in short. That isn't what they are allowing us to do, which is good because the city of Santa Ana, under your leadership, we did

pivot pretty quickly and we reduced expenses because we anticipated a loss in revenue. So what they're basically going to allow us to do is go back in time and then project forward based on an annual inflator as to where we would have been with our general revenues and compare that with what we did in fact receive, which would be the amount that we could use for revenue replacement. That revenue replacement is critical because that can be used for any governmental purpose.

A major focus of the intended uses relates to water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure, including cybersecurity for these critical infrastructure assets. And speaking of broadband, I just want to add a little announcement. There's a brand new federal emergency broadband benefit program in addition to the ARPA money that provides temporary discount on monthly broadband bills for qualifying low-income households and even gives a discount for the purchase of laptop, tablet, or a desktop computer. There's a website called getemergencybroadband.org, or you can also find this information on our website.

Under your leadership we did embark in seeking input from our community about ideas on how to spend these dollars. It was a little difficult because to have any time period to receive community input but without guidelines from the federal government we guessed at what areas we thought we would might be able to spend them on. But about a month ago we created Revive Santa Ana survey to get the public's input on the many ideas that had been brought forward by City Council and by city staff. We did our best to narrow down the questions to once again believe what we thought programs would be allowed. This survey

was available online. It was promoted through social media in the city manager's newsletter on our website and other platforms. It was also available in paper form at City Hall and at our libraries. Both the online and the paper versions were available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. The survey included 13 questions about Revive Santa Ana spending and COVID-related needs. In addition, there was a catch-all for any other comment that the public wanted to add. We also had an email account, Revive Santa Ana, where people could send in just any comments or ask questions. In addition to that, the mayor has been regularly

attending neighborhood association meetings to discuss revive Santa Ana and we did host a community town hall on May 11th that was attended by about 80 members of the public the public opinion survey wrote results we did have 1579 responses collected citywide the survey period just ended two days ago and we have a few demographics for you more than half of the total respondents identified as Latino or Hispanic and about 80% of the respondents identified as residents of Santa Ana others included were those that work here or

visit here and the age groups that we received the largest response were from 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 the image on this slide is basically a word cloud that created the size of the word the larger based on how many times it was mentioned in some of the comments of the surveys. I'm not going to walk you through all 13 of the questions. I've just polled a few of them to share with you some of the results. What we are going to be doing is we will provide to the full council the entirety of all the surveys plus any town hall comments. We will also post it on our Revive Santa Ana web page so that the public can see all of the comments.

But just for an example, one of the questions we ask is which of these programs are the best ways to address public health? You can see from the chart that respondents were asked to pick three top answers for the questions. And for this one, most importantly, was housing and health services for homeless. The second one was health access for residents. and the third one substantially lower than the second one was investigate health hazards in Santa Ana. Another example of one of the questions that was asked was about public safety programs and the the highest rated one was of

importance it was removing trash and debris from streets parks and neighborhoods it received the most votes as the most important public safety program with the second most on providing quick housing from motel conversions and the third was an interest in security cameras for our parks and community centers and like I said I don't I'm not going to spend time walking through all 13 of those because you will receive a full record of the survey but some of the other interesting ones the highest rated response for assistance type programs included rental assistance small business support and

affordable internet access some of the highest rated responses for city improvements included neighborhood safety streetlights, community center renovations, bike trail repair and add security lighting, and a main library early childhood reading and activity area. So shifting a little bit and these some of these slides will be familiar to you. The first time we presented we did identify priority of focus areas and we certainly appreciate all of the public input and we are developing those and rolling them into our priority areas. So I'll take you

through these rather quickly. You know the five that were identified early on that we felt would be important to our community is recovery from the pandemic which very much aligns with the federal guidelines, direct assistance programs in sync with federal guidelines, public health and safety critical infrastructure and city fiscal health so starting with the recovery from the pandemic what we did do is since we anticipate funding coming in two tranches and approximately half of the amount that we receive equates to about 75 million we have earmarked or proposed

amounts for each one of the five areas and then the programs and services certainly will be developed in greater detail based on your input. For the first one, recovery from the pandemic, we're proposing an allocation of $6 million. I know we are all optimistic of full vaccinations and reopenings. We do believe there is still a lot to accomplish in this area. For vaccinations and educations, we do feel that there is a need to assist organizations to bring vaccinations further out into our community and also education efforts to overcome vaccine hesitancy.

On expansion of communication tools, recognizing that one method does not reach all segments of our community, investment is needed in this area. And with the reopenings and the individuals that cannot get vaccinated, there is a need for sanitation and prevention measures. Embarking on a study to determine about public health departments is certainly in line with a lot of the comments we received. public health was mentioned quite frequently by the community so this would be doing a study to determine would the city have been better served if we had our own public health department and is

that something we want to implement in the future the second recommended priority area is the direct assistance programs and it includes a proposed allocation of 16 million programs such as resident stimulus programs. We did also hear a lot from the community on things such as funeral assistance as well and and survivor assistance. Assistance to businesses that we heard requests from nonprofits, private businesses large and small, arts and cultural business as well as artists. Some of the council recommended items when we first discussed it was more programs for youth violence

and sexual assault intervention early childhood education programs which is clearly also in sync with what the ARPA guidelines are digital literacy education and then food distributions are fabulous non-profits that have been providing food they're having a difficult time right now I think people are thinking that we're over and out of the COVID pandemic but there still is a great need for food distributions and the non-profits that have been doing this have noted that the donations have dramatically declined since the start of this calendar year.

And then also continuation of our existing rental assistance programs and greater efforts in this area of assistance and housing for the homeless. The third recommended area was public health and safety and we've allotted 14 million. One of the things that we heard loud and clear is the underlying health conditions of the individuals that made them more susceptible to COVID-19. Exercise is an important thing so additional public green space would be needed. This one we are trying to determine more clarity on the guidelines. Healthy food accessibility, that's an area that was mentioned by some of the

community members and we believe that this will fit within the guidelines. And then increased homeless services by nonprofits. We certainly heard from city council members that this is an area that you want to further remove from law enforcement officers and let the nonprofits take a greater role in this. We are exploring a couple of different things in this area. One of the things that I think is very promising is a potential diversion of 911 calls from law enforcement directly to homeless service providers. We did have on our wish list and community members and I know council members were looking forward to having a

significant impact on the community with making improvements to community centers to libraries and parks. We're going to need to delve into this a little bit more to make sure that those are permitted by the ARPA guidelines. The fourth area was critical infrastructure. Clearly within the guidelines there is the opportunity to invest in broadband infrastructure. It is geared towards those that have a challenge with affordability. It isn't a citywide broadband infrastructure but to serve certain areas. Infrastructure improvements for safe and clean

drinking water, a lot of guidelines on that. Sewer infrastructure improvements, facilities to reduce and filter stormwater runoff, as I mentioned before, cybersecurity and ventilation improvements to public facilities. I know we were hoping with some of the ARPA money, we had talked earlier on about improving our streets and our sidewalks. So we will continue to look at that. There are a lot of cities that are finding some things that they believe are missing in those guidelines and there is Q&A sessions ongoing with the US Treasury right now. The last area I talked about a little bit before was just the city fiscal health.

We proposed $15 million for this, but I will tell you that staff right now is very busy performing that revenue loss calculations that we just received the details on how to calculate. So now what? The next steps is we're certainly going to seek more guidance from the U.S. Department of Treasury. We'll finish calculating that revenue loss through December 2020. We'll adjust spending plan recommendations to ensure compliance. And then City Council, we were hoping by the first meeting in June, will have a detailed spending plan, which would give you a lot more ideas on proposed programs and services.

And then we would need to make an appropriation for the funding when we receive it. And then right away, we're going to be reporting requirements for the funds. The first report is due in August 31st. so with that your next presentation is going to be on the general fund budget we've kept them separate for now we can certainly take questions on this or receive any direction or if you'd like to listen to the the draft fiscal year citywide budget we can jump right to that go ahead keep going and that way we

can get through and maybe we have questions at the end all right I will

turn it over to Katherine Downs your finance director. Thank you. Let me go ahead and load up

the PowerPoint here. Sorry bear with me for just a second. It's good to get it right

before getting started.

I was driving the other PowerPoint for the city manager. That's why I'm switching over right now.

Okay.

Can you see my PowerPoint now?

Yes.

Okay, great. Thank you. So good evening, Mayor and city council members. Just as the city manager mentioned, this portion of the presentation will focus on the draft budget.

The presentation covers general fund revenue and expenditures, proposed budget additions and workforce changes, general fund trends, a summary of the proposed capital improvement program and community engagement throughout the budget process. First, let's take a look at general fund revenue. Our revenue estimate is 340.9 million in the general fund for next year. Sales tax and property tax continues to be at the primary revenue sources for the general fund, accounting for 58% of the budget.

Next is expenditures.

The draft general fund spending totals 350 million

$353.2 million, excuse me. That includes both expenditures and transfers to other funds, which of course are primarily for debt payments. Public safety costs, including police and fire, account for 55% of the budget. For now, we've included the required pension debt payment in the budget, as you heard with the previous agenda item, Once we move further into the process to refinance the pension debt, we'll have better numbers for the city council to consider likely later this summer.

Page 13 of your agenda packet, which is page six of the draft budget at exhibit one, includes a full reconciliation of additions to the general fund budget. Here, I will provide a short list of significant additions to the overall city budget.

The draft budget includes new park facility attendance and a new platform to communicate with residents. We've also included the cost of redistricting and some capital asset replacements. The draft budget includes contractual cost increases, including fire service, employee compensation, general liability insurance, and water supply. Finally, we've included additional traffic signal repairs and increased right of way maintenance. On May 4th, we heard a request for potential charter amendments on the recall election ballot. The cost of a consolidated election with the county

for one question is about $600,000 and each additional question is 95,000. So if the council wishes to proceed, we would need to add those amounts to the draft general fund budget. As an alternative, the city council can consider charter amendments for the November, 2022 general election.

Next, we'll look at the proposed changes to staffing, including direction received from city council on May 4th. All other council requests have been included in the revived Santa Ana spending plan.

We have proposed adding 24 full-time staff to the budget. The table on the left lists the additions by department and the table on the right lists the same additions, but by funding source. Only three would be funded by the general fund and the remainder would be funded with restricted money. Full details are available in exhibit two of your agenda packet. As requested by city council during the May 4th budget work session, the draft budget includes more public work staff to improve service delivery. This slide focuses on full-time staff.

The draft budget also includes part-time interns for the city manager's office to support the city council based on comments received from the May 4th budget work session.

To help balance the current year budget, the city imposed hiring freeze on 47 full-time positions funded by the general fund. Throughout the fiscal year, as departments have identified savings and a demonstrated need, we were able to remove several positions from the hiring freeze as reported at mid-year. To help balance the coming year's budget, we are proposing a hiring freeze of 32 full-time positions in the general fund. And you can see the comparison on this slide.

Next, I want to cover some revenue trends.

These trend charts include four years from pre-pandemic fiscal year 18-19 through the draft budget for fiscal year 21-22. This slide includes our three largest sources of revenue. The pandemic initially affected the Bradley Burns and sales tax in fiscal year 1920, which has since recovered. Measure X sales tax was effective for only three months in fiscal year 18-19, which is why you see the dramatic increase to fiscal year 1920. Property tax has not been impacted by the budget

or by the pandemic and steadily increases each year. We estimate a 3.2% increase for the coming year.

The pandemic affected business tax in the current fiscal year as most of business tax collections look back at prior year activity. In fiscal year, 1920, the tax revenue was 13 million. The current year revenue estimate is 9.3 million with recovery to 12 million expected in the coming year. Hotel visitors tax was hardest hit by the pandemic and we do not expect much of a recovery in the near future. Normally we would collect more than $9 million yet our estimate for the coming year is only 5 million. Surprisingly, pandemic service charges

normally about 7 million decreased during the pandemic. We expect a partial recovery to 6.4 million in the coming year.

Similar to hotel visitors tax, we don't expect much recovery for permit and plan check fees at this time. We've increased the estimate for park and recreation fees but depending on the pandemic's lingering impact we may adjust both revenue and expenditures at mid-year much like we did a few months ago. Next I'll cover a broad overview of expenditure trends.

Even with the hiring freeze, our employee related costs continue to increase steadily. We start fiscal year 1819 with 151 million. The cost increased to fiscal year 1920 by 23 million or 15%. Now this was due to staff additions funded by measure X as well as other contractual increases. fiscal year 2021 increased by 19 million or 11 percent due to the increasing debt payment and additional police officers added to the uh the workforce and the draft fiscal year 21-22 budget

or a draft budget has increased by 14 million or 7 percent which reflects a more normal increase including the pension debt payment and negotiated wage increases and then finally normal step increases. It's interesting to see the trend of non-labor general fund expenditures so what we did is we took general fund expenditures carved out the labor portion and this is what's left the other expenditures. So we start fiscal year 18-19 with 110 million. The cost increase to fiscal year

1920 by 26 million or 24 percent which was directly related to the expansion of services with measure x there were increases for contractual services such as park maintenance and purchases like trucks for right-of-way cleanup fiscal year 1920 also included the new two-thirds set aside of cannabis tax revenue which totaled nine million dollars the decrease to fiscal year 2021 by 3.6 million reflects the pandemic's impact on the city's finances.

And the increase to the draft fiscal year 21-22 by 13.2 million reflects recovery from the pandemic, at least partially, a 5.8 million increase of the two-thirds set aside for cannabis tax, and a $2 million increase for fire services.

Next is a summary of the capital improvement program. The detailed document is included at exhibit three in your agenda packet.

The proposed CIP includes 57.4 million of new spending funded with restricted money, 16.3 million for street improvements, 8.1 million for traffic improvements, 23.4 million for utility drainage and lighting improvements. And finally 9.6 million for facility improvements.

Next I'll cover community engagement during this year's budget process.

In March, we provided early information and received initial direction from the city council at their public meeting. We also had a community budget meeting in March compliant with the Sunshine Ordinance. The public opinion survey just closed and you heard some of the results in the city manager's presentation.

This is the second of two city council budget workshops in May. The planning commission will review the proposed capital improvement program next week. And finally, the schedule includes the city council's public hearing for the proposed budget on June 1st.

The public opinion survey included an opportunity to rank five budget priorities. The survey was not scientific and there were over 1300 responses to this particular question. Increased public safety resources scored the highest. Restore staffing, increase the reserve, and competitive wages all scored very close coming in second, third and fourth. Refinance the city's pension debt scored lowest with very few votes in comparison with the other choices.

Our scheduled next steps include the public hearing, then adoption of the budget ordinance on June 15th. And the new fiscal year begins on July 1st.

That concludes my prepared presentation and we're ready to answer questions and take additional direction from city council.

Great, thank you for that presentation, Madam city manager and director Downs, a lot of information, right? And I know in staff report, there's a lot of detail as well. You know, what I was going to suggest that Madam city manager is given that we have, you know, So, you know, quite a few new council members. This is a very detailed budget. We have, you know, the rescue plan monies that are going to be coming into play here and how we make all these dollars fit and we maximize our efforts and make this a comprehensive plan. We may want to consider doing a special meeting just on these two items on the budget

and on Revive St. Anna, just because we're tackling this at about 11, 1130, our minds are a little foggy and as clear as Director Downs was, and you were in your presentation, I think we may need to devote maybe an hour, hour and a half of just a special meeting, just on this as the only item on the agenda. We might be able to do it in between meetings, but I'm not sure what the council members think about that, but I think it might be helpful, but let me bring it back to the council. I see council member Fan, Lopez and then Hernandez.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

Thank you, mayor. I have mentioned this to some of my colleagues before, prior to being on the council, because as a resident who wasn't on the council, having to stay up to midnight, 1 a.m. to try to pay attention to what's happening with the budget was a lot. So I am fully in support of a special meeting specifically for the budget and the ARPA funds. I have met with Director Downs specifically on the budget to kind of go line by line with a number of questions that I have and I think it would behoove all of us to kind of share all of our concerns with each other, with the public and really be able to dig into it,

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

especially I do understand that the ARPA funds are limited, whereas the budget is limited in time, whereas the budget is kind of something I don't think that's supposed to be annual, but I think that there are creative ways that we can figure out how, as you mentioned, the funds can work out together. So I'd like very much to have that.

Thank you, council member Fan. You know, I forgot the order that I called on people. So was it Lopez and then Hernandez or Hernandez and then Lopez, I forget.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Hernandez and then Lopez. There you go. Go ahead, council member. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm in agreement. I want to be able to see our residents be able to be engaged in the discussions that we're having. I know it is 1130. I think it would be great for us to have a special meeting so that we can have an hour to two to be able to discuss this more in depth. So I do like that idea and I would be happy to support that.

Great, Council Member Lopez. Thank you, Council Member Hernandez. there's council member Lopez and then council member Mendoza.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Yeah, thank you, Mayor Sermiento. I'm very supportive of the idea. This is like a 300 page document and it's, you know, a high overview. So I definitely do think that we need a special session for the budget and the ARPA money. And I also just want to thank, you know, director Downs for making herself always available to answer any of the questions and for having patience, you know, to talk about this. with me as a new council member. So thank you.

Perfect, thanks council member. Council member Mendoza.

Yes, I agree also. There is a lot of information that we need to review and analyze and I agree that we should have us just a special session for this item. And going forward, I think maybe in the future we should just schedule, go ahead and schedule a special session because it's like this every year and we usually can't get to it till way into the late night hours though i agree we need to to have just the one session for this item

great thank you council member mendoza i see mayor pro ten and then council member becerra

David PenalozaItem 16

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I am definitely supportive of having a special session or special city council meeting to just discuss this city council budget for the year 21-22. One thing that I would also add to that is that we make that meeting, that special session, and make it open to the public. Limited capacity to in-person participation if we really want.

David PenalozaItem 16

I say it again, we talk and talk about transparency and allowing the public access, but there are still hundreds of residents that have trouble getting on, watching online, participating, engaging, because there is a huge digital divide that exists to this day. and if we really want to address the digital divide and the transparency issue that we all talk about, we make this special session available to the public, limited capacity, social distancing, CDC guidelines, all the good things. We have a 4K projector and screen outdoors, the council chambers,

David PenalozaItem 16

that we could also make available for outdoor seating. I think it's a great opportunity to do that. Those are my comments, Mr. Mayor.

great thank you for those comments i appreciate those uh council member becerra thank you mr

Phil BacerraItem 16

mayor i i agree with my colleagues i think a special meeting would be in order i would also like to encourage my colleagues to reach out to staff i think you know for as late as we are in the evening i think our city manager and um catherine did a fantastic job in presenting you know all these items before us I mean from revived to proposed budget but what I would strongly emphasize is that reach out to staff I know last year was my first budget and having that one-on-one with Christine and Catherine to be able to sit down and go through it line item by line item I mean we took some time

Phil BacerraItem 16

to do that but I think it was a huge benefit and I think it's something where I think there's gonna be a lot of commonalities in questions and thoughts that this council is going to have and I think it would warrant that special meeting but I would just say if there's you know really some things that are in the weeds I would strongly encourage my colleagues to reach out to staff and have those meetings and that's all I have thank you mr. mayor perfect thank

you for those comments yeah I agree I think all of us need to and all of us many of us have and are actually continuing to meet but I know that this the dynamic this year is a little different just because we have these that are augmenting the budget. And rather than double spend on something like devote some, you know, revive Santa Ana plan monies to infrastructure when we may be getting some infrastructure through a bill that's coming or, you know, homelessness funding that we may be getting from the state. And do we want to spend monies that we can use for other purposes? I think this dynamic in my 14 years, I've never seen.

So that's why I think it makes it even more important that we take some additional steps to be intelligent and thoughtful about how we compliment these monies and not spend on one area when we could be receiving money specifically for that purpose. And also just to make sure that the public is engaged in the discussion. So I appreciate all those comments. So I don't think that this is an action item. This was just simply to listen to the presentation. Anytime we hear about the budget, that we absorb something new. And so I think all these, you know, continual workshops on this helps us all

to become more familiar with the elements of the budget. So, you know, I think these workshops are helpful, even if there isn't a robust discussion at the end. Go ahead, Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 16

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I was gonna ask, are we allowed, are we going to be able to ask any questions about the presentations that we just saw tonight?

or is that are we sure I think we can ask tonight and then we can always and we're gonna hopefully it sounds like there's a majority consensus to have a special in addition to tonight so if there are any questions tonight I'm sure

David PenalozaItem 16

staff would be happy to field them thank you mayor Salmento I just had one minor question that you know caught my eye and in one of the slides director Downs under the parks and rec when you were talking about which staff you know hiring freezes we had in 2021 to 2122 parks and rec went from six freeze hiring freezes in 2021 to eight in 2122 I just want and it was the only department that increased in hiring freezes do we know why is Is there a quick explanation for that?

A good catch on your part. You've got quick eyeballs.

So what happened was the eight that we have in the 21-22 column, it includes four unfunded positions. So those four unfunded positions weren't included in the, as part of the hiring freeze because they were just simply unfunded positions. You might remember that we have a similar situation in the police department where there is a number of police officers that have yet to, that are authorized but unfunded. And so we didn't count them in the head count for the hiring freeze, but they are not in fact funded.

And that's the same situation that we have for parks, rec, and community services. but for so that we could present a fuller picture for 21 22 we went ahead and included them in this head count so that's why you see the apparent increase of two two heads but it's really it's really a decrease when you look at the the six from 2021 that goes down to four the four unfunded that weren't counted last year.

David PenalozaItem 16

Oh, okay, that makes sense. Thank you for that. I was just, you know, Parks and Rec is one area where I always hate to see, you know, hiring freezes and staff, you know, furloughed or whatnot, and it's an important department to keep staffed up, whether it's in our community centers or Parks and Rec programming. I know that over the last year out for obvious reasons we we've been dormant on all those community events and and community center resources but whatever we could do to you know make sure to increase that as we move forward that

David PenalozaItem 16

I'd appreciate that that's that that's it for now mr. mayor thank you thank you

director those questions councilmember Becerra thank you mr. mayor and thank

Phil BacerraItem 16

Thank you Mayor Pro Tempher asking if we could ask a couple of questions tonight. I just have two. My first one was in the 16.348 million in what they call street improvements. I wanted to ask if that also included sidewalks.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Don't all jump at once.

I have it right here. And it's really tiny. Let's see. We have alley rehabilitation, industrial street rehabilitation, arterial street rehabilitation. And then we have additional other street improvements. No, the street improvements do not include sidewalks.

Director Saba, I don't know if he's on the line or not. He might be able to speak. I think that there are, oh, I see some pedestrian improvements under traffic improvements. So I think that might be the category where you'd find sidewalks or at least pedestrian improvements. Now, these are probably safety improvements.

Phil BacerraItem 16

We're a city that has quite a few pedestrians. we're a walkable city so i hope that the next time we see a draft budget we don't have to dig into the appendix of the appendix to find where we're funding our sidewalks so i hope it's a little more clear next time and then my other question my other question is uh how did we project a decrease in permits and plan check fees i know that we're seeing some construction take place here in town especially after we amended the housing opportunity ordinance last year so we're seeing we're seeing some cranes in the air we're seeing uh things get built here in town despite

Phil BacerraItem 16

the pandemic so how are we projecting a decrease in plans i'm sorry permits and plan check fees

uh director ty do you want to answer that question

Yes, council member. The projection that we have is based on activities that we are seeing in terms of what the entitlement process we have gone through this year. We have, while we have quite a few land use requests, some of the major projects may be stall and we are trying to look at it on a conservative aspect of what we're looking at, as we see that there could be some reduction in construction of major projects.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Okay, those are my only two questions. Thank you, everybody.

Great, thank you for those. Council members, any other questions?

Any questions?

All right, hearing none. Council Member Fang, go ahead.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

I don't have a question on the budget. I'd like to save it for our special, but I did want to echo and support Mayor Pro Tem's request that we do allow in-person participation by our residents, especially since the CDC has said, I understand the state is not going with the CDC mask mandate, but if there's ways to have, again, social distancing, as you mentioned, I think that would be really helpful.

Great, thank you for that comment. So I just had a quick question, Director Downs on the slide, and I forget which one it was, I think it was the budget additions. And I think you have a line item for redistricting. And so I know we had spoken about, or I think I had mentioned in the past about there being a special election coming up for the imminent recall on the governor. So that may be an opportunity for the council to maybe put some item on that, on that election cycle. I don't know if we have time,

because I think you have to go like 88 days from that election date back. The city clerk and the city attorney might know the exact timing on that. But we should maybe consider that if the timing is correct. We may be able to include some things on that election cycle that I know we've considered in the past some amendments to the charter. So maybe that's something that you can maybe pencil out if the timing works out. If it doesn't, then we missed that timeline. but we don't know when the election is scheduled for at least I don't think we know yet

but but that may be something for us just to consider and look at you know as we move forward the other one was if we could get a better sense of you know we know we know we're going to be getting more guidance from the department of treasury on what how exactly we can expend some some of the rescue plan monies. I just want to be able to see if we can have a little bit more definition on that, because I think we're still looking at it through a really broad lens. But I want to see, I guess, where those monies can offset what we already have line itemed in the budget,

just so we can have a better idea of how we can supplement these monies, how they compliment maybe some expenditures. but obviously there's a lot of detail that we need to go through.

So all those will be helpful. And as I mentioned before, just showing the Delta of change between last year's budget to this year's budget, making sure that we see how certain line items have either increased, decreased, and you've done a good job in this PowerPoint to show some of the adjustments that have been made, whether we're going to be increasing some line items, whether they're going to be decreasing. So those are always helpful to just look at the year prior to see how we're doing on some of those things. So I know they're pretty high level. And I think what we need to do is we'll individually set some things up with you,

but hopefully the clerk and the city manager will schedule some time for us to be able to have a mutually agreed upon date and time when we can meet to have a special meeting and make sure we noticed the public and notice all the members of the council.

David PenalozaItem 16

mayor pro temp thank you mayor said mint I just wanted to thank you for for bringing up that election item I had on my notes and completely missed it but I do have a council agenda item at the next council meeting to discuss and consider bringing back the charter potential charter amendments that we had we try to put on the you and I believe put try to put on the election on the ballot last year and you know didn't happen but um i want my my our new colleagues to take a

David PenalozaItem 16

crack at them and see if if there's an interest in input so thank you for that um i just wanted to

to show my support for that thank you perfect thank you and i think there are no other comments so uh thank you members of the council we'll go ahead and move along to the council member requested and the first one is council member Hernandez's item to discuss and consider a resolution declaring the city support for the transgender and gender non-conforming community. And I'll turn it over to council member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I brought this item forth because last year and this year has taught us a lot about the importance of bringing people together and celebrating diversity and inclusion. And as we all know, the need for us to support and uplift and embrace the LGBTQ community is extremely important. And as a policymaker here with the city, I want us to be able to advance LGBTQ equality through local executive action.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

I want us to be intentional about celebrating the trans community and gender nonconforming community beyond just Pride Month. Because once Pride Month ends, these individuals don't cease to exist. They continue to experience, you know, discrimination in the workplace. You know, they experience a lot of adversities in our community. and I think us as a governing body, it would speak volumes for us to be able to work together in ensuring that they are involved in policy discussions, that they're involved in the community

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

and that they have a seat at the table. I know that inclusion efforts is something that is important to everyone here with the Santa Ana City Council and I hope that together we are able to create change.

Thank you, council member. Thank you for that. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the rest of the council to see if they have any comments or questions.

Members of the council, any questions on this?

Council member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 16

I don't have any questions. I just want to extend my support to you, council member Hernandez with the Zabrazo. So thank you.

Great. Thank you, council member Lopez. as any other members of the council?

Council member Fan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

Same, thank you so much, Councilman Hernandez for bringing this forward, especially as, you know, we obviously have pride next week. And I know Santa Ana since 2016 has adopted a resolution. I imagine the mayor was a part of that to raise the flag and recognize June as Pride Month starting on May 22nd. so i'm full support and i'm glad you brought it forward thanks great thank you for those comments

council member fan council member i'm sorry mayor pro tem thank you mayor san miento just wanted to

David PenalozaItem 16

thank council member hernandez for bringing this item forward and uh no comment just you know supportive of the resolution uh we definitely need to be inclusive of all members of our community and um i'm supportive of the resolution great thank you for that council member becerra uh thank

Phil BacerraItem 16

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I too want to express my support and thank Council Member Hernandez for bringing this forward. And while this isn't policy per se, I think just in these times, we're trying to show that we are an inclusion, a city that believes in inclusion. I really do appreciate that this is being brought to the council. Thank you.

Great. Thanks. I think everybody, or almost everybody spoke. I'm supportive as well. Madam city manager, I think you have clear direction unless there's anybody else. Council Member Lopez, did you, was your hand still raised or was that?

Jessie LopezItem 16

Sorry, I just forgot.

Okay, all right. So it looks like everybody, you know, most everybody is supportive and thank you, Council Member Hernandez for bringing this forward. And I guess we'll see a reso coming back to us for consideration by the council. Let me move along to council recommended item number 26. And that one is by Council Member Lopez. and this is the rezo on the health emergency, Santa climate and public health emergency. So council member Lopez, I'll turn it over to you.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. So hi everyone, you know, a little bit of a background before we get into our discussion. We originally, I originally brought this forth in March, early March, and since then I have worked with a number of different groups in the city and in the county AND I DID ASK THAT THE RESO BE MADE PUBLIC SO PEOPLE COULD HAVE ACCESS TO IT AND SEE THE OUTCOME OF THAT COLLABORATION. AND YOU KNOW RESOLUTIONS TO ME ARE SYMBOLIC AND THEY'RE IMPORTANT BECAUSE THEY HELP TO ACKNOWLEDGE AN ISSUE AND SO I WANTED FOLKS TO HAVE THE

Jessie LopezItem 16

RESOLUTION THAT WE CRAFTED BECAUSE I WANTED TO WELCOME ALL INPUT AND I UNDERSTAND THAT THERE PROBABLY GOING TO BE QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS AND I AM OPEN TO FIGURING OUT HOW AS A COUNCIL WE CAN WORK TOGETHER TO HOPEFULLY PUSH THIS FORWARD AND SO THE GOAL HERE IS TO ENSURE THAT THE CONCERNS OF OUR CONSTITUENTS ARE NUMBER ONE ACKNOWLEDGE AND NUMBER TWO THAT WE UNDERSTAND LIKE THAT WE CAN'T CHANGE THINGS IF WE'RE NOT ACTIVELY WORKING TO MAKE THOSE CHANGES SO YOU You know, again, I understand it's symbolic,

Jessie LopezItem 16

but I do hope that my colleagues will vocalize any questions, draw any concerns during this time. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, council member Lopez. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the rest of the council for comments and questions. And I'll start with council member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to be brief and thanking you, to Council Member Lopez for bringing it forth. There's a lot of intersectionalities in climate change. It's a public health emergency. And I know as we've talked about climate change and adjusting and adapting and being more environmentally friendly, there's always costs associated with new changes. And these changes would be good for our city. And the costs on that topic, the costs of us having to be more environmentally friendly are not gonna be the greater cost than the cost of inaction.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 16

Because there are a growing body of studies and research that'll show us that climate change fuels billions in health costs. So I would rather be on the preventative side. And with that being said, I do think that this is something that we need to have more dialogue about. And thank you, Council Member Lopez.

Great, thank you, council member. Any other members of the council wish to comment or ask questions on this?

Council member Fan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

Thanks mayor. And thank you, council member Lopez. I do have a few concerns about the resolution. I am definitely supportive of climate action on all different governmental levels, as well as in the private sector. I think a lot of us millennials, at least in my family and my friends, many of us are even considering not having children given the potential effects on the climate on our Earth. But I do have a few concerns, in particular,

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

some of the language, while I do understand the idea of reaching for the stars, I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE ARE ALSO, I GUESS, HAVING DEADLINES OR GOALS THAT ARE FEASIBLE. SO, FOR EXAMPLE, PART OF THE RESOLUTION ON PAGE 26-4 MENTIONED SANTA ANA WILL ACHIEVE 100% OF ELECTRICITY POWER SUPPLY FOR MINISPAL USE PLUS OFFER THE SAME TO ALL RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES THROUGH CLEAN RENEUVAL AND ZERO CARBON EMISSION ENERGY SOURCES BEFORE THE YEAR 2025. NOW, I UNDERSTAND THAT, BUT I THINK THAT, YOU KNOW, SANTA ANA CANNOT IN ITSELF BUILD

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

100 PERCENT ELECTRICAL POWER SUPPLY FROM RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND WHATNOT. THEREFORE, I DON'T THINK THAT THAT'S A REALISTIC GOAL. AND WHILE I KNOW THAT RESOLUTIONS ARE MEANT TO KIND OF TALK ABOUT THESE GOALS, I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE PRESENT TO THE PUBLIC AND OUR POSITION IN A WAY THAT IS ALSO FEASIBLE. So something like that, I would like to see that adjusted. The other thing I'd like to address is that our resolution or the resolution does not mention our climate action plan. The city has a climate action plan that was adopted, I believe in 2015. Thank you to Daniel Soto for drafting the report

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

on the state, federal and local levels of climate action. But I think it could be, YOU KNOW, HOW TO SAY, NOT CONSISTENT WITH OUR CURRENT ADOPTED POLICY UNDER THE CLIMATE ACTION PLAN. SO I WOULD LIKE TO SEE ANY TYPE OF RESOLUTION ADDRESS THAT OR WHETHER IT'S AN UPDATE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. I THINK THAT WOULD BE REALLY HELPFUL OR MORE HELPFUL. AND THEN FINALLY, YOU KNOW, THIS IS JUST A CONCERN WHICH IS I UNDERSTAND THAT THERE'S SOME COMMENTS REGARDING DEVELOPMENT IN THE CITY, URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING. AND I AGAIN, AND SUPPORT, YOU KNOW, CLIMATE POLICIES, WHETHER IT'S TO ENCOURAGE GREEN STANDARDS

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

OR, YOU KNOW, RENEWABLE ENERGY, ELECTRICITY, SOLAR PANELS AND WHATNOT. BUT I DO THINK THAT, YOU KNOW, WE DO HAVE ISSUES WITH DEVELOPMENT IN THE CITY AND HOUSING. AND I THINK THE LANGUAGE THERE DEFINITELY, I THINK IT'S A RUB BETWEEN THE TWO. SO THOSE ARE SOME OF MY COMMENTS AND SOME OF MY CONCERNS ABOUT IT. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE SOMETHING that reflects some of those changes be brought back for consideration.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Phan. And just to your second point, the climate action plan is mentioned in page five. And so just want to make that highlight. Thanks. Yes, no worries. Oh, I see it. Thank you.

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

Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Absolutely, you know, we're seeing CO2 levels at an all-time high. You know, as we burn fossil fuels with driving, we're producing large amounts of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse effect that it's having on the earth, you know, increasing climate, global sea levels. I mean, the threat is real and we all need to do what we can at all levels to address it. But with that being said, this same or very similar resolution was brought to us back on March 2nd. And as staff reported tonight on item 19 on tonight's agenda,

Phil BacerraItem 16

it said that there was not a consensus among the council to move forward with a resolution for consideration. That's from the report. So although in an effort to address some of the comments made on March 2nd, city staff submitted the report and they outlined some of the ways that the city of Santa Ana is currently taking steps to address climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

Phil BacerraItem 16

As just mentioned, the Climate Action Plan, which is actually something that is mentioned in the resolution, but I feel that if we're going to make amendments to the Climate Action Plan, I think it's important enough to bring it forth to the council as a separate item. And then as I mentioned, and I know some of my colleagues mentioned at the last meeting that this was brought up, is that we are currently going through a general plan update. And we are implementing environmental justice measures and concepts that hopefully the council will support incorporating into the new general plan.

Phil BacerraItem 16

So I'm not really sure why we're revisiting this right now. It feels like a duplicative effort. I think it's well-intentioned, at least I believe it is, but it is, and as I said before, it's duplicative. And I just don't know why we're taking something that didn't garner council support and then bringing it back to the council as if we unanimously supported it. So I was a little concerned on that. And in looking through the resolution, there are many items in there that, I mean, specifically would be addressed in a general plan update.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Out of the 17 whereas's, the majority of them talk about land use or overarching policies that really belong in the general plan. And I think with all the SB1000 environmental justice outreach that we're doing, we're going to see that incorporated in the plan. And again, I hope that my colleagues on the council will support their incorporation. So we have acknowledged this threat. And I think that was part of this resolution's efforts was to acknowledge the threat. I think with the Climate Action Plan and what we're doing with the General Plan Update, I think that's clear that we have acknowledged it.

Phil BacerraItem 16

We recognize that climate action is something that we need to take seriously and take action on. But as far as for our city in relation to fossil fuel exploration or expansion, I'm kind of unclear why that was included in the resolution. I know there are places in Orange County, maybe Huntington Beach and other Brea, the Brea Linda area, that would be a place where I could see the concern about fossil fuel exploration or expansion, but unless staff tells me otherwise, I don't know where that applies here in Santa Ana. And then as far as entering into treaties as a city council, I'm pretty darn sure that

Phil BacerraItem 16

this is not within our purview to enter into treaties. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a couple levels of government above us that would agree with that. But nonetheless, regardless of our ability to enter into treaties, being a government under the federal government, our federal government has already entered into a climate action-related treaty, which is the Paris Agreement. In fact, when President Biden took office, he, within his first day of office, not 100 days, but the first day in office, He took action to reaffirm our country's commitment to being a global partner on addressing climate change.

Phil BacerraItem 16

So I'm very happy with that. I'm very satisfied with that. Again, we have tools at our disposal here, the Climate Action Plan and the General Plan Update, where I think we can do our part as a city to do more. So as for the remaining items in the resolution, they should be brought forth to the council as standalone items so that we can actually have real focused and productive discussions. Because I think we're talking about some real complex issues here that I don't think we do them any justice by just having them be simply a line item in this resolution. And I just don't want to oversimplify them and just lump them all together

Phil BacerraItem 16

because right now this resolution reads more like a wish list rather than actual policy. And frankly, we need to really focus on policy. There are plenty of things in Santa Ana that we need to address and we need to really start focusing on policy. And I just don't think at this time this is what this accomplishes.

Thank you, Council Member. I can't see the rest of the, somebody could reduce that. If there are any, are there any other comments or questions? Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 16

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. So, and thank you, Council Member Lopez for bringing this item forward. Climate change is definitely something that we all need to keep in our minds. I'm proud to live in this state of California that has been a pioneer in advancing climate resilience policies, such as implementing the world's first vehicle emission regulations in 1996, the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act to return to 1990 emission levels by 2020, policies to double energy efficiencies in homes, factories, and businesses, and a lot more.

David PenalozaItem 16

Moving past 2020 to 2030, former Governor Jerry Brown established an ambitious 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target of 40% below 1990 levels, offering policy approaches ranging from increasing the use of renewable energy, the sequestering carbons in land, They're reducing the problem used in the vehicle sector. Throughout, the state, individual communities, businesses, and land managers are taking on the challenge to address these climate goals with grants and incentives from governments and foundations and voluntary and regulatory action,

David PenalozaItem 16

including here in the city of Santa Ana, which has taken steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve resources citywide. As a result, Santa Ana's per capita emissions are lower compared to other California cities and the state. Energy efficiency and sustainability have been guiding principles to ensure that the actions taken today preserve the ability to meet the needs of future generations.

David PenalozaItem 16

So, one thing that I read through the resolution, which most of it was, you know, a couple of things were okay. the resolution is presented as a stance against climate change and cause for reduction in fossil fuels use, which I wholeheartedly support. But reading it, there's a lot more thrown in there, as some of my colleagues mentioned, that, you know, I don't believe we have the ability to achieve, such as remediation of lead on private property. I mean, how do we go about doing that? And rental assistance for those displaced from remediation efforts and becoming a member of the CCA.

David PenalozaItem 16

my biggest concern in the resolution was the 100% electric for all municipal operations by 2025, which, like I said, is very hard to even try to achieve, because that's less than five years away. Do we have any idea of the cost implications that come with that, of being 100% electric by 2025? and so I wanted to ask my colleague the proposed for this resolution if she she has any idea of

David PenalozaItem 16

the cost or how many city vehicles we would have to move to full electric by 2025 which is again less than four years away um council member is that something that you have because I'm trying understand the that that item that part of the resolution do you have any comment on that

Jessie LopezItem 16

well thank you for your comments mayor pro tom um you know i want to i want to address like a couple of things that that i've heard so far which are all valid you know and i want to thank everybody for engaging in the conversation um the city of la actually endorsed this treaty um back in march So I think that as a city, we would be okay doing that if that was the wish of the council. And it did come back because in all fairness, I think that there was some confusion. I'm not trying to dupe anyone. I left that conversation in March thinking that we had support for it.

Jessie LopezItem 16

And that's why it's coming back as a council agenda item. And so I actually don't know what we're as or what be it for the results section you're referring to when you're talking about the cars. Can you point that out for me?

David PenalozaItem 16

Yeah. And I think it's page three. It says be it further resolved. The city of Santa Ana will achieve 100% of electricity power supply for municipal use, plus offer the same to all residents and businesses through clean, renewable and zero carbon emission energy sources before the year 2025. I'm trying to understand what that part of the resolution means because I mean that people could could interpret that in different ways.

Jessie LopezItem 16

So I totally get and that's not talking about vehicles that's talking about 100% of electricity power supply for for the city and the residents. So I hope that clarifies your question.

David PenalozaItem 16

Okay, because if a city for municipal use were to go to 100% electric, I mean to me, I'm saying is 100% of all city operations need to be moved over to electricity, move away from fossil fuels. It's all in the resolution, which to me that would mean we have, I mean, that comes with a lot of severe implications of trying to replace all our city municipal operations that use gasoline to 100% electric. That's how I'm interpreting that and that's how it reads.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Yeah, and I think to your point and to Council Member

Jessie LopezItem 16

open about changing the language and having this conversation continue, if that's something that makes you uncomfortable.

David PenalozaItem 16

It's not that it makes me uncomfortable. It's, is this achievable? Or are we just putting out word for these resolutions for political theater and sound bites? because what I'm looking at is moving the city to be 100% based on electricity power by 2025. To me, that means exactly what that means is, what that states is moving over to all electric, which, I mean, in a perfect world, yeah, I'd be all down for all our police vehicles to be Tesla's. I mean, I know they do it in some cities, but that's really expensive,

David PenalozaItem 16

which is why I was trying to understand exactly how we would achieve that as a municipal government.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Yeah, and, you know, I don't think we need to, like, talk about this as, like, political theater. It's something that so many organizations were a part of, and a lot of hard work has gone into it. And, you know, we are at 50% renewable energy now. And so, you know, and when I look at other cities that have modeled this, like L.A., you know, their achievable date is 2035. So if we're talking about achievable roadmaps, can the date be changed? Yeah, it can be adjusted. And I think that's why we're having this conversation. And so thank you for your question.

Great. Any other? Thank you for that, Council Member Lopez.

David PenalozaItem 16

Those were my questions. I just it's there's a lot of things in there that should be standalone items as councilmember but Sarah mentioned because there is a lot of it to digest and a lot of it that deserve their individual attention so I'd be happy to see these items individually but I'm not supportive of this

resolution as it currently sits or stands understood thank you thank you councilmember Mendoza

I agree that the city should do its part in reducing carbon footprints and we could do that by starting off slow and educating the residents in ways that they can contribute. So it's not just the burden on the city. However, I agree with my fellow council members that it is just too much on the plate for to be something that is feasible that our city can do

with the the amount of funds that we have it's going to be very expensive and and probably impossible to achieve exactly 100 we've got to make it a more achievable results but at this time we have so many other things that we need to concentrate on that for example, homelessness issue that this, this could probably go back on the back burner and we can take a look at it again in a year or so.

Great, thank you for your comments, council member. So I think everybody's had a chance to comment. Let me go ahead and just bring it back. So Madam city attorney, if I could just have you answer just a couple of questions on this.

You know, this is a reso, correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

I believe the request is for the preparation of a resolution.

Right. So just procedurally, this would, the request of this council member requested item is that this reso or a version of this reso be brought back to the council for consideration?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

Yes.

Okay. Now, are reso's binding?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

So generally stated under California law, an ordinance is a legislative act. It's more permanent. It establishes a law. As we discussed tonight, there's usually penalties for its violation. Resolutions, on the other hand, generally deal with a specific or a special topic or something that's temporary in nature, and it's more an expression of opinion or policy and does not have enforcement provisions in it.

So, if maybe I could summarize, it more captures intent, correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

Yeah, again, yes, it's the statement of desires of the legislative body, aspirations or goals.

Goals or priorities. And so, so I appreciate you. So thank you for that. And have we ever supported anything that wasn't within our policy making,

you know, ability? In other words, we've opined and commented through resos, proclamations in support of federal policies. Is that correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

Yeah, you've taken positions on federal and state issues over which you don't have direct jurisdiction.

So for us to be supportive of some federal action, like let's say immigration reform, is no different than us supporting a treaty.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

That would be similar. It's just, again, it's, right, it's a majority, if you pass a resolution, it's a statement that a majority of the council supports the idea, the concept, or the policy.

Right. That doesn't mean, like, on a federal action or a federal question, like immigration reform, we're going to actually take a vote on that. we just can send a message to our federal representative or our federal delegation saying we as a city support you or would like to encourage you to to support these federal

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

questions or these federal issues yes and that's generally what we do when you ask us to prepare a resolution to support a certain item i think the resolution that is being presented i i think differs just slightly and that there are some specific it appears to to maybe require some specific mandates and i think that's just slightly different from a normal um of it and requires you to monitor and oversee it which i think those are the components of the proposed ordinance a resolution that are slightly different than some of the others that you've asked us to prepare

understood and i've already spoken too long so i don't want to go too much longer but in 2014 we passed a climate action plan that was goal oriented for community wide emissions to be reduced by 15% below the baseline year of 2008. And we had that goal set for 2020 and 30% by 2035. I'm not sure if we got close to that or not, but I guess what I'm saying, if we violated that climate action plan

that we adopted in 2014 was there any sanction on us as a result or could there be no I mean if the

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 16

you know no there are other instances where you adopt plans for example general plans are usually adopted by resolution and there are consequences for failure to comply but those are set by state law if you adopted your own local climate action plan and you did not have penalties in it your failure to achieve those goals are just noted as a failure to achieve the goal but some I believe that back when you adopted the climate action plan you might have also done some related environmental review good

question my memory doesn't work as well as your viewers does I can barely I can hardly remember what we did last week, let alone 2014. So look, what I would suggest is it sounded like council member Fan has some issues with some of the language and they're completely valid. And it sounds like, you know, the proposer of this is willing to be flexible on maybe some of the language and maybe there's a meeting of the minds, but what we've done in the past, Madam City Attorney, if I'm not mistaken, is maybe the council can bring this item back with two resolutions. The resolution has worded and the resolution maybe

maybe as amended as recommended by, you know, council member fan and others to say, you know, we'd like this to be more goal oriented or maybe dates be pushed out or maybe other adjustments and modifications made, but that way we can, we can bring it back as is, I think as is requested in the, in the discussion. So I don't think we're being asked the way I read it to make a decision tonight. It's simply to bring back, bring the sign back for consideration. and maybe what we could do is we can bring this one and another version, maybe a red line version of something that some council members would feel more comfortable with.

And I understand that some don't want to see it at all, but I would support bringing it back and bringing back a version of a modified resolution that could be supported by at least a majority of the council. Council member Fan, I see your hand.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say that that's exactly what I would like to see also, because in general, I am supportive of these kinds of statements. I think it's important to represent that we believe in this issue and that we want to address it as a municipality, even though sometimes it can feel like, you know, there's a concert issue, but I would like to see a red light version. Thank you. Addressing some of my concerns. Thanks.

Thanks council member. Council Member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 16

Yeah, thank you. I just really want to thank you, Mayor and Council Member Fan and Hernandez, you know, for being open-minded about continuing the discussions and seeing, you know, what policy direction we can work on together or so that we can recognize this and bring this back as a result that everybody hopefully will champion. Thank you.

Perfect. All right. Well, hopefully Madam City Manager, there is that clear enough there is mud I know it's late and I am so sorry to do

this I'm a little bit unclear on the direction so the discussion consider directing was for us to agenda the attached resolution and I don't believe I am hearing support for the attached resolution well not for the attached

resolution I guess what we were talking about is bringing back a red line version of the attached resolution uh as the as the maker or the proposed uh well councilmember lopez and maybe councilmember fan and others who have some issues with this can maybe redline the

version that's been presented tonight so it would um come back as a revised resolution as an agenda item or as another discussion item uh no as an agenda

Okay.

I think it is, is that, I think council member Hernandez, council member Lopez and council member fan are good with that. Is that correct?

Jessie LopezItem 16

Yeah. Thank you.

Council member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Yeah. I'm a little unclear. So when you're talking about red lines, I mean, there's a whole litany of things in this resolution that could be redlined. What are we talking about? I mean, cause that sounds like very general direction. If it's just trying to salvage this thing to bring it back, I think this is a terrible way to approach this.

I think, again, there are plenty of items that Council Member Lopez... We can barely hear you, Council Member. I think you're away from the microphone.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Sorry. No, I was saying is that I'm not really clear as to what it is that we're going to see redlined here. There are so many items in here that could be redlined. And so, as I mentioned earlier, there are items that Council Member Lopez brought up that I think on their own, individually, are worth discussing. So, to get into it now, I think at 12.15 at night would just not be productive. But to just try to salvage this thing to bring it to the next council meeting, I don't know this is good practice. There's no real clear direction on what we're redlining.

Phil BacerraItem 16

Again, this resolution really could be, I don't know, five, six, seven different resolutions. so i i'm really unclear as to what it is that we're giving direction to bring back for the

next council meet so look i don't want to speak for the maker of the of the resolution but i think what i heard um from council members that were supportive of the resolution at least maybe a version of this resolution is that if it could be brought back with some changes so it could be more I guess more palatable or maybe more acceptable to some of those. And I don't think this comes back to us. I think the request was for it to be considered within 30 days. So I think within those 30 days, maybe those who are supportive of the premise or the intent of the resolution and maybe work on the language with staff,

I don't know if that's something that is that difficult. We've done those things before, but look, I'll leave it to the majority of those that are supportive of seeing a version. I think again, I believe I heard council member Fan saying that she would be supportive of a version of this resolution with some changes. And by red line, we're just talking about modified language on some of these. And I think I heard council member Hernandez and council member Lopez saying the same thing that they would not have a problem seeing a version of this resolution come back.

Well, I wish the members of luck.

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

I just, so I understand Councilman Brasetta's concern and the Mayor Pro Temp's concern regarding the fact that there are, you know, 15 different items in this resolution. But in my mind, a resolution here is to say, what is our overarching moral positions, policies, ideas, but then to follow up with that with, quote, amending the climate action plan, which is a project under SDIQA, I think, to look at what we're going to do with our zoning updates. What are we going to do with, you know, electrifying the grid and resources? Like, I don't think a resolution would prohibit us from doing all of that, but the resolution would say, hey,

Thai Viet PhanItem 16

these are some things we want to look at and now we have a road map for each of the items we can look at throughout the next year two years the rest of our term so i i would like to see the red line i'm happy to work on the red line with council member lopez and submit it to staff and that would make it easier because it would definitely reflect some of the comments that i

made tonight thanks you for your leadership council member fan so council member lopez are you okay with that yeah i'm 100 okay with that okay council member hernandez are you okay with that

Absolutely, Mr. Mayor. Okay, I'm okay with that. I completely understand council member Becerra's, Mendoza's and Peñalosa's reluctance. I completely get that. But I think, you know, there's at least a majority of us that would like to see a version come back. And I don't know how that's unclear, how that's wrong when that's the will of the majority of the council. Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 16

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I think what we're wrong here is the procedure of bringing back just a resolution that is still unclear what exactly is going to be relined or exed out or omitted from the resolution that's attached to come back as a business item, I suppose. Is that what we will see before us? I'm just trying to understand the process here.