Read the June 15 meeting.

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For those members of the public that have joined us through way of Zoom or by phone call, if you would like to provide a public comment, please select star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from your device on Zoom. And this is to speak on any item with the exception of public hearing items. When the public hearing item is opened, the member of the public will have an opportunity to provide their comment on that item at that time.

For those member of the public who have joined us by way of Zoom or telephone, if you would like to provide a public comment on any item with the exception of public hearing items, please dial star 9 from your telephone or select raise hand feature from your Zoom account. Thank you.

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So we're just waiting for a couple more members of the council to log on. I believe we have a quorum here.

Some members that are about to log on virtually. so if council members up here don't mind we're going to give a couple more minutes for everybody to log on

Recording in progress.

Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Council meeting for June 15th, 2021. Today is a very historic day in this state's period of time, talking about the reopening, the governor's orders and directive to go ahead and start our reopening. So I want to welcome everybody, those of you who are here physically and those of you who are listening to us and seeing us remotely. I'm going to go ahead and have the clerk call roll. Or do you want me to go ahead and go through the script?

Madam Clerk, let me go ahead and go through a couple of housekeeping matters. This meeting is taking place with limited in-person attendance. by teleconference via zoom the public can access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website so please bear with us as our technology has disrupted the flow of the meeting in the past and so before we call roll one of the things I didn't want to mention is that as you see four of us are here physically present three of us are going to be appearing remotely the governor's orders have continued to relax the Brown Act which allows those

those of us on the city council to attend virtually. So we expect that that is going to expire at the end of July. So that's when we will also expect council members to come in and be physically present. So hopefully we'll track that and we want to be consistent with state law. So it looks like we have two more meetings after this one will be present under the relaxed Brown Act orders that the governor has ordered. So with that, Madam Clerk, I'll go ahead and have you call the roll.

Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Becerra? Here. Councilmember Hernandez?

David Penaloza

Here.

Councilmember Lopez?

Present.

Councilmember Mendoza?

Present. Council Member Fan. Here. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa.

Here.

And Mayor Sarmiento.

Here. And Madam Clerk, did you go ahead and read this, some of the housekeeping language before we started, or do you want to go ahead and read that into the record?

Yes, 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 the button labeled Raise Hand from Zoom. Please announce your name and award or neighborhood you reside in within the city of Santa Ana for the record. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. And if you'll all please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, everybody. I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Council Member Lopez, who had the pleasure of inviting our speaker who's going to be doing the invocation, Fayaz Nawabi. And so, Councilmember Lopez, if you'll go ahead and do the introduction. Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. Good evening, everyone.

I want to thank Mr. Nawabi for accepting my invitation to today's invocation. We have a Muslim community in Santa Ana, and we are a city that is diverse and accepting of all religions. And Mr. Nawabi is a prominent voice within the American Muslim community. And a little bit about him and his family. He, you know, his family fled from a war-torn, you know, Afghanistan when he was a child. And he not only advocates for the Muslim American community, but he also, you know, advocates and stands in solidarity with different communities as well.

And again, Mr. Nawabi, thank you for being here today. Please go ahead and lead us in the invocation. Thank you for having me, Councilwoman Lopez. My name is Fayaz Nawabi, and I serve as a resident imam here in Southern California. And I will start off this invocation with a short passage from the Quran. I pray for Allah from the Most Merciful Satan. In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful.

Ya ayyuhal nasu inna khalqnaakum min zakari wa untha And we made you a world of dreams and a world of kings For you know that you are in love For you are in love For you are in love For Allah is a wise person In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful I recited from chapter 13, verse 12 And God mentions in this chapter and in this verse that,

Oh humanity, I have created you as different tribes, as different ethnicities, as different genders, so you may learn from one another. Verily in the eyes of God, the one who is closest to God is those who are righteous. And verily God is all knowing, all aware of what you do. We pray that God blesses this gathering. We pray that God blesses the Honorable Mayor, City Council members, and City staff that have worked tirelessly through this terrible pandemic. We pray for those that have lost loved ones during this pandemic.

We pray for a speedy recovery for the business owners, for those that have lost those loved ones during this pandemic, and as we reopen as a state, God bless.

Thank you for those words, Mr. Nawabi. We appreciate you joining us and please feel free to welcome us anytime and thank you for those words of inspiration. Let me go ahead and go to the ceremonial presentations and we have tonight three very important great recognitions. So thank you council members for doing this. Let me go ahead and start off with the first one which is a proclamation that I'll be presenting to the LGBTQ Center OC recognizing June as LGBTQ Pride Month.

Madam Clerk, I believe that the recipient on behalf of the proclamation will be joining us virtually and will have a few words to say after I make this presentation. So I'll try to make it brief, although this is a very significant and important proclamation that will be presented tonight. And this will be presented to Stephanie Camacho Van Dyke, who's the Director of Advocacy and Education at the LGBTQ Center of OC. So the center was established as a volunteer organization in 1971 and incorporated in 1975 as a 501c3 nonprofit community-based organization.

At the LGBTQ Center OC, all members and allies of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community of Orange County joined together in a network of support and unity. Their life-affirming programs focus on empowerment and their advocacy efforts focus on speaking out against hate and discrimination. They exist so that every segment of the LGBTQ population of Orange County has the resources needed to thrive in their own lives and communities. The LGBTQ Center OC provides services to more than 14,000 individuals annually across a broad spectrum of culture, ethnicity, age, and economic background.

Programming is especially designed for gay men, lesbians, youth, the transgender community, the Spanish-speaking and LGBTQ community, the bisexual community, and LGBTQ families. During LGBTQ Pride Month, we would like to recognize the resilience and determination of organizations such as the LGBTQ Center who are fighting for the rights of all individuals to live freely and authentically. In doing so, they are opening hearts and minds and laying the foundation for a more just and equitable America. This Pride Month lets affirm our obligation to uphold the dignity of all people

and dedicate ourselves to protecting the most vulnerable among us. So this is especially important for us to recognize today and to proclaim June as LGBTQ Pride Month. But, you know, one of the things is that, you know, sometimes when you proclaim a month, it's something that you almost confine to a period of time. And it really isn't fair because I believe, you know, we should be not only be recognizing but supporting and really making this a permanent gesture of support.

I remember when I was a new council member, we had some items come up before us recognizing, I believe, Santa Ana was the first city in Orange County to recognize Harvey Milk. And Harvey Milk was one of the first gay elected officials in the state of California. He was a supervisor and a city councilman in San Francisco. and not many other cities would want to recognize the achievements that Harvey Milk stood for. And Santa Ana was one of those first cities to do that. He represented a lot of the struggle in government and politics. He was unfortunately assassinated while he was in office.

So it was one of the first steps I think that this city took in recognizing the LGBTQ community community, as well as having the pride flag fly over City Hall, in addition to being the home of the pride parade. So one of the gestures I wanted to add, in addition to the proclamation that we're making, proclaiming June 2021 as LGBTQ Pride Month, is that we make some permanent effort to recognize

the struggle and really not just supporting but being advocates for the LGBTQ community. So I know other cities have done crosswalks or different markers that show, you know, our support of the community. I certainly want us to see what we can do for that. I think it would be not only fair but the right thing to do. So hopefully that is a step that we'll be taking this year. And with that, I want to go ahead and give the floor to Stephanie Gamacho Van Dyke, who is the Director of Advocacy and Education for the LGBTQ Center, who will be receiving this proclamation on behalf of the community.

Stephanie, are you with us?

Yes, yes. Thank you, Mayor Sarriñanto, and to the Santa Ana City Council for this wonderful recognition. i will be brief because i know you all have a full agenda ahead of you but on behalf of the lgbtq center of c it is my utmost privilege and honor to accept this proclamation for lgbtq pride month i know that pride looks different this year as orange county emerges from the covet 19 pandemic but i think we should still continue to take this time to celebrate and uplift lgbtq voices and culture as well as recognize how far we've come in terms of progress locally and nationally but

of course as always we also should recognize that there's just much more work that needs to be done and so the work continues from there so let's continue to work together so that orange county is a safer affirming and inclusive space for everybody thank you so much again for recognizing our agency, and I wish you all a happy LGBTQ Pride Month.

Thank you for those words. Stephanie, I understand. Madam Clerk, we're going to go ahead and mail this proclamation to the LGBTQ Center OC so they can display prominently in their offices so everybody realizes that Santana is a community that is not only supported but advocates on behalf of all LGBTQ residents. With that, let me go ahead and turn it over to, I believe it's going to be Councilmember Hernandez, who is going to be recognizing the Orange County Children's Therapeutic Arts Center. Councilmember?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Are you able to hear me okay?

Yes, we can hear you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Wonderful. It is with great pleasure and it is a true honor to present an award of a certificate of recognition to the Orange County Therapeutic Art Center, who does fantastic work in our community. For over 20 years, they have utilized the arts as a social change model to help children rewrite their story. In utilizing music, visual arts, dance, piano, and art, they have helped thousands of kids across our city and across the County of Orange. I do believe we have a presentation that we will be showing as well.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Is there a presentation?

Yes, it looks like it's loading up.

Hi, I'm council member Hernandez. And today I am joined with OCTAG. Orange County Children's Therapeutic Arts Center is a unique community-based organization that focuses on utilizing the arts as a vehicle to empower at-promise youth and children with special needs in Orange County. I'm a proud supporter of OCTAC as they have been providing services for our community for the past 20 years. Families in Santa Ana and across Orange County have received their services and their services have a special focus on individuals with disabilities from diverse cultural backgrounds and linguistic backgrounds. Many of the families

that they serve are multicultural, monolingual, and low-income migrant families. OCTAQ is the first organization in Orange County offering unique programming that combines the arts, academics, and creative therapies to help youth and adults realize their highest potential. Today, we would like to celebrate the winners of the month-long contest called the Aspiring Music Challenge. Regarding the second annual aspiring music challenge, there are two categories, one for solo and one for ensembles. Ensembles can range anywhere from a duo to a trio, a quartet, or more.

There's a winner selected from each based on three age categories, ages 4 through 8, ages 9 through 12, and ages 13 and above. I would like to welcome Phoebe Stancil, Prep Arts Music Department coordinator to introduce the student winners. Good afternoon. I'm so glad to be here at City Hall. I just thank you guys so much for having us. I'm so proud of each and every one of the students that stand here and I'd like to start out to congratulate the solo winners starting with Melanie Palacio, age 6 to 8. This is for you. Thank you very much. Congratulations.

Next, we have Camila Sanchez in the 9 to 12 age category winner. Camila, thank you so much for your amazing work that you did. We're very proud of you. And last, we have Roberto Reyes, age 13 and above. Thank you so much, Roberto. You are appreciated. Thank you. Good work. Next we have our ensemble categories, two duos, Bella and Johannes Zarate. Bella, here we go, and Johannes, thank you very much, congratulations.

And ages 13 and above, duo ensemble, Melanie Castellanos and Andrea Alamon. Andrea, and Melanie, congratulations. Thank you. Wonderful. And on behalf of OCTEC, we have a little surprise for you. Oh, thank you. We have a token of our appreciation for you. Oh, my goodness. And we know that you love Tupac. Are you kidding me? This is actually from Jefferson Elementary school. It is a transfer press printing and we are really excited to give this to you.

I'm very rarely at a loss for words but I am just in awe of the amazing work that you all do and and this artist in particular is somebody that when I was their age changed my life. So to see what you are all doing with arts and how we're having it come full circle, thank you and here's to utilizing the arts to change our story make up make some noise for them

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

great and in conclusion in conclusion mr mayor um fantastic organization i just want to congratulate the winners of the music solo challenge. They did a fantastic job and what an honor for us to have this organization right in our backyard.

Mayor Redekopoulos- Thank you, Councilmember. Amazing. I couldn't see the print, but Mayor Pro Tem was telling me that it's beautiful and anything with Tupac I know is good. So I appreciate that. There you go. Off into the deep blue sea. Mayor Redekopoulos- It's like I'm in a wormhole now.

You really went away. Let me go ahead and turn it over to Councilmember Phan for the last presentation tonight. She'll be making a proclamation to the Orange County Justice Fund, recognizing June 2021 as Immigrant Heritage Month. Councilmember Phan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

Thank you, Mayor. And I'd like to say that I, along with Councilmember Nellida Mendoza, both presented this. We are both immigrants, and of course, so are you. and we just wanted to recognize the immigrants who make this country great, who participate, who are part of this community. As many of us know, over 40% of Santa Ana are foreign-born, and I think it's really important that we recognize our heritage here in the city, in the state, and in the country. So, Madam City Clerk, I believe there is a video. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Nelida Mendoza and I'm the council member for Ward 6. Today we are presenting a resolution to the Orange County Justice Fund. And today we have Council Member Tai Fan with us and also Sabrina Rivera from the Orange County Justice Fund. So the Orange County Justice Fund was created in 2017 through a collaboration of attorneys, law professors, and grassroots leaders to ensure that no Orange County resident is forced

to defend themselves from deportation without an attorney, as well as and to provide support so that these individuals eligible to be released from detention without being financially devastated. An estimated 310,000 undocumented immigrants live in Orange County and are at risk of detention and deportation. The OCJF is dedicated to generating support for transformative and effective legal representation for some of the most vulnerable members of the Orange County community.

In the summer of 2017, the Santa Ana City Council, with the supplemental funding from the Vera Institute of Justice, provided seed money for a pilot program that would enable Orange County-based office to begin providing pro bono legal representation to Orange County residents facing deportation.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

Building off the success with the Santa Ana VR partnership, OC Justice Fund strategically explores other ways to build infrastructure in Orange County for removal defense legal services. As an attorney and as a Vietnamese refugee, I have directly seen how their services have improved the lives of Orange County residents. Their work takes place in the context of a broader movement for immigrants rights, much of which is happening right now in Orange County. In addition to working with the City of Santa Ana and IMDEP regarding the Universal Defense Fund, OC Justice Fund also

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

supports the Vision Act, which is to prevent the transfer of immigrants and refugees in California state prisons to ICE. This is incredibly important not only to the state of California, but to the residents here in the city of Santa Ana. OCJF has also taken steps to strengthen and support local grassroots leaders who are paving the way for immigrant communities and families. And they invite more supporters into the movement. As we celebrate Immigrant Heritage Month, we want to recognize and celebrate organizations like Orange County Justice Fund, who provide immigrants with opportunities and access to

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

to financial resources and enable community members to return home. Thank you.

And the executive director, Sabrina Rivera, will now say a few words. And here is this beautiful proclamation on behalf of the city of Santa Ana. And we thank you so much for doing the work that you do for our community. Thank you. Thank you everyone.

I'm Sabrina Rivera, the executive director with the Orange County Justice Fund. Thank you council member Fan and Mendoza for this recognition for the Orange County Justice Fund work. We also want to thank the rest of the City Council, not just the current City Council, but also the 2017 City Council for being in support of the Universal Representation Program in Santa Ana that has benefited many Santa Ana residents. Since 2017, the Orange County Justice Fund has provided funding for over 56 individuals, many ties with Santa Ana, many residents from Santa Ana and we provided funding for families who cannot afford to post

bond set by immigration officials and judges. So please visit us at www.ocjf.org to support us and get involved. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Great presentation. Thank you, Councilmember Fan and Councilmember Mendoza. The OC Justice Fund does incredible work, as do the attorneys, ensuring that there's due process for people who are being separated from their families. So let me go ahead and move on to the next section of our meeting, which is staff presentations, and I'll turn it over to the city manager to give us an update on the COVID-19.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Council. Tonight's COVID-19 update includes the latest information on the reopening of California, new guidance on face coverings, and then, as requested, we have some information as to what's our vaccine rate in our city. So, first, I'll share some news, as the Mayor mentioned, about the Office of the Governor reopening the state.

So, thanks to an increase in vaccine distribution and falling COVID-19 transmission rates, Governor Newsom has issued an executive order to fully reopen California's economy. This means no more physical distancing, no capacity limits for activities and businesses, no county tiers, and relaxed guidance on face coverings. These changes all took effect today. The reopening of the state's economy changes a few things. At first, it eliminates physical distancing requirements for activities. However, the California Department of Public Health still encourages people to practice physical distancing to keep themselves and others healthy.

In this instance, physical distancing is recommended but not mandatory. Second, it eliminates capacity limits on businesses such as restaurants, shopping malls, and almost everyday places. These businesses are now able to operate as usual with no physical distancing required. And finally, the executive order does away with the blueprint for a safer economy. That was the county-by-county tier system that was used to set restrictions on activities based on public health metrics for a particular county. The state will continue to monitor the data and the COVID rates.

So at the state and local level, we've relaxed rules surrounding the use of face masks. As the Director of Emergency Services, I issued an executive order that repeals the City's face covering requirement, which is also effective today, June 15. The state was chosen to coincide with the state's reopening and their updates on face covering guidance, which matches that of the Centers for Disease Control.

Generally, the new mask guideline allows vaccinated people to not have to wear a face covering in public with certain limitations. All people must wear a face covering in the following settings. That includes public transit, hospitals, long-term care facilities, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, and schools. At this point, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has not changed its safety guidelines for workplaces. I believe they're meeting on Thursday, and we might have some more clarification then.

But in the meantime, our city employees will continue to take certain precautions at City Hall and other city facilities. Face coverings are not required for members of the public who are vaccinated and wish to visit City Hall.

For people who are not yet vaccinated, a face covering is required when indoor, public settings, and businesses. This includes places like retail stores, restaurants, and other businesses.

Of course, there's exemptions for individuals that are younger than two years old, individuals that might have a medical condition, individuals that may be hearing impaired, and other people where wearing a mask would create a risk to that person due to their work.

So let's shift gears and talk about vaccines. The Santa Ana community is working towards getting vaccinated. Our city staff under your leadership has been very busy working with partners. to combat vaccine hesitancy and make vaccines convenient and available for everyone so we have a breakdown by zip code in our city of what are percent vaccinated so this would be the percentage fully vaccinated or at least receiving the first dose of a two-dose vaccination so the left column shows the zip codes the right column indicates the percentage of eligible

individuals who are vaccinated you can see that the zip code with the highest percentage of vaccinated people is 92706 with almost 70 percent and in contrast the zip code with the lowest percentage is 92701 just at 51.29 percent we are still working with our partners to allocate those vaccine resources where they're needed the most to help spread awareness of COVID-19 vaccine our mayor joined the White House mayor's challenge to increase vaccination rates by July 4th to To help do that, we are using our communication resources to get the word out, including digital

bus shelter ads and continuing to staff our COVID-19 vaccine hotline.

While expanding our communications is great, we also have to make sure that the vaccines are available. So as part of the Mayor's Challenge, the City is partnering with OC United Way and Providence to roll out mobile vaccine clinics in Santa Ana. This would augment the existing mobile clinics and other vaccine sites that are operated by the OC Healthcare Agency. To incentivize people to get vaccinated at one of our four mobile vaccine clinics, we're providing each vaccinated person with a $25 gift card, a ticket to either Bowers Museum, the Discovery Cube, or our own Santa Ana Zoo, and a chance to win a Disneyland vacation.

And this is in addition to the incentives that are being offered by the state. The state is still offering $50 gift cards for everyone who gets vaccinated and other incentives including $1.5 million in cash drawings and dream vacations.

The scheduling of the next four mobile vaccine clinics are, you can see from the slide, at the different locations. beginning on June 17th in Sheppa Park, June 19th at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, June 23rd at the Roosevelt Walker Community Center, and June 26th at the Southwest Senior Center. For more information on these locations, please dial 949-477-4516. And as always, if you do wish to get a vaccine outside of the city of Santa Ana,

you can access the County of Orange's website, othena.com, or you can still access this California state's website, which is myturn.ca.gov. So we're very excited to see our economy reopen and our local businesses and residents to thrive again. The COVID-19 pandemic is still not over, though. And so to allow the economy to remain open and to avoid another COVID-19 surge and to protect public health, the City of Santa Ana encourages everyone age 12 and older to get vaccinated, follow the COVID-19 public health guidance issued by the U.S. Center for Disease Controls and

Prevention, the California Department of Public Health, and the County of Orange Health Care Agency. And that concludes my presentation tonight. Great. Thank you, Madam City Manager.

Let me go ahead and bring it back to the Council to see if there are any comments or questions. Council members?

Nobody here physically that wants to say anything? Anybody on the line that wishes to add anything?

Hearing none. So I just wanted to thank you for continuing with these updates and, you know, for your comments about even though today is, again, historic because the governor has designated today as the reopening of the state. And actually, California is performing much better than all the other states in the country. So, you know, we do have something to be proud of. But communities like ours have really struggled, as you saw the matrix of zip codes of people that have been vaccinated. You have some parts of the county and parts of the state that have been vaccinated at a much higher rate.

You see some zip codes in our city where we're still struggling. So I'm glad we're going to be, you know, continuing to support the mobile efforts because that's what I believe needs to be done. We need to go into neighborhoods. We need to go into those areas that people I don't think are hesitant, but they need to understand that it's safe. Right. And there needs to be people who they trust to be able to come and approach them and let them know that it's available. Some people in our community still think that vaccines cost money that they have to pay for vaccines.

Some people are misled and believe that they're dangerous, and we have to make sure that we offset that with science-based fact. So I'm very hopeful today. I think that this is the first step in reopening the economy, but also just society here in the city. And so I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to be doing things in a responsible way as a community and as businesses open up.

I just want to make sure that people know, you know, Santa Ana, because we've been disproportionately impacted. We were one of the first cities and one of the few cities to even enforce a mask wearing rule. So we took this very seriously. We made sure that we encouraged testing when testing was sort of pre was the precursor to vaccinations and making sure people had the ability to test freely and in their neighborhoods. That mobile effort was done there. So, you know, as I joined the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Challenge on this to vaccinate more people, I encourage

my council members, my colleagues, to join me as we go out to those sites and encourage people in the neighborhood to get vaccinated. I want to thank our partners at the Santa Ana Zoo, at Bowers Museum, at the Discovery Cube, and even our friends over at Disney for providing some incentives and motivation for people to get vaccinated because we still know that this isn't over. We're in much better shape than we were. I remember back in November and December, but we're still not through with this. And so let's all continue to work together to get through this.

And I just want to thank everybody in the city who's done their part. and many of you have done your parts in helping your neighbors, your family, and others in the city to ensure that we get healthy together. So moving along to, there was no closed session, so there isn't anything to report out. So I'll go ahead and just read this as we move into our public comment section. This is the time and place of the meeting for the council to receive comments from the public on agendized and non-agendized items. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the City Council may not enter into any discussion at this time.

The public comment call line is now closed, but it's been open since 4.30 this afternoon. So, Madam Clerk, I'm going to go ahead and do it the way we've done it before. I'll go ahead and take the cards, request to speak cards for those who are physically present. And then for those who are waiting on the phone, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Madam Clerk so she can go ahead and call on those people that are waiting online. So let me begin. And as you all know, you'll be given three minutes to speak. You don't have to use the entire three minutes if you want to be concise. Sometimes that's more effective.

But let me go ahead and start with Chloe Rios.

Hi, I know you all know me already. How are you? Mayor Sarmiento, earlier you said we are opening minds and hearts by providing and recognizing June 21st as LGBTQ day and a certificate of recognition to the LGBTQ community. And you also mentioned you want the art that represents the LGBTQ community all throughout the city, similar to other cities. Don't forget that Alianza Translatinx is the first organization that fiercely advocates and provides services specifically tailored to the transgender community. As you mentioned, Santa Ana has had an organization that serves the LGBTQ community since 1971.

Yet, I have not seen the services that I need as a transgender woman living in Santa Ana for the past 21 years. I need hormone replacement therapy. I once needed housing resources, and I know today we have transgender people sleeping on the streets. I need legal services, or I need it when I was let go of my job in Newport Beach for being transgender and for being different. Where are those services? It is time that Santa Ana invests in transgender citizens and residents. The William Institute estimates that at least 218,400 individuals in California identify as transgender.

Despite representing a significant portion of the state's population, we continue to be left out of conversations regarding medical and mental health care needs. As a result, our transgender community continues to experience refusal of treatments, verbal harassment, physical and sexual assault, and the lack of appropriate and necessary medical care. Instead of spending money on painting streets or murals to honor our community, invest the funds in creating a shelter that is specifically for transgender and gender non-conforming people. We are being discriminated for not having documents that identify us

by our gender. I am being harassed and called by my birth name, and I am not being respected of my pronouns. Show your pride not by providing certificates, but by providing funding to support the work we are doing. Because it's great to paint rainbows on the crosswalks or spell out the word LGBTQ on major boulevards, but does that feed hungry trans people? Does that provide housing to houseless transgender people? Does that stop the harassment from police officers when we are walking down the street or filing a report for being harassed? I don't think so. I invite you to rethink how you want to show your pride

and invest in transgender lives now. Thank you.

Thank you, Courtney Calderon, followed by Richard Garcia.

Courtney Calderon. I'll go ahead and set that one aside Richard you're up followed by Bulmaro Vicente

welcome council members councilwomen Richard Garcia I've been a community leader for many many years and one of my main issues here is the shopping center at the 711 2112 south main street we put that together almost seven years ago unfortunately roe ramos passed away he was a president for memorial park and we're going to do the best we can to keep this

issue going on the 7-11 parking issue we do have issues regarding drinking drug activities and a whole bunch of negative so we need to see what you guys can do okay another issue that we've been on is the Benito Taqueria taco stand at the South Merchants Association and at the South

I just run blank my okay it's 2202 South Main Street and we've been having some issues there too so we need to see what we can do to eliminate those problems Okay, one last item is the 2064 South Main Street smoke shop and a lunch truck there too. So we've been having some negative issues too, drug issues. What it is is billing over to the 7-Eleven.

So we reached out to the Chief Valentin and also to the MHA. So they do what they can. So if you guys can reach out and get this issue resolved, we'd appreciate it. Okay. So any questions?

No. We're good. Thank you, Richard. It's good to see you again.

All right. I've got to go back to my wife. All right, guys. Take care of yourself. All right. You too. Bye-bye.

yeah okay Bulmaro Vicente followed by Mia Verdeen followed by Gloria Sanchez so if you guys can all be ready to go and that way we can go in quick order

hi

Hi Mayor and Council my name is Bulmaro Bulmaro Vicente and I'm the Policy Director for CHISPA, a member of Chicano Sonidos and a lifelong resident of Santa Ana Ward 4 I'm here to speaking regarding the proposed city budget. Our city has put police first for so long while other departments and services for vulnerable residents are left fighting for scraps. Some of you, the mayor and some union elected council members, won your election because you rejected cop money and the endorsement from the POA, even making public comment yourself on the increase last year.

Today is a chance for you to show your voters where your loyalties are because the no the cop money is a no to continuing the city's history of putting police over people. We've seen how this strategy doesn't work and further criminalizes the young people in our city. We need to divest money that goes towards the police department such as the city's cannabis revenue. I find it concerning as a resident and as a consumer that so much money goes towards enforcement but also the obscurity of where this money goes to. In the report by the grand jury on the Santa Ana cannabis fund they stated that the city's expenditure and

enforcement aren't transparent and that there is no clearly identical accounting for residents to see how this money is spent they say that there is no true viable oversight regarding the strip the disbursement and the use of canvas money received this is concerning especially as 3.4 million of this money goes towards enforcement with a with 1.4 million dollars going to the Santa Ana Police Department. We need to shift more funds away from the police and more towards youth services. The tragic irony is that Santa Ana cannabis tax revenue is funding and continuing the historic pattern of arrests for non

violent drug offenses that harm communities of color. We need to focus on better priorities such as investing youth. Lastly, I think it's unfair to remove the Santa Anita handball courts when the city is currently in the process of the parks master plan survey. We should allow our residents to provide feedback on how they envision every park to be. People still play handball on the Santa Anita Park. In fact, a few handball players are planning a tournament their next month on July 24th and we invite you to attend to see how many people come out and play. Let's start a new direction for how we invest in our community in

our future thank you thank you

Mia Verdeen followed by Gloria Sanchez followed by Rachel Pelt posos

Santa Ana City Council and mayor today I come before you to discuss agenda number agenda item number six the city budget as use Commissioner representing Ward 3 we are not being heard and we are not being funded. The city invests $152 per young healthy person aged 10 through 24 on youth development programs versus when a youth is arrested by SAPD it $12,770 is spent.

This is not okay. The Youth of Santa Ana call on the City Council to divert more funds to youth programs such as mental health counselors the Santa Ana Public Library Santa Ana re-entry I mean youth re-entry programs teen mom programs and food cards for youth that don't have access to food as the youth we are subjected to watch our parents struggle to pay rent and face eviction these tenants are often evicted without any legal representation this is an issue all too common which is why I would also like to call for more funds to be allocated to the tenant legal defense fund we must also invest in community

centered developments that prioritize vulnerable low-income neighborhoods and promote access to housing that is affordable thank you for your time thank

you for those comments Gloria Sanchez followed by Rachel Pozos followed by Cynthia Spinoza

We are the LGBTQ community, known as TranslatinX, we are advocating for the support of you, the mayor, so that we can support us as a community. We have suffered discrimination since many years. I have been here in the city of Santa Ana 35 years old. I have always been asked for police officers who have been accused of where I go, where I go, where I go, where I go, but they find harassment, they abuse me physically and mentally. I'm tired of that in the prison when they have arrested me,

I had to suffer all the police's acoso. And it's just me that we've been asking for help so that our community, which is a minority, we can't see when we've been here all the time. So we need that support because we need that now and at this moment. We are in 2021 where the time has changed. We are not in the democracy of the past, we are in the of the right. There are police that focus on harassment to the transgender women. No can walk one free, no can have one a life. Fortunately, I have a person who has a business,

I pay a job to several people, and even if I pay my taxes, I pay the taxes of those people, I don't want to live freely. We are in the country of opportunity where we are all the same. I think that is the moment where we can all have that right of equality. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good evening Mayor Sarmiento and I'm here to represent the LGBTQ community also known as the Alianza Trans Latinx and I'm here to ask for your support the support for us for our community I've been discriminated in we have been discriminated for years I've been in Santa Nana for over 35 years and I've been discriminated ever since the police has harassed me many times over all these all this time fist I've been physically abused mentally abused and when they send me to jail the police harasses me as well I don't think it's fair for a community we have been here forever we

need this to stop now we need the support now this is 2021 but this is not the times of yesteryear this times have changed the police is for there are police officers that are focusing on harassing our trans girls and we are not free to walk in the streets I myself I'm a business owner I hire people I pay taxes and even myself I cannot live free we need this is the land of opportunity we are all equal and we need this equality thank you for that Rachel

Pozos followed by Cynthia Espinosa.

what plans have for them, what they are working, so they took the opportunity to end with that. I am here again asking for my transgender community, in the month of the orgullo, as they said, to LGBTQ, I would like to have reports, but they don't have. I would like to teach them, because they are more than 21 years those who have been working in the city of Santana and have no report of how many transgénero women have in the Orange County.

We are TransLatinx, we have a year, many of you follow us on our website and have seen what we have done in the past year. We are here volunteers working for our community and it is just to me that we are not supporting our community that we are really doing the work and working for our community. As I said earlier, she has more than 20 years living in this condado and it's a joy for Alianza Translatines to say that we did our name for free, like her and others who have more than 25 years. Here are the proof, we can demonstrate that we are working for our community.

Thank you, I hope we can work with you.

Gracias.

Good evening. My name is Rachel Pozos, and I am here once again. Last time we talked about, somebody mentioned about prostitution on Maine. I'm glad that you were able to do something. Thank you for that. But now I'm wondering what's going to happen. What is the police going to do to help the people who have been detained? Are there any plans, and what are the plans to help them? Again, we ask for protection for our trans girls. And now this is the, today is the Pride Month. And we want to know what are the LGBTQ reports. We've been working, they've been working in the community for over 25 years in Santa Ana.

And what are the reports? We don't see, we don't have any reports of how they've been helping the trans girls in Orange County. Alianza Translatinx has only been here for a year, and we have been helping our community. We've been serving our community. We are volunteers. We are working in the county, and we are doing this work. Like my friend said earlier, who has been here for over 20 years, we helped her change her name legally for free, and we've helped others that have been around for over 25 years. So we want proof of how this, they have been helping.

we need this proof now we are working we have proof that we have been working for

our community great thank you Cynthia Espinosa

We are defraudadas con la decisión de la ciudad en no invertir los fondos federales que se supone serían destinados para rescatar a los residentes de la ciudad después de la terrible pandemia. El dinero no lo están invirtiendo en el bienestar de la comunidad como lo han indicado en varias juntas y mucho menos en nuestra gente que en realidad la necesita. Señor Sarmiento, por eso estamos aquí exigiendo a la Santa Ana que invierta también en nuestra comunidad transgénero.

Igual que la Policía, Alianza Translatinex también necesita 9, 10, 12, 15 millones de dólares porque necesitamos crear, promover, facilitarización de programas y servicios de atención médica en general, centros de salud y bienestar físico de todos los residentes transgéneros de Santa Ana. implement services of housing, specifically adapted to the needs of the transgénero and gender non-conform, expand the services of housing assistance, combat the lack of housing, the economic instability and increase the access to medical attention of our community.

So, Mr. Samiento and Consejales, we also want policemen capacitados and sensibilized, So we have to be treated and respected, not judged by our apariencia, and... What else? And we have to be supported by him and not ask what you're doing in the street or what you're doing in the street. I think what we are most of the most of the police are, I think we are less transphobic, we are not the most of the police. So, as you know, Mr. Sarmiento, be generous with the funds for my Translatinex community.

We need 9, 10 or 15 million dollars, and the same as the police.

Thank you.

Good evening. As you know, my name is Cynthia Spinoza. I'm a co-founder of Alianza Transatinex, and we have been volunteering. We've been helping our community for over a year with no money. We have not been paid. We are here because we feel let down by the city because you are not using the money that you're receiving from the federal government to alleviate the suffering from the pandemic in our community. The money that you are using, you're not investing it in our community, in our people. we are asking that you invest, that the city of Santa Ana invests in transgender non-conforming people

and allow a lot, Alianza Trans-Latinx, $9, $12, or $15 million like you are doing with other programs to provide the facilities, to provide medical services, to provide counseling, to provide health services, physical well-being, housing for our people, for transgender people, for gender non-conforming people. that's specific specifically for them to provide financial assistance medical assistance and and we need the police officers to be trained and to be sensitive to how they treat our community when they stop them that they

don't judge them by their appearance that they don't put them down that they don't ask them what are you doing walking the streets how much do you charge they're judging us that way we need to provide do you to provide Alianza Transatinex with these funds the nine ten or twelve million dollars that

you are doing to the police thank you I think somebody who I called on before is now back Courtney Calderon and then we followed by Nyla Hernandez followed by Karina followed by Sarah Bruno

Hello. Beforehand, sorry if I stumble over my words. I'm nervous, not great at public speaking, but I'm passionate about this and it needs to be reminded of you guys. You guys claimed, Vicente, you claimed that you wanted more police accountability. We showed up for you. We voted for you and got you in the position that you are in, Mayor, how are you different? Are you voting accordingly? The contracts that you want to claim that keep your hands tied existed well before you were

elected into power and applied for this job. Jesse and Jonathan, right, homegrown leaders, these problems that existed, existed, they have existed before they applied for this job. They have dealt with the consequences of the policies of the people before them. So these problems existed before the pandemic, and this pandemic only made them worse. And people's basic needs, such as housing, are not being met. And it's ridiculous for you to

use any policies or any legal terms as a justification for you not doing your job. You're failing the youth that got you elected. They got you into the position. How are you guys different? And while Heroes Pay is a great band-aid to a deeper-rooted problem, advocating and calling out your colleagues for not showing up for the community that got them elected is fighting for your community. It's great to claim that you believe in something, but it's another thing to fight for it. calling out your colleagues and for the campaign that they who funds their campaigns they they vote

in this council according to how who pays their paycheck and call it out for what it is because people's lives are being affected for your inactions your policy makers look for ways around the policies to fix it so that people's needs are being met because you're failing us until the city budget is actually reflective of the city's needs, of the people's needs, you're failing us. And any sort of measure that is just minuscule progress is not good enough. You want a cookie for showing up time for work?

As if the community didn't have to push you for you to do the bare minimum. As if it came from your heart. No, the community made you vote accordingly. Act according to what you claim to believe in. And if not, then we know where you stand. And when your re-election comes, don't claim. And don't be all, like, shook because we call you the same mierda that used to sit in those seats before you.

Naila Hernandez, followed by Karina, followed by Sarah Bruno.

Naila Hernandez, Karina, followed by Sarah Bruno.

good afternoon my name is Karina Reyes and I have been here in this community of Santana for more than 40 years I live and I'm transgénero and I'm supporting this group that I think that has a way to help us the community. We are supporting you, Vicente Sarmiento, and all the community. We hope to work together to have a better Santana.

It's a pleasure to have a representative of Santana like you. And we hope that we can help everyone. And I hope that we can help that everything is better for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Karina Reyes. I've been a resident of Santa Ana for over 40 years. And I'm living here in Santa Ana, a transgender woman. And I'm here to support our community. And I'm here to support this group that has a way to help our community. We have supported you, Mr. Vicente Sarmiento. You are part of the community. We want a better Santa Ana and I'm happy to be to have you here, to have you here as a Santa Ana representative, to have a Santa Ana representative as yourself. So we hope that you represent and we have

we hope to have a better Santa Ana for all. Thank you Sarah Bruno followed by Nico Mikuelz followed by Guadalupe Rios. Sarah Bruno, Nico, Guadalupe Rios,

Guadalupe Javarosa Pizarro

Pizarro

Muy buenas noches. Yo soy Rosa Pizarro. Usted me conoce muy bien como estoy conociendo ahorita a todos los que le están cooperando a usted. I am very proud of my community.

I am tired of my years, I am tired of that we have not done justice. I want to see if this year, with the power of their power, we have offered to do something for us. We have 10 years of suffering with a man abusivo that no one is respected. I want you to put your cards on the subject, Mr. Sarmiento. He abusa of us, of the community that cannot raise their voice, of the community that is holding the face, that is saying that is fine,

but he gives courage because he takes advantage of our bond.

This manager, we believe that he is a manager because he says his name, but he was the barrener anterior. And now, with abuse of authority, he comes to gritar a house, we pay 1,500 dollars of rent, and he doesn't respect our property. No sé si está en su poder usted, de los concejales,

poder hacer algo por nosotros. También vengo a solicitar que con este budget que ha venido, que son 43 billones de dólares, que sepan invertirlos. Quiero transparencia, quiero ver la realidad de las cosas, señor Sarmiento. Mire nuestra calle primera, qué tan fea está. Look at the freeway, that's a shame.

Before we saw so many people who were disabled, people who were infected, how they cross. We are living a tough time for this pandemic. And that this manager came to us, please. We are 120 families in my park, 120 familias que muchos han tenido que dejar su casa porque ya no aguantamos yo sé que ya la no me está anunciando pero quiero que también venga la señora del otro parque que es guadalupe para que venga a hablar un poquito de lo que

ella sufre también es parte la misma cosa señor salmiento por favor cartas en el asunto be a bien yo no estoy peleando con la policía porque les dan dinero a ellos dediquen un poco de dinero al padre no va a santana haberla mejor queremos los sensibles tanto que les he pedido esa luz parece de tijuana es por eso que nos apuñala la tanta gente ahí hay tanto crimen a cualquier hora, a las 3 de la mañana, en la noche. Queremos cámaras, por favor. Gracias.

Doña Rosa, antes de que se vaya, ¿por qué no, Daniel? Si puedes hablar con Doña Rosa para agarrar los datos acerca de su situación. Gracias, Doña Rosa.

Muchas gracias.

Good evening. My name is Rosa Pizano. You know me because I've been here before. and I'm glad to get to know the people who are here working with you. I'm here to help our community to give the face for the community from our community. I'm going in age and I am tired but I'm tired because of the lack of justice because we're hoping that this year you can help us. We're hoping that you can do something you offered to do something for our community and we've been having problems with this manager for over 10 years and this manager does not respect

us he takes advantage of our people he steps on our people he does not respect us and the manager is a manager in name only because he used to be the person that sweeps over there but now he comes into our homes and yells at us we pay rent we pay $1,500 in rent and he does not respect us so we are here to see if you can do something in our community I don't know if that's something that you can do the city council can do also the 43 million dollars that you're going to receiving we want you to invest it in our community and to have transparency in how you are using these funds look at first street it's very ugly now look at

the freeways they're very dirty now we didn't have used to have so many sick people walking in the streets and now the situation is very bad and let alone this manager that is there in our community over a hundred families are suffering because of him many have left because they don't want they don't want to deal with him and also I'd like to call what mrs. Guadalupe to talk about what's happening in her park a very similar situation so please help us in something I'm not against you giving money to the police but do use money to improve Santa Ana give us some some help in the light that Sullivan the light

that's that's there looks like a light from Tijuana we have they have had stabbings and people getting hurt over there we need to have cameras installed over there thank you

Ustedes Guadalupe de Ríos? Rico Rico adelante

Señor Sarmiento me apena mucho venir en esta manera yo ya había solicitado una cita con el señor Jonathan Hernandez y si su secretario Danny Soto me atendió te recuerdas I gave a letter of approximately five pages, ten pages, and today I'm waiting for a response from the young and the conceals, and I never have obtained it. Como decía mi compañera Rosa Pisano, hemos sido abusados verbal, física y emocionalmente en estos parques.

Es una comunidad de 228 casas, donde pagamos $1,500 dólares, todas se pagan taxis, señor, y no hemos tenido ayuda de parte de ustedes. De una manera bien atenta, le quiero pedir ayuda. Rápido, señor. Mucha gente se ha muerto con lo de la pandemia Como 50 personas muertas Y eso no les condule a los managers Han desalojado a personas Las han sacado y han revendido las casas otra vez Eso es un abuso que ya estamos cansados Como le repito, le pedí ayuda a los jóvenes Y no nos la han dado

No se han tomado la molestia en decir ¿Sabe qué señora? Ya leí su carta we will continue on a process. The last word that I remember, Mr. Danny Soto said, you know, unfortunately, in those parks we can't get into. They send us our cars inside, they pay $300, they send us tickets to $140, because it's a private park. We need help. We are a totally Hispanic community. We are more attentive to the Lord. We ask you to help.

If you want, I'll put a bag of clothes. We need you to help. Thank you.

My name is Guadalupe Rico and Mr. Sarmiento I am embarrassed to have to come to talk to you like this but I'm here to ask for your help and we we have the apartment so we had I had an appointment with mr. Jonathan Hernandez and I saw mr. Danny Soto his assistant and he listened to me you remember and I gave him a 10-page letter with our situation and as of yet as of today I have not received an answer so we have had these these

these problems with the manager and we have 128 homes there we pay $1,500 a month and it's the situation is very very difficult we get no help and we have we have asked for help we have received no help over 50 people have died due to the pandemic and what happens is that they the victim and they resell their homes we're asking for help we're not getting any help and we're not getting any answers from the help that we were that we have

requested and not not even a hey yes i read your letter and last thing that mr danny soto said is we can't do anything the city can't do anything when it comes to the to the those parks and they send the tow truck on our cars they tow our cars we have to pay $300 the city tickets us $140 just because it's a private park and the community is entirely Hispanic community and we're here to ask for your help when I came in they asked me to wear a mask that's fine I can wear a mask I can wear

Escuba gear if you want but please help us. Thank you for that Alma followed by Cesar Medina followed by Maribel Martinez. Alma? Cesar Medina, this was Maribel Martinez?

and then Angel Ruiz. Thank you.

He has not described it, so by my mouth will speak my spirit.

The problem with us, as we mentioned Rosa Pizano, is a man who has become accused of the accused of the neighbors. And with me is one of the victims, but I hope she can comment it. because it is better that she expresses what she felt.

And the other point, we want you to do that, the Alcalde Sarmiento, the power that has the power, the ejerza, because you can do it with voluntad. also also also also also also also also also also also also also also also also also

also also also also also

also also also also also also also also

! also also also and they become owners and they can say this house I got by the Alcalde Sarmiento and many more than Santana, because Santana can live better than what currently we live. Alcalde Sarmiento, we want to say that at the end of his period in 2025,

any Santanae, where I look at, can say, that was done in the period of the Alcaldes Sarmiento. I think I'm going to understand. I'm sorry to speak in Spanish, because here is when I'm more intense and passionate. We also want to see Santanae, where Santanae can live better, tenga un presupuesto para la limpieza, porque es verdad lo que dijo Rosa, con el cambio de clima se ha ensuciado muchísimo. Y usted tiene la oportunidad. Esta es la oportunidad,

alcalde Sarmiento. Votamos no por el continuismo, votamos por el cambio. Usted es nuestro amigo, representa el cambio. Queremos que al salir de esta pandemia tengamos tres cosas.

PAM, techo y empleo. Y se puede lograr con su voluntad.

Queremos que tome cartas en el asunto de lo que dijo Rosa Pizano y Lupe Barragán. A pesar de que estamos regulados por el Estado, queremos que usted intervenga en este caso, no nos dé alargados el asunto, y que podamos en la próxima reunión venir a felicitarlo. Estamos a las órdenes. because we simply know that if you go well, everyone will go well. If you go well, everyone will go well. But if you go well, everyone will go well.

Thank you, Mr. President. We are united to win, united to win, and organized to be successful. Thank you.

Thank you.

CESAR MEDINA, CESAR MEDINA, Good evening, honorable members of the council. My name is Cesar Medina, and I'm here from the organization called Sullivan in Action. And I'm here, I have many problems, but I'm not here to speak of all the problems. I'm here with no written notes, so I'm going to let my mouth bring what my spirit has to say. So our problem is just like Mrs. Rosa Pisano mentioned, we have a person who has become an abuser, an abuser of the neighbors. There's a woman that can speak what happened to her, and I can let her speak for herself.

There are other things, Sarmiento, that I'd like to speak to you. You are in power now. Use it. Use this power, because if you have the willingness, you can use this power. We are asking you, Mayor Sarmiento, to use part of that remaining budget to maybe $20 or $40 million to build affordable housing so that at the end of your term, 500 or 1,000 families can become homeowners and they can say, I'm a homeowner because of Mayor Sarmiento. Santa Ana needs, has many needs, and Santa Ana can have a better life. Santa Ana can be better.

We're hoping that at the end of your term in 2025, Santa Anaans can look around and say, I have this or this happened because of Mayor Sarmiento. I'm sorry that I'm speaking, but I speak better when my passion comes out. So I'm asking that Santa Ana can have some more cleaning, budget for cleaning. Will this climate change and issues have made the city dirty? We have an opportunity to vote, and we voted. We voted for an opportunity not for more of the same, but we voted for change, and you represent change.

After the pandemic is over, we want three things. We want bread, we want roof, and we want employment, and you have the power to do it. I don't know if this is an issue for others, the state or others, but we're asking you to do something. and we want to come back at the next meeting and congratulate you for a job well done because if you do well all of Sanana does well and if you if you fair fair not so well Sanana is going to do the same and wish you a successful

thank you next Maribel Martinez followed by Angel Ruiz followed by Dang Lee

He keeps me gritando and keeps me abusing from my community. There are only 114 houses, 15, I'm sure, and he keeps me abusing from the people, and they're gritándoles. Mucha gente se ha moved from there. So, the owner doesn't do anything to help us. The owner, or Kingsley, I don't know who is the representative of that park, not only that park, but also the other, where is Lupe Barragán, They were abused. We need help, please. I need help to hear your voice. I was abused by this manager sexually.

I ask you, please, that you hear me. They get out of that park. There were managers previously who lived happy. We were happy. And I said, I'm going to have this man abusando, acosándome, siguiendo me alrededor de todo el parque cuando yo salí a caminar. Y no nomás yo, hay más mujeres que han sido abusadas por él, verbalmente. So, por favor, le pido que nos ayude.

Señora Martínez, si nos puede esperar ahí atrás, voy a mandar un oficial para que hable con usted, porque usted acaba de declarar un delito criminal. Entonces, eso sí lo tenemos que documentar. If you can wait for us, I invite someone to speak Spanish with you.

Very friendly. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm here to represent my community and I'm here to ask for your help. I, as the gentleman mentioned, I was sexually abused by the manager and this is not fair. This is not just me. He's been yelling at other people. He's been yelling at other people in the community. There are 114, 115 homes, I'm not sure, but he keeps abusing people. Many people have had to move because of that, and the owner doesn't do anything. I don't know who the owner is, somebody or something, but other people have been abused as well.

I'm here to ask you to listen to me. I was sexually abused by the manager. And other people have been abused as well, physically as well. And some people have had to move, have to leave the park. We've had other managers before, and this manager has not been expelled. Other managers have been there before. We have been very happy. but he's been accosting me when I go for a walk he's been following me and other

people have been verbally abused as well thank you can I have a Angel Ruiz

followed by Dang Lee followed by Regina Contreras Regina Contreras

Hi, can you hear me? Yeah, okay, thank you. Hello. Just to give some simple history, a year ago, we were here in the same situation with the uprisings against police brutality and police misconduct. It shames me to say that we're in the same position and the same historical moment today here in Santa Ana. The city council has changed, however, David Paniolosa is still here and Phil Becerra, who to remind you was accused of being a sexual abuser. Is it a shame that he is still here in

office? What kind of city are we where we allow sexual abusers to be here sitting in that to make decisions about the youth of Santa Ana? For years people have been demanding to defund the police And I see you're smirking because you know it's true. You can't deny it. Yeah. It is a shame that people have spent years, years advocating for this. Years. I do not want to be the same youth that spends years advocating about this issue. I don't want to spend my time having to advocate year and year again about the budget and how the police should be defunding, should be defunded. It is a shame.

As youth, I demand that youth be taken seriously and taken into consideration in this budget. The budget does not reflect the needs of the youth and the community. Starting off with youth homelessness, youth mental needs, youth internships, not just summer but year round, where even after they graduate from high school they can have a stable source of income and a stable job.

It is important that the City of Santa Ana takes us seriously and takes our voice into consideration when making these decisions. As City Council, if you decide to approve this budget, you are making a clear statement that you do not care about the youth of Santa Ana, you do not care about the community of Santa Ana, and that you will continue to be puppet of the POA, and you will continue to to be mishandled by them and controlled by them, and make decisions that impact the youth and harm them.

It is important that we as youth are considered in this process and aren't looked at just someone else in the budget process. We deserve the funding. We deserve to be allocated money for. We deserve to be taken seriously in this process, and we deserve to have our voices heard. Not just youth in Santa Ana, but the housing folks here, the trans community here. Everyone deserves to be heard. And throughout this budget process, that budget does not reflect the needs of the community and what they truly deserve and need. There's a basic human right to be heard throughout this process. Thank you.

Thank you. Dang Lee, followed by Regina Contreras,

followed by Ariel. Hello, good evening everyone. I'm here to voice my support for the Vietnamese community license. It's something that I do believe that funds will help bridge the community or small community with the city, especially in times like this where there's a lot of distrust in the community with the city. So I think that we have somebody in the community who will help with that a lot. Also, being here I'm able to hear the story from the community I just hope the city were able to come up with a plan something that trackable process that we able to

look back from here like a year from now and we were able to say that we did something for them for the people that need us the most so thank you thank you

Regina Contreras and Ariel

Hello, good evening. I'm here to express my disappointment and my concern regarding the funding for the police department in St. Anna. I've been living here for 40 years. I do have a business in Anaheim from Orange County. I am part of the transgender community. I want to just to point out that by you funding $9 million to the police department, you're funding the discrimination, the humiliation, the harassment towards the transgender community because that's what they do. Most of the time they do it. Not many times but most of the time. And you funding them demonstrates that you do care for something. So now is your

time to demonstrate that you care for the whole community in particular with the transgender community. It's time for you to do something about it. It's time for you to do something for everybody. Transgender community is very important just like the police department. That's all I have to say and I just hope you could keep this in consideration and keep the transgender community which is not going to go away but it's going to keep growing and it's going to be in more need of help funding for health housing and all the needs that people might have

and the Alianza Trans Latinx is the one that is going to be taking care of that with your help. I'm just hoping that you do fund this for the transgender community just like you did for the police department. Thank you.

Thank you, Ariel.

Ariel G. Followed by Sita Ali.

Followed by Irma Hauregui.

Followed by Karen Marks.

Good evening everybody, Mayor Sarmiento and Consul. It's a joy to see everybody and get to meet Ms. Ty Pham. We've been on the Zoom and I haven't met the other Consul members. I have six points. I'll try to be as concise as possible. First of all, thanks again for supporting us. We have a massage parlor in Wilshire Square. I think it was just a mistake or an issue of zoning and it was an old office for the fire station commercial. but because of old zoning codes it allowed a business to to establish itself and building

has to do what it has to do but because we have old zonings I think a moratorium needs to be done and we study to make sure what we want is businesses to flourish and residents to flourish so in analyzing and making sure that our zonings are appropriate for each era area would be a good point that is item number one number two the fire station on cyprus and and bishop that area is we would love to preserve the building but we toured it last week um i have a background a little bit in construction and i would suggest to do a serious analysis with a structural engineer to

look at the state and condition of the building in order to really see what can be done because it is our historic building and there's guidelines for that to see how much camp we preserve and we would love to have a substation in the background because that would really stabilize that building that example was came to us very vividly by touring the old McFadden library that I encourage every one of you to please see the new McFadden library with the substation and the PAL program in your funding please replicate that program it could be adjusted according to area but that is the one of the most successful programs I've ever

seen for years if you want to rebuild the trust with the community and the police I can't find anything that would be that could exceed that I am so impressed that I am I reached out myself when I heard about it I am I asked officer Holcomb to allow me to see it then I put it and you got an email to reach out to everybody to see it because this is impressive then after you going back to the fire station once it's analyzed and know exactly what can be done if it can be rebuilt then i would suggest uh uh mayor segmento remember we did a study of the pacific electric park and

we had surveyed the community to see exactly what the needs and the were for the um east side madison area i suggest strongly to do exactly the same thing to the community and find the most appropriate program that would fit there either pal parks and ricks an arts regardless i would ask for that. There you go. And also, if you're talking about the coming analysis, you're deciding on lowering the standards for police on minor violations, don't. When you make, it's like weeds. If you control weeds and little problems where they're little, they

don't escalate too big. So I enforce all laws. Don't change them. So thank you, Vera, again.

Thank you for everything and I love seeing your faces. Thank you, Edma. Karen Marks followed by Evangeline Garonsky followed by Mary Guzman.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I am the president of Wilshire Square and to go on record, I just want to let you know we don't have a massage parlor in the neighborhood. We have one on the outside of our neighborhood, just so that you don't get the wrong idea there. But we are concerned because it's right at the edges of our neighborhood. In fact, we have two of them. And they're near schools, they're near churches, they're near fire stations, and they're near our neighbors. And we're very, very concerned because not only is it questionable behavior, but it's also growing.

There's at least four in the South Main Corridor area that we know of. And that's right at our doorstep. we're trying to be good neighbors but it's hard when we don't know what's going on so we would like to be part of that discussion more so also we would like to um explain or thank you mayor about the traffic on mcfadden we are having major issues with that as you all know or should know by now and we wanted to thank you for putting up the signage throughout the area that says slow down the flashing lights and all that great job guys we really appreciate that we also are

very excited about the angle coming off a flower that kind of allows people to kind of park in that intersection a little bit because there are neighbors there that really are impacted and not only on our side but Henninger as well we do want to also I want to tag on to Irma's statement about the pal facility if you have not seen that an awesome opportunity for us to help our communities especially our kids who are really struggling right now these the particular situation we had an opportunity to go visit them and their program is very what i would call um

consummate and that it helps kids and families in that particular area and they're very focused on baseballs and activities and all sorts of wonderful things for kids but they also reach out to the parents in tying that to the fire station in cyprus that can be that community connection would be really powerful and we at wilshire square want to be a part of both of those because that's a way we reach to our neighbors and we are very excited about both of them becoming available to us as a model for future use the last thing I want to thank you for is participating in our neighborhood

events we had a great time seeing you there it was really fun we look forward to seeing you gentlemen at one of our meetings. Tagiette, we'd love to see you as well. We're excited about the new things that are coming up and we're really grateful that the city has finally opened its doors. So thank you very much for your support and I look forward to seeing you guys around town.

Thank you, Karen. Evangeline Garonsky, followed by Mary Guzman, followed by Hector Bustos.

Got older this year, it takes pretty long to get up here. First of all, good evening, council members, as nice as she says, to see all of you again and good evening to our city staff. I'm Evangeline Goronsky and I'm one of the past presidents of Wilshire Square. In fact, there's four of us here tonight. They're all past presidents of Wilshire Square. But first of all, let me tell you a little bit about my ancestry here in Santa Ana and why I care so much about this town and especially my neighborhood. My mother came here in 1921 at the age of 14 with her family, the Wolfords. My father came here at the age of 17 in 1921.

He was from the Jerry family, came from Minnesota. So this year my family has been here in Santa Ana for 100 years, so I'm pretty proud of that.

I had an uncle who served on the Santa Ana Police Department in the 30s and the 40s, and later became the captain of detectives for the department. His cousin before him served here on the police department in the 19's, in the teens in other words, 1917, 18, something like that. He's the one who encouraged my uncle to come and join the police department. Now some of you know, I'm sure a lot of you know, that I work as a police volunteer. So it kind of runs in the family all the time. Anyway, when my parents were married in 1932, where did they move to? Let you guess.

Wilshire Square. When my mother was, 10 years ago she died, she was almost 104. She had been in Wilshire Square for 80 years. She'd been there. So you can see why I care a lot about this community. My brothers and I were raised here, the three of us, we were all raised right in Wilshire Square. Our three children have been raised right in Wilshire Square, and my three youngest, our three youngest grandchildren are being raised in Santa Ana. You see why I have such roots here, and I care about this town. Many years ago now a halfway house was going to go in at 1415

South Broadway. Does that sound familiar with that address? Okay, it was a halfway house that they were going to fill with criminals just out of prison. They were rapists, they were gangsters, they were robbers, and we were going to have that in our neighborhood. But back then the San Diego Police Department visited our neighborhood door to door and told us about this. That was the only way we would have known about it. Right around the corner from St. Ann's Catholic School and the church there too. The kids would be going by all the time. When they told us about this, they also let us know that they were not in

favor of it and were asking for our help somehow to help them get rid of this so that it wouldn't come in. So they told us of a meeting that the city was having down at the city hall. Not this City Hall, but another one someplace. I don't remember where it was, one of the older buildings. And 500 people showed up. That took care of that problem right there and then. This time, our neighborhood of Wilshire Square was not notified about this massage parlor going in. And we're wondering why we were not notified. Okay. What we saw just yesterday was this large red sign that says massage.

and that gave us a clue something's going on here so that's the only way that we found it was by pure accident that we found out about it this is what's your square this is and always has been a family-oriented neighborhood and we expect it to stay that way we want it to stay that way so please do not place this massage parlor in our beautiful motion square thank you very much for

listening thank you Mary Guzman followed by Hector was honorable mayor

Sarmiento so good to see you tonight yes longtime advocate for South Main Street I really appreciate you and I appreciate the city council persons here too I've I've been working with Mayor Pro Tem Penaloza recently about this issue and Councilman Becerra as well. So I thank you so much for giving us this time. As something that was alluded to earlier by one of our other speakers was the fact that the history for this particular business has a history of the fact that it was, let me give you the address.

It's 1415 South Broadway Street and slash 1417 South Broadway. This was once the administration building for the Santa Ana Fire Department. When the Santa Ana Fire Department was joined the Orange County Fire Authority, that particular building went up for sale. It was no longer needed. At the time it was spot zoned for commercial use. This is a residential strip for blocks and blocks and blocks.

You see little children playing hopscotch and jump rope just feet away from where 1415 South Broadway Street is.

This is where the massage parlor sign has appeared in the last few weeks. I just came upon it when I was coming back from the skate park with my 10-year-old son. Yes, we've adopted a child. That's why. I have a 10-year-old son, and I was shocked to see that there. It really was. It seems it's not the appropriate use for that location. I thank Mr. Alvaro Nunez, who's been helping us as well to understand the issues and what can be done. We appeal to the police department.

They are currently reviewing the occupancy certificate right now. And we just appeal to you to consider this very carefully because this is a very nice residential community. apartment to apartment buildings are right next to it with young families and children playing on the sidewalk all the time or in their yard their front yard so we really want to make sure it remains a safe place it may be a very good business for all you know I would like to appeal to you to consider working

with the economic development division in the city of Santa Ana and seeing if they can find a more appropriate business that can fill that space for the State Farm Insurance Agency that has leased it to the massage parlor. That would be my desire, is to make all parties happy. An appropriate business for that location that still is family friendly. So I thank you very much for listening to me this evening, and I know you're going to do the right thing.

Thank you. Thank you Mary and congratulations once again. Oh thank you. Hector Bustos.

Hello my name is Hector Bustos. I'm a resident of Ward 4. It's kind of sad and kind of a shame that we're here again today a full year after what happened last year. I thought some of you might learned your lesson last year when folks who were sitting in those same seats as y'all are now voted to fund the police and not invest in our communities and what happened they were voted out of office we did it once the community got together voted those individuals out because they weren't meeting our needs and we'll do it again next year in 2022 and again in 2024.

The biggest thing that I want to push is that we need to invest in our youth.

One of the things that we heard at the first hearing with the police department is that cops are holding events and services and programs for young people. The police department doesn't need to do that. They don't. It doesn't make sense for a department that is constantly criminalizing our youth to hold such events and services. It doesn't make sense for the same people that are charging at young people at their bike for simply expressing their First Amendment right last year to protest. It doesn't make sense when we have police officers constantly harassing our

young people to be holding these kinds of programs and events. Let's find departments that should be doing that, like the Parks and Recreation Department.

It's really sad that departments like Parks and Rec are having to, you know, just figure it out. Figure it out. The scraps that you all get at the bottom, all of you departments, figure it out. We're not going to touch the police department's budget. Because our pockets are way too deep to care about the community in Santana. Because we want to be re-elected. and have the support of the Police Officers Association.

And this argument about this $9 million contractual agreement that we're talking about now. Okay, but there are millions of other dollars that we can reallocate from the police department's budget to truly meet the needs of our community.

The transgender community that spoke before me today made some really valid points. That flag that you all are hanging so proudly outside of this chamber means nothing. It means nothing if there isn't policy that is advancing and supporting the needs of the LGBTQ plus community, specifically the trans community. We need housing opportunities that keep our communities who have been here for decades in Santana here.

And if tonight we can't make a decision, then let's go back to a first reading. Because that's what our community is demanding. That we need to really look at this budget and find the money. Because we have the money. The answer is to defund the police department. A lot of y'all don't like the term defund the police department. Okay, don't say defund the police department. Let's say reallocate funds to other departments that truly really need it, like parks and recreation. We've been here for years advocating for the same thing over and over and over again. When are you going to listen?

Thank you.

That ends the comments here for those that are here in person. Madam Clerk, are there any members of the public that wish to address the council on the phone?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. There are speakers to provide their comments. To request to speak, dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom, with the exception for all items on the agenda or non-agenda items, with the exception of public hearings. Before muting callers, I'd like to begin by reporting the following summary of emails provided as of today. We received 10 Santa Ana residents and 8 non-Santa Ana residents in support of the climate change resolution. One Santa Ana resident commented on ideas that the city can do to help climate change even if a resolution is not passed.

One Santa Ana business provided a comment on the need for unemployment reform due to pandemic resulting in difficulty hiring employees. One, Californians for Safe and Rapid Recovery, various Chamber of Commerce's, Business Association, and Taxpayer Associations requesting council to rescind premium pay ordinance. On item number six, we had 14 Santa Ana residents requesting to defund the police and invest in the community with increased social services. Three, non-Santa Ana residents, and one Santa Ana not disclosed in support.

request to make Willowwick Park with affordable housing 33 Santa Ana residents in support 18 non Santa Ana residents for item 12 one Santa Ana resident commented that the city should look into purchasing electric or hybrid vehicles and also for item item number 15 one Santa Ana resident commented that the city should look into purchasing electric or hybrid vehicles. And with that, caller with the last three numbers, 260, if you would please select

star six to unmute your call. Good evening Mayor and Council members. My name is Valerie Hlant. I'm a resident at Morrill Wind. I'm calling to address my concern and provide comments on agenda number six regarding one of the city's budget proposal of establishing a position for Vietnamese American community Asian there are three points I'd like to share with the council members and the residents of the city of Santa Ana first the Vietnamese American community has first settled in the city of Santa Ana way before other surrounding cities like Garden Grail, Sound

Valley, Westminster and Anaheim there's quite a substantial population of Vietnamese Americans in in this city and yet this community is forgotten and underserved. There are no outreaches or civil engagement to this community. This is in dire need of assistance in any aspect, including but not limited to education, health, public safety, public funding, housing benefits, just to name a few. On the second point I'd like to make is it is a long over due for the city to help bilingual liaison for reaching out to the Vietnamese American community and providing many great resources that the city has to offer.

case in point my family and I are resident in Santa Ana but it's quite difficult and challenging for my parents as well as other Vietnamese people in general to seek inquiries or assistance from the city due to language barrier. As a result they could not obtain necessary assistance or receive resources that they entitled to at the residence of the Santa Ana. And this is a very common issue and it's just one of the many areas that the Vietnamese American community needs help with. And I'd like to thank you to the city of Santa Ana and council members for taking the initiative to start the first step of reaching out

and providing health for the Vietnamese community. And lastly, this online post when City of Santa Ana one that stated quite negative comments and appear to use race dating tactics, divide, create distrust and tension among the residents of Santa Ana, especially during this period when anti-Asian hate is rising rapidly. So the post discredit the city's goodwill to help but underserved Sania community. So as such, I'd like to caution the council members, the residents of Sania, Sania, and call into question of the post true motives and intentions. Thank you again for having me speaking on the meeting today

and I hereby concluded my comments on this agenda item. Thank you. Thank you.

Caller with the last three numbers, 436, If you would please dial star six to unmute your call or select the microphone icon.

Hello?

Hi, thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and Councilmembers. My name is Bao Pham. I'm a resident of Ward 1. I'm calling in support of initiatives to allocate funds for a re-use community liaison at the city. As you know, Santa Ana is extremely vibrant. And to me, part of its vibrancy is the many different cultures and communities that call Santa Ana home. And for the city to have it be a liaison is a sign of great generosity on the city's part and a good faith towards its residents. As you know, one of the biggest barriers to civic engagement is language and the access to relevant

information. You know, oftentimes we see that issues as ordinary, as getting information for a business license, resolving complaints, or just turning out into your water. It becomes a laborious task because of the lack of familiarity with the language or with the processes that are involved in engaging with local government. And I think these limitations, they're not unique to the community. I think they are quite common in certain populations. of any immigrant communities. And so for the BDMIS residents in Santa Ana to have a resource to reach out to, I think it's a great step towards including every voice

at the table. And I hope that you would consider having an allocation in your budget for a BDMIS community liaison. Thank you.

Thank you. caller with the last three numbers 416 if you would please dial star six from your phone or select the microphone icon to unmute your device and proceed with your comment please state your name for the record and the ward within the city of Santa Ana that you record for the record

okay um my name is and i'm currently a resident homeowner in board one of sannahana um i wanted to call in regards to item six and the second reading of the budget and give my strong support for passing the budget with a full-time biannese community liaison um obviously this is a pretty shockingly overdue and an important position uh very important that we have someone like this to adequately engage with i think it's about 25 to 30 000 residents of the city which is nearly a tenth of the city um who as of yet have not had appropriate

representation or i'm sorry yeah appropriate representation or services provided for those who are not native speakers of English or have challenges with English. I think that walls off an enormous part of the city. I think it's something that's disappointing when we compare ourselves to some of our nearby cities, which they do have those services for minority groups such as the Vietnamese population. So I think it's something that's definitely overdue.

And I think we're kind of used to, unfortunately, in this country, a lot of underfunded government services and half-hearted attempts to address issues and provide welfare benefits and social services. So it would be nice, for once, if we have something that's not a half measure and that we fully commit to something that's so overdue and needs a very dedicated individual and team to help provide these services. um maybe you know that'll help us catch up with some of the neighboring cities in that regard

and um i think we also would like to urge council to ignore a lot of the racist commentary that's kind of cropped up about this issue um just some pretty well-known websites that have been running uh some hate-mongering posts and questioning the need for something like this um and i I was very disappointed to see that, but it's definitely something that should not be coloring the perspective of any of the council members, in my opinion. So with that, thank you.

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

Hi there, can you hear me? Yes, we could hear you. My name's Roxelle Soto, and I'm a resident of Ward 3. And I wanted to speak to agenda item number six. And I really just wanted to ask for equitable pandemic recovery and for Santa Ana to come back stronger. But listening to the comments of this meeting, I'm really seeing like two different police departments. I was hearing from one person saying that the police went knocking door to door telling residents of Wilshire Square regarding a halfway house potentially being built there and I'm just wondering who did the police serve because that

doesn't happen everywhere and it's just very complicated to see that and I am also wanting to say that I am in favor of funding a Vietnamese community liaison to help dispel that distrust and to help them get services it's 10 percent of the population in Santa Ana. Furthermore the Vietnamese community also have children and we heard a lot about the PALS program the police athletic and activity league where they're helping the students or the youth in Santa Ana but I feel like that's just a lot of propaganda to build bonds with the youth and the you know

they are even offering tutoring I don't think that the police need to be offering tutoring or to be performing athletic activities and baseball with them rather those would be better served by the parks and recreation and divesting that money and putting it into parks and recreation and library services and stopping the criminalization of youth will help the youth not you know bond better with the police furthermore we heard that the cannabis tax revenues aren't being accounted for that's a simple fix like that should have been done since the beginning and it's a simple fix

The fact that the police are going to yet again increase to $9 million this year is outrageous because in the past six years, they've already increased by 23%. I also just feel that the city's policing policy of over-policing isn't working. We need to find strategies that work. I'm not anti-police. I'm more pro-people of the residents of Santa Ana. We need to invest in our youth, but with real programs funded by the Parks and Recreation Library Services, not by the police.

We need to redirect the students spending money on youth into the youth and to helping them. And we also need to invest in our transgender community that was hit very hard by COVID. And they're often left out of these conversations. And I just wanted to reach out to the members of city council and to our mayor to do what's right for the city of Santa Ana, even if it doesn't benefit you. 15 seconds left. Correct. None of these programs benefit me directly, but to see my city thriving and see the community thriving is something right. It's the will of the community. And I believe you guys can do this. Thank you.

Thank you.

Caller with the last three numbers 751 if you would please dial star six to unmute your call or select the microphone icon.

Hello can you hear me? Yes we can hear you. Good evening Council my name is Indigo Zhu and I speak before you today as a Vietnamese longtime resident of Ward 1 and savannah speaking from an abolitionist framework specifically i have four items to address in the budget which is item six on the agenda today first i am in support of at least 100 000 in funding for the arc second i am in support of allocation of 150 000 for a full-time that needs community liaison third i want to call you to decrease the budget for the police and invest instead in programs proven to increase community safety through prevention and finally

i'm in support of funding universal representation as the line item budget line budget item at 300 000 i first want to thank you and city cypress for making sure that the arts in santa ana receive funding through the 100 000 line item in hopes of this amount if it shifts will only increase to meet the immeasurable value that arts and culture bring to our city i also want to continue to uplift the call to allocate 150 000 to hire a full-time vietnamese community liaison which is the role that the city needs in order to fulfill its duties to its residents i want to repeat to

you all that there are over 25 000 vietnamese residents in santa anna 11 000 of whom live on just the west end many have been here or have had their families resettled for decades my own grandfather settled here in santa anna in 1971 even before the end of the war in vietnam this year marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of my family's exodus from vietnam which led them to build and rebuild their lives and homes here although it is a shame that it has taken so long for vietnamese residents and communities to be thoughtfully considered and acknowledged in

santa anna it is important that we do not delay any further we needed this vietnamese community liaison 50 years ago and we need one today i hope you will all personally ensure that this funding goes through on the budget i also want to continue calling you to fund our communities some of you i know refuse or hesitate to listen to the whole to defund the police let alone to heat calls to abolish the police but I want to remind you of renowned abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore's words that abolition is about presence not absence it's about building life firming institutions

allocating funds well funding our communities and ensuring community safety are all mutually inclusive goals when we take care of the people in our communities by making sure they have access to adequate resources and art and representation whether legal or political our communities thrive and do not need to resort to crime this includes and should center the calls to action to fund resources intangible and material support for trans folks and i want to uplift in particular the calls made earlier by various speakers representing alliance that can i've got next

especially as a trans and non-binary person myself i know the influence the police here in santa anna have and i urge you to be the city council that begins to truly invest in your city and your residents. Finally, I am thrilled that each one of you voted in favor of the Decortation Defense Fund line item at $300,000 and want to emphasize the existing access to our city and our country. I urge you to ensure that this line item proceeds into the final budget as you move forward to approve the final budget for the following fiscal year. Thank you. Thank you. Caller with the last three

numbers, 614, please dial star six from your phone or select the microphone icon on your device. Caller with the last three numbers 614, please select star 6 from your phone to speak or select the microphone icon to unmute your device.

Caller with the last three numbers, 872. Please dial star six from your phone to speak, or select the microphone icon. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Hello, my name is Isaac Monzo. I'm calling in regards to item number seven. Good evening, Mayor, Council, and my fellow Santaneros. According to the city website, there's 45 active parks in santana however only six parks have hammer courts memorial el salvador jerome santanita chavez and dojai it would have been seven but the oldest courts in santana which were over 50 years old were knocked down last year these courts of the chep our logan humble courts

according to the trust for public land the irvine park system was ranked seventh in the nation and it's not hard to see why the irvine park system provides its residents with a diverse selection of sport amenities as a matter of fact there are more parks with handball courts in irvine than in santa anna i think this is discouraging news because a large group of santa anna residents have a cultural tie with handball which is evident in the history of the logan neighborhood the residents of logan built their own handball courts over 50 years ago with the direction of a

brick and cement lane family yet the city took it upon themselves to knock down these courts without doing their due diligence no council meetings were held to vote on the courts and the community wasn't surveyed and now another thread connecting the city and its residents is about to be severed i'm against knocking down the courts of santa nita i'm for rebuilding the courts of jeffers park and i would like to invite councilmember peña loza to play with me at the santa nita humble tournament as my doubles partner i would invite a council member and not hernandez but it

wouldn't be fair for everyone else um so let me know councilman peña loza you have my email and and Boomer can go ahead and sign us up. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Ward 5, Santa Ana. Please select the microphone icon on your device to unmute your call.

Zoom ID, Ward 5, Santa Ana. Thank you.

Okay, yeah. My name is Eric Simantad. I'm over here in Ward 5. I'm a worker over here at the... I'm a worker over here at the... Coolio's Auto Service. Yeah, I've been in this committee all my life. About like 30 years now.

And...

Can you reduce the background noise that you have so we can hear you?

As far as the city budget goes, I'd say I'm advocating for to defund the police or, you know, break from the archaic, historical, prioritization of policing and adding unnecessary laws to incriminate more people to justify the sickening cycle. I believe we should be the city to lead the nation. And then once again, California could be, you know, number one and progressive and doing what's civilly right. Another thing, we could reallocate those budgets or those high allocation of the budget

from military policing to the more social services and taking care of the humans on the street that are in need of services. I see them and yeah, it's apparent they need assistance or some sort of help because yeah, housing, they don't look like in good condition when I see them when I walk by them. And also, I think this is good stuff right here, the Zoom meetings and incorporating technology, you know, it's 2021. So I think, you know, maybe we should incorporate more technology things, helping the residents of the city make decisions and not just leaving it all up

into a select few type of dictatorship kind of thing. Cause then, yeah, if that select few is, you know, all part of a association is not really for the people, but really the select few of associations. So, yeah, if we could incorporate more technology, that'd be great to benefit the residents of the city and maybe have assist residents thrive and not oppress them. And about time in Spanish, I want to say that my name is Eric Cimental. I want to stop giving so much money to the city of the city, to help people and not incriminate them,

and not do more laws to incriminate them more. and justificar this dirty or bad system, with those funds that change in place of police and more laws that can help people in the streets, that if they appear that they need help, water, services, things like humans, they sometimes see and they don't know that they need help, like medical services or that of water or mental health. 15 seconds left.

Thank you. Your time is up. So you can do it more so that the community can make more decisions, not just a little like a dictatorship. Okay, thank you.

Caller with the last three numbers, 614, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device or dial star six from your phone.

Call her with the last three numbers 614. If you would please dial star 6 or select the microphone icon on your device.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números 614. Por favor marque estrella 6 para reactivar su llamada.

okay mayor that's all the calls we have great thank you madam clerk let me go ahead and bring it back to the council to ask if there's any items on the consent calendar they'd wish to pull off or abstain from and I believe we already have councilmember fam that you'll be recusing yourself from item

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

27 yes mayor I will be recusing myself from item 27 as the Mesa water district is a client of my employer, Rattan and Tucker, but because this is on the consent calendar, I do not have to leave the room. And in addition, I would like to pull item number 25. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other items on the consent calendar?

David PenalozaItem 2

Mayor Sarmiento, this is Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa. I'm not sure if Council Member Fan pulled item, was that 21?

25. Okay.

David PenalozaItem 2

I would like to pull 21 and number 31. please.

David PenalozaItem 2

Got it.

Council Member Lopez raised her hand virtually.

Go ahead, Council Member Lopez.

Thank you, Mayor Salvanto. I want to pull six.

And I want to register a note on agenda, on the item seven.

Great, thank you for that. Any other items?

Phil BacerraItem 2

mayor just just clarification so item seven is just a receiving file it's not really yes or no

correct staff i don't see that there's a there's a vote supposed to be considered by the council that item is just a receiving file sir great so council member lopez on item number seven i believe it's just an update um there's no action being taken one way or the other so So we'll go ahead and register your concern on that. Did you want to speak to that item or just simply just?

Yeah, no, I understand it's a receiving file, but I also understand from, you know, speaking to our city attorney that I can register and have the minutes reflect me saying that I'm a no on that.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

For clarification, the advice was to state opposition to it because a vote wouldn't be taken on a receiving file, but that she could state how she felt about the item.

Okay. Got it. And just for clarity on that, on item number seven, no position from the council is being technically taken today, one way or the other. Correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

Correct. Yeah, no action is being taken, but any council member can register their thoughts about an item on the agenda, but there will be no actual vote taken on a receiving file, unless it's part of the consent calendar as a whole.

Great. Thank you for that clarification. Okay, with those items being pulled and the abstentions being registered and noted, I'll go ahead and entertain a motion for the balance.

David PenalozaItem 2

Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, will you please call roll?

Council Member Becerra? Yes. Council Member Hernandez?

Yes.

Council Member Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza?

I think we lost her. Councilmember Fan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñolosa?

David PenalozaItem 2

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. Great. Moving along to the first item that was pulled, item number six by Councilmember Lopez.

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. So I just wanted clarity from staff and reading the exhibit. It wasn't too clear on my, for me when I was reading it, one of the things that we discussed during the June 30th, if I'm not mistaken, meeting was to make sure that the met line item in the PD budget stayed the same as it was in the previous year. And I would like some clarification if that is the case.

I'm certainly councilmember and I can answer that question and if you prefer mayor and council members we do have a brief recap that kind of summarizes all the changes that were recorded from the meeting on the first and the third if you'd like that or I can just proceed with answering the question council

member Lucas why don't we have the staff go ahead and do the presentation and then you can begin with your comments I'm sure there'll be comments from that from the other council members as well yeah thank you I was then aware that

there as a presentation thank you okay so let us get the presentation loaded it is very very brief

okay here we go so good evening mayor and council members and members of the public tonight is the final step but approving the citywide budget so what's before you is the second reading and it does not include any programming of revive Santa Ana dollars I know many of the speakers were seeking funding for various programs but tonight the decision before you is for the citywide budget the revived dollars will come back before you in the near future for appropriation and then following that you'll have a lot of opportunity to put in place the programs and the services so this is just a really brief recap so

highlighted budget enhancements the budget that's before you these are just some of them that i chose to spotlight it is it reduces the um well first let me back up and say we are very fortunate as a city that despite the challenging economic environment created from the pandemic you do have enhancements in this budget as you have requested and as we received from community requests there is a reduction in the ongoing hiring freeze that the city hasn't had in place for over a year this includes additional staff that will help service this additional staff includes a full-time Vietnamese outreach coordinator as well as a third

executive assistant there is continued investment in technology within this budget there's additional resources for code enforcement there's funding for sidewalks and medians there's increasing in funding for the legal defense fund and there's an allocation to sponsor more arts and cultural events and there's a full restoration of our recreation programs with increased staffing in In addition to that, there's almost a $60 million capital improvement program for the city.

Some of the follow-up actions that came about from the discussion that occurred on June 1st and June 3rd, several of you raised areas that are going to require some follow-up. There wasn't any vote or majority direction received in these areas, so this is just a summary of what staff interpreted the direction to be. So first, there was a request made to take the necessary steps to modify the cannabis set aside to possibly reduce the enforcement allocation and allot it over to funding for youth programs. So the city attorney and myself will research what is the needed action in order to change

that allocation, which as you know was one-third and one-third, and we will return that to you. While there's no impact to the overall budget, in the future if you do implement that, there will probably be appropriation transfer removing it from enforcement activities over to youth services secondly several of you discussed the possibility of capping the proposed Metro division budget within the police department to the current year's funding level and then utilizing the proposed increase for more community oriented and youth and crime prevention type of activities

we've taken a look at that we believe it is something that we could do there are charges in there that can be allocated out but more importantly there's three positions that we identified that we can possibly reprogram and use those personnel resources for more community outreach engagements expanded programs such as pals crime prevention and other types of community activities and then lastly there was a lot of dialogue on enforcement of minor traffic violations I know there was one request I believe was from you councilmember fan on do we have data relative to how many minor traffic stops are made and what

percentage results in more of a serious crime being discovered unfortunately we don't have that data available so for this item we certainly can have the police department go back analyze traffic stops gather more data and then return in the future the City Council with additional recommendations in that area and then the next slide is really it's just a simple depiction of the entire citywide budget citywide budget is seven hundred and seventeen point one million dollars and this screen just shows you the overall budget and it is allocated by the different types of fun types so the one that we spend the most

time on talking about of course is roughly half the citywide budget and that is the general fund where more of your discretion dollars are located that's the brief recap myself and also the executive staff members are all here if you have any further questions.

Great, thank you for that summary. Thank you for it being brief as well. Let me go ahead and turn it back over to Council Member Lopez and to follow up with her question. Go ahead, Council Member Lopez.

Thank you, Mayor Samantha Mendoza, and thank you, City Manager, for that brief update. I do appreciate the clarity. The follow-up question that I do have is that $1 million difference that we're gonna essentially you know have or keep is that for did I hear correctly that that's for programs within POP, PAL or are we looking to invest in other programs youth related program so we would be looking for direction from

this council because as I mentioned at the meeting there was not majority direction to automatically reprogram those amounts okay thank you for that

that clarification.

Mayor, that concludes my question.

Thank you, council member. Any other members of the council wish to comment or ask any questions?

Council member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam city manager for the update. I had some questions specific to arts and cultural events. Could you tell me what cultural events were updated based off of our last council meeting? I want to know what is reflected here.

So based on the discussions that occurred on June 1st and June 3rd, you directed us to allocate an additional $100,000 to sponsor local arts and cultural events. I don't have a detail for you as to what that's going to consist of, but the money that has been set aside at your direction was $100,000. So it would be available if you approve the budget July 1st.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Okay. And would that include our calendared events, or is that something that is separate?

Completely separate.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Okay. And I think these items are quite significant, but I didn't see them on this presentation. and I know that these are items that are going to be important to community members. I didn't see intervention, prevention, reentry, or any of the aforementioned in-depth discussions that we had last week, particularly on my behalf regarding getting in front of crime prevention in the form of having more reentry and intervention and prevention services. I didn't see any of that there.

so council member hernandez those entire programs and services are a part of the revive santa anna so you did see it when we discussed about the priority focus areas for spending the revive dollars that we'll have available to us to spend through 2024 and it was during those discussions that you made a request for those programs so in july we will come back to appropriate the revive santa anna and there certainly is i believe there was over a million dollars for for those types of programs that we had earmarked, but subject to your approval.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Okay, so this here is a presentation that should reflect that 0.7 million for crime prevention and then the school partnerships for 0.3. I would echo exactly what I mentioned last council meeting that that number is, I mean, it's almost 100% disrespectful to look at a city as large as us, roughly 400,000 people and counting, and a police budget that is larger than any other budget that we have. But crime prevention

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

is 0.7 million. I am not happy about how small that number is. So I want to see that reflected in our presentations because it should be a priority. We shouldn't wait for crime to happen for us to respond to this community. So that's one of my comments. In addition to that, Madam city manager,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

could we go back to that slide? If I can take a look at that slide once more, that'd be greatly appreciated.

Would you like to see the budget enhancement slide or the pie chart?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

The budget enhancement slide.

Okay.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

another another thing that stood out to me i didn't see early childhood education or early childhood literacy there all of which i think is is important for us to highlight as budget enhancements can you verify that that's something that is going to be reflected in in the buzz in the budget i was very vocal about that at our last meeting you were very vocal about it with

the revive spending plan so the early childhood allocation the crime prevention the crime intervention those programs are all part of the revive Santa Ana so as requested by the council we've separated the two so what's before you tonight is the citywide annual budget and what will come back before you probably next month at one of the meetings will be the detailed revive Santa Ana plan for the first tranche so all of those programs that you requested staff took note of and they've put them into that spending plan okay thank you

that concludes my questions at the moment thank you councilmember Hernandez any other members of the council wish to comment this is on on

David PenalozaItem 2

item six all right we're still on item six okay I will in a sec let me go to

Councilmember fan mayor pro tem and then she'll welcome back to you

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

councilmember fan thank you so much mayor I I was very emotional listening to some of the comments today and I get emotional in general but you know I take this position with great I'm very honored to be up here because it's a result of a movement by the Vietnamese American community activist groups and grassroots organizations who said that we are tired Asian Americans in the city of Santa Ana are tired of being invisible we are no longer going to be

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

silent and left out and ignored in city government and civic matters in the city culture or city wide and that culminated in historic election that I am so grateful to be here and to represent this community and represent Ward 1 there There are tens of thousands of Asian Americans in the city of Santa Ana, citywide, not only in Ward 1, and many of them are Vietnamese American. As you heard from some of the commenters today, Little Saigon, the largest community of Vietnamese

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

people outside of the country of Vietnam, was home here in Santa Ana. But we know that the city has a long history of discrimination against Asian Americans and Vietnamese Americans. This goes back to the burning of Chinatown, a city sanctioned action of violence against the Asian community. This goes to the destruction of the Little Saigon sign in Ward 1 that was never rebuilt because some members of the community refused to acknowledge that we are part of Little Saigon.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

And what you also heard today was some commenters mentioning some public Facebook comments and social media comments that was race baiting and that was discriminatory against the Vietnamese American community. So I'd like to share some of those comments with you here today to let you know that the need for Vietnamese community liaison is not something that it will only benefit toward one or the Vietnamese community, but it will benefit all residents. One of the comments was, are there even Asians in Santa Ana? The fact that you are asking this question just

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

reminds us of how invisible we are treated and how invisible we feel in the city, in the state, and in this country. One commenter said, oh the Vietnamese community liaison will be one of their friends or family. It's the commie cult way. Again, red-baiting, racist commentary, talking about how somehow we are not able to follow ethics and rules in searching for representation and support in this city. So I want to share one of the comments that was supportive of a Vietnamese community liaison in addition to the public comments you heard today.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

One of the respondents said, as an Asian person I feel alienated and not included at times. It's not always that people choose not to participate in the programs that the city provides. It's that we don't always know that these programs are even available because of the lack of outreach to other communities. This is what the Vietnamese community liaison will do. This person, this position isn't just about, you know, providing translation services. It isn't just about supporting other departments or bringing business development to the city. It's about seeing people. It's about recognizing our value and that we are a

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

part of this community too. So I urge all of my colleagues in supporting the allocation of $150,000 so that staff can go out and classify this position. The position will probably come back for less than $150,000. And staff will use their professional experience and decide what kind of responsibilities will this person have, what kind of individual are we looking for, and what kind of experience do we need so that all residents in Santa Ana can be served and after that council will have the opportunity to say yes this is what we

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

want go forth and talk to the community and recruit someone who will be able to do the job so once again I support the Vietnamese community liaison position I'm very glad that it's in the draft budget and I look forward to it being approved another comment I'd like to make is regarding police stops and data I know City Manager Ridge brought up the follow-up actions regarding analyzing traffic stops. We heard some comments here today that said, well, you know, low-level crimes in traffic stops are like weeds. We have to stop it before it grows.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

And while I understand that sentiment, you know, we have the broken window theory. We talk about having to prevent crime by deterrence. I am a victim of crime. My family was burglarized when I was in the fourth grade, and we were tied up, and we were held hostage for hours. So I know what it's like to be a victim of crime. But I also know what it's like for my husband to be afraid to be stopped by a cop because he's a dark-skinned man.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

And when we look at data, not just anecdotes, we talk about, sure, you can stop someone, and you'll find, you know, kilograms of cocaine or guns. And every single time someone brings up that anecdote, I can bring up an anecdote of a brown man or a black man or a black woman or a person of color being shot or killed. So I don't care about anecdotes. What I care about is data. And one example that just came out in 2020 is that San Diego State University professors did an analysis for traffic stops in San Diego from 2014 to 2015. And out of 260,000 San Diego traffic stops,

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

only 1.3% led to arrests. That means only 1.3% involved any type of criminal violation. That means only 1.3% has anything to do with the kind of crime that we're trying to deter. But we put hundreds of thousands of other lives at risk. for a traffic stop and for most of those traffic stops it's something that's a fix-it ticket so we're paying these trained officers to put themselves in some of the most dangerous instances that they can provide services to our

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

residents stopping somebody for an expired tag spending 20 minutes how much to follow up on crimes, to follow up on the hundreds of sexual assault cases that are still open today because we don't have the personnel to research it or to investigate it. So that's what we're asking for. We're not saying ignore crime. We're saying let's put our limited resources to better use and to better serve our communities. Because as a victim who has survived a home invasion,

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

I would much rather have that officer search for the people who tied us up than to stop someone for a fix-it ticket. With that, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Fan. Mayor Pro Tem, Peñalosa.

Any other questions from Councilmembers? I know we have Councilmember Hernandez who also has his hand up. I'm not sure if we lost Councilmember Mendoza for the night or is she back with us? No, she's back. She's returned. Got it. I just wanted to make sure we all had an opportunity to speak and to be heard. So let me go ahead and just take a few moments before I send it back to the other council members if they have any comments. So thank you for the presentation, City Manager, and thank you for explaining that tonight we're just looking at the budget, not the revive stimulus monies that we've received.

and you know so we're talking about the the line items and and the budget matters that we're going to be addressing tonight so on the sort of on the issues that you brought back and if we can bring back maybe the slide that you have on what was discussed at the June 3rd meeting if you can certainly

the follow-up action is that the slide you want or the enhancements let me see

I'm not sure which one but if there's only four slides so let's go through whichever one it is that I'm getting to more than anything I just wanted to make sure that that one that one's fine the follow-up actions yeah let's start with that so on the first item I know that there was discussion and I think you know I need to get some clarity from the city attorney if this comes back to us because my discussion at the last meeting was to sort of divert some funding from the enforcement to the youth investment.

Because as we know, the cannabis dollars are, I don't want to say bifurcated, they're actually split into three sources, general fund, enforcement, and youth investment. So to the extent that monies could be sent, not the entire amount, but sufficient monies could be sent from enforcement to youth investment on that. When it comes back to us and if we had to take some position or adopt an amendment to the ordinance, is that a supermajority that's needed for that appropriation or is it a simple majority?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

So I think that would depend. We have had in the past, we have said ahead of time that we will make that change, change. But any change after the adoption of the budget requires that supermajority. What's more is the ordinance that is on the books right now does require a supermajority to amend the ordinance. I do want to take a look at that because I think the intent of that ordinance was to keep the money in youth and enforcement. And in the scenario that you were proposing, it's not like you're taking the money out to use for something for an entirely different purpose. So I want to research that. That's one of the reasons

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

that the city manager is recommending we take a look at it.

Great, because I don't want to send it to, and with all due respect to our Public Works Director, I don't want to send it to Public Works, I don't want to send it to anything outside those three areas. I just simply want to rebalance those or reshift those.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

And I want to look at that ordinance to determine whether we might be able to do that without amending it. I need to take a close look based on the intent.

So I am very supportive of that, and I almost think that to the extent I can adopt this budget, it is because that change will be made. I think the dollars going towards enforcement were done at a time when the forecast of those monies were much, much lower and when we had a really serious problem with unpermitted and illegal operators that we've since cured. It's not completely zero and that's why I wouldn't zero out the amount of funds that would be going to enforcement, but it would be significantly less as a result of the

success we've had in shutting down a lot of the unpermitted operators. So that is, to me, a linchpin issue on adopting and supporting this budget. The second is that the diversion of the increased proposal or proposed budget for the MET team, the $1.1 million, I am very supportive of it going to youth investment. I think that, I think when we think about, you know, public safety, we can't just think about public safety as enforcement. We have to think about it as crime prevention. The investment in youth is a way of addressing public safety. To the extent that we can create

opportunities for our youth to not commit crimes is a way of law enforcement. It's probably one of the most effective ways. So that is something that we need to consider doing. Just like we're doing with rethinking of the, of, and the rethinking of the way we do public safety by diverting 911 calls away from the police and to civilian professionals that will be addressing issues having to deal with the mentally ill, those that are houseless, other welfare check issues. Those I think for many residents who've been concerned with slow response times, long response

times to the extent we can bring PD back to doing core police functions where there are dangerous conditions whether they're weapons whether there's somebody being assaulted whether there's somebody being raped whatever the case is that's serious that's what we need our PD doing and I think to councilmember fans point I think the minor stops nobody's saying to ignore crime but there are better ways than pulling somebody over and simply taking a photograph of somebody's expired registration

tag and sending them a fix-it ticket by mail. That saves the officers time. I think what it does is it corrects the problem. That's my opinion. Again, I think that time is so precious and so valuable that there could be competing calls that could be made. And if somebody, one of our officers is busy addressing that and writing out a citation, that takes time away from responding to serious crime.

So those are things that I think, you know, and for those who say, you know, we don't want to enforce crime or don't want to, you know, enforce or support law enforcement, I think that we realize that crimes, the vast majority of crimes occur to people of color in our community and people who live in impoverished conditions in some of our poorest neighborhoods.

So we certainly don't want to do that, but what we do want to do is we want to make sure that as policing occurs, and I think, you know, the trans community who spoke tonight and the contact and the encounters that they have, these monies could be well spent for training, sensitivity training, dealing with people who are disabled, people from the trans community, how better to serve those communities that are different. Maybe there's people who are hearing impaired or can't speak, and sometimes those disabilities prevent somebody, one of our officers, from being able to deal with those issues.

So I think these funds could be used in a way that could serve our community better. And I think that we spoke about those at length, about having more trust instilled in the community, by having town halls, by having, again, de-escalation training, sensitivity training, things that will improve the trust that we have, you know, with our folks in the community so they can engage better. So I think that all those things are clear. I hope that, you know, I don't want to revisit those all over again, but those that you noted, I just want to make sure that they're part of this budget before we adopt any of these other items.

So let me go ahead and go back to anybody who may have additional questions. I think we just see council member Hernandez's hand up. Go ahead council member.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, and thank you for shedding light on this particular conversation because it's such an important conversation to have. oftentimes when we look at public safety, we historically have had a top-down approach in which federal and state officials develop and they fund and they implement policy based on the priority of keeping communities safe. But unfortunately, oftentimes the people making those decisions don't experience these injustices firsthand.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

So I want us to be able to acknowledge the multitude of structural challenges that disproportionately, you know, people of color are affected by not being involved in these policy conversations. There is a number of organizations that are already working on the ground to identify solutions and many organizations that have been successful in having a community-led approach to keeping our community safe.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

So I think it would be most responsible for us to move those cannabis funds from enforcement to youth development. We are clearly giving youth the most readily accessible option available. When you fail to invest in young people's life, you are telling them to quit. It does not sit well with me having an 11-year-old daughter and being elected on a board where we are not investing in children's lives.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

I oppose that and I ask my colleagues to really look deeply into this and we need to invest our dollars in young people. Right now, this city provides more pathways for children to go to prison than we do to go to college. Fundamentally, something here is broken. A start is for us to shift those funds from cannabis enforcement to youth development. moreover I think it would be a start for us to be able to to to actually have policy that centers

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

our residents and and identifying promising examples of community investment models I think a start for us to do that is to move that 1.1 million from the met team to youth development in LGBTQIA services, which currently there are none. And there's a clear lack of youth investment. I think this is a start. It certainly isn't enough. But from what I've gathered thus far, I think that this is something that I think would be important for us to support.

Thank you, Council Member. Seeing no other... Go ahead. Oh, Council Member Lopez, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I am supportive of these changes, but I also want to make, I also want to be clear that, you know, if my vote is going to be yes tonight to approve this budget, then it is based on the eligibility to make the change from enforcement money to youth investments. And so what I'm hearing is that this council will have the opportunity to discuss how these funds will be spent on a different time and date um but if that is not

the case feel free to correct me no council member you're correct the city attorney and i would have to return to you with the appropriate action to change the allocation reducing enforcement and increasing youth services and then certainly there would be the opportunity to direct staff as to what specific types of youth programs you would like them going for okay thank you city manager

And on the Met, I do want to see that be moved away from the budget, from the PD budget, and invested in youth services and concrete resources to our LGBTQIA community. And so on that specific allocation, would that come back to the council?

If you allow us to, that would be my recommendation. So right now, we would want to take the information, because we're learning some new things. You've actually brought up some additional stuff, such as training for the disenfranchised segment. of our community that police officers maybe need to know how to how to assist better so I would like to have some time if you you could do it either way you could make a budget change at this point in time or you could wait approve it and then we would return with you and would reprogram the 1.1 okay thank you for

that clarification I appreciate it

Great. Any other members of the council on the phone? Madam Clerk? Mayor Pro Tem, go ahead.

David PenalozaItem 2

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I'm going to start off with Public Works in the city budget,

David PenalozaItem 2

and Executive Director Saba. These questions will probably be directed to you, but it's just regarding the tree trimming service that I previously mentioned at the last meeting, and I'm kicking myself because I cannot find that line item. And I know I saw it where there was a difference in the 2019-2020 budget and this year's budget allocation for tree trimming. And I just wanted to ask, because I cannot find it, can you tell me what the appropriated amount was last year compared to this fiscal year coming up?

David PenalozaItem 2

Ann, apologies for not giving you the heads up.

Hi, apologies. I don't have the budget sheet for that. But I know that the

tree trimming budget comes from OCTA as an MOE. No, I'm sorry. As a cost from the highway use of tax account, which is the HOTA, we call it the HOTA, and that fund has been reduced in this next year or this coming year allocation. Therefore, the contract has been reduced, but the service will continue to be provided. I don't know what the difference is, so I apologize. I don't have the budget sheet with me.

David PenalozaItem 2

Okay, thank you. The reason I'm asking is because I know I saw a huge reduction in it, And I just wanted to get some clarity if that tree trimming service was going to be reduced this year as a reflection of that. Is that, I mean, that's possible, correct?

It's possible that it's being reduced, but I have to double check and I'll get back to you on it.

David PenalozaItem 2

I would appreciate that because the one thing that I am, again, constantly emailed about daily and pinged on various platforms and social media is the fact that these trees, we just had a conversation just a couple days ago about that tree over on Magnolia Street with the resident asking for a tree trimming service because of how big the tree is hanging over their homes. and numerous trees falling on cars and people throughout the entire city. And, I mean, we've all been there to see these settlements and the accidents that happen because of these tree trimming services

David PenalozaItem 2

and how much of tree trimming is requested from members of the community. So I wanted to make sure that that, you know, in your department, that that's being addressed and taken care of and made a priority because, you know, this is a constant ask, and I would hate to see that get diminished more than it already is. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem and Executive Director, I did find them out, and you're absolutely correct. It did overall, it dropped from $4.9 million to $3.5 million, but as Executive Director mentioned, it was due to some of the funding sources that was used for it that shrunk year to year. The $3.5 million that is proposed in the budget is more in line with actually what it was in fiscal year 1920. So there was a spike in 2021.

David PenalozaItem 2

Okay, because of that extra influx of tax, that tax. Okay. And I just want to remind, you know, you guys that these trees do keep falling on people's cars, on people, you know, and on homes. And we see them all the time. And it is a huge liability where we're shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars every year from lawsuits over these fallen trees. So it is costing us a lot of money. And we're seeing our insurance premiums increase by over 69% because of incidents like this and vehicle collisions. So we've got to make sure that we address these minor things.

David PenalozaItem 2

But thank you, Director Saba, for that information and City Manager Ridge. In regards to the cannabis diversion from enforcement, I am fully supportive, but I'm a little confused as to how this works because I know that this huge ordinance that has really saved us, saved the city from financial ruin over the last couple of years, you know, like many other ordinances, it requires one first and a second reading to adopt. So, and I know that the mayor sort of asked a question, and I caught some of it,

David PenalozaItem 2

Madam City Attorney, to make a change to take that third from enforcement, which I am, as I mentioned at the last minute, I am supportive to see that reduced, not to zero, but see it reduced somewhat, because it is a huge chunk of money. what does that require I mean I keep hearing of a lot of huge changes trying to get shoved into this this budget vote and and I want to make sure that we're

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

you know being being transparent so I've confirmed that to make that change we have to look at an ordinance that's in your municipal code it's an ordinance that was established by the City Council it requires the placement of these funds within a special funding account, an accountant, and then it mandates how you use those funds. So we have to take a look at it. My first blush review of it was that we were probably going to have to amend the ordinance. That's going to require a first reading and a second reading and then take effect 30 days later. We could also look at whether there's emergency

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

provisions in there as well to facilitate it. But as I looked a little bit closer at it, one of the things I mentioned this evening is it's not like we're taking money out of those funds to go use for public works. It's within the same intent. It's like you're shifting. So I want to take a look at that ordinance and look at the staff report that went with it to see if we might have more flexibility. But my first impression is that we're going to have to amend the ordinance. I'm going to look to see if we can do that on an urgency basis and if we have more

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

flexibility based on your intent when you adopted it. Thank you for that, Madam City Attorney.

David PenalozaItem 2

and I'm not comfortable doing anything in the budget vote that would amend a significant ordinance like that one. I am supportive, and I'll go on the record to say that I am supportive of seeing those dollars diverted, but I think it's in all of our best interests and the interest of transparency to bring that item back as a council item or somewhat other discussion to change that ordinance and take the appropriate steps to do it. Which brings me into the similar questions in regards to vehicle stops.

David PenalozaItem 2

I just want to say for the record that I am 100% supportive of our police department continuing to enforce all our vehicle laws, however minor they might be. I know that when we all go and apply for a driver's license, we go to the California DMV and we attest that we are agreeing to follow all these California vehicle codes and numerous state laws that should be followed.

David PenalozaItem 2

And I know that many of these minor traffic stops here in Santa Ana, not in Minnesota or San Diego or Oakland, you know, have led to a lot of guns and drugs off our streets. Just last week, minor traffic stop, loaded firearm, half a pound of methamphetamine, half a pound of cocaine, I believe it was. So it's troubling that these things do exist and these vehicle stops oftentimes lead to these arrests. and so I'm fully supportive of that madam city manager personally you know I don't like anyone up here saying that we want because it's not a we it's it's you

David PenalozaItem 2

know one or two people you know asking for this but I want to see our police department continue to enforce all of our laws regardless of how tiny they might be and if that is a policy change that needs to be made then I encourage and I challenge my colleagues to bring it back as a council item and not try to again shove it into this budget vote to you know go under the the radar which isn't appropriate and it's not transparent

David PenalozaItem 2

and final finally is I also want to see the the met team um that one point whatever was million diverted to youth funds um I believe that you know like some of the residents that came here and spoke the PAL program I think it is a great great program in our city I've toured the facility on McFadden and the state-of-the-art equipment that these kids get to experience and have has been really you know I wish I would have been part of that program when I was a kid and I wasn't and having in a second one maybe at the Cypress fire station there's opportunity there I think that

David PenalozaItem 2

could that could be possible so with that said those are my comments madam city manager so I want to make sure that we're careful when we're addressing this vehicle stop thing because I don't think just again me personally I want to see our officers enforce these laws I think it's important because it's a slippery slope that's where it starts and you don't you don't want that so do we I mean is there anything that we need to do to make sure that doesn't happen or is that gonna be part of this vote because that's not appropriate either so I

probably didn't clarify it well enough let me try again so for the follow-up actions on the first when you were asking questions about how would the these transfer from some of the enforcement money to youth happen so So right now the budget that's before you has budgeted in accordance with the ordinance, the one-third enforcement, one-third use services, and the one-third general in the budget of what we anticipate to receive. So if you approve it, you're approving the proposed revenues from it. We could return to you early in the start of the fiscal year, whether it's an urgency

ordinance, if it does need an ordinance, with the vehicle to make that change. And then we would do an appropriation adjustment where we would reduce down the allocations for enforcement and shift them over to you. So if it's done within the first two months of the budget, it can easily be addressed. So I think you were asking Clarity how would that actually happen. For the cannabis fund, correct? For the cannabis fund. For the MET division, the 1.1 growth year over year on that one, what we're asking for is leave it in the budget for now.

Let us go explore all the programs and services because we heard some new requests as of tonight on that and then we would come back to you to take those monies and then get your direction on how much do you want to go to specialized training for disenfranchised segments of the community how much do you want to go to to use services and on the third one it's really not a budget issue I do like your idea if there at once if you want to have a more robust policy decision we could certainly discuss that in the future but the only thing that was on the follow-up action based on what I heard before on the first and the third

was to gather data so that you can make informed decisions in the future. So that's just a data gathering item. Does that better explain?

David PenalozaItem 2

So simply to gather data?

Well, because one of the questions that was posed is, you know, how many traffic stops are done for minor traffic violations that results in a greater crime being discovered, and we don't have that data.

David PenalozaItem 2

Okay. Because I want to also remind all of us that, you know, we shouldn't be using city resources to do this crazy research on requests of one person or two from this council. I mean, it's important that you're led by the majority, not one single person, not the mayor, not the majority of this council. And I personally haven't heard a majority state that they want minor vehicle infractions not enforced, which is problematic. You know, we should be enforcing our laws. And I would not be supportive of anything that would allude to that.

David PenalozaItem 2

So that's it, Madam Secretary Manager. Thank you. Mr. Mayor.

Yes, I think we have Council Member Mendoza who's on, and then I'll call on you. So let me do some math, Mayor Pro Tem. So I think at the last meeting, we asked that this be an issue that be researched. Right? nobody's saying that it's one person or can I unilaterally request for this I think I heard councilmember fan raise the issue I think I heard councilmember Mendoza excuse me Hernandez and Lopez that's four all right so if we want to recount or if we want to see the minutes from that meeting we can bring those up

David PenalozaItem 2

this isn't a dialogue I know but you don't need to counter everything that

this is a that I know but I just want to make some clarity on that because you reference something different yeah because I don't think that was the case

David PenalozaItem 2

but we'll review the minutes in any event I will let the council members

speak for themselves now on that issue and I simply think it's a good idea now at this point if the city manager brings back some information so we can make a well-informed decision on this I'm okay with the tracking I'm okay with the record-keeping but you can't reference something and then not expect a response

David PenalozaItem 2

Okay, so agendize it. So be transparent Mayor Sergianto and agendize it.

Mayor Pro Tem, please quit interrupting me. Nobody interrupted you. But you're countering me and you do it every two seconds. Mayor Pro Tem, do you mind? This is my time. Well this was Council Member's time.

Mayor Pro Tem, I'm chairing the meeting. Please turn your mic off.

David PenalozaItem 2

We'll do a better job.

Okay, now you're getting petty sir. Yeah. Okay. So let me go ahead and just clarify that. I think on the first two items, you're correct. I think what you said, the way you captured it, Madam City Manager, on the Met line item and on the first item on the cannabis, I think that, to me, I think it was clear during the first reading when we talked about the city attorney looking back and seeing whether or not we need an ordinance change or an amendment to that ordinance. But in any event, those were the three points as were clarified. So I think I'm supportive of those.

I know we have Council Member Mendoza and then Council Member Becerra. Council Member Mendoza?

I apologize. I don't have...

My lighting is not too good in here. but uh i i want to say that um my focus has been on the senior citizens our youth and to ensure that our recreation centers have have the adequate funding and allocation of funds so that we can get our our youth out there after the long year of being in covet and quarantine so i saw that the our budget does allocate for that. And so I don't have any questions, but because I saw, I see that we are,

we do have that funding in there for them. And so in the future, I will be advocating to ensure that our community centers do reopen by the beginning of summer and that our youth services start being provided to the youth. and also that we look into getting lighting so that we can have the tennis and the pickleball courts open again and especially for throughout the week we don't have the kids are going to be out of school so we need to have some programs and services offered to them so that we can keep them busy and into productive activities.

And on the infractions, the minor infractions, we have police officers who are very, very experienced and a police officer has discretion. So if they pull over someone for a minor infraction and based on their experience and what they've seen in the past and the person's record, they have the option to just give a warning and let the person go on a minor infraction. So I think we should continue to enforce the infractions. And I mean, if a police officer sees the law being broken,

it is the police officer's duty to point it out. And so we cannot look the other way when there's a crime being committed. it. So similarly, if somebody runs a stop sign, we need to, and some may say it's a minor infraction because it's like a California stop. But if they're used to doing that and it causes an accident, serious accident, then, you know, we have something that the police are going to get negative comments from the public. So it's a really tough, tough decision. I know

how my colleagues intent is that we utilize our police officers for the more serious crimes. However, a law is a law and being from a, I've been in the legal field for over 40 years. There's just no way that I can let an infraction go and not mention it and not give a warning or some kind of an alert to the person who has committed that or broken that law. And so on the budget, just letting you know that I'm satisfied with the allocations

and we'll be looking to ensure that the senior citizens have their recreation services open as well, the wheels on wheels and maybe a cooling center when the temperatures rise again and using that cannabis money for our our community in recreation after school and summer recreations and and hiring those recreation leaders to get going on on on these community centers and those are all the

comments I have. Thank you, Mayor Sharmin. Great. Thank you, Councilmember. We have Councilmember Becerra, then Hernandez, then Lopez.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, Madam City Manager, when we're talking about the MET money going to youth programs, so we don't have a list yet of where they would go, correct? Where those dollars would go? Correct. Okay, and so that's something you would look at. So, for us to vote tonight on the budget, how does that work in the sense that, I mean, to me, it's either it's programmed in the Met or we're saying we're just going to pull it out of there and it's going to be hanging out here. It's kind of waiting for you to come back with programs for us to vote on. Is that how that's going to work if that were to go forward?

Certainly. I mean, you can direct us to handle it in any manner you choose. I envisioned it being left in the budget and then when we determined the amount and the programs, then we would have the appropriate account codes and departments to allocated to to achieve those other items that you listed off tonight. Okay and I appreciate that

Phil BacerraItem 2

because yeah I think as Mayor Pro Tem said but what frustrates me is that we're sitting here talking about a budget and then we start talking about these transformative policies whether it's to not pull folks over for minor stops or for minor infractions whether it's you know how we're going to spend certain monies after we've already determined where we're going with the allocations it's frustrating because the budget's the budget. This is the blueprint for how we're going to spend our funding. And on that note, as we're talking about how we're going to take money from PD, and by the way, we're concerned about overtime.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Because for as much as everybody today wants to talk about youth services and youth programs, I agree. I think the more that we can put into youth programs, the better. That'd be wonderful. But let's keep in mind, nobody tonight has brought up the fact that we're going to be in a 12, or no, we are in a $12 million operational deficit. We have a balanced budget thanks to our staff and what they proposed. But we have less revenues coming in than expenditures. Our eyes are bigger than our wallet tonight, and they have been. And nobody wants to acknowledge that. Everybody keeps saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, but we need this, we need that.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Nobody's talking about the dollars and cents. Nobody's talking about the spreadsheet. And the word transparency came up, and that couldn't be more spot on. Couldn't be more spot-on because here we hear over and over, well, let's go ahead and change police policy. Let's go ahead and change all these things. They're separate. The cannabis allocations, that's a separate ordinance. The city attorney already clarified that. Let's be transparent because God knows that any of you on the styes, if you were on the other end and you had majority, we're trying to push things through in a budget. We're not Congress.

Phil BacerraItem 2

I know some of us up here, not me, but others aspire for Congress, but we're on the city council. And we don't gut bills and start plugging things in there and act very untransparent. We have to be transparent. And I applaud Mayor Pro Tem for calling out the fact that, yes, some of these items, they are worth discussion. They absolutely are worth discussion. But to try to shoehorn them into a budget, this is a fiscal exercise. This isn't a policy exercise. It's like what we had before with one of our colleagues who brought forth a resolution with a list of things that were from A to Z.

Phil BacerraItem 2

I mean that's not fair to the items to be discussed. We need to look at these thoughtfully and thoroughly and to not do that is not transparent and it's not fair to those items. So I would just say tonight while I do support looking at where we can plug those dollars for youth programs and I agree that the Santa Anna PAL program is an amazing program and for any of the naysayers out there take a tour. Actually go to the site actually go look at the program and see what they do. It's an amazing facility. It's an amazing program. I'd like to see us look at that as an option. And then for some of the comments tonight that

Phil BacerraItem 2

talk about, in fact someone said, protecting our impoverished residents. You know, but when they say that, they're not talking about families that are victimized. They're talking about folks that, yes, we have a system today where there are folks that could use a little more help, that could be steered right. But what we forget to acknowledge is there are victims in our city. There are good, hardworking families, and they want police service. They want to be able to call the police. They want that service. And you know, we talk about overtime and such a large amount, how the police budget is taking away from these other services.

Phil BacerraItem 2

But we're not spending smart. If we, you know, this is going to be terrible, especially for some here in the audience tonight, but if we added more officers, we'd be paying less in overtime. That means more money for the youth programs that you come into the chambers and advocate for. So with that being said, I appreciate the discussion that we're having tonight. We're already in the second reading unless we're going to do some major shifts in the budget. But what frustrates me is last year while I sat on this dais, while I sat up here, we talked about line items.

Phil BacerraItem 2

We got into the weeds. We started talking about moving animal services out of PD. In fact, I was part of that. I said, let's find $500,000 for sidewalks. Okay? What frustrates me tonight is we're at a second reading, and we've already got council members talking about these grand ideas. These grand ideas, and nobody's done the homework to say, yes, let's take this money. Here's specifically where we plug it in. I've heard great ideas and great themes tonight, but I have not heard any practical applications when we're talking about a fiscal exercise that's before us this evening.

Phil BacerraItem 2

So what I would ask my colleagues to do in the future, and I say this with all due respect, please do your homework, come to the dais with ideas. Come to it. Councilmember Phan wanted a Vietnamese liaison program. She came in and she discussed it with staff. We know what the line item is. We know the dollar amount. But what we don't know is with some of the programs that are just being plopped on us during the second reading, what are they? What are they? And so, Madam City Manager, thank you for communicating to this council that you're going to come back to us with ideas.

Phil BacerraItem 2

But for my colleagues to bring it up during the second reading, it's just disingenuous. We've had, I mean, literally two meetings already. I mean, I know this is the second reading, but we've had two council meetings on the budget. And now we're finally discussing some of these ideas, and it's not even in detail. That's the frustrating thing. It's not even in detail, because last time we had so many hours of discussion, and we came right back to, I mean, overwhelming majority of what was proposed to us. I mean, we gave staff some good ideas on what they could do with some changes, but they were generic.

Phil BacerraItem 2

And I would say on staff's shoulders, thank you staff for coming back to us with the nuts and bolts details of how we can accomplish some of these things. But I would ask my colleagues in the future, rather than wait until the second reading to do this, come and do your homework and bring that to the dais, bring those ideas with some substantial actual executable actions that we can move forward with.

Phil BacerraItem 2

But that isn't what happened tonight. So it really is frustrating. I am looking forward to moving forward on this budget. I think with some of the ideas that we brought up tonight, I think these are things that the staff and our city manager can accommodate. But it really is frustrating that we're trying to do this at the last second. We've had so much time to do this and the ideas are being thrown out there. They're very pie in the sky. We need to drill down. If we really want to help our community, let's get into the weeds. I'm bringing up PAL. I know PAL is an excellent program.

Phil BacerraItem 2

I know there are plenty of other excellent programs out there, but let's talk about how much we would want to allocate to each. And I know that the work you're going to do, staff, will help us do that. But as Mayor Pro Tem said, you know, it can't be just done based on one or two. It's got to be done by the majority. And my last comment is as far as the policy when it comes to minor stops, minor traffic stops. While there may have been four that said it, I'm going to go back to what I said earlier. It's not transparent to try to shoehorn policy into a fiscal exercise.

Phil BacerraItem 2

It's just not. So if my colleagues are really adamant about bringing it back, I welcome that discussion. In fact, I think our entire community welcomes that discussion because I think that would be a very, very interesting thing to hear some of my colleagues go on the record to say that they support. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Hernandez and then Lopez.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

I just wanted to take the opportunity to make it clear that I was one of the council members that did support this and largely because of the fact that Stanford University researchers in 2017 compiled the most comprehensive evidence to date, suggesting that there is a pattern of racial disparities in traffic stops. The researchers provided NBC news with the traffic stop data, the largest such data set ever collected, which points to pervasive inequality and how police decide to stop and search minority drivers. Using information obtained through these public records requests,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

the Stanford Open Policing Project examined over 100 million stops conducted from 2011 to 2017 across 21 state patrol agencies, which include our state of California and which includes the County of Orange. The results that showed were that police stopped and searched black and Latino drivers on the basis of less evidence than used when stopping white drivers. And this study does set out and conclude that officers no only engage in racial discrimination, but uses a more nuanced analysis of traffic stop data to infer that race is a factor

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

when people are pulled over. But this is something that's occurring across the country. This idea isn't to say that we are trying to protect people who are breaking the law. This is about getting in front of potentially a fatal interaction that doesn't have to occur. It's inconsolable to think that there are people that have lost their lives because of a misunderstanding. because somebody said, I didn't break the law. I'm not getting out of my vehicle. And it results in a shooting.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

One of the most notable cases was in 2017 where an officer stopped somebody. He was driving in an unmarked vehicle and he happened to stop a Navy vet. And it was at this moment that the Navy vet said, you know, I didn't break any laws. and he ended up challenging this case. And what was found was that the officer could essentially say anything occurred. There are so many different traffic violation laws that exist. It's almost impossible for an officer to say you broke any one of those.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

So in light of what has occurred in this country over the last year with the racial disparities, it's why I took the stance that I took in supporting this is because I want to make it clear that police intervention, it can be extremely traumatic for minority populations. And unlike a lot of my colleagues, I grew up in the very household where parents like mine were profiled. I remember, you know, getting profiled on my way to school with family. So I just wanted to make it very clear that that was my stance.

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

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. City Manager, going back to our options, I do want to see us come back early to us, the allocation of the money and the enforcement money. And I also want to say that your math is correct, Mayor Sarmiento. I was one of the council members that was supportive of collecting data and having a broad conversation on how our resources can be better used when it comes to minor traffic stops. And nothing that I am talking about today is new. I was asking for clarification and I have every right to do that. And I'm not gonna be intimidated into not asking questions on a massive budget

that will impact our residents. There's nothing sneaky going on. In my personal opinion, I don't think any one of us is doing anything shady. You know, we had a very public conversation, a very long one, and here we are doing it all over again. And so I don't agree with what is being said by other council members in regards to us not being transparent. I resent those allegations because they are not true.

Great. Thank you, Councilmember. I don't know if I think we've gone around once or once and a half, one and a half times already. So I think everybody's had a chance to speak at least once. Is there anybody else on the phone that wishes to speak? I think Councilmember Mendoza already spoke.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Actually, two of our members spoke twice. So I'd like to take a second crack if you wouldn't mind.

Go ahead, you, and then if anybody else needs to speak, go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Nobody's accusing anybody of shadiness, right? Nobody's accusing. It's understanding the role of this exercise. It's an understanding issue. It's not a malfeasance issue. It's not let's call the feds an issue. This is an issue of understanding what you're doing. Don't ride your bike into the swimming pool because that's not what it does. This does not accomplish policy. Yes, the funding does lead to policy because the mayor said that before. So before I hear the retort, yes, I understand that. But as far as policy that we're talking about changing that has nothing to do with the finances

Phil BacerraItem 2

before us today yes if we're trying to shove it into a budget document and if for some reason there are others that are complicit i don't mean the council i mean others that would say yes this is a great way to do it then yeah it lacks transparency so again just to clarify this is not an accusation of shadiness this is an accusation of understanding what exercise work we have before us this evening thank you great thank you for that so i think

go ahead mayor pro tem then i'll go ahead and respond thank you mayor said man i just wanted

David PenalozaItem 2

to echo and support what my council my colleague councilman becerra said i mean at last year's budget uh talks and conversations in this very council chambers you know we we demanded that staff allocate 500 grand to the public works for the improvement of sidewalks and we identified exactly where we wanted that money to come from. And we identified the line item, and we weren't just speaking up, you know, word vomiting, these crazy ideas without identifying where this should be funded from. I want to correct Council Member Bacero in just one little thing that he said. We're actually in a $13 million, not $12 million.

David PenalozaItem 2

12.9, sorry. 12.9, you know, if we want to get accurate. And we're hearing about all these things that keep getting funded from the reserves, which is irresponsible.

David PenalozaItem 2

All these ideas are fantastic. I agree with 90% of them. But let's identify where we should fund those from. I want people to, the state, I want this taken out because I want this funded. But we can't just throw ideas out there and then get upset because something didn't change at the second meeting and have this conversation all over again.

David PenalozaItem 2

It's understanding what we're here to do. What we were elected and invested to do is to do this and just it's a, I don't know how much, you know, simply I can explain it. Councilman Bacero did it beautifully. But, you know, it's, you know, let's not, let's be fully transparent of what exactly we want to do and how we should do it. And that's it, Mr. Mayor.

Great, thank you. So let me go ahead and just make a couple of comments. I know we need to go ahead and take the vote and take a position on this. So it's difficult to be non-transparent when we talk about these things in full open session with minutes, with recordings and discussions. So I don't know where the lack of transparency is. So I don't know, there's a lot of condescending comments occurring back and forth. There's a lot of scolding and lecturing. So I feel like I'm in a room with my dad when somebody's telling you, you shouldn't do this and you can't do that.

This is a full-blown policy discussion, and there are policy changes that impact funding. So it's perfectly appropriate to bring those up. It's within the scope of this city council to do. So what's interesting is that people love to go on and pontificate about how correct and how narrow we should be on things. Well, this isn't an uncomplicated city. This is a city with some serious, serious challenges. And if we can't raise those here and we can only talk about sidewalks or potholes or things that are real simple and basic, boy, then you're on the wrong council because this council is a lot more complicated than that.

And when it comes to using monies in a line item for a division in the police department that has a specific amount and saying we want that money directed towards youth investment, correct me if I'm wrong, Madam City Manager, but do we have youth programs at our city?

Absolutely.

Yeah. Could those monies be allocated proportionately based upon the discretion of this council?

Absolutely.

So I don't think it's rocket science for this to come back to us and be able to say, yeah, we think it should go into whether it's a youth development program, whether it's something in parks, whether it's something in libraries. That's a perfectly valid discussion to have. So it just seems like the rigidity on this council, well, especially a couple of council members that keep complimenting each other back and forth. Boy, this is a love fest between two folks. But all I'm trying to say is, look, I heard a clear majority saying we wanted a policy discussion on minor infractions, on data to come back. No decision will be made.

That's not a fiscal decision, but it has fiscal impacts. If officers are no longer citing people for an expired registration tag, that time could be used towards other offenses. It could be used towards reducing response times for serious core police functions. So, look, that's where that discussion came from. I think the request to have data and tracking come back to this council to make a more informed decision is completely valid. But I think the first two points about cannabis funds going from enforcement to youth, I think that's a perfectly valid inquiry.

I think if we wanted having the 1.1 million go from the Met team proposed increase to youth services, I think that's a perfectly valid point to make as well during these policy discussions. So I don't know where all the anger or frustration or just being so appalled by these questions go. Look, this is a difficult policy question that we're asking. So there's no reason why we shouldn't respect each other's position. You know, I certainly think I hear, I don't call other people's ideas silly when, you know, there's money going towards a dog park and we don't have enough parks for people.

So, you know, I mean, we could call things silly and ridiculous all day long, but that's because we lack, I think, sometimes, you know, the ability to describe things better. But look, to the extent that we're now diverting ourselves, I think we just need to get back on track. I think the presentation by the city manager was clear of where these monies could go, and with the clarification on requesting additional data and tracking of some of the information on the minor infractions, I think this is pretty clear. I think we had most of the discussion there.

I think there was just some clarifications today on making sure that the Met team money went to youth services, that the cannabis enforcement dollars, some of those, a portion of, went to youth. Those were the only two clarifications on this. There wasn't anything further. There wasn't anything more nefarious nor non-transparent nor, you know, hidden. It's just simply a policy decision to move away some monies that are going to public, to PD, to youth services. It's as basic as that. So I don't know. At this point, I don't know if there's any further discussion.

We can go ahead and have more, but we have other items to cover, and so we need to take a position on this one way or another. Either we adopt this budget the way it is, or we bring it back for another first reading.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Mr. Mayor, I just have a couple quick comments, and that is thank you for saying the word proportionately, because at least that gives staff an idea how that could be distributed or what way these funds being diverted would be distributed. So thank you for doing that, because I think that adds a little more clarity towards what we're talking about. And as far as policy, I'm not saying let's not talk about policy. What I'm saying is the discussion at the last meeting was trying to push policy, as in to have staff come back with something for us to vote on, when that wasn't what was agendized. It was the budget.

Phil BacerraItem 2

And, yes, we're going to talk about policy when it comes to how we appropriate funds. You're absolutely right. But it's just let's make it clear that if we're going to do a policy shift that isn't fiscal in nature, then let's bring that back as a separate item. not because of nefarious issues, but because I think it warrants having its own discussion. And that's where transparency, I think, is the appropriate term. It's not meant to call anybody out as doing something wrong in the sense that they're doing it for malintentions. It's just let's make sure we're doing it the correct way so that we can have a productive discussion,

Phil BacerraItem 2

the community can be involved, and we can come up with policy from this body that makes sense and that's been well vetted and thought out. And that's all I have right now. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Great. So I don't know if we have a motion on the floor or not.

Phil BacerraItem 2

We do not.

Okay. Any additional speakers? I don't think there's anybody on the line.

No.

So I'll entertain a motion with the staff recommendations to research or come back to us on the cannabis transfer, whether that's possible by amendment or by a simple adjustment in allocation of funds of the cannabis revenue. That's one. Two, the Met Team 1.1 going towards youth services in a proportionate way, that coming back to us for specific appropriation. And then third, coming back with records and tracking of these minor infractions that were asked, I think, by a majority of the council.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

I'll make the motion, Mayor.

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

Second.

Okay. I think that was Council Member Lopez who had the second.

Yes. Correct.

Go ahead, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 2

Yes.

Council Member Lopez?

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes.

Councilmember Fan yes mayor Pro Tempe Nielosa yes mayor Sarmiento yes okay

moving along I think the next item was item 21 item number 21 I think that was

David PenalozaItem 2

Penelosa's yes thank you mayor I pulled on 21 which is to approve an agreement with government jobs comm and madam city manager I the reason I pull this because I received a lot of correspondence as I know we all did about this item specifically contracting out city jobs specifically in HR and I know that is not the case but I wanted to just ask for clarification to make sure that that wasn't happening because I know this is a service that we've used for a number of years and we're just expanding the scope of it to facilitate our city staff but just wanted to get clarification for the record good evening

honorable mayor council members and mayor pro tem you are correct we are not contracting out any service we've been using neo-gov insight and on board and we're just adding the perform element

David PenalozaItem 2

for performance evaluations it's not contracting any any staff beautiful i just wanted to make sure that that wasn't the case um as i've said before you know i'm not supportive of the you know the attempt to contract out to any you know um uh outside you know companies to to do government jobs and our city work. So supportive of that. And with that, I'll make a motion to approve item 21. Is there a second?

Council Member Hernandez has his hand raised.

Oh, go ahead, Council Member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to concur with Mayor Pro Tem that I do not support contracting out any of our jobs. I wanted to make that very clear.

Great. Is that a second?

I will second. Great. We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem, a second by Council Member Hernandez. Madam Clerk, will you please call roll?

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Council Member Lopez? Yes. Council Member Mendoza?

Phil BacerraItem 2

Yes.

Council Member Fan? Yes. Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa? Yes. Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. That motion carries. Thank you, Jason. I think the next one is item number 25 and that's by that's from Councilmember

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

fan yes mayor this so we're talking about the budget here in the city of Santa Ana and how we're trying to provide services and all of that and when I saw I when I saw item 25 I was quite shocked dismayed questioning what we are spending this money on and so let me just clarify for the public item 25 would require the allocation of not to exceed six million eight hundred and seventy thousand three hundred and fifty three dollars from our general fund to a

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

contractor for up to five years to provide school crossing walk a crossing guard programs throughout the city Nabil maybe you can clarify but why isn't the school district providing this service to the students and it's not just an Anna unified we have garden grove unified orange unified as well as

Tustin unified we inherited this program from CD from last year and so we're going on the renewal of the of the contract and it is the trend I understand Anaheim does the same thing it is on the city general fund to fund these programs it's not the school district that's the trend and that's what is really taking place

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

in the rest of the county so this is just something that many cities throughout the county does provide this type of crossing walk crossing guard program okay and I you know I pulled this because it's really frustrating that school gets hundreds of millions of dollars more to spend the very school districts and they're getting more with revive mars not revive many that's us arpa money and that the city of santa anna is forced to provide this service when it is the schools that are

you know creating the need for crossing guards and oh go ahead oh if i may make a suggestion we can raise this issue because we do have the ad hoc that's exploring the issues with the school districts so we could certainly add this to their agenda i would love for our ad hoc committee to

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

raise this issue I'm not on the school ad hoc but as I understand it students are leaving these school campuses walking on school property and needing to cross to their homes and so I think that this should be a partnership with the various school districts and not only on the city to provide this service especially for almost seven million dollars over five years so I would ask that we work on that I guess I'm not supportive of this program so with that

Phil BacerraItem 2

I would actually move to deny. Mr. Mayor, if I may ask. Yes, Councilmember, go ahead. Is this something that we can just continue for a set period of time to have it come back? Is it time sensitive? Help me understand.

We really need to get ready for the new school year. We need to meet with the provider so we can get the program going. And if you look at the staff report itself, there is a milestone that we needed to not only meet with the contractor, but also meet with the school district and certain milestones to get the program going. So I would say it is time sensitive, and it's something that we need to provide and continue.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Director Saba, if we were to – I'm just throwing this out there because we have a meeting coming up in three weeks, right? So if we were to continue this for that duration, have the ad hoc review this item, but I mean it would obviously be a quick turnaround because it wouldn't be something we'd want to draw out, but something where at least we can give it time to be vetted and then brought back to council for a decision at that time. Would that be acceptable or is that just impossible?

It would make it extremely tight because particularly Santa and Unified School District, they're resuming in August, I believe. Another idea might be maybe you don't move forward with a five-year contract and you only do a one-year.

Phil BacerraItem 2

And then at that time, we can allow the ad hoc to chew on it for more time. Councilmember Chan, is that something you could support?

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

Grudgingly, but yes, I would support a one-year time span so that our ad hoc can work with this. And I want to raise this issue because the city of Santa Ana works with four school districts, not just one. And for a very long time, one school district has been in charge of a lot of the MOUs and relationships that we have. And so we need to have a better relationship with all of our school districts and make sure that we're partners with all of these school districts.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

So I guess I will amend my motion to approve the contract for one year period with the ad hoc committee going back to speaking with the school district and discussing this matter further.

I'll go ahead and second that. Great. So we have a motion with that clarification from staff's recommendation to go from a five-year to a one-year contract by Councilmember Fan, second by Becerra, Madam Clerk, unless there's any other questions or comments. Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 2

Thank you, Mayor Salmiento. I just wanted to clarify exact. So it will be one year. I'm assuming it'd be that 6.2 divided by five. I mean, because I don't want to see this come back for one year or see the cost is, you know, half of that or a third. I mean, is there any in working with this, whoever the All City Management Services, Inc., was there anything that would allow for this to do it this way? Because I've brought this issue up before. about you know why the city is is spending so much money because it's a lot of money for crossing guards I know that you know they're they're essentially

David PenalozaItem 2

crossing city on streets and and the way people drive here and speeding and the you know all kinds of dangers and so I want to how would this look like is it

just one year and then we at the end that year if you ask me i would probably punt the the award for the next council meeting or two council meetings from now better than award only to one year because i believe the bid itself is for three plus two and the pricing is based on three years plus two years extension they may not be able to hold these prices for one year only

David PenalozaItem 2

that's what i was thinking and that's why i was asking that question i would rather that if you wish we can bring it back to you because i mean we could i mean it's easy to say to do it for one year but what does that i mean would they accommodate that that's the right executive

Director, is there a termination provision?

I have to look into it. I'm not sure.

David PenalozaItem 2

There isn't?

I'm not sure. I need to really look at the agreement itself.

David PenalozaItem 2

So I would make a substitute motion to push this to that second meeting in July, or the one meeting.

Phil BacerraItem 2

The first meeting. We have one meeting, the first one July, July 6th. I'll be on vacation. Oh.

David PenalozaItem 2

So the first meeting in July so that we could get all that information back.

Maybe the second meeting I will be here. First meeting I will not be here.

David PenalozaItem 2

So second meeting in July. You said it could go for 30 days and be fine?

I think so. It's just, you know, I wanted to bring good attention to the staff report and where we really do have a timeframe that we need to get your approval, do a kickoff meeting, meet with the vendor, and then meet with the school district in three different occasions. before the school year starts so we can decide exactly what the field services will be. So there is a time frame and there is milestones that we need to accomplish, and it becomes very narrow.

David PenalozaItem 2

And the final question I have is, is this the same company that we've used in the past? Yes. It is. It is. So they're aware with the layout of the city where they're deployed? All 50 locations, yes. Okay, it's not something that dates.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 2

Mayor and Council, if I could just mention, I think section 16 of the agreement has a termination provision. It says the agreement may be terminated by the city upon 30 days written notice of termination, and in such event the consultant shall be entitled to receive, and the city shall pay consultant for all services performed prior to receipt of the notice. So it appears to me that there is a provision for termination without cause. So adoption of the agreement now would not prejudice you in any way. In fact, you can enter into the agreement and terminate it under Section 16.

So do you want to make a substitute to your substitute?

David PenalozaItem 2

So I will, I guess so that would mean that, so I'm trying to understand what, so it'd be.

So if you approved the contract and we were able through the school ad hoc and talking with the school districts, get all or any portion of it funded from them, we could terminate the agreement.

David PenalozaItem 2

So is this and just to clarify is the school ad hoc communicating with the school district I mean I thought it wasn't is it the joint use committee?

So what what your school ad hoc committee is doing is they're doing a complete review of all of our agreements with the school districts particularly the joint use agreements and they're going to come back to the full council and make recommendations for modifications to those so this could be something that's added on to their scope of work.

David PenalozaItem 2

Okay. So that would mean substitute motion to continue the item for 30 days and send it to the ad hoc committee if what I'm understanding.

Well, I believe with the termination provision, you could just make a motion to approve the agreement. And I believe Council Member Fan would be comfortable given the fact that there's a termination provision.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

My concern with that, and I am generally comfortable with the 30-day termination, I think that's fantastic. Thank you to staff for ensuring that agreement contains that provision. My concern is that we approve this crossing guard agreement. The school districts know we have it and just don't play ball. That's my concern because that has been what the school districts have been doing time in memoriam in this city. And so I do understand the need for discussion and whatnot. But at the end of the day, once we have it, they'll just say, well, if we don't play ball, then the city will just continue with the program.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

And that's my concern, and we'll just be back where we started. So I guess that's my comment. And I don't have the relationship with the school districts. I'm not on the ad hoc committee. I don't really know what's going on there. But we can see how that relationship's been reflected in the not-great MOUs that we're in.

Well, let me get to the other council members who I think have their hands raised as well to speak. I think it's council member Hernandez first and then Lopez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you to council member fan for bringing this to the attention of the public. You're absolutely right. The Senate Unified School District has a significantly larger budget, significantly larger budget than us. and I do think it would be wise for us to pursue and explore a partnership with them because this should be something that the both of us work in conjunction with, ensure that we have crossing guards. In conclusion, however, I would feel much more comfortable with us having this than not having it. So I'm in support of the item,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

but as a member of the ad hoc committee for the SAUSD and city partnerships. I will certainly ensure that we explore a partnership with them because these costs should be, should be something that we cover in conjunction with the school district. Ideally the school district would cover it, but if the school district isn't, I'd rather see the city take this on than to not have it at all.

Thank you, council member Hernandez, council member Lopez.

Thank you, Mayor Salvento. Yes, I sit on the school ad hoc committee and I just want to clarify that the council members do not engage with the school board members. We are just in discussions with our own city staff. And so if there's a sub motion to continue this item, I would be supportive of that. I don't think it's necessarily a good look for us to come out and say like, we don't support the sidewalks that essentially provide safety for our kids. So I think I'm not comfortable with that yet. And I and for me, it is important to engage in a partnership with our with all of the school districts that we're involved with. You know,

it's something that is very not necessarily particular to my ward, but that in some cases, it is. And so because of that, if there's a motion to continue this, I would be supportive of that.

Thank you, Councilmember. So I think we

I think there was a motion for a one year, and that was a motion in a second, I believe. But you're making a substitute motion to continue the matter until 30 days, until the public works director, Sabah, comes back. I would second that. I think based upon what you're saying, director, you might want to go speak to the vendor, see if one year is possible, gives us a little bit more time rather than trying to really fit this into the ad hoc list of things that they're trying to cover already. And it might give us some time to go ahead and work with our friends over at the school district.

Mayor, for clarification, I have Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa motioning to continue it. Is that correct?

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear his motion. So, okay. So then Lopez would be the second on that. So I'm supportive as well. The one thing I just want to mention is that I know in the past when we've had this discussion, it is always a sensitive discussion. I think we feel like we have at least a joint responsibility with some of the school districts. So I know that things may be different now with respect to funding, but because they are our arterials, the children are our constituents as well. We've always felt a responsibility. I think it's fair to have a conversation to talk with them about how we can, you know,

use our joint efforts to make this a better program. But, yeah, I think that there's always been some sense of responsibility, which is why we've covered this. I think it's been difficult. But nonetheless.

David PenalozaItem 2

Point of clarification, Mayor Cermiento, if I can. Go ahead. With Director Saba, and I'm trying to understand the – I'm looking at the staff report, and it's from July 1st, 2021, expiring June 30th, 2024, which is that three-year contract that you mentioned with the possibility of a two-year extension. I know school resumes in August, if I'm not mistaken. I don't know the exact date, and I believe there's going to be a summer session as well in person earlier than that.

David PenalozaItem 2

Will there be crossing guards available in the next month or two if we're pushing this out to the end of July for a possible vote then I'm just trying to understand how this lays out or rolls out give me one minute please

the plan was to resume this program when the normal school year starts not during the summer

David PenalozaItem 2

okay so it'd be the summer session in August so there would be time there if we were to to push this out to the end of July, the second meeting in July, and try to, I mean, and possibly approve something then, and then we would just have to, we would have a couple of weeks to implement this. And that's feasible, that's possible. I believe so, yes. Okay. I just, like kind of what Council Member Hernandez mentioned, I want to make sure that once our kids start, there are crossing guards, whether we have to pay for them or not.

I am looking at the staff report and the kickoff meeting was supposed to be in May 24th, which has already passed us. So we're already behind in implementation.

David PenalozaItem 2

Okay. Because I just want to make sure that...

I don't want to misspeak and tell you, yes, this is not including the summer, but I need to check with staff.

David PenalozaItem 2

Okay. Is that something that staff, someone in your department, could provide to us at this first meeting in July?

if yes of course we can provide it tomorrow but I don't have that data right

David PenalozaItem 2

now okay so I would amend my substitute motion to push it out for the next council meeting the next regularly scheduled council meeting just because I fear that this will it would be too short to scramble and get this implemented for school session to start again whether we pay for it or we split the cost with the numerous school districts I just want to ensure that our kids can at least safely cross the street to get to school knowing how you know why our streets are and how fast people drive here and and whatnot so

can we leave it open where it's July 6th or July 20th sure okay yeah so if

David PenalozaItem 2

it's ready in two weeks I mean I or whenever that is I'd love to see it then so I'm I'll amend that substitute motion for that minor change mayor

Sarmiento okay so we have a substitute motion to move this to continue this until the next council meeting on July 6th. Is there a second? I'll second Mr.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Mayor with a comment, a brief comment. In the future and I'm going to say it's like globally to all of our staff, don't put the council in a position where we have to approve something or else it's dire straits and everything falls apart. Give us some room. If there are concerns where we have to, you know, for whatever reason we want to noodle on it, we want to vet it a little more, give us that lecture please that's all I ask but with that I I'll support the motion all

right so there's a substitute substitute motion on the floor and madam clerk

please call that councilmember Becerra yes councilmember Hernandez excuse me

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

clerk in the council can you get some clarification on the on the motion

please it is to continue to the July 6 or July 20th meeting staff will come back when they're available on one of those two meeting dates. Gratitude. Yes. Council

member Lopez. Yes I would prefer July 20th but yes. Council member Mendoza. Yes.

Council member Fan. Yes. Mayor Pro Tempena Loza. Yes. Mayor Samueta. Yes. Okay. Motion carries.

7-0. Motion carries. Moving along to item number 31. I believe that was Mayor Pro Tems as well.

David PenalozaItem 2

31 was me, Mayor Sambiento. I just, I should have just registered a no vote, but I forgot I could do that. So I will be voting no on this item. Great. Thank you for that. Is there a

motion to adopt? Salute. Is there a second? I'll second. Great. Motion by Council Member Mendoza, second by Fann. Seeing no other comments or questions, Madam Clerk. Councilmember Becerra? Yes.

Councilmember Hernandez? Yes. Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Fann? Yes.

Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa? No. Mayor Sarmiento? Yes. That ends the consent calendar. Moving along to the first business calendar item item number 36 an ordinance repealing and reenacting the municipal code chapter 33 section 54 establishing preservation newly constructed and reconstructed arterials and streets and alleys do we have a staff presentation from staff on this

mayor we do not have a presentation unless you would like us to reiterate

what's it just be ready in case there's any questions let me go ahead and bring it back to the council. Any questions or comments on this item? Council Member Becerra. Thank you,

Phil BacerraItem 2

Mayor. So on this ordinance, I appreciate that this ordinance is going to, you know, incorporate local streets and alleys because before it only incorporated arterials. My question though, and I just want to make sure I understand clearly, Director Selva, if you could come up real quick. On this ordinance, is there a...

Phil BacerraItem 2

Dr. Saba, my question, like I said, I appreciate that this ordinance is incorporating streets, local streets and alleys in addition to just the arterials, because obviously we want to make sure that all of our streets are being maintained to a certain degree. But I was going to ask you, what about concrete streets? Because obviously there are going to be projects in certain areas, and it's, you know, Santa Ana is a very old city, and there are, the concrete streets aren't isolated to one part of town. They're throughout the city. So how would this ordinance address work that

impacts us? It applies to concrete streets. It applies to all kinds of streets in Santa Ana right now, arterial and local streets. So the standard is in our standards. So if a trench is built in the city then we in a concrete street then we're going to go from a joint to another joint replace the entire panel right that is affected by the trench okay so now we're going wider and bigger this way we are replacing full panels rather than just the trench like you see and some of the streets

Phil BacerraItem 2

that we have right now so the way the ordinance is is utilized is it refers to Public Works street standards so when you're working on a street that just happens to be concrete, this ordinance would apply. Absolutely. Okay, perfect. And then my other question, and again, I just want to make sure I understand it. So the idea is Public Works paves the street, there's a five-year moratorium before you can just start going in there and cutting up the street. But at the same time, we don't want to discourage folks from building and developing. So I guess what, where does one

Phil BacerraItem 2

look to, help me understand, where does one look to as far as if for whatever reason they they come in on year one and they come in their properties up against the street that has just been beautifully paved but they do have to get into the street obviously it's it's the director's discretion to allow them to do that but i guess is there something in there that says okay but if you're going to do this here are the standards that you have to abide by that's exactly what

this ordinance does okay if they cut in a street that has been paved or rehabbed five years period If they do it within that five-year period, then they'll have to follow the moratorium streets in terms of fixing or coming back and doing the trench. So they have to go outside, above and beyond what we normally do in a moratorium street.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Okay, perfect. Thank you for putting this forward to us, Director Saba. With that, I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the ordinance.

Thank you. Great. We have a motion to approve. Is there a second?

Second.

We have a motion by Becerra, second by Mendoza. Seeing no other questions or comments, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Becerra?

Yes.

Councilmember Hernandez?

Yes.

Councilmember Lopez? Yes. Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Fan? Yes. Mayor Potempoñalosa?

David PenalozaItem 2

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes, great. Moving along to our public hearing item, let me go ahead and say before hearing public item number 37, Madam Clerk, please provide some instructions to the public as how they would wish to address the council.

Thank you, Mayor. For members of the public who'd like to make a comment for only public hearing item 37, please dial star 9 from your phone or select raise hand from Zoom now. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Madam Clerk. So this is a time and place for a public hearing on adoption of ordinance approving zoning number 2021-01, amending section 41-472 and 41-472.5 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code to require a conditional use permit for light processing facilities in the light industrial M1 district. City Manager Zara, staff report.

Certainly, Mayor and Councilmember, the public hearing is for introduction of an ordinance, which on May 4, 2021, the City Council voted unanimously to adopt an urgency ordinance, and then staff promised that they would prepare the proposed permanent ordinance and bring it back before you. So you've heard this item before. We certainly can give you a presentation if you feel that's necessary.

Great. I don't think one is necessary since it's been brought before the council. Previously, let me go ahead and open the public hearing and ask the clerk if there are any members of the public on the line that wish to address us.

Thank you, Mayor. I do not see any hands raised, but we did receive two written correspondence in support. They were both Santa Ana residents from Madison Park Neighborhood Association, and that's all we have.

Great. Thank you for that. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the council to see if they have any comments or questions on this item.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Mr. Mayor.

Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just to seek absolute clarity, this item is really brought to us due to the fact that we have some of these facilities within very close proximity to our residents.

Correct, sir. It's actually to prevent new facilities from opening up that includes types of processing that could have contaminants.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Right. But I mean the idea being because some of our M1 and M2 zone properties are very close to existing residents. Correct. Okay. Thank you. And with that, I'd be happy to move the item.

So we have a motion by Becerra. Is there any other questions or comments, or is there a second on that?

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

I'll second.

Great. Second by Councilmember Fan. Any other questions or comments from the council?

The only comment I would have before I go ahead and close the public hearing is I want to thank the Madison Park Neighborhood Association and all the other environmental justice advocates and groups that were out there. I know that we've had this issue in the city and most cities our age have this issue of incompatibility When you have you know light industrial heavy industrial growing up right next to residentials And so this is a good way of addressing it. I know that you know, we're doing work that Hopefully will unwind some of the tension between those two uses

But look we have to get started somewhere and without this it just continues to develop and we have some You know, we have some bad again bad encounters between those two uses So thank you, Director Minh, Director Tai, for doing that as well. So let me go ahead and close the public hearing and have the clerk call roll.

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

Yes.

Councilmember Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Fan? Yes. Mayor Potempo-Nalosa?

Yes.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes. Yes, great, thank you. Winding up now on comments, I'll go ahead and go to the city manager to see if she has any closing comments.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple brief ones. There is a holiday between now and the future, and I just want to point out that illegal fireworks can now be reported on My Santa Ana app. So that's what we are encouraging. You've probably seen some of the social media posting is for residents to utilize My Santa Ana app for that purpose. Another thing also that has been added to the app is abandoned or illegally parked vehicles can also be reported through the My Santa Ana app. The My Santa Ana intends to place the powers of city government in the palm of your hand, making things very easy to report issues to the city.

And we encourage people to report. We want to help keep our city clean and safe by using that. And then just one more item I could not go unmentioned, and I know each of you probably already know this, but Santa Ana just placed second in the nation for best municipal water. So a shout out to our Public Works and our Water Resources Division. And that's all.

Thank you for mentioning that. How many years in a row is this?

So for the past 10 years, they've won six awards, including a gold medal in 2018 and 2014, a silver and bronze medals in 2012 and 2011. So a long history of awards for our water.

Very nice. Very nice. Good work. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the council for their closing comments. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Since this is going to be our last regular council meeting before July 4th, I wanted to wish everybody a very happy Independence Day. It's our opportunity to celebrate our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. And I know this year the celebration means so much more because here's our, you know, collectively our big opportunity to, you know, get together with loved ones, with friends and neighbors and celebrate something that nationally we hold so dear. So I'm excited about it, but I would also encourage everybody to please be responsible and celebrate safely.

Phil BacerraItem 2

I also wanted to thank the Santa Ana Unified School District for inviting me to the graduation for the class of 2021 for Santa Ana High School and Santa Ana Valley over the weekend over at Angel Stadium. And wow, what an amazing graduation. And for what SAUSD was not able to offer their students in 2020, I think they more than made up for it over this past weekend. And I also wanted to congratulate the graduates from the class of 2021, from Century High School, Saddleback, Sagerstrom, and all the other schools, of course, Los Amigos, Santiago High School, and Mater Dei and all the other schools

Phil BacerraItem 2

that serve Santa Ana students. I also want to thank everybody who took the time to come out to my monthly community office hours that we held earlier this month over in Thornton Park. It was so nice to finally get back together with everybody in person. Previously, we were doing them over Zoom during the pandemic, and so it was just nice. We were out in an open facility at Thornton Park, and it was just great to connect with folks in person again. So I appreciate everybody for coming out. And my next monthly community office hours will be on July 17th. Normally I do them on the first Saturdays of the month,

Phil BacerraItem 2

but given the holiday weekend, we're going to push it out for July to July 17th. Same location, Thornton Park at 10 a.m. And then I'm also very happy to announce tonight that the South Bristol commercial corridor from Alton to Sunflower is going to receive more increased police attention through a liaison program that's very similar to what you see in downtown Santa Ana and like a neighborhood watch. Now this isn't the same as downtown Santa Ana where merchants are paying into it. You have an area of the city that is one of our highest sales

Phil BacerraItem 2

tax generating commercial areas here in the city. And like many areas in town, definitely has been impacted by a variety of crime issues. And so I want to thank Deputy Chief Esparza, Commander Marty, and Corporal Velasquez, who are the liaisons to the business community along that stretch of South Bristol. It's like a neighborhood watch where they've been walking the beat and talking to folks and really connecting with folks. Because, you We know a lot of the managers for a lot of those stores, they come and go, and so it's important that there's a sense that they know who to call at our police department and they

Phil BacerraItem 2

know who the businesses are that are calling and that we foster that relationship. So I'm very happy that that's happening, so I want to thank PD for that. And I'm looking forward to our July 20th meeting. I know it's a little ahead, but I wanted to throw this out there that I'm looking forward to seeing what the staff recommendations are for the neighborhood-wide parking districts. I know that some recommendations will be coming back to us on the July 20th meeting, so I just wanted to put that out there. And the massage establishments, I know some folks have been emailing a couple of us up here on the dais,

Phil BacerraItem 2

and some folks came in and took time out of their busy schedule to speak to us tonight about it. And I want to voice my support for staff, and I know this isn't a council member-directed item, and if we have to bring it back, I'd be more than happy to. But I think this is something where we really do need to look at the regulations and possibly even explore a moratorium if need be. I think that the particular establishment that was brought up by our residents tonight, it was kind of an outlier. You had a situation where the zoning didn't match up, but it's a building that has, for a very long period of time,

Phil BacerraItem 2

offered uses that were contrary to the zoning that exists today. So, as May would say, legally non-conforming. And so I appreciate that this is a different situation. I know staff is still looking into the specific location, but I think as many policy decisions or many policy directions, it's one instance that really shines a light and makes us look at what we can do to make sure it doesn't have negative impacts citywide. So I really would ask that something come back to us. And again, if I need to agendize it, I'm more than happy to. And then lastly, I would like to know, and this is probably just an information item

Phil BacerraItem 2

that can come back to the council directly, and that is how neighborhood associations are being notified of discretionary permits when folks apply for them, and then permits for proposed uses where police have to approve the permits. And the reason I'd like to know is because I've talked to some of our neighborhood leaders, And what's been communicated to me is that at one point in time, they would get some sort of tickler or notification.

Phil BacerraItem 2

Hey, just FYI, this is an application that was made that's going through the channels in PD, or it's coming through, whether it's planning commission, zoning administrator, but just something to give folks a heads up. And I know we do a robust effort when it comes to noticing, but I think just direct communication with our neighborhood associations. I think you've heard most of us on this dais talk about how important it is to communicate with our neighborhood associations. So I would just ask that if you could come back to the council to let us know what the process is today for that notification to the neighborhood associations.

Phil BacerraItem 2

I'm aware of the noticing requirements for the general public, but I'd like to know how we're communicating these particular items to our neighborhood leaders. And with that, I just want to wish everybody a good night.

Great. Thanks for that. Councilmember Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to keep my comments very short. in light of honoring Octac I feel that it would be most appropriate for me to end with some arts I wanted to share a poem by one of my favorite poets Maya Angelou in light of the approaching holiday on Saturday Juneteenth for those that don't know Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States on June 19 1865 the Emancipation Proclamation was brought forth. Unfortunately, we're still dealing with the effects

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of the roots of slavery, but I wanted to share some empowerment that I got from Maya Angelou's Still I Rise poem. You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? why are you beset with gloom because i walk like i've got oil wells pumping in my living room just like the moons and like suns with the certainty of tides just like hopes springing high still i'll rise do you want to see me broken bowed head and lowered eyes shoulders falling

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down like teardrops weakened by my soulful cries does my haughtiness offend you don't you take it awful hard because I laugh like I've got gold mines digging in my own backyard you may shoot me with your words you may cut me with your eyes you may kill me with your hatefulness but still like air I'll rise does my sexiness upset you does it come as a surprise that I dance like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs out of the huts of history's shame I rise up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise. I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

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welling and swelling, I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I rise, we rise.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Mendoza. I'm sorry, Councilmember Lopez. I leaped right away. Councilmember Lopez, then Mendoza.

No worries. Thank you, Mayor Sarriento. I do have a couple of public comments. And first, I just want to say happy birthday to my mama. I love you to infinity and beyond.

and um and also our parks and recs director released our movies at the park schedule and I'm excited to share with War III residents that this summer movies in the park will be hosted at Portola Park, Santiago Park and Edna Park. I also want to congratulate all of our SAUSC, you know GGUSC, Orange and Tustin graduates this year. It was a very challenging year for our students and for our teachers and you should all be so proud of your accomplishments and where you're going um you know for for college and i also want to say

happy father's day to all of the dads in sanaana and a special shout out to my dad um the hardest working man i know and um i had two questions for for staff i wanted to know when the council will be updated on the new remote work policy and the second one when will those when will this council will revisit or rediscuss publicly the topic of police oversight.

Certainly, Council Member. I believe police oversight was August. We were shooting for August for that item. On the telecommute policy, I hope to have something, because we want to reach out to all of the unions to get input on that, so maybe four to five weeks on that particular policy. And that really isn't something that would need to come for council approval,

but we certainly can give you a receive and file yes thank you i would we i would appreciate that

thank you city manager thank you councilmember lopez now councilmember mendoza

councilmember mendoza can you hear us

there we go I apologize okay I want to remind the public that although the restrictions for the COVID have been listed somewhat not to be confident in in your atmosphere and your environment The Delta variant of COVID, this very serious virus, is still out there. And this new variant is even deadlier and more riskier than what we went through in 2020. So please continue to be extra cautious and continue to wear your mask, especially when there's large groups.

Continue to wash your hands and take all the precautions that you have been doing, especially with our elderly and our young people. Please encourage your families to get vaccinated. Everyone has the free vaccination access. There is no reason why you cannot get vaccinated. Let's work on it together. Let the city of Santa Ana be an example for other cities in showing them that we will be 100% vaccinated. And this is regardless of what your politics are.

Health does not choose a Democrat or Republican or any other party. If you get the virus, the virus is not going to ask you whether you're Republican or Democrat. It will take all of us to make sure that we keep everyone else safe. So please continue to monitor yourselves and those around you in order to survive the next wave of the Delta COVID epidemic. Thank you and be safe. Good night.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Fan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 2

Thank you, Mayor. So first I'd like to say thank you Councilmember Hernandez for reading one of my favorite poems from the great Maya Angelou I just want to say that she will be honored on a quarter It was just announced in May So I'm very excited to see her on one of our you know mostly used quarters I would like to mix some updates. So as many of you may know I sit on the Metropolitan Water District A lot of us don't know what the Metropolitan Water District the Met is a water wholesaler that covers LA San Diego and then Empire and Orange County in fact it is the largest water wholesaler in California and I

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believe also maybe the country and we went through a very long and rigorous process and we selected Adele Hashkaleel as our new director and you know you can look up the LA Times. There are a lot of articles about that. It was a fraught and long process because this is the person who is going to be responsible for bringing water during a drought to Southern California. Adele has a long history working with diverse populations in LA sanitation, and he's going to bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to ensure that we are able to

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withstand these droughts and the ever-changing water resources from the Colorado River as well as the Bay Delta I'd also like to say that while Santa Ana got second place for best tasting water in America the Metropolitan Water District got number one and we import some of our water from the Met so really Santa Ana residents please stop buying bottled water the water from your tap is literally the best in the country. So, you know, drink the tap water. It's delicious. It's good for you. And it is way cheaper than the bottled stuff, which is frankly the same stuff. And they

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just mark up the price about a thousand percent. The other thing I want to address is that July 4th is coming. That is Independence Day. And, you know, this is a really important day for me, for my family. As some of you may know, my husband is a veteran. There are four veterans in my family. Two of them are combat vets who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a really difficult holiday even though it is very important holiday for me and for many of us because for many of us who are immigrants or people of color, sometimes we feel like we haven't been included in

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this idea of freedom and democracy and the pursuit of happiness. And while that might be the case, I really believe that what our founding fathers tried to do when they, you know, signed the Declaration of Independence and then did all of that, you know, nation-building, is that it's our legacy to ensure that we meet the goals that they set out for us and to do better. And so as an attorney, as a public official, as an immigrant, and as someone who is a proud American, I work every day to meet that legacy and in the hopes that we one day really do

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fulfill the dreams that we set out to do. And the last thing I want to mention is that July 2nd is my fifth anniversary with my dear husband, Porev, and for four of those years we were long distance because he served in the military and I I know that is something many of our military families go through. So I just want to wish them a happy anniversary, and we will figure something else to do, because this budget process has been long and arduous. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember. Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 2

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I just wanted to also echo what Councilmember Fanson in regard to Councilmember Hernandez's reciting Maya Angelou. I mean, it is one of my favorite poems as well, so very happy to hear it. With that said, I wanted to put out a couple invitations to the community. The city of Santa Ana will be hosting a neighborhood cleanup on Saturday. Well, they're hosting a dumpster day, and I'm hosting the neighborhood cleanup in correlation with the dumpster day. Memorial Park and Lillie Keene Park on Saturday, June 26th, from 8 a.m. to noon on that Saturday.

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But I mean, I've seen some of our parks and we could probably be out there until 10 p.m. picking up trash. Just throwing that out there. But I will be out there volunteering my time my Saturday morning to pick up trash along Memorial Park and Lily Keene Park. And I know that we're hoping to provide trash pickup tongs and trash bags for the community that wants to join us and help out. If you have large bulky items, bring them out and we'll dump them in the dumpster. If you would like to join me or volunteer or know of individuals in the city that would like to help and volunteer,

David PenalozaItem 2

please email me at dpenaloza at santa-ana.org or call me at 714-547-5200. We need volunteers. Our parks are, you know, they get messy and we should, you know, be able to, you know, help out a little bit and clean up the parks that we all share and use. With that said, I also wanted to just make the community aware that the Yale Navigation Center, the county homeless shelter, is hosting a virtual information session that I think is important for the community to tune into. I found out about it today.

David PenalozaItem 2

I know the OC Healthcare Agency is the one hosting it for the Yale site. I have forwarded the information to staff and I'm hoping that we could put out some kind of memo about this meeting virtual virtual meeting which is this Thursday June 17th at 4 30 p.m One more thing I just also want to wish everyone a happy Father's Day to our all our city staff who are fathers You know happy Father's Day and to all the kids out there that just like like myself I've been open about this before I grew up fatherless my dad passed away when I

David PenalozaItem 2

was three years old killed by a drunk driver so Father's Day is always a kind of sad day for me because you know it's like anything you see the people getting celebrating their dads and and but I was you know lucky enough and fortunate enough to have a mom who wore that hat like no other I mean she tried her best and I her every day for it so happy Father's Day to her and to all those mothers that are out there wearing that hat as well happy Father's Day with that said that is it Mr. Mayor great thank you

for those comments happy Father's Day to everybody I also want to thank I think somebody mentioned the graduations that were hosted by Santa Ana Unified School District over at Angel Stadium I think it was Thursday Friday and Saturday and it was quite an event my son graduated on Friday so I want to congratulate him but I also want to thank the school district they did an amazing job securing that venue I know even some of the Anaheim high schools were pretty envious but I think given the circumstances of what all those students all our students here in Santa Ana

and all over the country literally were put through this past year it was a way that they could be with each other with their peers for one last time and they certainly had a good time so So thank you for the invitation. It was a great, great moment for everybody, and especially the parents. We, you know, we're just eating it up. Secondly, I want to thank everybody who came and spoke to us today. You know, these discussions on budgets, I know I've gone through about 14 of them. They're never easy. They're always difficult. But I think it's because there are very important priorities that we're all trying to deal with.

And one of them has to deal with, as we know, with the trans population, the trans community that's come to us now a few times during these discussions. So to the extent, Madam City Manager, we keep in mind how we can maybe bring them into the CDBG pipeline so they might be an eligible nonprofit. I think they're probably a 501c3 that might be, you know, consistent with some of the others that might receive some continuing funding through that federal source. That would be one. The other one would be, you know, again, looking at housing needs and maybe there is a way that they could be considered a community of interest

and maybe a priority for us as we prioritize sometimes communities that are special needs that could be considered when we're looking at affordable housing and how do we match those communities up with those services and with that housing. We know that they are, unfortunately, as many communities, they just don't have the resources that we'd like to provide, and to the extent our policies could reflect some investment there, that would be helpful.

The last thing is, you know, well actually one more thing. I think on speed bumps, and I was speaking to our Public Works Director today, we're seeing a lot of speed bumps being requested by many of our neighborhoods. And there's one in particular I want to make sure that we cover it, which is the Cornerstone Mini. And I don't think it's public right away, but it's those alleys in between some of the multi-families on Standard and those on Mini Street. there's just a lot of speeding that goes on there and if it's not the public right-of-way maybe we can work with CNC I know they own a lot of the properties

there to see how we can install some of those temporary speed bumps but maybe there is a policy that might be able to expedite or accelerate the request and you know the review of some of those some of those requests for speed bumps so maybe that's something that could be brought back to us or circulated to us finally you know you know we know that today was a definite marker in this whole pandemic period that we've had. You know, all of us have been waiting for June 15th and for various reasons. There's still many, many in our community that, you know, haven't had the

benefit or, you know, of having a vaccine. So to the extent we can, you know, continue to have a robust effort, making sure that we vaccinate our communities in our neighborhoods, those are especially that are densely populated, those that have workers that don't have the time sometimes or can't take time off of work to not only get a vaccine but also recover maybe from the first and second dose so i was really pleased to see that we're going to be doing a mobile effort and trying to get out there and do as many as we can i'm very optimistic but i'm cautiously

optimistic because we know that a bad event could turn into you know some very bad consequences for people so to the extent that we're talking to our business community and our merchants out there Let's be responsible as we open up to our residents. Let's be responsible as we carry ourselves in our private and personal lives as well as work lives. And with that, I'll wish everybody a good night. We are adjourned to the meeting on July 6, 2021. Thank you.

Thank you.