Read the September 7 meeting.

.

We're all set?

Yep. All set.

All right. Good evening, everybody. I hope everybody had a great Labor Day weekend. Let me go ahead and reconvene this regular council meeting for September 7, 2021. And let me go ahead and just recite some housekeeping for us before we begin. This meeting is taking place with the in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom. The public can access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. and as always, please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting. Madam Clerk, if you'll please call roll.

Council Member Becerra?

Here.

Council Member Hernandez?

Council Member Hernandez, I see that you are logged in by way of Zoom.

Yes, here.

Thank you. Council Member Lopez? Here. Council Member Mendoza? Here. Councilmember Pham? Here. Mayor Plotin-Penalosa?

Here.

Mayor Sarmiento?

Here. Madam Clerk, before we begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, will you please go ahead and recite your housekeeping language?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. The public was able to begin joining the speaker queue at 4.30 p.m. In accordance with the 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. Please hold your comments on public hearing items until the mayor opens the public hearing. To request to speak on an agenda or non-agenda item within the city's jurisdiction, dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled raise hand from Zoom at this time.

You will be asked to announce your name and word or neighborhood you reside in within the city of Santa Ana for the record. Thank you, Mayor.

Great, thank you for that. If you'll all please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please place your right hand over your heart and repeat after me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And if you'll all please remain standing while I call on a very dear friend of the city and the city council to present the invocation to us.

And I want to thank Councilmember Lopez for inviting our good friend, Pastor Nati Alvarado, who is with us here in person and is with neutral ground and has been part of the city for many years and doing great work. So, Pastor Alvarado, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you so you can lead us in the invocation. thank you

through the invocation I'd like to open up in prayer with the scripture that I've been praying over our city for many years I have a poster of our city in my office and it shows all the different areas so I'd like to open with Isaiah 60 you can bow your heads if you'd like Father you say in your word in Isaiah 60 that violence will disappear from our city a dissolution and destruction of violence and murder will end salvation and favor will surround orange county or the city of san anna like walls and praise will be on the lips of all who see the goodness that you've done here in our

city father i thank you first of all for who you've been in each one of our lives for you've been good to us god you've watched over us you've watched over our children and watched over our families so we thank you for that father i pray today for mayor sermento i lift up councilman penalosa sarah hernandez lopez mendoza fan lift up city manager ridge and our chief valentine father my prayer today is that you would give us the wisdom of god you give us wisdom we have our our natural wisdom that you give us lord but in order to do all that this city government needs

to do that our chief needs to do our police officers we need your wisdom we need your wisdom father in in every area of this community so i ask you for that father i lift up the families the mothers the fathers the youth and the children of this beautiful city i ask you that you continue to watch over us over every single one of us father and once again lord because we need more than ourselves here with what's going on in our community the stuff that we don't see i pray lord when violence comes that you would show um our our chief that you show our community who it is my god

that there would be exposed these areas of violence father and father i pray for unity and i pray for peace in our city i thank you god that you keep your hand upon this beautiful city in jesus name

i pray amen thank you thank you not be as usual for your beautiful words thank you council member for the invitation. Let me go ahead and begin with the ceremonial presentation section of the meeting and let me turn it over to Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa who is going to be presenting a certificate. I think I saw him here. And he is going to be presenting a certificate to Joanna Ciglieri for outstanding contributions to the community. So I'll turn it over to the mayor pro tem.

Hi.

David Penaloza

Nice to meet you. I'm here. I'm a big fan.

David PenalozaItem 1

Good evening, everybody. This is Joanna.

Solari.

David PenalozaItem 1

Solari. I wanted to make sure I get that right. A native of California, Joanna Solari has been a resident of Santa Ana since 1973. After taking the Citizens Academy class, Joanna knew she wanted to stay involved with the Santa Ana Police Department so she turned to volunteering hence the volunteering uh uniform which she looks lovely in she has been volunteering with SAPD since May of 2018 working three days a week usually putting in an 11-hour day as a die hard animal lover like myself I was always hurt it was always her dream to donate a police canine

David PenalozaItem 1

To date, she has donated not one, but seven and working on an eighth. Bomb sniffing dog. Yes, we do. As a volunteer, she wears many hats, including assisting in collecting videos for the crime investigation unit, submitting DNA testing requests to the Orange County Crime Lab, and assisting in maintaining the database of identified offenders soon to be released on probation. Additionally, Joanna is currently working on starting a non-profit canine foundation that will benefit the department by offsetting the ongoing cost of the canine unit, which we all here appreciate.

David PenalozaItem 1

We love it. This 501c3 entity will also be set up to be able to financially assist injured SAPD officers as the need arises while they are off work recuperating. Volunteers like Joanna and Santa Ana residents like herself are an invaluable part of our city and you have our deepest gratitude for all you do. So thank you for all the canine dogs. They're all cute in their little badges and running around, you know, helping the city and helping our officers. So we thank you. And please, if you'd like to say a few words.

It's just been my pleasure. I was raised by two wonderful parents that if you're not giving, you're not living. And I really enjoy working at the Santa Ana Police Department under the direction of our great chief. I mean, he's always there for anybody. I can, as a volunteer, I mean, chief, volunteer, I can feel free to walk in and talk to him any time. He's that type of chief. And council, if you really want to thank me, put me on that police oversight committee when the time comes.

Thank you. Thank you. We've got your, we now have our first volunteer for the board. So good. Thank you, Janet. Let me go ahead and turn it over now to council member Hernandez, who's going to be recognizing Alexis Rocha for the outstanding contributions. Council member Hernandez, do you, do you hear me? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah, it's all yours. We can hear you. Great.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Wonderful. Thank you so much. Regretfully, I'm not able to be in person today. Unfortunately, my little one was exposed to COVID and we're safe, but we're gonna go ahead and we have a slide prepared for Alexis Rocha. If we can pull that slide up, that would be greatly appreciated.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

Thank you very much. So it is with great honor that we are celebrating Alexis Rocha today. Alexis Rocha started boxing, his boxing career at a young age. And at the age of 23, the Southpaw phenom, Alexis Rocha, has wasted no time in his pursuit of boxing gold and glory. Alexis is a former Siegelstrom High School student. Rocha was the youngest fighter to win a gold medal at the Junior Olympics at 14 years of age in 2012 and he caught the attention of the boxing world as he continued to become

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

a six-time national champion during his amateur career. After his standout amateur career, Rocha turned professional and signed with Golden Boy in January of 2016. Rocha made an electrifying professional debut in March of 2016 knocking out Jordan Rosario at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles. Rocha continued to earn himself the WBC Continental America's welterweight world title in March of 2018. The current COVID-19 pandemic has halted the momentum built after defeating Solomon in February, but the focus remains the buzzword for the young Californian. With the

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 2

record currently standing at 17-1, we look forward to seeing many more victories during his career. and with that being said i would like to present this certificate of recognition to alexis rocha for his outstanding contributions toward the city of santa anna congratulations alexis and we will be visiting you very soon at your gym to present you an award thank you

thank you council member

and thank you to Alexis for all the great moments that he shared with us and the great victories he has still to look forward to so let me go ahead and now turn it over to Council Member Lopez who's going to be doing a very very poignant and very important recognition of the 20th anniversary of 9-11 and Councilmember I know Chief Henry from our OCFA department is here. Why don't you come on up and I would suggest that maybe Chief Valentin as well come up and maybe afterwards the Council

comes down and we all memorialize this in a photograph because this is it has been 20 years already you know of that tragic day and so it is soon approaching and I think it's a good moment for all of us to do to take a moment of pause and maybe a little moment of silence and I want to thank Councilmember Lopez for bringing this before us. So Councilmember I'll go ahead and turn it over

Jessie LopezItem 3

to you. Thank you Mayor Sarmiento. Well for those of us that are old enough to remember I know we're never going to forget what we were doing and where we were when the horror and the grief came to us, you know, on a crisp blue September day. And I remember I was getting ready for school. I was running late, but I was so excited to see my friends and be with my teachers. And that morning changed everything, and it left me with a lot more questions and with a deep sense

Jessie LopezItem 3

of sadness and you know this upcoming date marks the 20th anniversary since the attacks of September 11 2001 and we will continue to honor our family members our neighbors and our friends who after those events courageously signed up to serve and and the many folks that lost their lives to this attack. But tonight I do have the privilege and the honor of honoring our first responders. It was with shock and disbelief that many of us saw them rush into buildings with conviction and

Jessie LopezItem 3

courage to help rescue people and many lay down their lives. So those first responders, many of whom still suffer from the impacts of what they experienced that day are here with us and our very own chief chief Henry and chief Valentin you know when I spoke to chief Henry you know he shared with me his personal experience about being in New York and being there and and providing help and being there also for funerals and so i just want people to

Jessie LopezItem 3

acknowledge 9-11 and if you have any relatives or family members neighbors loved ones you know to keep the date in mind and to be

Jessie LopezItem 3

you know intentionally caring and kind to folks and so you know tonight days before the 20th anniversary of september 11 2001 let us reflect and remember i want to hand this over to our chief to both of them actually if they would like to share any words um so go ahead

Thank you, Councilwoman Lopez, Mayor, City Council, and everyone viewing tonight. It is a somber commemorative that we're approaching the 20th year. And I think it's important that we really rely on the lessons learned, and that is if you see something, say something. It's as simple as that in terms of prevention for this to not ever occur again. and really beyond the 2,977 lives that were lost that morning, and many others have lost their lives due to complications thereafter. We certainly honor them.

We will never forget them, their families, and our communities. And so I thank you for this recognition today in commemoration of the 20th anniversary. Chief.

Thank you, counsel, for everything. And I just want to echo what the chief said, but I also want us to remember what came out of all of this. And the resolve and the courage and everything that everybody exhibited those days, weeks, months, years, and decades after that is something I think we can all be proud of. Yes, it was a tragedy, right? But come out of that tragedy, right, was unity. And I think we need to remember that and try to focus on that as well as remembering all of the sadness that occurred. So our prayers and thoughts continue to be with the families of everyone, not only the

first responders, but ordinary citizens that stepped up to try to help and do something. And to our men and women who've been in the armed services that have continued on with all of that, thank you.

You know, at this point, before the photograph, Paul, why don't we have the council come down, if that's okay with Councilmember Lopez and we all commemorate this moment.

That's what I said. This is good. We can Photoshop.

Thank you.

Great. Thank you, everybody, for that. And thank you, Councilmember, for that beautiful, wonderful presentation. Let me now turn it over to Councilmember Mendoza, and she is going to be recognizing Cal State Fullerton in recognition of their spirit of collaboration in the arts community. So, Councilmember Mendoza.

Mayor Sarmento, is John Spiek present? Is Tracy Agar present?

There they are. Okay.

Okay.

I should have stayed down here, huh? or worn tennis shoes.

We would like to congratulate the Grand Central Arts Center, California State University Fullerton, my alma mater, we're Titans, for receiving its third $100,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to support its Artist-in-Residence program. Over the past few years, the Grand Central Art Center has been active in presenting the work of local, regional, and national artists in their main galleries. And I just witnessed some of those fabulous portraits and art at the art in downtown Santa Ana this Saturday.

If you didn't know, the art walks are starting every first Saturday of the month from 7 to 10 p.m. and you can see some of this beautiful art. The Grand Central Arts Center continues to develop programs with the organizations of communities including recent collaborations with Girls Inc, Media Arts Santa Ana, Massa, Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Orange County Children's Therapeutic Arts Center, OCTAC, Wise Place, Mayors across the Orange County, Consulate of Mexico, and the Santa Ana Senior Center, among many others.

Providing financial support, resources, and space, the Grand Central Arts Center helped to incubate organizations and programs that expanded beyond Grand Central Arts Center to contribute significantly to the rich cultural landscape of Santa Ana. Past support from the Warhol Foundation and support from the other organizations and individuals provided an opportunity for artists in residence to have a deep and direct engagement and collaborations with Santa Ana communities. The Grand Central Arts Center reopened to the public this past

Saturday I was there with three new exhibitions that are always free and open to the public. With the Warhol funds and support from others we look forward to Grand Central Arts Center continuing their mission of exploring contemporary art, visual culture, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally through collaborations among artists, students, and the community. To accept this recognition is our Grand Central Arts Center director and chief curator John Spiak and the associate director Tracy Geyer so would you please give them a

big round for to thank them in appreciation for what they bring to our communities

just want to thank everyone for their support of Grand Central we're free and open to the public and we welcome everyone in as you wish to come in we'd love to have you and thank you to the council members for their continued support and it was great to see you Saturday night as well as Jesse Lopez was there Saturday night as well supporting the arts so it's it's great to have a supportive council who come consistently to to grand central so we hope it gets better as covid starts to hopefully take a downturn soon so thank you well here you go photos photos

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Mendoza, and thank you, John and Terry, for everything that you all do over at the Grand Central and all the students over at Fullerton. So moving along to the staff presentation, I'm going to turn it over to the city manager if you go ahead and give us the update on the COVID-19 in the community.

Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the City Council. For tonight's COVID update, I'll be sharing the COVID case rates in our city and the vaccination numbers, along with most important information on how our residents can get their vaccine. So I have a brief presentation for you tonight.

It should be getting loaded any minute now. I'll go ahead and start talking, and we can catch up with the presentation. So case rates. To date, Santa Ana has had 48,034 cases. And unfortunately, we have lost 886 lives in our city. Santa Ana's test positivity rate is 5.7%. Orange County's test positivity rate is 7.8. So we are below the county's positivity rate. And talking more about the vaccination statistics. I know this is something that you guys have wanted was a breakdown of how is

our city doing at a granular level as far as vaccinations. So you'll see a map on the slide and it depicts the percentages of fully vaccinated residents who are eligible to receive vaccinations in various areas. The darker shaded census tracts have a higher percentage of people who are fully vaccinated whereas the lighter shaded regions show census tracts with low vaccine rates. Santa Ana's average percentage of fully vaccinated eligible individuals is 61.4 percent. That is above the United States average, which is about 51.1 percent. Diving down a little bit more, I want to share with

you our highly vaccinated areas and then our highly unvaccinated area. So this shows you, depicts the region. It's basically the 92706 zip code and it boasts a robust 79 percent of of fully vaccinated percentage of the eligible population. By contrast, the next slide will show you where we have some of the lowest vaccination rates. And this is the zip code area of 92705, which is one of the least vaccinated areas in Santa Ana. A percentage of eligible population coming in at a mere 47% vaccinated.

There is no reason not to be vaccinated if you're eligible. We continue to have three different locations where our residents can receive free vaccinations. Latino Health Access continues to host vaccination clinic on Mondays. Edwards Life Science Wednesday through Sunday by appointment has vaccinations. And then on Thursday, our Mexican consulate also offers vaccinations. So that concludes my presentation. It's a brief one this time, but I'll entertain if you have any questions.

Great. Thank you, Madam City Manager. That was really, really excellent information. Some of it, you know, we can definitely improve. But as far as the accuracy and how these data points, you know, how San An is doing with respect to its vaccine rates, its positivity rates, we see that we've got some work to do. But let me go ahead and bring it back to the City Council. Mayor Pro Tem, Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I just want to also thank you, Madam City Manager, for that presentation. For the upcoming COVID updates for future meetings, I think it'd be great to add just a reminder of where our residents could get tested for COVID-19. I know that a couple weeks ago I had to go out for a test and I kind of struggled to find a testing location in our city. that, you know, I just, for me, it was kind of, you know, a task. So it would be nice to have a couple throughout the city that we know of could do it on a walk-in basis and whatnot.

Certainly. I can include that information.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you for that.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Mendoza, then Lopez.

My question has to do with boosters. Do we have any of that information yet? Is it eligible or is our city eligible for boosters yet?

I know that they are recommending booster and it is starting to occur. I don't have any information as to the availability or locations within our city, but I could certainly find that out for you and add that to the next presentation.

Jessie LopezItem 4

I just want to thank what looks to be West floral park community and the Floral Park community for really making War III proud. They have one of the highest concentrations of folks that are being vaccinated. So thank you for doing that.

Thank you, Councilmember Lopez. Any other questions or comments?

I was just going to say just a couple of things. I know that Madam City Manager, you and staff are still talking to some of our bargaining units about the vaccine requirement that we have for our staff and employees, so please keep us posted on those conversations. The other one was I know that there are businesses in our community that are, you know, requesting and requiring some of their staff to get fully vaccinated, and I've seen other cities do like a placard saying this business establishment has employees that are fully vaxxed. I think I saw this in Pasadena. And I think it's a way to use a carrot rather than a stick

to encourage people and businesses to do this. That way they know when they're walking into a business or walking into a place of business where everybody's been vaccinated, and that will encourage, I think, good responsible conduct. And I think it's rather than being punitive on anybody, it's just basically celebrating the fact that we have responsible business owners and employers that are taking care of their staff and their patrons. So something to think about if that's okay. But let me turn it over to Councilmember Pham.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I just wanted to make a brief comment. So I remember very clearly the height of COVID and how afraid everyone was. And now that we're all vaccinated, we're able to go out there and enjoy our lives a little bit more. I was recently in New York City. And although Orange County has not gone this way, and obviously Santa Ana hasn't gone this way, but in order to enter certain establishments, events, restaurants, you had to show proof of vaccination. And I can tell you that when I was a comedy cellar and there was 100 people in the same room, because everybody was vaccinated, I felt safer attending. And I think the performers felt safer.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

And the business was packed because the employees can feel safe working and business is booming. and New York City, despite having seen the highest COVID rates in the nation in the beginning, are seeing very low COVID transmission rates right now. So, you know, I do encourage everyone to get vaxxed because that's what's going to get us back on track. You know, the economy is suffering because of the pandemic and if we can deal with the pandemic, we can get back to business. So

that's all I wanted to say. Thanks. Thank you, Councilmember. Yeah, and in that vein, I think the county does something like they give you an A through whatever rating and the A businesses are very clean and they get this high level rating. I think that certainly speaks to a person's decision on where they're going to go eat, where they're going to go spend their money and I think what we want to do is we want to make sure that we identify and support those businesses that have been responsible. And yeah, I think to the council member's

point. I've seen some businesses that do require before you enter inside to show proof of vaccination. And that's just, again, encouraging behavior that I think is responsible in our community. So thank you for that update, Madam City Manager. Let me go ahead and move it along. And I'm going to ask the city attorney if she has anything to report at a closed session.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

We do not have any reportable action this evening, Mayor.

Great. Thank you, Madam City Attorney. Let me go ahead and move along to the public comments section portion of our meeting. So this is the time and place for the meeting of the City Council to receive comments from members of the public on agenda and non-agendized items pursuant to the Brown Act. The City Council may not enter into any discussion or dialogue at this time, and the public comment line is now closed. It's been open since 4.30. We will now hear from members of the public that are present here in Council Chambers and hear from those on conference call as well.

And as usual, there is a three-minute limit for everybody's comment to be heard. So, Madam Clerk, what I'm going to do is I see that there are a number of request-to-speak cards from people here in person, and then what I'll do is I'll turn it over to you so you can go ahead and call on people that are waiting online. So let me go ahead and begin with, and you can do your recitation to those on the conference call after we're done with the speakers that are here in person. So let me begin with Chad Kroger, if he's present.

Chad Kroger, followed by J.T. Parr, followed by Alex Diaz.

just say okay yeah sorry took me so long to get up here I did legs yesterday but what up council my name is Chad Kroger I'm an activist and party enthusiast I'm here today to discuss a new initiative that I think will help mend our broken niche so it's a verified truth that partying makes people feel really good. And if the party's really sick, then people feel good for a while. A lot of parties that made me feel really stoked, kickbacks at my buddy Danny's, keggers at Froeders, or the coup d'etat, which is foam parties at Hakkasan. Yeah, it's really

sick. I highly suggest you guys check it out. And through my exhaustive research of partying, I've found that one specific type undeniably makes a collective froth peak and that is partying on a yacht.

Honestly, nothing feels as legit as being on a yacht deck with the linen shirt open and my body super tight from a pre-vacay juice cleanse. What a freaking boost. One thing that bums me out though is that not everyone has been able to rage in this luxury aquatic setting. And I found myself wondering, like, why is it that people like Pete Diddy and Jeff Bezos get to experience the euphoria of being on a yacht on the reg? But I think I found this luge. We want a government-subsidized public yacht grant program where people can apply to get free access to yachts so they can rage.

The qualifications for the grant could be that you're a person who really wants to party on a yacht. With this public yacht program, I'm pretty positive that our countrywide malaise would get sprayed away by jet ski water. Thank you so much.

Thank you, J.T. Parr, followed by Alex Diaz, followed by Ernesto Medrano.

What up, council? I'm J.T. Parr. When I was 23, I was in junior college, and I was failing both of my classes. It had me pretty stressed out. but then I went to Cabo with the boys and they rented a yacht and they parked it off the beach the office or the oficina in Spanish. Roby got some girls on the boat and we talked and we did some shots and I said like I don't know like three witty things and I managed to get not one but two girls on a wave

runner with me i didn't think about my classes once and although i ended up failing those classes it didn't bum me out because i realized happiness is more important boats give the soul a reset that puts everything into perspective but this may be news to you council but not everybody has partied on a boat and it's not friggin fair so let's right this wrong and let's put forward the public yachts initiative and let's boost the nation's stoke. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Alex Diaz followed by it. Nesta Mediano.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor City Council. It's hard act to follow. That is a hard act to follow indeed.

And fellow citizens and my fellow veterans, I'm Alex Diaz, Navy veteran, 20 plus years and Navy Reserves. And I am, let me refer to my notes.

I'm here to request for your support for a resolution to consecrate 200 acres of town-owned land in Anaheim Hills off of Gypsum Canyon for the final resting place of our men and women in uniform who serve our country honorably.

Excuse me.

On 1st July this year, the Orange County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to provide the county-owned land for this specific purpose, as well as providing $20 million towards its establishment.

This is a necessity in Orange County. Orange County ranks as third in the nation, excuse me, third in the state with the largest population of veterans and sixth in the nation. California ranks first with the veteran population in the nation.

Santa Ana, as a county seat, sits at a specific moment in time in giving your support for the establishment of this cemetery. One of your own members is a veteran herself, Nelida Mendoza. Thank you for your service. And should she so choose, that will be her final resting place, as I plan it to be mine.

It's fitting to unanimously, uniformly, and enthusiastically support this resolution to consecrate this land as hollow ground to honor our men and women who have served their country in support of its national defense. Thank you.

Thank you Alex. Thank you for your service. Ernesto Medrano followed by AIM Chris Youn.

Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the city council staff. Ernesto Medrano represent the Los Angeles and Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council. We represent 140,000 hardworking men and women. All 14 trades and 49 organizations affiliated. And I'm here tonight to talk about the Housing Opportunity Ordinance. I know we were here for the study session a while back, and I want to thank the staff for allowing us to have a very robust conversation, very transparent, allow us to exchange a lot of ideas, share information, and us be able to educate staff as to what we're about in the Building Trades Council.

And we have about 23,000 apprentices in both counties. We have 68,000 apprentices in the city of California. We invest because we believe in apprenticeship over $200 million a year in our apprenticeship programs. And I want to thank this city. We want, in my opinion, the most progressive cities in the county. Years ago, we stood here and we were able to negotiate a community workforce agreement that provided for local hire, veteran preference for all the capital improvements. Supporting apprenticeship programs because we know that under prevailing wage and under the public works,

20% of the hours have to come from apprentices because that's the way we train folks, right? Well, I'm here to urge you to make sure that no matter what you end up doing with this housing opportunity ordinance that you do require, you put in there with strong language to support the skilled and trained workforce required by the state of California. We think that's the way to really continue to train men and women and give them opportunities from this community to enter the training into the construction field.

We're probably, in terms of blue-collar workers, we clearly are the place where you can make six figures without a college degree, not walk out with any debt, not paying the tuition and fees, have your books paid for, and earn while you work. And learn while you work and you earn at the same time. And this is what we're able to do. And we think that this housing opportunity ordinance and the residential sector will give us that opportunity to do that. We all know what the blue-collar construction workers, that 48% of those families basically are subsidized by us.

There's $3 billion a year that are being provided under the safety net for these families. Why? Because we keep hearing the phrase, it doesn't pencil out. Well, I'll tell you what doesn't pencil out. Poverty wages, no medical insurance, safety and health violation, cheating on the job, wage theft. that doesn't pencil out for us and I urge you to to continue to consider

supporting the skilled and trained workforce we have a punishment readiness programs and the only place in the county in the city of Santana Rancho Santiago in a century high school we're built for that we're able to be able to provide a strong workforce for the residential market and again I can't stress the importance of having you no matter how whatever you do with this ordinance but that you make sure that it is a requirement and not aspirational language to put in the skilled and trained workforce requirement of the state of public contract code of state of california thank you thank you for those comments

and i apologize for the pronunciation ain't chris you followed by andrew gonzalez followed

by roberto ruiz thank you um good evening mayor sarmiento and council members my name is ayn and I am with Climate Action Campaign, a leading climate nonprofit in the region. I want to thank you for considering the climate resolution that's before you tonight, brought forward by Councilmembers Lopez and Fan. And I want to urge you to consider accelerating its 2045 and 2050 targets to align with the findings of climate science and policy established by our governor and our president.

Governor Newsom has already directed the California Air Resources Board to work toward carbon neutrality by 2035 and asked the CPUC to target zero carbon electricity by 2030. California's climate policies have exceeded pollution reduction targets four years ahead of schedule while growing our economy by 26%. This demonstrates what is possible when we focus on sustained climate action. While sticking with the status quo can seem like the safe thing to do, business as usual actually brings extraordinary risk for Santa Ana residents, which brings me to the energy issues in this resolution.

Everyone in Santa Ana needs electricity every day, but none of them has a choice in where they buy their electricity. This mandatory monopoly is not working for Santa Ana families. As of January, Southern California Edison customers were almost $340 million behind on their electric bills. Why is that? Well, according to the California Public Utilities Commission, Edison has increased rates 42% since 2009. 42%. That far outpaces the rate of inflation, and the CPUC expects that the average Edison electric bill will increase another 45% between now and 2030.

In addition to being too expensive, due to a long history of poor planning and neglecting equity, our energy system is not resilient enough to handle increasing climate disasters like wildfires and extreme heat. These disasters are straining our electric grid and hurting disadvantaged and low-income community members first and worst. According to the California Environmental Justice Alliance, community choice energy can provide a framework for centering environmental justice communities in the energy system. Community choice programs provide cleaner power and the vast majority of them do it at lower rates than the

investor-owned utility. That's because as public agencies community choice programs do not have shareholders and by law they are required to use any excess revenue to run local programs that benefit the community. For example East Bay Community Energy which serves Oakland and other Bay Area cities is saving customers $10 million every year compared to what they would have paid to the investor-owned utility. At the same time, they're investing millions of dollars in local programs that also save residents even more money. Santa Ana should get on track to do the same. In closing, what you do or fail to do

about climate change will be central to your legacy. So I encourage you to show bold leadership on the resolution before you tonight. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Andrew Gonzalez followed by Robert Ruiz followed by Mario Munoz good evening mayor council and staff and is also smart sheet metal workers local 105 first I would like to say if we can figure out a way to build those yachts with union labor and staff it with union hospitality workers I think it's something we could all get behind so let's go for that yeah I like that I'm here to speak today on item 35

the housing opportunity ordinance first I'd like to thank the council for bringing this forward and the staff for in good faith meeting with us discuss our ideas and the importance of prioritizing local jobs with family sustaining wages and benefits. I think for too long housing work in the housing field has been a place for theft and greed and stolen from the workers that really deserve to be paid properly and that if we could find a way to pay these workers the right wage they could afford to live in the housing that they're actually building. And let us not find a way to excuse or an excuse to not prioritize

the workers of the region. Let's find a way to go ahead and make this happen. Lastly, I'm already a veteran myself, so let's see if we can find a place to lay our nation's

veterans to rest. Thank you. Thank you. Robert Ruiz. Robert Ruiz. Mario Munoz, followed by

Nick Berardino followed by John Hannah. Hello City Council my name is Maury Munoz I'm a resident here of Santa Ana I'm a Marine Corps veteran I am the head wrestling coach of Santa Ana High School I am a newly hired biology teacher of Santa Unified at Reach Academy I'm on the Orange County Veterans Advisory Council. I'm here to show my support for this veteran cemetery resolution being presented today. It is something that needs to happen and this level of support from the city of San Ana

is one step closer to achieving this goal. Thank you. I'd like to leave you with a privilege that I have. Time. Something that the veterans at the forefront of this fight don't have. Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Nick Berardino followed by John Hanna followed by Dale Helbig.

Mr. Mayor, honorable members of City Council, my name is Nick Berardino. I'm the president of Valor Veterans Alliance of Orange County. I'm an old has-been around these parts. I started building a union right down the street in 1973. I retired in 2015. And then this battle for the cemetery even drew out us old has-beens to fight for this battle. We have to date assembled a coalition of 156 veterans organizations in Orange County.

We have numerous city council members over 76. We have 11 city councils that have adopted the resolution. We're doing five city councils tonight, and we have many more lined up. We are fighting hard because we spent 10 years in the city of Irvine being kicked around, abused. We got kicked off of two sites. Then they came up with this group that wants to keep pushing this for Irvine for a third site, which abuts the immigrant community.

And the immigrant community has fought back and said, not this time. We're not doing that. And the school district. but they still, I mean, I can tell you, I mean, even with 156 organizations, they, I've been in politics a long time, you know, a very long time, and I've never seen this kind of vitriol. I mean, it is allegations. I didn't know that I was a lobbyist for a developer until this happened, which I'm not. You know, I've been paid all kinds of money, I've never gotten a cent,

used $800,000. It is amazing to break up this veterans voice and a coalition that's led by Gold Star Moms. I've talked to councils where people don't even know who Gold Star Moms are. These are the women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. They've lost their children. And they don't get involved in any of these things. We have the Tierney Center from Goodwill Industries. We have every VFW organization. I sent all of you the list. I don't know if you've received it. Because we have to join together.

And we know we've had some great support. Great support from Congressman Correa and his staff and many others who stepped up and said, no more of this Irvine spate and switch, ten years of being beaten there, gotten kicked off at two of the three sites, only forced into another site where the immigrant community is standing. We ask you, on behalf of a man named Peter Katz who started this journey in the city councils, he died. He died. He went to city council meetings and he died. and he can't be buried in the cemetery that he fought for

because so many have gotten in our way, but they're not getting in our way this time. We ask you to join with all the other elected officials and the 156 veteran organizations. Ignore the crazy noise and nonsense that keeps coming up from a place that doesn't want us. and join us because we have a young man who was killed and leaving Afghanistan, another Gold Star mom. She doesn't have a veteran cemetery to bury her son in an orange galley. Thank you very much. Thank you.

John Hanna followed by Dale Helwig followed by Albert Castillo.

John Hanna, resident of Orange, representing the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters. Amen to Nick and the other speakers for the cemetery in Anaheim. It should have been in Irvine, and Irvine's bad for not doing it, but Anaheim's got their arms open and Santa Ana should support that. But I'm here to speak on the Housing Opportunity Ordinance. I thought I was going to be speaking later when we got to it, but I'll do it now. You know, two things happened. I was thinking about today. Yesterday was Labor Day. And you know, it's a day off for many, but we have an opportunity today, the council,

to really put into action what Labor Day is all about, which is supporting workers who are trying to improve their quality of life. Second thing is you have an ordinance on the environment and environmental and climate justice. And as I've mentioned to the study session, one of the things that you should do, since it's an immediate priority according to the language,

is to look at every component of what you do in the context of the crisis that our planet faces. And an easy step is when you deal with construction. Focus on a workforce that's local. The State Air Quality Management District has found that a skilled and trained workforce with a local hire component can reduce air emissions by reduction of vehicle miles traveled. You can improve the quality of life in a city that, as the proposal that you'll be dealing with

talks about, is hit harder than most cities in this state. It's an easy step and it helps the workforce. On the who, I don't want to get into the numbers, but let's say this. I do think that those developers who use a skilled and trained workforce or make a good faith effort that the staff finds is in compliance should have some benefit of paying a lower or who inclusionary fee.

What that is, the council has to decide. But one thing should be clear, if the council has some issues with the amount of money, it should not have issues with a statement that we should have a skilled and trained workforce. And you know, you might have heard the gloom and doom from some developers that they'll go to Irvine or they'll go somewhere else. But let me just say this. We'll be seeing Irvine. This skilled and trained workforce with a local hire component is going on the road.

But this is the city that is the beacon for inspiration, for environmental and workplace justice. And we need to make the statement here that we are committed to our local workers and that they are entitled to a living wage. It's not going to be something that's going to be disruptive because it will take a while before you have all the contractors that are going to be necessary to have 100% participation.

So when a developer tells you it's going to be X amount per square foot, it's just generally not true if it applies here. This will be with the skill and assistance of the staff. This will be a workable arrangement where the workforce will take care of the problems and it will have a creation of wealth for the city of Santa Ana. So I urge you to do the right thing tonight.

Thank you, John, if you could wind up. Oh, I see that. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for that, John. Dale Helwig followed by Albert Castillo followed by Jose Guevara.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members. It's been 15 months since I've been down here to see you guys. And I do want to thank city staff and all you guys for all the work that you've done during COVID. While most of us have been hunkering down, you guys have been out front line helping out. So appreciate it. My first city council meeting was back in December of 2017. And at that meeting I was greeted by Santa Claus. And you may not know it, but that was Peter Katz. He's no longer with us and I thought instead of waiting until the end of the meeting,

which I know you guys are gonna close in his memory, I wanted to say a few things. That guy was passionate about bringing Santa Ana into better light. He was also passionate about the Veterans Cemetery. And as someone else said, he spent 10 years fighting that battle. It's unfortunate that he's not able to see that come to fruition. He was a great person as far as that goes. He was passionate about what he did. He enjoyed being Santa Claus. He enjoyed being Mr. Spurgeon at the 150th anniversary down at Centennial Park.

And he volunteered in numerous ways that I can't even go into because the list is long. And I'm hoping that you guys do support the cemetery being built and getting Peter into that. because he, if, you know, he's one of the many that, as a veteran, put in a lot of time and effort so that everybody could benefit from that cemetery. So I'm going to miss the guy.

He helped me out quite a bit, and he was always a pleasure to talk to every time we showed up at a meeting or a function, wherever that might be. So good night. Thanks.

Thank you.

Albert Castillo, followed by Jose Guevara, followed by Araceli Casales.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. I, like many of our residents of Santana, are damn tired of the POA president, Jerry Serrano, of throwing tantrums. Jerry, you will not burn our city down. You will not remove our chief or make accusations towards our city manager. You will not get reclassified for a bigger pension for a job you don't do. You will not recall the mayor or council who oppose your dirty tactics. We will fight you. We need to review the police contract and

remove where the taxpayer pays a POA president his high salary and doesn't work out in the field. I believe this is illegal and a conflict of interest. Union officers are paid by the members, not by taxpayers. The RICO Act is a federal law used to combat organized crime.

In the United States, it allows prosecution and civil penalties for racketeering activities performed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. The police union president is engaged in the following recall crimes, extortion, bribery, embezzlement, fraud, obstruction of justice. I am here to say as a resident and a taxpayer, we have no confidence on you, Jerry Serrano, President of the Police Officer Association. Thank you.

Thank you, Albert. Jose Guevara, followed by Araceli Casales, followed by Max Madrid.

Good evening Mayor, Councilmembers, my name is Jose Guevara. I just gave the city clerk a letter from the congressman to all of you. My name is Jose Guevara once again. I'm a field representative and caseworker for the congressman. I'm also a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraqi war. Dear Mayor Sarmento, I write to you in support of establishing a veteran cemetery in Gypsum Canyon within the city of Anaheim. Various veteran organizations and community leaders have advocated for establishing a veteran cemetery in Orange Canyon for years without success.

As a member of the House Veteran Affairs Committee, I had the privilege of touring national cemeteries around Europe as a part of my oversight responsibilities. I was delighted to find the local European communities take it upon themselves to keep the cemeteries in perfect condition. These Europeans clearly understood the price paid by young American soldiers during the Great Wars. With over 130,000 veterans residing in Orange County and thousands who have served before them, we must do everything we can to secure a final resting place for our heroes.

The County of Orange has recently taken measures to begin the process of establishing a veteran cemetery in Anaheim Hills on county-owned property already zoned for cemetery use. The county has also allocated $20 million for this endeavor. All impediments appear to have been lifted, allowing us to move forward with providing an ideal fine rest in place for our veterans. By passing this resolution, the city of Santa Ana will be part of a significant historic milestone by building a veteran cemetery within our county.

I humbly ask your support in passing this resolution to help create a final rest in place for our veterans in Anaheim Hills. Thank you, signed J. Luis Correa, member of Congress. On a personal note, I was born here down in Santa Ana, raised, went to Diamond Elementary, went around the world in the Marine Corps, and came back here. Love it here. I live right next to El Toro, Les Carnitas, in the county. And I also had the privilege of knowing Mr. Katz. He was an inspiration to me.

I looked up to him as an older veteran, an infantryman, and he will be missed. But he always came out here and supported this endeavor. Thank you.

Thank you. Araceli Casales followed by Max Madrid followed by Veronica Chavez.

Good evening.

I'm here just to confirm our event. You know, I am in the house of Los 32 for Mexico. And I just want to confirm that we have the permission to be in the Centennial Park. I really appreciate that you answered my phone calls and some of the members. Nelida, also thank you for coming to our meeting. And we just want to request that you support, all of you support this great event, which is the Fiestas Patriots Parade, because for many years this is a great event that all the residents in Santana and different L.A. and different places, they come and attend this event.

And the most important is because we want to continue with the traditions that it's going to bring identity to our kids. I represent different organizations. I've been a volunteer for 39 years. And my purpose is for you to continue supporting this event. We don't want to disappear because this is something important. And it's wonderful to see the youth involved and know the culture of the families, you know, and be close, feel happy to be Mexican-Americans, you know. And that's the reason why I'm here today. As you already know, my purpose is always to support the youth. That's the reason why I'm here.

And, Mayor, I really appreciate the support. I hear in the last minute that you are supporting the event. And I just want to say thank you. And we want you to be part of the parade. You are a very important person that needs to be there, close to the community right now that would really need your presence. You are invited to come. And please, if you can support us. We don't have money to pay the fee for the Centennial Park. We are spending our own money because we want to continue with this tradition. And anything you can do, please, It will be really, really appreciated and thank you.

Thank you, you need to contact me for more questions. But my president, Mike Gonzalez for Mexico, we are about 40 members and we are requesting the same. Thank you very much for your time. Gracias.

Max Madrid followed by Benancio Chavez followed by Carl Benninger.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members. My name is Max Madrid, and I'm here to support the cemetery. I joined the Navy at 17, the day I turned 17 in 1963. I stayed 26 years, and I retired in 1990. I did two tours in Vietnam. And most of those veterans that were with me, they're at the Veterans Hospital. They're in homes right now and we don't have a place to put them. You know, we're over the top of the hill now looking at the other side and there's no place for us.

So if you can put us there, cuz I wanna be buried here in Orange County. And I know 100 of us wanna do that. So I think we deserve it. And I appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Max.

Menancio Chavez followed by Carl Benninger, followed by Perla Cruz.

No solo me cambio el nombre sino hasta de sexo me cambio.

De golpe todo. Adelante. Disculpe.

Mi nombre es Menancio Chavez y vivo en el 408 East Civic Center Drive. Señor Alcalde, señores concejales, Today I have come to call your attention because today there is another different epidemic than the COVID-19 and that is attacking our community very strongly, the delinquency. Today I have come to this council not only as leader of my community, but as victim of the delinquency of this city. Hace unos días me robaron uno de mis carros y a mi hermano le robaron otro vehículo de su negocio con violencia.

He hablado con algunos oficiales de alto rango, entre ellos con el sargento Sergio Enríquez. A todos ellos les he suplicado para que nos ayuden con la delincuencia que azotan en nuestro vecindario y que incluye robo con violencia, traspaso a propiedad privada, robo y vandalismo a vehículos, venta de drogas ilegales entre menores de edad,

tomar y hacer drogas en vía pública, prostitución, robos de catalyticos a plena luz del día. Estos delincuentes dejan basura y se hacen del baño en nuestros vecindarios. With a lot of sadness, we see that every single one of the 140 million dollars that received the police for this fiscal year. The police officers do not do anything to castigate these crimes. According to them, they say that none of these crimes are castigable. peor aún cuando llamamos a la policía tardan hasta cuatro horas en responder y

cuando llegan nos investigan más a nosotros que a los delincuentes y aunque todavía encuentran a los delincuentes la policía solamente con mucha amabilidad y respeto les piden que se vayan del lugar es tan grotesca la situación del que los oficiales le respetan más los derechos a estos criminales que a las víctimas

estamos totalmente desprotegidos y en manos de la delincuencia aún todavía peor es que el jefe de la policía el señor valentín y el jefe del del sindicato gerry serrano se enfrenten en una pelea estúpida en lugar de hacer su the police are not doing their job. Mr. Valentin, he also has a vote of my and my community for not doing their job for the one who was hired. I have two questions for you.

What are you doing to force the police to do their job? You are your employees. And lastly, What happened with the code of the city, private property, alcohol and drugs, vandalism, prostitution, etc. Thank you.

Good evening. I think you changed not only my name, but you changed my gender, too. So my name is Venancio Chavez. I live at 408 East Civic Center Drive. Mr. Mayor, council members. Today I am here to speak about a different pandemic other than COVID that is hitting our community hard, which is crime. I'm here as a community leader, but not only that, I'm also here as a victim of crime. My car was recently stolen and my brother's vehicle was taken by force from his place of business.

And I spoke to some people, some police officers, including Sergeant Sergio Enriquez. And they say that they can't do anything.

There's a lot of crime going on. There's robberies. There's theft. There's vehicle. There's drug sales among minors. There's drugs. There's prostitution. There's catalytic converters being stolen in plain daylight. There's defecation going on in the public places. And I think that over $140 million that we're paying the police in their budget this year, it's not being used correctly. The police, they say they can't do anything. They say these things are not punishable. and when we do call them, they take four hours to respond,

and when they do respond, they question us more than they are looking for the criminals. And the police, when they do find the criminals, they respectfully just ask the criminals to leave the area. That's it. So the rights of the criminals are more important than the rights of the victims. We are unprotected by this. Chief Valentin and the fight that he's having with the stupid fight that he's having with the union president Gary Serrano over something stupid. Chief Valentin, you have a vote of no confidence for us because you're not doing the job you were hired to do. And for you,

council members, I have two questions. How can we force the police officers to do their job, the job that they were hired to do? And how can we, number two, how can we enforce the codes that we have against trespassing, private property, vandalism, prostitution, etc.?

Let me, before I call on Carl, Senor Chavez, si tiene tiempo para esperar a uno de nuestros oficiales que hable con usted allá afuera de las puertas de vidrio para que puedan atenderlo.

Carl Benninger followed by Petla Cruz followed by Juan Godoy.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm flying to Michigan Colors tonight because on Friday night I recorded a new son-in-law. Happens to be a Ohio State fan. So now I decide whether he'll leave me in the house or not when he comes and visits. But just teasing. I appreciate very much closing this meeting in honor of Peter Katz. I was with Peter towards the end and of course I was with Peter all during our last number of years. Peter never backed down from a discussion. Peter could be a sweetheart, he could be a blanky blank, but he never backed down from discussion and he never disrespected other people's opinion.

And that's what made him a friend of us. We could disagree, but yet we still could be friends. And he gave up his time. And anybody out there who listens to me, Peter gave us time freely and there was never a city function that he didn't like he was there whether it be playing Santa Claus founder of the city for helping through a tragedy in the neighborhood he was there on it and so I urge everybody in his honor get involved we're looking for commissioners on our various commissioners take that step forward if it's a matter of getting

involved in your neighborhood get involved volunteer to his peter and one time peter was asked why do you do so much and he simply said to make santa anna a better place and it truly was a better place with peter with that let me also say too that please in his honor uh pass this resolution didn't realize this was on for tonight he worked very hard for 10 years to get that cemetery and I think it's a shame to the veterans what Irvine has done, kept delaying them, find another reason. Let's move on with it. Let's get the cemetery built for it. So thank you.

Thank you, Carl. Thank you for those kind words.

Perla Cruz, followed by Juan Godoy, and then Ermelindo Saldaña.

very good afternoon, Mr. Vicente Sermiento, alcalde and all the mayor. It is a privilege and honor to be here with you. I am resident of the wonderful city of Santana, a very cultural city, and today I am here because I have the privilege of having known

I am a family, I want to inculcar my culture and also bring wealth to this wonderful country. We are practically working to take place the desfile of the Patriots, which is for us a very important ceremony and very special for our culture. And today we want to ask that we can support us. Please, thank you first of all, that we gave us a place. Centennial Park is still reviewing, but we ask that we can support us. Please support us in the way we can support us. We can support this cultural tour that we have working on.

We can support this beautiful city. For economic issues, we do not have the necessary funds. necessary. So, we ask that we have to help us, help us, help us to preserve our culture, which is very important. And so, we give us a little more time and if possible, the economic support, we thank you all of you. And you, Mr. Sarmiento, thank you for being where you are. It is an example to continue. I have read your history and, definitely, Definitivamente, gracias por ser ejemplo a todos los jóvenes y a muchas personas que venimos a este país con un sueño.

Así es que este grupo de los 32 por México es un grupo que se preocupa por preservar la cultura en este país. Y no solamente la cultura, realmente queremos aportar a esta nación maravillosa, a esta ciudad que nos ha permitido ser parte de, que nos ha acogido. and that's why we come with all the respect to ask that please support us in this event that means a lot for us and that our families are with many wills waiting for us to take it. Thank you for your time and thank you for everything you are doing in this city.

Good evening, Mr. Sarmiento, Mayor Sarmiento, members of the City Council. It's a privilege to be here in your presence. I'm a resident of the wonderful city of Santa Ana, which has a lot of culture. And I'm glad I just got to know the group Los 32 por México, which promotes family and culture and the richness that we have to offer to this country. We have been working on this parade, which is an important cultural event for our community, and we're here to ask you to support us. First of all, we'd like to thank you for allowing us to use Centennial Park.

We have some details to work out, but we ask you to support us for this parade, which will be wonderful for the city. Due to the recent economic situation, we don't have all the necessary funds, so we're asking you to please help us with this to preserve the cultural heritage that we have. And we don't have a lot of time. If you can help us with more time or you can help us with the resources. I want to thank you Mayor Sarmiento because of what you've done. I've read your story and you're an inspiration to all the young people, immigrants with the dreams. Los 32 por Mexico is helping to promote culture,

to promote our culture in this country, and we are asking your support for the city to help us to have this wonderful parade that the families in the community are waiting for. Thank you for your time, and thank you for doing what you're doing for the city.

Adelante, Juan.

Buenas tardes, alcalde. Buenas tardes a todos los miembros. Pues ahora sí, el motivo de aquí es para agradecer todo el apoyo that we can give as leaders community leaders, as organizations, all united in the organization Los 32 por México, and we thank you for opening the doors in the different communities community to bring information as to our culture with the respect that everyone deserves. Now, some of my colleagues have said

good evening mayor members of the city council i'm here to ask for your support as a community leaders. We are united in Los 32 por México. We are thankful to you that you've opened the doors and that you can open more doors for the community, in the community for us to share information, our culture, and of course, with all due respect to all. And some of my friends have said it already, we don't have all the money, so we're asking that you help us, that the city can help us to provide this for us. Thank you.

to let us make this small event that we have in mind, because first we asked the main, that was much for, and we told them that not for the pandemic, we understand, and it is understandable. Then we told them that in the Centennial, and I thought it was going to be all around, when it was at the Centennial, but it doesn't result that it is not the half. And we're also saying thank you for, in any way, leaving that small space.

Now, we all come, my colleagues, I don't think we can talk about it. I think the girls come with the pleasure of being able to take a good impression of you and that you can say that yes, that we support you. as a member of the TRETOX por México I also ask that we support now I will say something that maybe not is fine but not only when it comes to that they are in campaign they ask that they ask right, Mr. Peñalosa that then we will not be able to call the phone no I will say for the others only for him and yes, I will say

because I support him in his campaign but then I will not answer but well, so we are the people a veces no disculpe que sea tan tan este directo pero así es la cosa gracias

thank you for listening to us members of the city council who represent all of us here in santa ana my name is melinda saldaña i'm from the state of guerrero and i've seen many of you in prior years during the parade before the pandemic. And we're here to ask for your support. We're here for you to help us, to allow us to do this small event. In the beginning, we asked for Main Street, and of course you said that was a lot, of course, due to the pandemic, and that's understandable. So then you mentioned Centennial, and then when you said Centennial, I thought it was going to be the entire park, but it's not even half of it.

But, you know, thank you. Thank you, because that's something, even though it's a small space, we appreciate that. And we are here, the girls are here, not everybody will be able to speak, but we're here with the girls who are asking or who are expecting to have a good impression from you when you say yes. Los 32 por México is asking you to support us, not just with when campaigns happen and you ask us for support and we're there. I'm not mentioning anybody, but Mr. Peñalosa, they don't answer the phone after trying to get a hold of them. It's not all of you. It's just some.

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but I just wanted to say that.

Our last public speaker, or here an in-person speaker, is Gisela Cabrera.

Good evening.

what we are looking for is the culture of our Mexico. And I want to thank you, the donation to you, the Alcalde, for everything that has supported us, and that from the beginning said that yes, and that is supporting us. The girls behind me are some of the representatives that are in every state and that come with the pleasure for the support of all of you to do the show of the Patriots that every year has been done and that unfortunately, the last year, the pandemic, we could not do it.

But this time, we have the effort and the desire to do it for them, for the Mexican culture, but that they learn it. And I would like to my colleagues, I'm ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب ب

more to be able to deliver all the paperwork and all that is necessary. Some people are outside and they are saying that they have donations to give. The girls are bringing a message, that's why they are behind me. Adelante. Hello my friends, we want to invite you to this September 12, since all of the states together are one, we are brothers, we are a culture, we are a place, we are a force. Remember my friends, the United Nations is only one Mexico.

This September 12, we want to ask you your support, because we are a city here in the United States. But it's events like this that help us reconnect with our traditions, our traditions and our art. Thank you. Como verán, vienen bien entusiasmadas, ya que quieren participar y queremos que ese sueño de ellas, ustedes nos ayuden a que lo logren. Me gustaría que el señor Mike González, que es nuestro presidente, le voy a regalar mi minuto que hace falta para que diga algunas palabras. Es lo único que quiero. Mike.

Mike, lo puedes hacer en 30 segundos. Adelante.

Córrele. No presurto.

Thank you. also of you, we support you. Thank you very much. We only want to bring the rescue of our culture, art and traditions, in this case, Mexican and of the brothers. We know that you are our leaders and are the ones who can support us. And now, what we most take care of is time. Because, unfortunately, we already have time.

Cesar, before you begin the translation, just so I can go ahead and maybe refer you Mike

So Madam City Manager for your translation. So I told them if somebody could meet with them in the back about just some additional time or see what they can work out. Sounds like today was a cutoff. There might be a way. If there is, they can speak about it. If there isn't, then obviously we want to make that effort.

Go ahead, Cesar.

Good evening. I've been here in this country since I was 16 years old. I know English, but I like to speak in Spanish because we're asking you to further our culture here, our Mexican culture. And I'm here. First of all, thank you for donations that we've received, the help that you've received. Mr. Mayor, thank you for your support. But now we are sad because we don't meet all the requirements. We have the girls here behind me. They're representing the different states in Mexico, and they're happy here to ask you to support the parade. Every year

we've done the parade but of course due to the pandemic we were not able to do so last year we are here because we desire to further and promote our culture most in the those poor Mexico we're standing here to ask you for more time we had a due date today to present the money to Parks and Recreation at 3 p.m. we were not able to complete it so we are asking you for three days to do to submit all the paperwork and some requirements that we still have. We are here.

We have some people who have told us they will support us outside with donations, and the girls here are making a plea to you. And the girls said, we invite you this September 12th. The states are one for culture, for race, for strength. And we are one Mexico, so we invite you September 12th to promote our traditions, our culture, and the arts. And the girls are excited here. We're asking you to help them achieve this dream. And I'd like to cede one minute remaining to Mr. Mike Gonzalez, President of Los 32 por Mexico.

And he said, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, members of the City Council. We're just asking for a couple of days. We have some pledges from businessmen outside who said they would help us. So please thank you in advance. We just need 48 hours to get all the money completed and turned in. We are here. Thank you for helping us rescue our culture, our arts and our traditions. And we just need more time. Our time ran out at 3 p.m. today, so please give us 48 hours more. Thank you.

Thank you. And that was our last in-person speaker. and before I turn it over to the clerk, let me just go ahead and read something that I received from Rancho Santiago Community College Trustee Zeke Hernandez, and he just wanted to simply be put on record that he is supportive of the Veterans Cemetery at Anaheim Hills. Zeke is a member, and I believe he's the vice chair of the San Ana LULAC organization, so let's just make sure we put Zeke on the record as somebody who's supportive of the cemetery. he missed the cutoff and so so Zeke you were on the record in favor so madam

clerk I think we have some members of the public that wish to address us that are on the line waiting so I'll turn the meeting over to you

thank you mayor members of the council before I'm meeting callers I'd like to begin by reporting the following summary of emails provided as of today we have received one non-agenda item from Kennedy Commission in support of the rent stabilization ordinance to Santa Ana business in support of Chief Valentin and all of his efforts throughout the city of Santa Ana. Item 16, the Willowick update. We received two Santa Ana resident, the member of Rise Up Willowick Coalition, the comment on various issues with the update provided in the staff report from August 17th. Item 33, the climate emergency resolution.

24 Santa Ana residents were in support, 23 non-Santa Ana residents in support, and one residency not disclosed in support. Three residents not disclosed commented to add 2030 emissions reduction target to resolution. Item 35, the housing opportunity ordinance update. One, various organizations commented on the city to carefully weigh options for housing policy measures. And with that, Zoom ID, Jose Trinidad Castaneda, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device, thank you. You may proceed with your comment. You have three minutes.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name's Jose Trinidad Castaneda. I am speaking to you on item 33, the climate resolution. You know, I was with you all just this past weekend for the recall, knowing the recall effort with Governor Newsom. And before that I had spent a little over an hour canvassing in Santa Ana, right next to Valley High School, letting people know about the election, letting them know to turn in their ballots.

and around 30 minutes into canvassing in 100 degree weather, I had heat exhaustion. I kept going for as long as I could, but I couldn't believe that there was just no way I could continue volunteering my time to let Sanana residents and voters know about this recall election. And it was because of climate exacerbated heat conditions that we're going to see more and more of today, tomorrow, and long into the future.

So I really want for you all to vote to approve a bold climate resolution tonight, one that includes a 2030 goal for zero carbon emissions, essentially. That is the only acceptable timeline by which the entire global scientific community and your own scientific experts in your backyard in Orange County agree that we can get ahead of the 1.5 degrees centigrade increases in global average temperature. I really appreciate John Hanna

from Southwest Carpenters for mentioning vehicles my vehicle miles traveled because that is a rather new concept for municipalities in job centers like Santa Ana to consider when we think about housing, when we think about lowering our greenhouse gas emissions from transportation sector, because we run off of fossil fuels. So you have all the data and all the evidence. I feel like I've repeated myself multiple times on this public comment period in previous city council meetings. You see me in the community, I want you to know that I will hold you accountable to a 2030 net zero carbon goal.

This is not something that is negotiable. This is not something where you can just have a staff recommendation for a 2050 goal that is not in line with the global scientific consensus on remaining under a 2 degrees centigrade increase in global average temperature that will save lives. So I need you to plead, I need you to consider a bold climate resolution tonight. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Nathan Taft.

If you would please select the microphone icon. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name's Nathan Taft and I'm a senior campaigner for the environmental nonprofit Standout Earth. I'm also a member of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Campaign Working Group and I'm a proud resident of Sandana in Ward 3. I'm calling tonight in regards to Agenda Item 33, the Climate Emergency Resolution. I really want to urge the Council to treat climate change like the existential threat that it is by becoming the fourth city in the United States to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and by taking bold actions to protect our community

from environmental hazards like lead and fossil fuels. It's essential that we pass this climate and environmental justice emergency being championed by Councilmember Lopez. The truth is I've been working on this resolution for more than six months and it was crafted by community organizations, environmental nonprofits, environmental justice groups and the council member and members of this community with great care to name critical issues facing our community and lay out workable solutions. We must end the expansion of fossil fuels that are heating this planet and poisoning

our community. We must address the crisis of lead contamination in the soil that our children play in. The resolution is a good start and a roadmap for moving forward, but I also critically believe that we must move up our ambition to have our goal be 100% renewable energy for the city by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2035. These are in line with science-based targets as named by the scientific community. It's also in line with what the state of California is aiming for. The state of California is aiming for 100% renewable energy by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2035. Our city has a lot of work to do.

A study from Notre Dame said Santa Ana was one of the least prepared and most at-risk cities when it came to climate change. We can change that, especially with COVID-related economic relief and a massive infrastructure bill incoming from the federal government. We must pass this resolution and ensure that we have shovel-ready jobs that can improve the quality of life for Santa Ana residents. We can be an example for the rest of Orange County and the rest of the state for how we can address climate change and environmental justice at the same time, and I urge you to pass this

resolution and then get to work implementing the viable solutions it lays out as soon as humanly possible because our lives quite frankly depend on it as we've seen from all the disasters around the globe and and the rising heat that we feel in our own community and i thank you for your time and have a good evening thank you

zoom id anna charco if you would please select the microphone icon on your device Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Perfect. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Council member. My name is Anna Charco and I am here on behalf of Latina Health Access to speak on item 16. Latina Health Access is a community organization that has been offering health education and prevention services to residents in Orange County since 1993. Our mission has two areas of focus. One, to deliver culturally appropriate health related services and programming to address urgent health concerns. And two, to engage individuals in low income, low opportunity areas and transforming their

environments and creating positive concrete changes in their homes and communities are providing tools, training mechanisms for civic engagement and participation. Ultimately, our goal is to facilitate opportunities for residents to take ownership of their well-being, including by participating civically in decisions that affect their health, like the development of projects that will directly impact them. Therefore, given the Well-Awake property is currently sown as open space, Latino Health Access believes it is important that the council members receive information on the need for this land use in the city.

From February 2019 to July 2019, the rise of Willowick coalition, serve residents to receive their feedback on the Willowick property. The top priority of the respondent was previously accessible for open spaces. The resident requested for more open spaces, it's not surprising given that the city of Santa Ana dedicates only 4% of its land to open spaces. The Santa Ana Supercoat states that the city parkland standard is two acres per 100 for a thousand residents this standard is lower than the one suggested by the california um queen bee act which recommends the park standards of three acres per

a thousand residents despite the fact that parks provide many invaluable benefits for residents physical health and mental health such as improve academic performance lessen the effects of heat iceland reduce greenhouse gas emission increase storm water retention and allow people to remain and active and enjoy the local community. Among other needs in our city is the need for affordable housing. In recent years, we have heard the community constantly express the housing is the determinant most impacting their physical, mental, and emotional health. The lack of affordable housing and increasing rental costs

for our extremely low-income residents has forced people into overcrowded living conditions and rent burden. According to the city local data, 80% of Santa Ana residents are moderate, low, or very low income, and 84% of our residents hold low income occupations that pay less than 53 53 but um 500 000 per year yet the most significant increase of housing has been the above moderate housing category therefore the well over golf course property must be developed to meet the needs 15 seconds left and their mission which includes previously accessible parkland for active recreational use and open space for affordable

housing thank you and have a great night thank you zoom id danny gray if you would please select the microphone icon on your device thank you you have three minutes hello mayor city council members

and staff my name is danny gray i'm a resident of capistrano beach i'm also a member of the the Climate Reality Project in Orange County. I'm in support of the Climate Emergency Declaration, but I'm a little concerned about item I in the resolution. It reads as follows. The City of Santa Ana seeks to achieve 100% of electricity power supply through clean, renewable, and zero carbon emission energy sources before the year 2045.

I feel that seeks to achieve 100% should be changed to will achieve 100%. And the year 2045 is just unacceptable. It's not good enough.

We need to excel with regard to climate issues. Accelerated climate change is having a huge effect on us today, right now. we are running out of time i encourage the city of santa anna to be aggressive in your climate energy declaration thank you thank you

zoom id adam wood if you would please select the microphone icon thank you you may proceed with your

comment there we go i think you can hear me now sorry about that uh evening mayor council staff adam wood calling this evening to oppose items 33 and 35 the climate change emergency reso and the proposed changes to the who i do want to applaud the city and council for the efforts aimed at resident health jobs in the environment but the language in the resolution raises several concerns and at a minimum there needs to be an explanation on the ramifications and effects that this could have on housing affordability arena targets and so forth i'm also concerned to see

the the resolution states that urban development can contribute to serious health concerns and wildfires that's simply not true and further urban development tends to reduce traffic pollution uh due to walkability and closer proximity to jobs uh it is definitely the the future of orange county and santa anna and i think we need to be really careful about moving forward on policies and programs that could unintentionally have detrimental effects on housing affordability now on housing affordability moving on to the who it was just over a year ago council made

the prudent decision to amend the who to encourage residential development it worked from 2016 to 2019 which was the period immediately following the 2015 who fee increase 2,900 units were approved by the city but no permits were pulled nothing got built no money went to affordable housing because of that as soon as you lowered that fees hundreds of units started moving forward generating millions of dollars for potential impact fees for affordable housing projects the link between the fee and production cannot be any more clear so even just returning to

old fee would be disastrous but the proposal that is uh before you tonight it's much worse actually uh it adds a fee schedule for small projects that had previously been exempt we're talking about mandatory skilled and trained workforce requirements uh and enhanced uh local hire terms we know that this can increase costs by at least 30 percent and that is a much greater um increase in cost and would be offset by the reduction of the fee to five dollars in effect what we're looking at is a program that could have the unintended consequence of actually disincentivizing the

use of union labor if we don't take another swing at this thing um we're also interested in getting more information on uh what qualifies uh under this uh proposal for skilled and trained labor. We're also interested about, you know, you've listed that there's percentages for the local hire, but what if you have a developer that can't find the number of workers required? How are we going to address that? Who's the final arbiter on how these things get decided? Same thing goes with the skilled and trained labor portion on this. There's a million ways in here

that this could potentially be used to stop housing even though there's a lot of lofty and important goals that have been put into here uh again the real world impacts of this could have a devastating impact on housing opportunity for santa anna residents i know the state's taking a look at some of the actions of santa anna and at this point what we're saying is we strongly oppose the the proposal before you and we'd love to work with the city to come up with something that is much more workable in light of the proof of lowering the fee works. Thanks.

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

Thank you, you may proceed with your comment.

Yes. Thank you for providing me this opportunity to introduce myself as a candidate for ACWA vice president. My vision for ACWA is to embrace its own motto established in 2016, bringing water together, which for me is about unifying ACWA members and working collaboratively with diverse stakeholders to find smart solutions to the challenges we are now facing from constituents of emerging concern, improving the

Delta, climate change, drought, the human right to water, and the list goes on. Listening, learning, and working together to address members' suggestions will be a priority for me. As for my qualifications, I have served on the ACWA board since 2016. I'm currently on ACWA's executive committee. I have served as ACWA's region 10 chair and currently vice chair and I have served on several ACWA committees including water quality, energy and state ledge. I would bring a broad

range of experience to the ACWA vice president's role with over 10 years as a board member of the Orange County Water District serving as board president and vice president. My experience extends beyond water and will serve me well in my role as Aqua vice president. I have served two terms as mayor of Huntington Beach in addition to serving on the city council as well as on various city boards, commissions, and committees. I'm a registered nurse, hold a law degree, and it's been my privilege to address public health and safety as well as

environmental issues. I look forward to connecting with each of you. I'm happy to answer any questions you have of me now or in the future. I hope to receive your support for my candidacy with a concurring nomination resolution and your vote. Thank you again for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Person on the line with the last three numbers, 525, if you would please select star six to unmute your call or select the microphone icon on your device.

Thank you. You may proceed with your call.

Thank you. My name is Cynthia Guedra and I'm a lifelong resident of Santana and a member of the Rise Up Willowick Coalition. As the council listens to the staff reports, the staff's report of the negotiations for the Willowick property, I encourage the council to think of Willowick as a vital community resource that can help meet Santana residents' urgent need for open space. And I'll repeat data that I think has been repeated in this meeting already, but I think it's important given that it seems to, you know, we need to take more action on this.

The Santana Municipal Code states that the city should meet a parkland standard of two acres per every 1,000 residents. According to the program environmental impact report for the city's recirculated draft of the general plan update, the city has failed to meet that standard. It is currently at a deficit of 118.64 acres. Mind you, the California Quimbley Act actually recommends a parkland standard of three acres for every 1,000 residents, higher than the standard the city has failed to meet. The city's deficit is not surprising, given that it only dedicates 4% of city land to open space.

In contrast, the city of Irvine, which ranks 7th out of the nation's 100 largest cities for park access, dedicates 26% of their land to open space. Santana ranks 88, falling three places from 85 last year. Persevering Willowick's 102 acres as parkland would greatly help address the city's 118-acre park deficit. There is only one project that the city of Garden Grove is currently considering that will actually meet the city of Santana's needs for open space, and that is the Trust for Public Land project, which proposes to preserve Willowick as publicly accessible park land.

The other two projects that Garden Grove is considering sacrifice the majority of the land to market rate housing. Under the SLA, a project that proposes to maintain Willowick's current zoning and use of open space receives super priority. Now I know some council members today will say that Santana Council has no authority over the surplus land deck negotiations because those fall under the jurisdiction of the city of Garden Grove, given that the property is located in Garden Grove. Well, I would actually invite those and all other council members to be proactive and

consider ways in which they can help protect their residents and preserve Willowick for public benefit. Santana controls the zoning of the Willowick property, which gives the city a lot of power to ensure that the site becomes publicly accessible parkland. The city has already taken the first step by ensuring that the property remains zoned as open space in the general plan update, but it must do more. I have heard council members and city staff say that the city's built out. If that is true, the city should be doing everything in its power to preserve its last remaining large scale piece of land.

The trust for public land is ready to give a beautiful park to both Santana and Garden Grove residents. it's really only a matter of both city councils doing right by the residents and accepting this gift and as a final note i would also want to encourage the council to support the climate emergency resolution a study conducted by the university of notre dame of 270 students with a population of 100 000 and more brings santana as among the least prepared and highest risk of the effects of climate change if you know the wildfires the drought the deadly floods all of these things

that have been in the news recently are any indication the city really needs to act boldly and swiftly to protect some santa residents thank you thank you

caller with the last three numbers 090 if you would please select the microphone icon on your device or dial star six thank you you may proceed with

your comment good evening my name is Karen Romero-Strada and I'm a member of the Rise of Bullock Coalition, which is made up of residents and organizations advocating for residents' vision on the Willowick golf course. Willowick is located in Santana and owned by Garden Grove. And I'm here to speak on item number 16. As a coalition member, I also felt compelled to speak today because tonight's staff report is inaccurate for several reasons. First, the report omits the 2019 lawsuit filed against the city of Garden Grove by Rise of Willowick due to its failure to follow the law, specifically the California Circus Land Act.

The October 2019 lawsuit is an essential part of Willowick's history. Because of the lawsuit, the public and residents today are able to continue to advocate for park land and other community benefits on Willowick. Because of the lawsuit, the city of Garden Grove was unable to dispose of Willowick to McWinney, a commercial real estate developer that would have converted Willowick into commercial market rate housing with basically no open space and no affordable housing. Secondly, the staff report does not mention the coalition's advocacy over the last two years and a half that has forced

the city of Garden Grove to consider residents' vision for Willowick. During this time, the coalition has monitored the city of Garden Grove's compliance with the law on Willowick. That is important to note. Additionally, the report discusses the city of Garden Grove's speculative 90 million dollar appraisal of Willowick and fails to mention that the appraisal is based on the hypothetical assumption that Willowick would be rezoned from open space to allow a master plan community which would include potentially commercial retail and market rate housing. The appraisal assumes without justification

that the property will be rezoned. The city of Santana needs to do its due diligence by pointing out that the appraisal is based on speculative and hypothetical assumptions. I urge the council to ensure that all city updates such as this one are accurately recorded and that the council prioritize and respect residents' needs and wishes for open space park lands and other community benefits on Willowick by maintaining its current zoning in the general plan and any future zoning. We continue to invite the city of Santana to meet with the coalition to make the residents' vision for Willowick possible, something that is very tangible

with the trusted public lands proposal thank you thank you caller with the last three numbers 010 if you would please select star six on your phone or select the microphone icon on your device thank you you may proceed with your comment hello can you hear can you hear me yes we can hear you

you may proceed with your comment all right thank you yeah victor mendes district three proud member of the aclu planned parenthood and aarp um all these memberships and affiliations kind of relate to my comments tonight um i heard comments about the electric electrical cooperative right now i'm staring down a 600 electrical bill for a 600 square foot apartment uh and let me say I've been very uh sparse and frugal with that energy or that electricity and looking at the electric bill it's obvious that the problem is not with the cost of the of the good the electricity

but the cost and how it's delivered uh SCE is completely inefficient it's probably about 40 of my cost if we can go into electrical cooperative to actually reduce those costs of delivery on top of the cost of the good i think we can save a lot of money for a lot of people but again 600 for one month for a 600 square foot apartment uh that's a lot of money the vaccination rates uh it looks like we're getting a little behind uh the state and maybe the county i know that data is very hard to get to these days but i think we got to really you know turn up the effort here uh

Because I think we may be getting a little bit lagging behind both the county and the state. I think the state is soaring up pretty good maybe in the 80s. I don't know. But I think we're well behind the state at this time. I live in the 92705, which has that 40% vaccination rate. And I would state that there's a good portion of that of 92705 that cuts into Tustin. And there may be something there driving that 47%. So try to consider that as well. As we all know, the POA or members of the POA gave a vote or no confidence to the chief.

While I'm not here to judge the merits of that vote or even the things that were brought forth to the members to vote on, I would simply encourage the council to have a discussion with the chief and find out what the problem is and how it can be corrected and move the thing forward. I mean, there's some pretty serious charges there around sexual harassment, interference with procedures and interference with hiring, et cetera. So I just simply encourage this council to have some conversation around this, find out what's going on, and let's get it correct for the benefit of everyone involved.

Along that way, the number 34 on your police commission, I do note that there was a very small majority minority that really supports the subpoena but the vast majority of residents support a commission that's very complaint centric i think it's there i mean i think you know if you really look at that survey those are the things that people really want to see in the commission and i can't see why we just can't go forward on that basis and move forward 15 seconds

people are well faster people are counting seattle and portland um you know i had some experience there and very unresponsive compared to the response units I got out of Riverside, Santa Ana and Anaheim. So please go forward. And lastly, I think that's not a bad idea if we can use some of that candidate fund. We can fund marine biology classes for our students, etc. Right now you're paying 3.7 million dollars for enforcement. Maybe we can find some savings

there folks. Take care. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Zoom ID, Craig Preston. If you would please select the microphone icon on your device thank you you may proceed with your comment

hello mayor sarmiento and council thank you for taking my comments i am a co-founder of the orange county chapter of citizens climate lobby we have seven chapters that touch orange county a strong one in santa anna and thank you for your work on moving forward with climate action i'm in support of a climate urgency climate emergency being declared on item 33 and also supportive of the comments that item I doesn't take the emergency into serious

light that the 2045 is too far out in light of what is happening and the urgency and the speed of disasters happening and I encourage you encouraged you to take the 2030 numbers that leadership is needed at this time just two quick quotes is that you can't steer a boat that's not moving so it's time to start moving and thank you for what you've done already in the past and also the citizens of the Titanic know that it it can be too late and the consequences are grave if we don't turn quickly so please thank you for your leadership and this is a time the rest of

the county and the state and the world is watching and thank you because local actions make a big difference I'm very supportive of uh Congressman Lou Correa's actions also on the federal level and thank you for your support of him as well and those things. Thank you. Thank you. Zoom ID

Daisy if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Thank you. You may proceed

with your comment. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes we can hear you. Okay thank you. Good evening Mayor, City Council and community members. My name is Daisy and I'm here on behalf of of the Kennedy Commission. I'm here tonight to comment on item 35 on the housing opportunities ordinance. We support the changes being made to the housing opportunities ordinance that can facilitate the development and funding for affordable housing for families. The city needs to update the in-lue fee to $15 to be in line with a fee that is fair and allows the city to create an in-lue fund that will help build affordable housing for its residents.

The proposed fee is in line with the region's in-lue fees. and it has been recommended based on a feasibility study of Santana's housing and real estate market. This funding will allow the city to secure additional state and federal funding sources to create much needed affordable housing. The city risks losing state and federal housing matching funds by not having the in-lue fee at this level at a time when we face economic and housing instability because of the pandemic. The city must continue to prioritize the 15% affordable housing requirement focused on extremely low, very low, and low income.

I also want to urge the city council to keep in mind families struggling to remain housed right now in the city of Santana. The city of Santana will see a wave of evictions at the end of September, and as we think of policies to help families and future housing development, let's continue to keep in mind the families facing financial hardship today, right now. and policies such as the community preservation rent stabilization ordinance that can truly protect

residents and tenants. Thank you. Thank you. Zoom ID Patricia Flores, if you would please select

the microphone icon on your device. Hi, my name is Patricia Flores. I'm the director of Orange county environmental justice and i want to speak in support of item 33 the climate emergency resolution so our organization does a lot of research within the city of santana and we work a lot with local community members and one of our largest research projects is our soil lead campaign in which we documented that most of the neighborhoods within the central area of santana

have lead contamination rates within their soil in those neighborhoods of upwards of 2,000 to 4,000 parts per million. And so the California EPA threshold for which soil lead begins to affect the IQ of children is at 80 parts per million. So that means that many neighborhoods in Santana have a lead contamination rate of 25 to 50 times the California EPA threshold for safety for children. And so this is a huge health risk for our youth. And especially considering that Santana is one of the youngest cities in the country, this is in fact a crisis, right?

And so we need this resolution to begin making those steps towards remediating this issue and preserving the health of our youth for generations to come. In addition, I want to support the comments earlier that item I, that we should actually be aiming for 2030 as a goal for 100% renewable energy, right? Because as mentioned earlier, the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative rated Santana as having one of the highest climate risks for the entire country and the lowest rate of climate readiness for the entire country. So we're facing incredible risks to our livelihoods in the coming decades, right? And in

the coming years, you know, within this decade. And so we need action now, and incredibly progressive action now to be able to address this issue. And so I'd really ask you all to think about not only the health of ourselves, you know, within our own lifetimes, but in the health of the generations to come, that we want to be able to preserve Santana as a place that people can live and thrive then we need to support this resolution now thank you thank you

zoom id senai fourthall if you wouldn't mind if you would please select the microphone icon on your device zoom id senai oh thank you you may proceed with your comment yes

thank you um good evening mayor and city council members my name is tonight fourth old although i don't live in santa anna i shop dine and play in santa anna and do some work in santa anna like most oc residents and i'm here to support passing of santa anna's climate and public emergency resolution. Climate change is real without a doubt. It's happening all around us right now. The East Coast is flooding and the West Coast is stricken by extreme droughts and have been

burning year-round. Climate change is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work together and we need to stop procrastinating we have to understand that pollution racism and poverty are all interconnected and i truly believe that climate justice is an opportunity to transform our systems in a way that leaves no one behind our frontline communities are first and worst impacted by climate change.

It's no coincidence that our communities are often surrounded and living adjacent to freeways, oil drilling, and lead contaminated sites. The air quality is often bad and highly polluted. As a result, we have higher rates of asthma, other respiratory diseases, cancer, and higher rates of mortality. We all know that Santa Ana residents are on the front line of environmental degradation. However, I'm also hopeful. In fact, some frontline communities that are most impacted by climate

are closest to the problem and are often the first to the solution. Some of these communities are already innovating, transformative climate solutions and tracking multiple problems at once they are creating good paying jobs green jobs training opportunities affordable housing powered by solar addressing public health by advocating for clean policy i really urge you to support this resolution and adapt um carbon neutrality by 2030. thank you

thank you

zoom id linda kramer if you would please select the microphone icon on your device

hello can you hear me yes we can hear you may proceed with your comment

hi my name is linda kramer and i'm the chapter co-chair of climate reality project orange county we're a member group we have members in every city we have uh 250 official members and we have of a mailing list of about 550. And I'm here to support the item number 33, the climate emergency resolution. I want to mention that cities are responsible for 75% of the emissions, and they have the most power in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

I wanted to just mention some facts about near-term issues and to encourage Santa Ana to make a bold commitment to reducing emissions by 2030 and not just the state mandate of 2045. Heat index, heat events, is the number one cause of death in the world in terms of disasters. And the incident that just happened in July, the heat incident in the northwest caused an estimated 800 extra deaths just in Oregon, Washington,

and British Columbia. And so heat events will be one of the first things that affects local Santa Ana residents. Because of a lack of tree cover there, there is a real need to act on the climate emergency now the other thing is that food prices uh are expected to rise they've risen a little and rise more with more emergency events those are two near-term issues which will affect the residents so acting boldly is in good faith to your residents a very important thing to consider I also wanted to mention one more thing.

Community Choice Energy Agencies is the best and most fiscally responsible way to reduce emissions. And to the gentleman that mentioned he had a $600 bill, there are several Community Choice Agencies that are using money that comes back to the cities to reduce the cost even more, especially in prime times between five and eight through several programs they also are using money to have uh cooling centers on for instance churches so that they pay for the solar and

battery storage and then those churches offer to be cooling centers for the residents in times of heat when they can't use their conditions 15 seconds left so i really appreciate that you've considered this resolution. Thank you to Council Member Jesse Lopez for writing it and please support this issue. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And with that, Mayor, that was the last public comment.

Great, thank you, Madam Clerk. So we are at the consent calendar portion of the meeting and before I call on Council Members to either pull an item off the consent calendar or abstain from or recuse themselves from that item, I did want to bring something up, and I think, Madam City Attorney, is this a good moment to go ahead and maybe raise that item that I want to see if we could reconsider. So I'd like to move to reconsider an item that we adopted at the last council meeting that was bundled with other consent calendar items that were approved.

as you recall. We had taken some items off the consent calendar and continued them to today's meeting, but the balance of those consent calendar items were adopted in one motion. There was an item that I forgot to pull off there, and it was item number 26, and that was an agreement for the Ready OC emergency preparedness. If you see something, say something campaign. So I simply wanted to move to reconsider that tonight and have it brought back to us if that motion is successful at the following meeting so we could have

a chance to discuss it. That's simply the interest that I have to raise that motion and I will move that motion to reconsider because the rule is for us to reconsider an item has to be done at the subsequent meeting from when that item is taken up by somebody on prevailing side. All of us, it was a unanimous vote to adopt the balance of the consent calendar, items that were not pulled off. So I will make it based upon that.

I second the motion.

Thank you. There's a first and a second. Any questions or comments from the members of the council? Hearing none and seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you'll please call roll. Are Are we doing it by device or by oral vote?

Because I don't have that item on the agenda, I'm going to have to do a roll call vote.

Got it.

Okay. Thank you for that. Councilmember Becerra?

Yes.

Councilmember Hernandez?

Yes.

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

Yes.

And Mayor Sarmiento?

Yes, thank you council members for that indulgence. Now let me go ahead and come back to any consent calendar items that you'd wish to pull off So we consider it so we can consider individually or if you'd like to recuse or abstain yourself from

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Council member fan I'd like to recuse myself from item 22 out of an abundance of caution Although the Illumination Foundation is not a client of my firm the property where the Carnegie Shelter is located belongs to a client. So just to ensure all transparency, I will recuse myself from that item. Also for number 31, Orange County Water District is a client of my employer. And although this is a vote regarding the candidate, again, because she is on the board, I'd like to recuse myself in an abundance of caution. That's it. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for that. I think item 31 is on the business calendar, but that's fine. We'll note it for the record. Let me go from anything, Council Member Becerra, on your end?

Phil BacerraItem 4

Actually, I do have a few. I'd like to go ahead and poll items 15, 16, 17, and 21.

Great. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem and then Council Member Mendoza.

David PenalozaItem 4

I would like to poll item 13, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Councilmember Mendoza and then Lopez?

Jessie LopezItem 4

None for me.

Councilmember Lopez?

Jessie LopezItem 4

Yeah, I would like to pull 10, 17, 19, and I have a comment for 25.

Let me go ahead and have you repeat those. Was that 10, 17, and?

Jessie LopezItem 4

19.

19.

Councilmember Hernandez?

I think there's not anything left for you, man.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

None on my end, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you.

All right.

Same here. So, Madam Clerk, did you get all those items?

Phil BacerraItem 4

Yes, I did.

Great. I'll move the balance of the agenda.

Phil BacerraItem 4

I'd also like to make a quick comment on number 25 as well.

Great. There's a motion by Council Member Becerra. Is there a second?

Phil BacerraItem 4

Second, second.

I'll second. Second by Hernandez.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Real quick comment. I just wanted to thank my colleague, Council Member Hernandez, for collaborating with me on this idea for the rink. I also wanted to thank our city manager for her work on bringing this item to us. I know there's a lot of work that went into making this happen. And Nabeel, thank you, Nabeel, for your work on this as well. This is genuinely a transformative project, and we're taking a place that was once a very unwelcoming place. We know that from what we saw in the news, just what had taken over that plaza, and in a few short months we're going to see something that is very community-oriented, family-friendly,

Phil BacerraItem 4

and I'm very excited about this project. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for those comments. And with that, Madam Clerk, if you please call roll.

So now council members can go ahead and provide their vote on the doors.

Go ahead.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Thank you. I had a comment on the overall design. I am very supportive of this item. but I like the concept, it reminds me of the Christmas markets in Europe which I'm a big fan of. You know I just want to make sure that we're utilizing all of the space since we're going to have this in one of the most central points of the city and also just to get staff thinking about the long term I guess revenue or benefit that it can have for the city if we can rent that out to non-profit organizations that might be interested or schools that want to do a day on the rink,

Jessie LopezItem 4

anything like that. If we're able to give community organizations an opportunity to also use it, I would be very happy to see that. So I was interested in starting that conversation with

staff. Thank you. Thank you for that. Did you say, Madam Clerk, that Council Member Hernandez?

I did not see that he had his hands.

Mayor Pro Tem, I think I saw your hand.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento, and just thank you, staff, and my colleagues, Councilmember Becerra and Hernandez. I also just wanted to ask staff that as we move down this path and we come up with a more permanent plan for the upcoming years, and this one as well we we also in utilizing the entire space you know not just think of of just the ice rink and and the christmas tree that that uh that i know we requested but also you know make it inviting to to maybe local uh restaurants or merchants to be able to sell hot chocolate and and and cookies and and christmas pastries and and maybe not every single day but on the weekends

David PenalozaItem 4

you know, Friday through Sunday, make it a place because I know families are going to be bringing out their kids and mom or dad probably don't necessarily want to partake in the ice skating, but it'd be nice if they could, you know, hang out on the side and drink a cup of hot cocoa and whatnot. So it'd be nice to see a kind of festival surrounding the ice rink. So just keep that in mind and let's see how we could work together to bring those partners on board. Thank you. Mr. Mayor.

Great comments, everybody.

Councilmember Mendoza. Thank you. Yes, I am in support of this item because it is going to bring Santa Ana into a community that's been long in coming together because with the pandemic there has been a lot of isolation so this activity is going to bring us closer together and unite families. So my suggestion was also maybe to have some a little gift that we can give to the to the participants such as a little scarf with a city logo on it as a sort

of a welcome and to let them know that we have their best interests in mind and in the future perhaps turning this event into a roller skating also for the summer months. So good job with putting together this very special event and we hope to continue this in the coming years. Thank you. Thank you, Council

Member. I believe Council Member Hernandez has a comment. Yes, thank you, Mr.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Mayor. I just wanted to say to my colleagues, thank you for supporting this item. As the Council Member of Ward 5, it's extremely important that we that we activate the community and make downtown Senate Anna more family friendly. It should be a location where children and mothers and fathers and families are able to make everlasting memories. I think that this is a start of a new direction for our city. And I'm really happy to see that we're able to turn this idle space into a space where families can celebrate and come together. And I fully concur with council member Mendoza. but this should be something that we utilize year round

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

and turned it into a skate rink. There's a number of kids that love to skate, my daughter included, and I think it would be great for us to utilize this space year round and adapt it to the seasons and to the different holidays. I think that would be great. So I'm in support of that.

Great, so we should just pull this item because I think everybody spoke on this. So I might as well say something as well. Thank you, Council Members Hernandez and Becerra for your work on this. I think it's a great idea. You know, it's funny. I think we did speak about this sort of converting to a roller skating area once, you know, the season changes and, you know, it starts getting warm again. But I know that some youth came to us and said that the whole program of, you know, renting skates and the fact that they really enjoyed it

and it was a way that they felt like they were just, you know, getting exercise, being outside, and being active. So that's a great idea. I think this was an outgrowth of those comments. So thank you to staff for listening to our residents because I think that they came up with this concept, and you all ran with it, and the council members were supportive. But one ancillary benefit that this is going to have is that this activates a space that's very dormant in the city. civic center space, if it's not activated, not only does it become dormant, it becomes

dangerous when it's not used. It becomes dark and as we know, the other side of the civic center campus is going through a transformation over on the county side. I hope that we can see this as the first step to start activating our space but really transforming it and making it become sort of an extension of the downtown, its own district, its own area, but I've seen a lot of cities that activate their civic centers they've done great work and so I hope that we can get there we have a lot of square footage and a lot of good things that we can do with maybe acquisition

of the state building doing some other things creating some space for conventions and conferences but you know we can start dreaming once we take this first step so with that I think enough said everybody loves this idea so madam clerk are we ready for a vote yes so if council members can

and go ahead and cast their vote.

Council Member Hernandez and Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa.

No, this is for the balance of the consent calendar. Council Member Hernandez, can you cast your vote?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Yes, I casted my vote. I'm not sure if you're able to see it.

Okay, great, thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

okay in the event that that you're not able to my vote is yes

okay motion carries 7-0 with council members becerra hernandez lopez mendoza fan mayor pro tempeñalosa mayor sarmiento voting yes great thank you that motion carries unanimously i believe

the first item that was pulled was by council member lopez was that item number 10 madam clerk

Jessie LopezItem 4

yes that's correct go ahead councilman thank you um i do have a suggestion that i would like to see that council consider in this language and that is that no less than 50 percent that the council shall not under any circumstance allocate less than 50 percent of the funding to youth services so i think that would be a great mechanism for us to build into this ordinance

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

everyone's looking at me so the question there is um so upon your second reading under your charter you can make any changes to an ordinance if the concept is still the same so if you see it as a clarification based on your first reading i think that this proposed change falls within that requirement but ultimately whether you want to accept that language is up to the city council

Phil BacerraItem 4

councilmember lopez could you repeat what you stated yeah um i don't actually have the

Jessie LopezItem 4

ordinance in front of me so I can't I cannot guide you to the paragraph but oh it's under C under expenditures from the cannabis funds but if we can add to the last item to the last line where it reads specific allocation for youth services and enforcement and services shall be made at the sole discretion of the City Council except that the City Council shall not under any circumstance to allocate less than 50% of the funding to youth services.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Do you want to add that language? I would like to add. That's the recommendation, Madam McKean. Madam City Attorney, if I may, Mayor. Sure, go ahead. That seems like a substantial change because my understanding of this ordinance is that it allows flexibility, allows discretion of the council to move the percentages around one way or the other. And so this kind of sounds like we're starting to already enshrine allocations.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

The ordinance has originally drafted that you already introduced as the first reading and gave you more flexibility as to how you were going to allocate. I think it's the two-thirds because one-third is going to go to the general fund. So it was then one-third to youth, one-third to enforcement. So I think the proposed change here is that that two-thirds can be used in any way that you want it to be used with this addition here. that no less than half of that two-thirds go towards youth. On the one hand, you're giving flexibility, and on the other hand, with this language, you're restricting, taking back some of that flexibility.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Correct. So now I think you're changing the nature of the ordinance at this point. Because this is to enable us flexibility, and now we're applying a restriction as we're about to do the second reading.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

Yes, and so your charter has some interesting language. As your city attorney have mentioned this before, that language is not consistent with the government code, but it was approved by your voters and the charter language just says that you at your discretion can allow changes at the second reading if you believe that it's within the general concept of what you adopted if that's not the position that you want to take you would have the option of reintroducing and having a first reading with the language proposed or your other option is to reject the

proposed change in the language any other questions or comments mr mayor i do actually yes go ahead

Phil BacerraItem 4

council members thank you so back in early august our police served a search warrant on a building that was just about half a block up from the yale street shelter and in there they uncovered an illegal large-scale operational marijuana cultivation facility with human trafficking involving 93 people including children the ability to legally sell and cultivate commercial cannabis has not completely deterred the illegal sales and cultivation within our city. So it's clear that enforcement services, especially in regards to cannabis, are still very much needed.

Phil BacerraItem 4

And the title of the asytum on the agenda for the ordinance really should have read second reading of the ordinance, kind of going back to this discussion, second reading of an ordinance that authorized discretionary allocations between use services and enforcement services from the cannabis fund. So again, going into this, this is really more about allowing discretion. So if we're going to start tacking on any restrictions, I feel like it's changing the nature of the ordinance and I can't support that. In fact, I would actually concur or I would advocate that it would require us to go back to a first reading.

Great. Thank you for those comments.

Councilmember Mendoza?

Yes, I'm a bit confused. Maybe some clarification. So we're changing with this amendment here. we're proposing a change rather than do one-third for youth services, one-third for enforcement, and the last one-third for, what was it, City Attorney?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

So the ordinance had previously read that one-third would go to your general fund, one-third would go to youth services, and one-third would go to enforcement services. When you asked if this ordinance be brought back to you, you asked for flexibility so that you could move from the one-third enforcement into youth services, or arguably you could move one-third from youth services into the enforcement. My understanding of the languages being proposed is that you would retain some of that discretion, but in no event would you ever, so you would be able to move from enforcement to youth services,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

but this restriction would say you can't move from youth services to enforcement. You have to maintain a minimum, I think you said, of 50% to youth services.

Any other questions, Council Member Mendoza?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

So it's a restriction. Yes, it's a further restriction. So on the one hand, you asked me to draft language to give you much discretion so you can move away. This is what is being proposed as a restriction on some of that discretion that you sought. Thank you.

We have additional questions from Councilmember Fan, then Mayor Pro Tem.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you, Mayor. Madam City Attorney, so with the 50% limitation, it would essentially force us to go back to one-third, one-third, one-third. but the point of this that many of our colleagues raised was well combine the youth and enforcement so in a manner that we don't have to declare a fiscal emergency and have a two-thirds vote of the entire council and in order to get around that essentially we created this two-thirds youth enforcement fund so I'm

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

concerned that if we go back to one-third, one-third, one-third, essentially, and that enforcement can go to youth, but youth cannot go to enforcement, I kind of feel like that, in a way, makes us go back to the original plan, when now you're making a required allocation from enforcement back to youth, which would require fiscal emergency with two-thirds vote. Am I just being a little too cautious with the legal reading?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

Yeah, we had removed that language at the council's request. So I just want to make it clear, this is a proposal by one of your fellow council members. This is not a staff recommendation. So we haven't analyzed it other than this is a proposal by one of your colleagues.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Okay. I just bring that up. I understand the reasoning behind that because part of the conversation we all had up here during the budget discussion was that, you know, we never anticipated that we would get this much money and we want to get more money into youth services. But I am concerned that with that language, for me personally, I don't know if I'm comfortable with that because essentially you're kind of forcing allocation or you're making an allocation that would require that language, or at least initially. So, I don't know.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

It just doesn't sit well with me right now, and I hadn't thought about this before, so I'm just still kind of thinking through it.

Mayor Pro Tem. Peña Losa.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I am also not comfortable with the proposed last-minute change to the second reading, just because the whole intent and the reason why we're here was to give the City Council flexibility in future times when this when we would have when we would come up with allocating funds from the cannabis fund and this takes us back to where we were in restricting us of how we could use it so not supportive of the change I would suggest I would make the recommended recommend I would make

David PenalozaItem 4

the motion to approve the ordinance as is, the item, and then suggest to my colleague that in a future meeting, maybe bring it up as a council item to make that further change or allocation, however that would work. But for now, I would make a motion to approve the item as is. I'll second that.

So we have a motion and a second for the recommended action. So I just have some questions on the first motion that was made by Council Member Lopez. So I remember this conversation pretty graphically when we were talking about what we were going to, what the intention was with these funds, that we wanted to move some of the funding away from enforcement because we saw we had forecasted a lot less than what was actually anticipated early on when this fund was created.

Secondly we realized that what was being addressed with the enforcement obviously didn't go away so nobody said let's do away with enforcement. I think we just said proportionately speaking we have a lot more revenue to address to continue addressing the enforcement while at the same time maybe increasing the allocation for youth investment. So along those lines I think that the idea was always, yeah, let's not have to go through the exercise of having to declare a fiscal crisis with a five person, two thirds majority

vote, but simply to go ahead and make adjustments because we realize now not that enforcement is going away, nobody is saying that that is going to be deleted, but that can be adjusted and we can go ahead and invest more towards youth. So I think that that's really, that was the goal and the intent, and that's how it was adopted in the first reading. I think this adjustment, according to you, Madam City Manager, I guess my confusion is, is it material or is it not material, right? Because that is the threshold question, and that's a very subjective question, I think.

there isn't anything that you can say or that any of us can say we can argue materiality and you know whether it's substantive or substantial but that is something that I think is very difficult for us to be able to give a bright line

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

answer to your charter section 413 the only test it gives us is whether any changes at the second reading are within the general scope and original purpose so original purpose you could be you can argue that both ways right one could argue that the general purpose was to give you destruction so today limiting that is is somehow restricting it one could also argue well the general scope was we were talking about the cannabis fund and where we could move money and how we could do it so I think over time you know I have been on record when we had a proposed charter amendment I'd proposed that we clean up this language

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

for just this purpose but I do think that the remedy to this is one that I think council member penalosa mentioned which is you can avoid this if you wanted to just reintroduce a further change at a later date you don't have to do it at the second reading

that is one alternative let's just assume that that the the amended language that's introduced by council member lopez fails we go back to the original recommended second reading on this ordinance that flexibility remains for us to be able to adjust money from enforcement to youth which was the original intent, the legislative purpose I remember that we spoke to, and at least that's what I heard from the majority of the council. So that remains intact, is that correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

Yeah, that general discretion would remain intact.

Okay. Look, I think that, you know, my intent, my support of these, of the changes to the cannabis fund revenue and its allocation was based upon being able to increase money towards youth investment. That was really my goal. Because I realized that when we first adopted this, we had 120 illegal operators, and now we are down to less than, I don't know, five. So that means game isn't over. We still need to dedicate monies, and not just to enforcement, but to code enforcement. Money goes to the city attorney's office. It goes to the city manager's office. So nobody is saying, let's eliminate that.

But I just thought proportionality dictates that there still continues to be a need as strong as it was back then for youth investment, if not more. So that was the whole goal, I think, from me or from my perspective and to the extent that that goes away and we're back to saying, okay, well, let's increase enforcement now and let's do it to the detriment of youth investment. That is contrary to the legislative purpose that I supported when this was done. So I do think that there's merit to what the intent of Council Member Lopez's amendment is,

but I just want to make sure that we're going in the right direction. I'm worried that we're going to wake up one day and say, let's deplete the youth investment allocation and let's increase the enforcement when there isn't the same demand that there once was. So that's my concern, and I think maybe that was some of the reasoning behind it. I can't speak to council members' intent, but that's what my worry is, is that we now start realizing let's just, you know, let's take away from one when I think the youth investment is what drove at least my support of these changes to the ordinance.

So I am good with both, you know, so long as that flexibility remains, so long as I know that we are looking at continuing to support investment to some degree, or excuse me, enforcement to some degree, but we are going to increase the youth allocation from one-third because I know that that demand is high. The demand for the enforcement is high, but just not as proportionately high as youth investment continues to be. so at this point we have a motion on the floor do we have Hernandez as well

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Councilmember Hernandez go ahead thank you Mr. Mayor and and thank you for your comments just now because this this conversation is a very critical conversation to have because it involves a history of a plant that has always came with stigma and unfortunately the hyper criminalization of black and brown communities, there are people serving life sentences right now while they're that you know for petty drug charges you know that unfortunately has crippled communities like ours while there are

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

people that are generating millions and millions of dollars that are owners that unfortunately didn't have to go through the same circumstances. We're still feeling that the effects of those stigmas and why we fill a need to hyper police our own community. There's always going to be bad apples and I know that there was one recently in the month of August where they found large amounts of cultivation in Santa Ana but these dollars we need to remind ourselves of where the origination of policies like these came from. Taking it back to understanding California's the early care and education system,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

the state of California created over $21 million through Prop 10 tobacco tax revenue, which is what funds Head Start programs and preschools. I think that Santa Ana, it would be wise for us to acknowledge that unfortunately in our city, there is a shortage of open space. There is a shortage of programs and there's a shortage of us utilizing our parks effectively. To the contrary, that there are kids that get shot and killed in our parks. We just recently commemorated the two-year anniversary of a tragic drive-by shooting that took a young lady from us. And just recently this past weekend,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

we had an 18-year-old boy get shot and killed in this community. These funds to have additional oversight and enforcement aren't going to bring these kids' lives back. And it's not going to prevent bullets from being shot in our streets. But youth investment will. When you can invest our dollars into those neighborhoods that are filling the effects of that trauma then we will have a very different conversation but it has to start today otherwise four years down the line we won't be able to say that decision saved x amount of kids in this city but that's the situation we're

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

faced with right now look past the stigma that comes with the over criminalization of what marijuana did to communities like ours and look at the need that is presently in front of us there are kids getting shot and killed in our city in underfunded parks there are kids that are having to go to different cities to engage in sport let's do something for once in the city and let's invest in creating these programs let's create more sports programs through cannabis let's create more dance programs through cannabis let's create intervention and prevention services so that people like

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

neutral ground can proactively help us intervene and prevent kids from ever getting to the point where they want to destroy their lives and join gangs. So let's do that by supporting youth investment. So my support goes there, Mr. Mayor. That concludes my comments.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Phan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you. Madam City Attorney, I know this is all kind of last-minute questions, but I guess my question was just more like if we add that 50% language, I'm not concerned about the second reading aspect. I do understand that. But my concern was more with Section 13-205, the procedure for amending, suspending, or rescinding the ordinance that was in the original cannabis ordinance. I know the reason why we did this, I don't want to call it slush fund, but the youth slash enforcement combo fund was to kind of find a way around this requirement.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

requirement, if we add the 50% language, do you think it materially affects that requirement or would trigger that requirement in any way?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

I do not because I think what you proposed in your first reading, what we drafted for you was to give you that ultimate discretion. I think the emergency funding language and the supermajority vote language was intended so that future city councils couldn't take that money and put it to an entirely different use. So what we did is we stayed within the parameters, youth and enforcement, and the change that's being requested, as I understand it, is saying that one-third that you had put towards enforcement and the one-third that you put towards youth, the ordinance is currently drafted, lets you move it without any restrictions.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

As proposed, I believe what is being requested is that in no event would you take more than 50% of the one-third of youth. I think that's what I'm hearing. And so for me, I could make the argument that it's within the same scope, general scope of your original discussions and your original purpose, because your original purpose was to give yourselves discretion to move back and forth. this still allows you to move back and forth it just doesn't let you move 100%

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

of the youth to enforcement I guess I I would like to kind of push back a little bit on that last comment about moving back and forth because my recollection is that we wanted to move to youth not to enforcement so I would say my concern was regarding section 13-205 and because you have just determined your advice is that it doesn't trigger that I am comfortable with it being within the scope of our last conversation because unfortunately I didn't think about the potential that some future

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

council might say, you know what, I'm just going to save, you know, 10 percent of that two-third to youth and I'm going to use it to, you know, into code enforcement. And that is a fear and I appreciate Council Member Lopez for bringing that up. And with that, I guess we already have a sub motion, so we need to vote on that sub motion and then go back to the original motion.

Yeah, I think there's a substitute motion by or there's a motion by Council Member Lopez. I'll second that for purposes of discussion, but I know there's also a there was a subsequent motion made by Becerra seconded by Mayor Pro Tem.

I'm sorry, Peña Losa and then Becerra.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

So we'll just vote on the sub motion. Can you read back that? Because I followed that we had a motion, but could you...

There was an underlying motion by Lopez that I just seconded, right? And that was to have that, you know, it'll be no less than 50% dedicated...

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

For proposed language, right? I got that motion.

And then there was a motion that was later made by Mayor Potent-Beñalosa to adopt the ordinance as recommended by staff, correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

And seconded by Becerra.

And it was seconded by Becerra. And that was the last motion on the floor.

And I believe that's the one that we take up first.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

We have to take action on the substitute motion first.

Right.

Sure, go ahead, Mayor Procton.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you for that. So I just have a question, kind of coming back to Councilmember Fan's point about a future city council potentially, you know, making the youth 10% or less. I mean can a future city council 15-20 years from now completely come in and just change the ordinance again and say you know we're gonna make it zero percent and and we're gonna give 90% or whatever to I mean enforcement it just I feel like we're I mean a future city council could do anything really I mean

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

yeah a future city council could repeal this ordinance I in my opinion it would require that supermajority vote. The only reason that these changes in my opinion are being allowed to be made by a simple majority is because you're staying within that context of at least two-thirds of this revenue is going to go to youth or enforcement or both. But if you go beyond that, if you open up those parameters, my opinion is you you will need a supermajority vote.

David PenalozaItem 4

Right, so currently, as the ordinance is stated, recommended by staff, it gives us more flexibility as a council, but does it still require a super majority to say, no, it's just a simple majority, correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

Simple majority when you go through your budget process.

David PenalozaItem 4

Okay.

All right, thank you. Thank you for that, Council Member Phan and then Becerra.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I just wanted to briefly touch on what you mentioned. I would say that if we adopted without the 50% language, a future council can adopt a budget or staff can recommend a budget. That does put 90% into enforcement without this robust discussion with how youth funding is being done or enforcement funding is being done from this cannabis fund. But if a future council wants to amend it so that you know 90% of the two-thirds does go to enforcement We will have this public meeting We have to have the public meeting at least twice to amend the ordinance And I think that gives the public an opportunity to make their comments on that

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

So I think that's a little bit of a stopgap for a future council They might not care, but I think that it's important to to say that You know our goal is not to diminish the youth fund our goal is to enhance it and by By adding the 50% language, we ensure that it is not going to be diminished unless somebody chooses to do so in the light of day.

Thank you, Council Member Fan. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I will tell you that my support for this was because of the flexibility that wasn't hamstringed by one way or the other. It wasn't a one-way street. And in fact, I'm looking at the ordinance right now, and there's nothing in here that says that it's only to go from enforcement to youth. It could go either way. I don't think there is a council that would ever say, let's put 90% towards enforcement and not give more to youth. But what I appreciate about this whole exercise was because we don't know what future budgets are going to look like,

Phil BacerraItem 4

and we don't know where we're going to have to move funds back and forth. And so I appreciate the idea of being able to have that flexibility, especially because the cannabis funds are increasing beyond what was originally imagined. And so there's a lot more opportunity with these funds for helping our youth, but also enhancing enforcement. We have some serious issues in our city that we do need to make sure that our enforcement of some of these issues are robust. But in no way, shape, or form am I looking at this as a way to somehow go 90 percent enforcement and 10 percent toward the youth.

Phil BacerraItem 4

I think that when I supported this during the first reading, it was because it was for the flexibility of moving these funds either way. Again, depending on what the situation was going to be at that time as we approach each budget cycle. So that's where I'm at, and I'm looking forward to voting on the substitute motion.

Great. Thank you. I think we have one more comment from Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sanminto. I just also want to be cautious as we move forward with this because as we know, other cities in the county are adopting ordinances and getting voter approved measures to bring in retail cannabis to their cities. Madam City Attorney, what's our current sales tax percentage on retail cannabis?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

I'm going to defer that to staff because I don't know the exact percentage. I believe it was on a diet person retail is what you're asking look at the

ordinance it's above the market I know that yeah I think it was eight from what

I believe we believe seven but I let us tell you the exact amount because I know

David PenalozaItem 4

that the measure that the city of Costa Mesa or the ordinance that they just recently adopted it gives them the city council should choose a percentage for adult retail use from four to seven percent.

They adopted a range, correct.

David PenalozaItem 4

In a business market, they're going to go to a lower percentage than we do to be competitive and try to take some of that business away. So I see this happening more and more as we move forward, you know, down this path with more cities jumping on, which will deplete our revenue, you know, just thinking on the common business side of it. and and I know that the the enforcement it has reduced from what it was you know three years ago but in just talking to our police department to or code enforcement to planning it's it's shown to come in waves I mean it kind of

David PenalozaItem 4

there's just periods where they're where it rises and there's periods where it dips I mean just two weeks ago my tax accountant on Main Street you know sent a very long and emotional email about the illegal cannabis shop that has been shut down three four times and just keeps coming back up on that same property right next door to him um and so i i i want to make sure that we don't restrict ourselves uh because the whole intent of this was to have that flexibility so i just see that this revenue right now it's at an all-time high because of the pandemic and it was at home and it was smoking pot and you know and it was it

David PenalozaItem 4

was a reality that we don't know how this is gonna change moving forward so just you know that was my whole intent of supporting this was giving us that flexibility so those are my final comments mayor

thank you for those comments and I think we've all shared our thoughts and we're probably ready to go ahead and share our votes and give some direction I would just say in closing, you know, not everybody smokes, some people use it to rub their, I'm just kidding. My mom uses it on her joints, actually. Not joints, joints, but on her joints, right? So, again, silly now. So, I just, you know, I think that we all are well, you know, intentioned here, and I respect everybody's arguments.

I think, though, for me personally, I do want to see some adjustment that would move from enforcement, again, not to eliminate, but towards youth. Because I know that that is a need that no matter what happens on needs for enforcement, there is always going to be a need for investing in our youth. That is something that doesn't fluctuate. That is a consistent need that we need to address, and unfortunately we haven't addressed it to the degree that we should because we continue to see problems in our city and lack of resources for one of the youngest cities in the country.

And that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon. So to the extent that we can continue to have a robust effort, that is something that I'm going to be supporting. So, Madam Clerk, we're going to go ahead and vote on the second motion that was proposed by Mayor Pro Tem, which is to support the staff recommended item.

And I have Councilmember Becerra moving and Mayor Proton second. It was switched. Okay, my apologies.

Okay, if Councilmembers can please cast your vote.

Councilmember Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Yes, I'm casting my vote now.

Thank you.

Council member Hernandez, we can't see it. Can you please announce what it is? And we'll go ahead and.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

No.

We can do a verbal if you'd like.

Okay, my apologies. So it looks like I'm going to go ahead and announce it. It is Council, so it's three. It failed with Councilmembers Becerra, Mendoza, and Mayor Potem voting yes, and Councilmember Hernandez, Lopez, Fan, and Mayor Sarmiento voting no.

Great, thank you. Now we go back to the original motion that was moved by Councilmember Lopez, and I believe I was the second on that.

Would you like? Go ahead, Councilmember.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I just want to make a quick comment that even though we are adding this 50% language to protect the youth portion of the two-thirds fund, it doesn't mean that in a year, you know, that we'll also diminish the enforcement fund down to 10%. Right? I think that in a year that we might need it, we would keep it at the one-third, one-third, one-third. And that's why I support this amendment.

Well said.

Thank you. Thank you. Madam Clerk, do you want us just to go ahead and recite it or would you like us to use the device, what's best for you?

You should be able to use the device. Thank you.

I will please vote on Council Member Mendoza.

Correct.

Okay. Vote for colleagues.

All right, colleagues, please vote.

We vote.

Mendoza.

Councilmember Mendoza, if you can please cast your vote.

Okay, motion passes.

with council members with council member Becerra voting no and council members Hernandez Lopez Mendoza fan mayor pro tem and mayor Sarmiento voting yes great so motion passes 6-1 okay

thank you you know I want to take something out of order if it's okay with everybody there is somebody who needs to be sworn in and have the oath of office. Leonel Flores, are you still with us?

He's probably reconsidering whether he wants to be a commissioner at this point, but let's get him up here before he changes his mind.

And I believe this is an appointment from Mayor Pro Tem. I'm sorry, Council Member Mendoza.

Please raise your right hand.

I, Leonel Flores, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies.

against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance

to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Very good. Congratulations.

Congratulations, Commissioner.

Felicidades to your folks. And I promise you commissions don't go this long. Commission meetings.

All righty, I think the next item is item number 13, and I believe that's Mayor Pro Tempeña-Losas.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. Let me jump to my notes here really quick.

David PenalozaItem 4

okay item 13 is the receiving file for boards and commissions by annual attendance report for January through June 2021 the reason why I pull this and I'm assuming this will be questions directed towards you Madam City Clerk. With the boards and commissions I noticed that I was happy to see that staff did acknowledge that the Community Development Commission had exceeded the limits for permitted absences and there were about three or four commissioners that had more than I

David PenalozaItem 4

think it was four absences consecutive absences that were unexcused and And according to the staff report, it says staff that oversees the Community Development Commission has stated there was a communication issue that has now been resolved and attendance should no longer be an issue. I feel that that was just very vague for the purpose of this, just because of how important the Community Development Commission is and the amount of things that they oversee when it comes to things like our CDBG funding and housing. So what remedies were exactly taken?

David PenalozaItem 4

I mean, that should be something that should be in the staff report of what remedies were taken and what exactly happened that more than three commissioners didn't get any correspondence or memos from staff that there was a meeting for more than four months. I was just trying to understand how that happened. Do you have any further information on that?

I do. Thank you, Mayor Patent, for asking the question. So I reached out to staff and found out that a lot of the emails that they were receiving when they were requested to attend the meeting were going into their spam emails or they weren't receiving it. So now that they were able to go into their spam folder and indicate that it's not a spam item, and now it's showing up in their inbox, so that's now a resolved issue. So that was the reason. That was the communication issue.

David PenalozaItem 4

Okay, and do commissioners of the Community Development Commission have city issued emails? Or are they using their personal emails?

Not all of them have city emails. Some of them do. And then there was one who didn't actually know how to utilize the city email, so wasn't receiving it in that way. So some of them request for them to receive it on their city email and also on their personal.

David PenalozaItem 4

Okay, and for those commissioners that don't have access to email or tablets or internet, I mean, I'm asking these questions just because, you know, of how important the commission is. Should, and I didn't like that there was no kind of conclusion in the staff report, just kind of like we took care of it. Was it, is it something that you're going to have the staff, you know, call them? I mean, what's?

Yes, that's why it's been remedied, because staff did contact to make sure that they did receive the correct email information and that they are receiving their communications from the recording secretaries. So, yeah, that is the reason why it's been resolved.

David PenalozaItem 4

Okay. So, we shouldn't expect any more of these unexcused actions? Correct. Yes. Okay. All right. That was it. I just wanted further clarity on what exactly staff did. But with that said, Mayor, I will move the item just to receive and file.

Just to receive and file, do we need to?

It's not necessary unless Council has a different direction.

Oh. Yep. Yeah, I think that's it. Great. And with the Council's indulgence, I know that there's people that are in the audience that have been waiting here. It's 915. I know that they were waiting to, they addressed us on item number 30, which is is the resolution supporting the Orange County Veterans Cemetery to Anaheim Hills. Is there any opposition to us taking that now? That way, you know, we can get everybody home at a reasonable time. I see Nick Berardino nodding off out there. So if you don't mind, if everybody doesn't mind, if I can go ahead and accelerate that,

because we still have quite a few consent calendar items, and I'd hate for us to, you know, be taking this other item up really, really late. So why don't we go ahead and take item number 30 up in the business calendar. That's a resolution to support the Orange County Veterans Cemetery in Anaheim Hills. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Seeing no discussion, hearing no discussion. Thank you, Council Member. I just want to thank Council Member Mendoza for bringing this to my attention. We put it on the agenda. We know it's relatively time sensitive. So, Madam Clerk, if you'll go ahead and please.

uh actually colleagues if it's on your device if you'll all please vote thank you

council member hernandez you're the only one we cannot see

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

apologies my vote is a yes thank you

motion carries seven zero

Thank you everybody for your advocacy. Thank you for your patience and it's a good day.

I have a quick question on that resolution. Is that something that will be mailed out to Commander Diaz or is that something that's presented here before the council in the future?

We would have to mail it or hand deliver it but we wouldn't be able to do it tonight

because it still needs to be conformed. All right. Thank you for coming. We really appreciate it. Thank you for the support.

Thank you, everybody. And thank you, Councilmember Mendoza, once again. Back to the consent calendar items. I believe the next item was by Councilmember Becerra. That's item number 15.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, this is on the quarterly report for housing division projects and activities for the period of April to June of 2021. I had a question for staff. So I believe Judson Brown's here in the audience. Thank you, Judson.

Phil BacerraItem 4

He knows, absolutely. Thank you, Judson. On page two, the staff report states that, quote, due to the coronavirus, application processing for the single family and mobile home rehabilitation program continued to be on hold during the fourth quarter. Why is that?

Yes, thank you very much. Vice Councilmember Becerra so at the start of the pandemic excuse me at the start of the pandemic in April 2020 we reassigned our residential construction specialist to begin administering our emergency rental assistance program and that particular staff was responsible for administering our single family rehabilitation program and mobile home rehabilitation program but they were reassigned in response of the emergency and so that staff has been responding to the emergency since april 2020

and continues to to this day and uh and therefore the program has remained on hold since then however the good news is that following approval by city council of our cdbg program budget we allocated over $500,000 to Habitat for Humanity to begin providing a home rehabilitation program. And so effective July 1st, we have restarted the program,

even though the staff member who administers the program is still administering emergency rental assistance.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Okay, so it's just a staff reallocation then? Yes. Yeah, okay. And then the other thing that I just wanted to put out there is the fact that, you know, mentioning rental assistance, right? Our city has been proactive in promoting rental assistance, but, and it just frustrates the heck out of me. please explain why we're not being more proactive in promoting the availability of down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Because I feel like if for all the folks that come in and talk about sustainability, you know, sustaining and not wanting to see folks displaced, this is a wonderful program.

Phil BacerraItem 4

There are so many folks renting here in Santa Ana that can't afford a down payment. But their rent for their apartment is either as much or more than a mortgage. So this seems like something that we should be promoting from the top of the rooftops, but it doesn't seem like we are. Can you explain what's going on with that?

Yes, thank you. The marketing of our down payment assistance program, it currently involves quarterly workshops, and as you see in the report, we highlighted the most recent workshop was attended by 24 attendees. But what's behind this information, behind that workshop, is actually a very positive story that in the last fiscal year, we actually closed and approved 11 down payment assistance program loans, which was nearly twice as many as the year before. So these quarterly workshops are working to reach more families, but

But we agree we need to do a better job to get the information out there and get more families into homeownership opportunities.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Well, I appreciate that. It's good to hear that we're seeing an increase in those applications approved. But, you know, I've heard you and other staff talk about when we have affordable housing projects available that we proactively go out there and try to get folks connected to those units. I feel like we should be doing something more than quarterly workshops because I would bet you there are plenty of folks in market rate rental housing here in Santa Ana that would jump at the opportunity to take advantage of this program. So my hope is that by the next time we get this quarterly report that we'll see higher numbers than 11.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Hopefully we'll see a more robust effort to get the word out there that we have these assistance funds available and we need to really just get in the hands of folks that want to actually sink roots here in the city. So hopefully the next quarterly report will reflect that.

With that, I'll go ahead and move the item.

I believe it's a receive and file, so we, I don't think. I'd be happy to receive and file it then. There you go. Let's receive it and file it. Let's move along to item number 16, unless there's any other comments or questions on that. Seeing none.

I have a quick comment.

Go ahead, Councilman.

Similarly to my colleague, Rosara, I too would like to see that money out there. We already have other cities who have dispersed all of their money, and we're still at a very low percentage. So please get the word out and get that money out there to our residents who are in desperate need of these monies. Thank you.

Great. Seeing no other comments, let's move along to item number 16, which is the update on Willowick Golf Course. And I believe that is, I think that's Council Member Becerra's as well.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank Stan for the update, but I have to admit I'm not sure why we're receiving it at this time. so I'm going to ask a really simple question. Have the owners of the golf course or their representatives submitted a development application to the City of Santa Ana?

No sir, there's no action pending before the City of Santa Ana on this item.

Phil BacerraItem 4

And there's nothing at this point we can even indulge or entertain because we haven't received anything again from the owners or the representatives, correct?

Correct.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Okay. So, kind of jumping around here, I know that there's a group out there that has proclaimed that they represent the community surrounding Willowick, and they've expressed concern with how the appraisal was presented in the staff report. Now, the appraisal is an evaluation of the property to determine the possible selling price for that property. But since the city does not own that land, would the selling price really be a driving force for us? because at this point, the Santa Ana City Council is going to ultimately review an application, but it has nothing to do with the appraisal. Is that correct?

That's correct. And as you know, you can do appraisal based on highest possible use. You can do appraisal based on current zoning. And at the time when we were working with Garden Grove, when they included us in the process, when they initially did the RFP, we did see the appraisal that they did, which is the one that is mentioned in the receiving file.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Okay. So I don't think it's pertinent for us to actually, I guess, talk about an appraisal that's happening between a private property owner and another entity because it doesn't relate to us. There's nothing that really, I guess, puts us in a position where we have to react to it, right? No matter what the valuation is, we're going to react to a development application, correct?

No, we have nothing to do with the actual sales process and the amount Garden Grove receives or does not receive.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Okay, thank you for that. One of the comments that I heard earlier during the public comments was that talking about whether Santa Ana, if we didn't react, we were forfeiting our zoning authority. So I guess what we're talking about here is we're not forfeiting zoning authority. We haven't had an application to discuss the zoning for the site yet, correct?

Correct. it's currently open space and there are no plans or actions in place to change that?

Phil BacerraItem 4

I mean, at least speaking for myself, I know that when we do receive that development application, I would expect for us to have a very transparent and robust discussion here on this dais when it comes to what's being proposed. But since we don't have anything at this point, I don't see what the concern is. But, you know, one thing I do want to bring about, so, you know, as this group had mentioned that they were concerned that we didn't talk about the appraisal and we didn't talk about the lawsuit that happened, which Madam City Manager or Madam City Attorney, was the City

of Santa Ana named in that lawsuit? They were, but we were promptly dismissed. Correct, because we

Phil BacerraItem 4

had no bearing in that case, correct? Okay, so, but you know, one thing I do want to bring about that people do not, I guess, talk about, and it's something that was reported out of closed session. this is back in April of last year, that the city council received an unsolicited proposal to attach themselves to one of the folks that was bidding on the property over in Garden Grove. And so while everybody's concerned about getting rid of zoning authority, I will tell you right then and there, if we had attached ourselves to a project, we were committing to a project,

Phil BacerraItem 4

and we would have done it in close session. I will tell you that I did not support that, And I'm telling you something that was able to be reported out because our city attorney reported it out last year. Nobody talks about that, but I want to make sure that that's on everybody's radar. So I will tell you right now, I think with this council, there's no interest in not being transparent, and we want to make sure things are out in the open and that we're discussing it openly. But I want to be clear that there was an attempt at one point to pretty much seal the fate of that property back in 2020. Thankfully, it failed four to three.

Phil BacerraItem 4

we rejected the unsolicited proposal from the Willowick Community Partners. So I just want to make sure that everybody's aware of that. With that, those are my comments. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for those comments. Any other comments on this item? Seeing none, hearing none. I think that, you know, I appreciate the council members' comments. I think, to staff's credit, I think we're trying to be as open and transparent in this as possible. there's a lot of new council members that have been that have joined this council that may not know the history of Willowick and I think that having periodic updates even though this doesn't concern us with respect to decisions at the city of Garden Grove which owns that property is going to make it does concern us because the property that's that Garden Grove holds

title to is within the city boundary. So to the extent that I think a periodic update on to see what is happening and to share that with the public shouldn't be a problem and I think it's not a bad idea to continue to have these if we see anything that changes. I do think that you know this appraisal that was that's referenced in the in the report is a little odd because the appraisal is based upon a zoning change that is probably, I wouldn't say unlikely, but is certainly very illusory

at this point. I know that presently it's zoned open space and if an appraisal were done on an open space, 102 acre piece of property, it probably wouldn't be this amount of money. But nonetheless, I think that the more that this is shared with the public, the better. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. I think that, you know, we do get questions asked. I know that there's a developer called McWinney, and I've met with, and I'm sure other members of the council might have met with as well. They are proposing a completely market rate residential development out there. I don't know if that's the case or not, how

far they're getting in Garden Grove. I don't know if it's neither here nor there. It doesn't encumber us or concern us until they come to us with some sort of development agreement or proposal. I certainly think that the open space element of Willowick is something that I've always said is a good thing. And that's something that hopefully we can track, and there's no reason why I think we shouldn't share that with the public. But that said, it's a receive and file item. Let me move along to the next item.

Mayor, Council Member Hernandez does have his hand raised.

Sorry about that. I can't see your hand. Council Member Hernandez, go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I fully concur with what you said. I think that as Garden Grove goes through this process with the developers, it's imperative that they understand that Santa Ana is going to consider and balance the community interest as it pertains to that neighborhood. Everything from designing it to scaling it to the open space and how it's used. and any incorporation of affordable housing, that that's going to be something that we're going to consider in our city. And for me, I'm only going to consider, you know, the community's needs and their interests in that property.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

And that is that people are demanding open space be utilized in all the right ways, that we incorporate the music and arts and intervention components that communities are asking for. And I think that affordable housing is something that we should also incorporate to ensure that we're housing residents in our own communities and that concludes my comments Mr. Mayor. Great thank you for those comments.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Mr. Mayor I just one last thing I wanted to say thank you Council Member Hernandez for what you're saying because you know one of the reasons why I brought up the issue that came before us the unsolicited proposal that came to us last April was the fact that while I respect the residential developer that's a part of the willowick community partners unfortunately i will say that the proposal that is for you know public consumption because it was submitted to the city of garden grove it really did not accommodate open space and i will say right now for the record that i want to

Phil BacerraItem 4

see an enormous amount of open space on this property that may make some folks cringe as far as the development community so be it everybody has talked about how much our city needs more recreation and park space and I will put on the record that I will support an enormous amount there and as Councilmember Hernandez says to provide all these opportunities for our youth and I just want to say that you know as we go forward I agree with you mr. mayor that yes it's good to have periodic updates I just hope that you know because we do have a long agenda that as these updates come to us it's when a milestone has been achieved so you know

Phil BacerraItem 4

it probably the next milestone I imagine will be if Garden Grove gets very close to actually selecting somebody that they want to work with, which then I imagine in a very short time frame we'll see a development application. So those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm glad we all agree on open space. That's a good thing. Item number 17, Council Member Becerra, I believe that's yours as well.

Phil BacerraItem 4

It is. Thank you. So I brought this issue to the council back in May, and I appreciate the support of my colleagues to direct our city staff to take action to address this issue with our permit parking program. It's atrocious. I've said it a million times. It's like the Hunger Games out there. I absolutely hate the way it is. And I know that I can be impatient, especially when it comes to trying to address an issue that has just been a pain for our residents for far too long. So I'm happy to see this item finally on the agenda.

Phil BacerraItem 4

And I'd like to ask Public Works Director Saba if he could outline the steps that he and his staff are going to take to bring this item back to us for consideration.

I'm certainly the Public Works Director does have a one-slide presentation on the matter to walk you through that and this item has been of importance to our community and I know we've embarked in different ways to study it and I I do believe that the Public Works Director recommendation on this approach will result in the best information for us and mayor I do believe also Council Also, Member Lopez had this item pulled as well. I did.

Thank you for that.

That easy.

You said one slide? Man, it must be a very, very busy slide.

Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, which all have those kind of programs. So we'll do a survey of these programs throughout the county. We will assemble, if desired, an ad hoc committee for the council, if desired. And then we'll hold community outreach for feedback on possible improvements in the programs. And then once we do that, we'll develop options and alternatives to come back to you in a work-study session to discuss those alternatives and obtain your input and direction. followed by that we will conduct a citywide community outreach and then we will revise

the municipal code to reflect the recommendation from you and the community on improvement of the program. That's the skeleton of what we're going to do. Timing on this will be between 18 to 24 months.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Okay, 18 to 24 months? Yes. Okay, I appreciate the thoroughness. Hopefully we can shave a couple months off there because parking's not getting better in the city.

We will do our best. But some of these things take time, development of the RFP and retaining of the consultants and the survey. So there will be some time spent between staff and the community. So we will be doing a strong outreach. And we really need to reach out to the community because, as you know, there is feelings about these programs in the community. some like it, some don't, and so we really need to reach out.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Okay, perfect. And so as far as like for the first step, so develop an issue to RFP, when do you hope to release that? I'm thinking

in a couple of months now. A couple of months? Yeah.

Phil BacerraItem 4

It'll take that long to develop an RFP for an issue that we know that's been out for a while? I want to be thrilled, but I'll give you

within a month we should be able to send something out.

Phil BacerraItem 4

If I keep pushing on you, maybe we can get it out tomorrow.

I will not be ready for tomorrow. Staff is, especially traffic staff, is really, really consumed with speeding and all those issues that we're trying to tackle. So I want to give them some time to develop a robust RFP that we can retain a reasonable, a good consultant to give us a good service.

Phil BacerraItem 4

In all seriousness, Nabil, I appreciate you doing that because I want to make sure we do it and we do it right and we do it to the satisfaction of our residents. So I appreciate that. Thank you for the presentation. You're welcome.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Director Saba, so thank you for the presentation. Of course, like I support this because I do think that our parking permit needs to be, there are flaws with it. But I do think that when we are talking about having a holistic approach to finding, you know, the parking issue in our city, we shouldn't separate the parking permit from the actual need of parking in the entire city of Santa Ana. And so I would like, you know, perhaps maybe an item 10 added to the list of things that talks about creatively adding parking, not just focusing on the permits, as I said.

Jessie LopezItem 4

You know, in downtown Santa Ana, we have residential units, but we don't allow for overnight parking. I was just in Portola Park last week, and I was talking to a homeowner whose curb on the side of his house, the whole strip is painted red. And so he tells me about, you know, when his friends and family come, they can't park there. And they need parking, and that's just a waste of space. And so maybe perhaps taking an inventory of all the red curbs in the city, looking at why some curbs have a red stripe and how others don't. Perhaps talking about angled parking and parking on commercial streets.

Jessie LopezItem 4

I think that we are at a point in the city where we have to start talking about the things that are going to add parking that is going to be a solution to Santa Ana residents. So I do want to see that and I don't want, as Council Member Bucero said, we should do it right and we shouldn't separate the two because it's really one big issue.

I agree when we do.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Fan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you. I definitely echo Council Member Lopez's concern regarding adding parking.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

It's definitely difficult. I live in a condo, a townhome, and I wouldn't be eligible for a permit right on the street. I also live right off Fairview, which is quite large, but has no overnight parking whatsoever. I would like for us to look at how we can add overnight parking in these thoroughfares, especially, for example, on the other side of Fairview, on the west side of Fairview, it's industrial. It's completely empty at night. I think residents, especially in my townhouse or the condos across, which have had a really bad increase in parking, maybe we can have just overnight parking. We do that by universities.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

USC had it when I was there. I think there are a lot of areas in the city we can do that. Right off McFadden and New Hope, where my parents live or my mom lives, we have, again, really bad parking in the neighborhoods and apartments there, but there's really no street parking. because the usage isn't as high, I think it would still be quite safe. So please, you know, make that a big part of the consideration.

Thank you. We'll do. Great. Thank you. Great comments, everybody. Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Samento. Director Saab, I just wanted to remind you to just tread carefully when you look at implementing overnight parking in industrial areas, and I know we've brought this up before, whether it's using the schools, the empty schools. I know that both school districts have brought up security issues of having their parking lots open for overnight parking. And I know that in a lot of these industrial areas, businesses would not be too kind to, because of the business parks and some of the associations that come around them,

David PenalozaItem 4

wouldn't be too kind to having overnight parking because you don't know who's there causing security issues for their buildings and their property and the invitation of vagrancy. Because of that, you just don't know who's coming and going. So just something to make sure we look at everything. And that's it.

That's it, Mr. Mayor. Great comments. And I think there was a lot in that slide. There's probably a lot more to come as you go through the procurement. Just a couple of things. I know that many of us went to the grand opening of that development on 5th Street, Placita Cinco. And what I saw was really interesting in the parking garage. There were stacked parking. And that was, you know, something that I've been talking about for a long time that they do in very densely populated cities like Manhattan, Chicago, San Francisco, and they use

those. It doesn't work everywhere, but it does, you know, double the number of spaces that you have. And sometimes that, you know, that is something that we could start talking to our development community to say you know especially when their ratios are really low so they don't you know go out and you know kind of filter into the neighborhoods that's something i know that we are going to be convening a um and it's one of the items that's coming up where we're going to turn convert our ad hoc committee on um working with the school district into a standing committee

so maybe that's where the conversation i think that mayor pro tem uh you know is talking about having actual agreements, you know, joint use agreements with districts, specific campuses, and I know that we do have some reciprocal agreements with commercial areas where, you know, some of those spaces, doesn't work in every neighborhood, but when there are, you know, shopping centers or areas that are dormant, to the extent that there are formal agreements, right, that both parties agree to, they enter into, the property gets secured and maintained, those could be a way that we could solve some of these things.

I know that we are very, very desperately looking for solutions and just options, but other downtown cities navigate this as well. We need to learn from maybe some of their mistakes and some of their successes. But with that, that's receive and file. Great item. Thank you for that presentation.

Just a quick comment, Mayor Verminto. In regards to those red curbs that prevent the residents from parking,

my constituents had issues with not being able to pull out into a street because of the dangerous zone because it's so impacted by other people parking there people from the surrounding areas the apartments and so the parking came up all the way to the corner and as a result as the residents there are trying to leave and go on to the street they nearly get hit because they have to pull out so far because their view is blocked. So understandably, those corners had to be painted red so that they would allow for safety reasons.

So if you can find a solution maybe to have only permits for those residents who live in the area since they'll be moving their cars hopefully in the morning and it'll leave, I don't know, maybe permission for them to park there just in the red zone only for the residents who live there. So I know it's a tough situation, Director Sabai, and that's why you're so well regarded because you'll come up with some great solutions. Thank you.

No small order. Thank you for those comments. Moving along to the next item, that was a receive and file item. I believe the next one is Councilmember Lopez's item. That's item number 19.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Yes, thank you. So this is a project in War 3, and this is talking about expanding Bristol Street in the intersection of Bristol and Memory Lane. And the right-hand lane now is a right-hand turn only. And so when I was looking at the Google map, and one of the things I asked was, why can't we make this lane be a right-hand turn and give drivers the ability of going straight.

Jessie LopezItem 4

I don't think that I received or was satisfied with the reasoning as to why we need to continue to widen Bristol Street. It's something that we talk about all the time. You know, the many years that we've been under construction. And when I look at this, I can't help but think about what an inconvenience this is going to be for the Morrison Park neighborhood, for the Fisher Park neighborhood, for the Costa de Santiago folks. And so, you know, when I look at this, I understand that this is something that has been in the works. It's a grant with Okta. And those monies are very tight in what we can do.

Jessie LopezItem 4

It is a million dollars that I'm fine giving back to the taxpayers. And so, you know, it's a recommendation that comes from the master roadmap implemented, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, you have two items before you tonight. This one, which is 19, is to accept the funds to go to construction to modify the intersection of memory lane and Bristol. Item, I believe, 37 is for property acquisition for that project or portion of it. For that project.

So the reason that we needed to modify Bristol and Memory Lane is because there is a program under the Orange County Water, sorry, OCTA, which is the Orange County Transportation Authority under the ICE, which is the Intersection Capacity Enhancement Program. and we need to comply with that so our arterias will be in compliance with the Comprehensive Transportation Funding Program.

So we need to be part of that so we will continue to get funding for even later phases of Bristol. If we don't, then that becomes a bottleneck and our projects will become less favorable county-wise for us to get funding to continue with the widening of any of our streets. So we need to expand and modify that intersection. We just got funded a million dollars for it. That's the reason why we went after that fund.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Right. And I guess the question is, how wide does Bristol need to be?

I believe a three lane all the way through is what ultimately would look like.

Jessie LopezItem 4

And so now with the right-hand lane, why can we make that with a three, with a right turn only? Why can we make that?

Right now you only have two.

Jessie LopezItem 4

But why can we turn the right-hand lane into a lane that allows people to also go straight?

Yeah, that would not, you know, I have to get my traffic engineer to answer that question. But ultimately, oh, Jason is here. he can he's better than me okay go ahead

Jason Gabriel good evening your mayor council the issue right now is that there the reason there's a right turn pocket there is because they're the number of peak our traffic that makes a right turn on the memory lane is very high so we need to dedicate that current lane to that activity but it's also impeding the flow of travel south on bristol so we can't convert that lane to a through lane because then we still wouldn't get the throughput we still wouldn't get the right turn movement so in this case there's there's only a very few properties that are involved in that intersection

we've already acquired a single property the northernmost one the one on the corner were were negotiations with the property owner and it's a vacant lot so we're not acquiring anything other than a strip of vacant land this the other item that nabio mentioned is is to acquire that other piece for that third that's that's the extent of this project is just that right turn pocket there's nothing else happening at that intersection but we need it so that we can accommodate three through lanes and allow for the the amount of cars in the peak hour that make that

Jessie LopezItem 4

right turn movement you said originally like at the beginning that it's because it's um a busy intersection because i was when i was looking at the traffic volume map you know that intersection isn't even placed on it and so that tells me that the high volume of cars isn't that big

do i understand that correctly which map are you referring well i was looking at the

Jessie LopezItem 4

at the annual traffic volume map for the city so you're able to zoom in into that intersection And so my understanding of how I read the map correctly is that if it doesn't give me the number, like, for example, the adjacent street is like 247, 241. And so I don't see that in the map reflected. So that, to me, when I read it, it tells me the traffic there isn't that big of high volume that we have to do this.

Typically on Bristol, the volumes are well north of 25,000, 30,000 cars a day. I don't have the specific counts of what the actual throughput at that intersection is or the right turn pocket. But the only reason we were able to receive this money is because it fit into the parameters of intersection enhancement, which looks at the level of service before the improvement and the level of service after the improvement. So how much of an improvement are you making to the total intersection? And that's why this intersection scored so highly is because we are, from a traffic perspective,

alleviating that issue where we're making sure three lanes are through and one lane is right turned.

Thank you.

Thank you for those comments. Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Salmiento, and thank you, Council Member Lopez, for those questions. Director Saba, the question I had was more kind of in the realm of just generic approach that the Public Works Department takes when applying for accepting and using these grants on our streets for construction work. The reason why I'm asking is because as we've discussed in the last couple of weeks, there's been funding issues that we've seen with the delay in the South Bristol phase four part of that project and and I know I've asked you we've had

David PenalozaItem 4

numerous emails back and forth about the timeline and what that looks like and why we haven't seen those funds to be able to finish something that's been under construction since 1990 and then I see grants like this which is great you know it's always great when we receive large amounts of money for street work but in start we've now started property acquisitions on Warner you know we're trying to do a property acquisition on memory lane in Bristol so we keep acquiring more properties to widen our street when other areas of the

David PenalozaItem 4

city that saw these projects begin and properties acquired three decades ago are are still remaining dormant and haven't seen an ounce of work in close to 10 years now. And it's a lot of areas of the city that the residents notice. And the residents ask me frequently, what's the status on this? Why are we not seeing any progress made? And I just worry that as a department and as a city, we bite off more than we can chew at times when it comes to public works.

David PenalozaItem 4

I know that our staff does a lot, but when it comes to the contractors, just this summer we saw Flower Street redevelop, and I know you've sent us an email on that. It's been close to two months now, and we still have those temporary markers on the ground that are now half missing, puncturing people's tires, and it just looks messy and people ask why, I mean, if they lay down the street, why don't they come out the next week and put down the, so I worry that we commence things and I know we get funds in increments and it's not always a full amount for projects,

David PenalozaItem 4

but why not focus on making sure that we complete something before we move on and start, I mean, I'm just trying to understand how the M2 funding or allocations work when it comes to applying for this month. Can you just talk briefly about that? I mean, how?

Sure. It is an opportunity, and it's competitive. So I wouldn't be doing a good job not going after grants if the grants are available. You would probably fire me if I don't. And so we have to go after these grants because they are available through OCTA. and we we are obligated to go after these things because it's money the city in itself is central to the county and there is a lot of traffic that goes through it and we are part of a huge correct me a traffic flow study and

analysis through the entire county and we are the county itself depends on us to make sure that the streets in Santa Ana flows. So we go after those funding and the timing. Believe me, we do our best to finish these projects, and our intention is to finish these projects. The challenge for the Bristol project is because it is dependent on the sale of the properties that are vacant from previous phases. So due to the Surplus Land Act, which came in and delayed us about a full, maybe a couple of years that we had to offer these properties to non-profit and government

government agencies before we before we we actually sell them or we're able to sell them now they are on the market we're trying to sell them so that is a source of funding the other the other was covid covid slowed us quite a bit the other one was our utility undergrounding we would like to underground all the utilities that along bristol but if we don't have enough monies from Edison or the public utilities commission to underground then we will end up with a wide street with overhead wire so we need to find the money to underground. There is a lot of complexity to

David PenalozaItem 4

the projects and that's what the delays are for. Okay thank you for that I mean that that's great

and I would definitely want you. Jason mentioned to me that 3A project and the widening of Bristol is we're almost there in terms of funding, so we may be starting construction soon. Four is next.

David PenalozaItem 4

Okay, and I would want you to go after every grant possible. So this, and I'm just going to use this as a hypothetical. So Bristol Street and Memory Lane, $1.12 million in the grant award. Let's just say that the total amount needed to complete whatever we want to do with Memory Lane in Bristol is $3 million. I'm just saying that, I'm just using hypotheticals here. But right now we only have 1.12. So we begin the project and then, you know, is that what we're looking at here, where we don't have the full amount to, but we're going to start it and then it's going to be half completed

David PenalozaItem 4

for a couple years until we find another grant that can pay for the rest?

Jason can answer to that question. Okay, so the $1 million is enough to fund the construction, construction. So we require the grant and there's a local match that's required to meet that so that we can fund the whole project. That's part of the grant application. So in this

David PenalozaItem 4

case, yes, we have enough money to do that. And this funding, because we applied with the saying that we're going to use it for this location or the Warner Avenue improvements from Oak to Grant, we got those $9 million for earmarked for that location. We can't just say, you know what, we're going to use this for Phase 4 Bristol because it's been 30 years now. And I'm just asking, you know, we can't do that, correct? Correct. So it has to be...

It's specific to the segment that we're dealing with.

David PenalozaItem 4

All right. Those are all the questions I had. Definitely clarified a lot. I hear from residents all day long about the Bristol Street delay and Warner and Main and Fairview. All good projects, just the timeline.

We will be striping flower. I think we are in the process of finalizing the striping on flower, too. Okay. By the end of this week, you will see some paint on the ground.

David PenalozaItem 4

Appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

Thank you for those comments.

If I may just add something, Mayor Pro Tem, I understand your frustration, but these street projects are, it's a pipeline, and there's multiple steps in it from the design, the engineering, to seeking the funding. And I will say that since Nabil came on board, we've actually done a lot more capital improvement projects around the city than you've done in, say, the past eight years. So we have completely revamped the capital improvement plan, went in there, closed out projects that were sitting still open that were already done, and really focused on the ones that we can't achieve the funding for in doing.

But I do understand your frustration. It is a lengthy process.

David PenalozaItem 4

It's appreciated. Thank you. Director Saba. Thank you.

Thank you. And I appreciate the comments by both Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member Lopez. I think that, look, I serve on OCTA and haven't served on it very long, but I can tell you that what, in the short time I've been there, what I've realized is that there are certain projects that are just, you know, riddled with challenges, right? Let me give you an example and what we're seeing a lot of. And I field calls, most of them are from just, hey, why did you put this detour here? and why you know why is you know why am i taking longer to get to work or pick up my kids on the

streetcar we've had sewage lines that you know the city is so old that aren't even on any maps so when they go down and start trenching and start doing things they run into pipes and run into lines that stalls things for months and then they run into concrete you know thick concrete that's that's embedded and below the surface and you can't drill through it. So that's another set of months and maybe longer. And then you go through what the Pacific Electric right-of-way is and there's historical artifacts there, which are old Native American ruins.

And so that you can't just tear up. So you run into these maybe foreseeable but still items that cause you a delay. So I think we're kind of, you know, the perfect storm right now with what you said on COVID, with what you said on, you know, just these other challenges as you're trying to do construction. I've never seen this much construction simultaneously. So I think to, I think, you know, to everybody's point, we're all kind of frustrated because, you know, it's the downtown with the streetcar alignment. It's, you know, it's Warner, it's Bristol, it's Main Street. These are all great things.

I just think they're all converging at one time and it does raise the anxiety level that everybody has when they're driving through the city. But if we look at it, I tell somebody, the road to progress is riddled with bumps. So we just have to be patient and realize some cities aren't as blessed as we are to have these monies that are coming in and we're actually putting to good use. So I know it's difficult, I know it's challenging, but in the end, we're providing a better quality of life for people. I think we're going to be able to get people in and out because, you know, traffic is very challenging.

And to the extent we have widened streets, we have other public transportation, mass transportation options, you know, and enhanced infrastructure along South Main, all these things are going to benefit us for years to come.

So I am going to move the item, and I'll go ahead and entertain a second. I'll second Mayor Salmin. Thank you. So we have a motion and a second. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, council members, please vote.

Council Member Hernandez, if you could announce your vote. And Council Member Lourdes. Yes. Thank you. It looks like you disconnected, so we will mark that.

Okay, with Council Member Becerra, Hernandez, Mendoza, Fan, Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa, and Mayor Sarmiento voting yes, and Council Member Lopez voting no.

Great, thank you, everybody. I think the last item on the consent calendar was Council Member Becerra. Is that item number 21?

Phil BacerraItem 4

Yes, that is. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So this item is to approve an amendment to the Illumination Foundation agreement to operate a temporary shelter at the Fullerton Recuperative Care Center for up to four months. Now, according to the staff report, it's anticipated that the 10 improvements for the shelter at the Santa Ana site over off of Carnegie may go beyond September 30th. And, you know, this was supposed to be expedited work, and we were told that because of some of the shortcomings of the previous contractor that this was something that was a high priority and that we would hopefully have this done by September.

Phil BacerraItem 4

But I got to tell you, honestly, this is, I mean, homelessness is such a huge priority. And I don't think giving just a four-month or up to four-month extension on this is acceptable. I'm not comfortable with it. I would ask my colleagues to indulge me in actually reducing this to two months and having staff come back to us with a progress on the TIs at our September 21st meeting and, if needed, an update at our November 16th meeting because, frankly, letting this go on and on is not helpful. You know, there's a lot of misconceptions out there that Santa Ana does not have beds and is not able to enforce certain anti-camping laws.

Phil BacerraItem 4

That's obviously absolutely not true. BUT NONETHELESS, THE FACT IS IS THAT WE NEED TO GET THIS FACILITY DONE. AND I THINK JUST SAYING, YOU CAN HAVE FOUR MORE MONTHS, YOU KNOW, WE'LL CHECK BACK WITH YOU IN THE NEW YEAR, I'M NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THAT AT ALL. I'D RATHER IT COME BACK IN TWO MONTHS, AND THEN FROM THERE WE CAN ASSESS WHETHER WE NEED TO GIVE YOU ANOTHER TWO MONTHS. BUT I THINK FOR NOW, I'M NOT COMFORTABLE WITH GIVING YOU UP TO FOUR MONTHS. MY MOTION WOULD BE TO MOVE THIS ITEM WITH TWO MONTHS, AND THEN WITH STAFF COMING BACK to us to update us on the progress on the Carnegie site.

If I may make one clarification, it's up to four months. Staff can terminate it when Carnegie does open. So this would just ensure that the homeless individuals that we've placed in this facility aren't displaced prior to Carnegie opening. But it doesn't necessarily mean it will take all four months. It is our goal to expedite the construction of Carnegie. And I know you're aware of the breach that we had from the previous contractor so it did delay it but it is a high priority of staff working on it with our current contractor to get it open this is just a means to ensure we aren't displacing

any of our homeless that are located at this temporary shelter well at this point i i still

Phil BacerraItem 4

want to hold it to two months and then have you guys come back and give us an update that's my

motion at this point thank you for those comments and that motion um let me go ahead and bring it back to the council, see if there's any other comments.

I would like to know if there is a detriment if we went ahead and did the two months rather than the four months. Is there a time requirement?

We selected up to four months. If you choose to only do it two months, then if Carnegie is not open, we'd be returning to you again with another agenda item to extend to the time period that's needed to bridge to Carnegie opening. What we were attempting to do is provide you a staff report with the maximum amount of time that we think we need in the hopes that we do complete the project at the end of November, which is indicated in the staff report.

Thank you. I'll second that motion.

Thank you. I think I heard Council Member Hernandez.

Maybe not. Maybe that was just I heard something on the mic in any event.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Yes, Mr. Mayor. My apologies. is I did have a question and it was a clarification question. Council Member Mendoza just asked it. So that answers my question.

Great, thank you. Any other questions, comments? The only other, I guess the question I had for staff is, look, I don't think anybody wants to open this up, you know, sooner than staff and the council. I know that this has been a challenge. And my question is, we do have beds, right, that we can't continue to enforce our anti-camping ordinance for, because I know that we have some, I believe, at the Salvation Army and other ancillary sites, right?

You are correct. And with our settlement agreement that we have under Judge Carter, which is a good thing we have John Funk sitting here who is the expert on that area, we're not required as of yet to have a set number of beds in our city because all of the settlement agreements have not been reached, but we are required to have a bed available in Santa Ana in order to enforce. And we do have 75-bed facility at the Hospitality House Salvation Army. So we do have available beds. We are able to enforce all of the tools in addressing homeless. It is just that when we closed the link, we did have individuals there,

and we wanted to secure a spot for them. So it was at the time a win-win for both Illumination Foundation and their center in Fullerton, which needed the funding, and they had excess capacity.

Got it. And so I understand the council member's frustration on, you know, looking at four months potentially on the very outer end and wanting to compress that time. And I remember we did a temporary site, you know, a while back for like, I think in a month, but that was a temporary site. We're talking about a permanent shelter, So that is a very big difference from a temporary site to a permanent one. So if we were to approve this motion to compress the time to two months, and in the event that it's not ready, we would simply have to come back and probably give more time, right?

You would, and I can assure you, staff wants to get Carnegie done as soon as possible. So by approving up to four months, it doesn't mean we're dragging our feet and going to take the full four months. We want to get it open as soon as possible. But if you grant us two months and for whatever reason Carnegie doesn't open by the end of November, we would be back probably with the same recommendation just so we don't displace homeless people.

Yeah, so we, you know, we probably wouldn't accomplish much in practice, I guess in theory. What we're saying is, yeah, we want to see if you can expedite this and make this a lot shorter. Is there anything that we can do? I'm trying to see if we can find a compromise to address the immediacy that we'd like to see or the urgency that we'd like to see, and maybe coming back and, you know, reporting back out to us maybe in two months and saying, hey, we're ready, or, you know, we're ready in a shorter period of time. I don't know what we could do at this point to accelerate this, you know, this construction.

And I think that's really up to the contractor at this point.

But we certainly could at whatever interval you'd like to give you a briefing on the construction activity.

Can we, you know, I don't know if it's okay, and maybe this is a friendly amendment to say, can we have this re-agendized in 30 days and see where are we? Maybe we're close to that two-month date at that point. Maybe, you know, we are out an additional 30 days. I don't know, but maybe what that does is it gives us a sense of where we are as opposed to waiting until, you know, we're four months out, and then we realize, oh, well, it took the entire four months.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Mr. Mayor, that was part of my motion is to have them, in addition to compressing it to two months, to have them come back to us at the September 21st council meeting and the November 16th council meeting. To me, this is something that we need to have both eyes on and the attention on this to get this done. And I appreciate that staff is very eager to get this done, but I can also assure you so is the community. I'd like to keep our eyes on this and hopefully the more attention we get, the more sooner we can get this done.

Any other questions or comments? I think, you know, we're kind of at a semantical point of, you know, where it's either two months, four months. I almost feel like saying, well, let me do a substitute motion for three months, and maybe that kind of cuts the baby in half. But I think, you know, I guess the point is, is that maybe you can come back to us in 30 days, let us know how progress is going. Hopefully progress is going better.

Certainly. So I believe Councilmember Becerra wanted one at the very next meeting. 30 days would be the first meeting in October.

Phil BacerraItem 4

We can do that then instead.

Okay.

That's fine. Okay. So that would be an amended motion that you're making, Councilmember?

Phil BacerraItem 4

Okay, so amending it from September 21st to October. What's our first date? October 5th. Go ahead and do that. Thank you.

So is the second good with that adjustment? Council Member Mendoza? Yes. All right. Any other, seeing no other questions or comments. Colleagues, please vote.

Council Member Hernandez?

Council member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Yes, madam city clerk. Are you able to see my vote?

No, we were not able to see it. Can you announce it please?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Okay, my vote is a yes.

Thank you.

Okay, motion carries seven zero with council member Becerra Hernandez, Lopez Mendoza fan, mayor Potempeñalosa and mayor Sarmiento voting yes.

Great, thank you for that. I believe that was the last consent calendar item. We can move along to the business calendar. we took care of number 30 out of order, and we can go to item number 31, which is a resolution to support Orange County Water District First Vice President, Kathy Green, as a candidate for the ACWA, and I forgot what ACWA stands for. It's the Association of California Water Agencies. It's been a while since they've been on the water district. But basically, Santa Ana has...

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Mayor? Yes. I'm sorry.

You have to recuse.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Because I am recused from this item out of an abundance of caution. OCWD is a client of my employer, and Vice President Green serves on that board, so I will leave the room during this discussion. Thank you.

Thank you. My apologies. I forgot of your recusal. But I'm no longer the city's representative to the Orange County Water District. Council Member Mendoza is now, and I know Director Green reached out to us because there is some time sensitivity to this appointment or this nomination for this first vice president position at ACWA, and we are a voting member of that. So we're part of an association.

I think that there might have been some discretion where the chair or as mayor I could have voted, but I wanted to bring it back to the council to get their consent so we can vote as a body. I think Kathy called in earlier during public comments and explained and gave her resume basically in her experience. I believe what she failed to mention is that the other candidate or the other nominee for this vice president position is from the Central Valley. So what's important is that we have somebody that represents us at the water, at Aqua, who is from Orange County and understands our challenges and our needs.

And so I would be in favor of that nomination and support from this council. So I'll go ahead and move the reso in support.

Phil BacerraItem 4

I'll second it with comment.

We have a motion by me, second by Council Member Becerra, and a third by Council Member Mendoza. Go ahead, Council Member.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to say, you know, we need to make sure that this council supports Friends of Santa Ana, not those that talk about being our friends and supporting us, but those that have actually taken actions to support us. And when Kathy Green was the mayor of Huntington Beach, she was very vocal about opposing very deep transit cuts that some directors on the OCTA board were proposing back in 2010. And I've got to tell you, ever since then, I've always appreciated her support. and since her time on the Huntington Beach City Council, she's become obviously very well-versed in water issues.

Phil BacerraItem 4

And so, I mean, given the strength of her character and her leadership capabilities, I'm more than happy to support this resolution. Thank you. I will.

Great. Thank you for that. So we have a motion and a second, seeing no other comments or questions. Council members, please vote.

Councilmember Hernandez if you would please announce your vote yes thank you

motion carries with um council members Becerra Hernandez Lopez Mendoza and Sarmiento voting yes Mayor Pro Tem voting no and Councilmember Fan abstaining.

Great. Thank you. Moving along to item number 30.

Thank you. Oh, she's still here.

You're welcome.

I am. Congratulations, Kathy. Thank you very much.

Great. Item number 32. This is the agreement with Bayer Demographics and Research for Demographic Services related to the 2021 redistricting process. And I believe this is an item from the clerk's office.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, members of the council. I'd like to introduce to you Bayer Demographics and Research consultant, Andrew, and he is going to go over through the timeline with the council. But the item itself is to authorize the agreement with Bayer Demographics and Research. It's for the consulting services, demographics analysis of the census data, drawing of the draft maps of proposed ward boundaries, public outreach, and the interactive web tools related to the city's 2021 redistricting process. And with that, I will go ahead and hand this over to Mr. Andrew.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Andrew Westall. I'm the principal and owner of Bear Demographics and Research. I've been involved in doing redistricting since the late 1990s. And I just want to go over a quick timeline for you of what we've been discussing with your clerk of the council. So just as a quick overview, every 10 years after the census, cities and counties and other jurisdictions with district elections, or in this case ward elections, have to redraw the boundaries of those districts.

And so with respect to the city of Santa Ana, because you now utilize district elections as of the last couple of years, that process needs to be going through with the census data. The census data just came out late, or I guess in the middle of last month on April 12th, but that's not the data that we can use for the redistricting purposes. There was a state law that was passed back in 2011 called AB420, and that law says that the prison population, the state prison population in the state of California has to be reallocated back to their place of origin, and that's about 90,000 people in the state of California.

And so the final redistricting data set that will be available to allow the city of Santa Ana to redraw award boundaries will be made available by the state of California on September 20th, so within a couple of weeks.

With that, in terms of a process, and your clerk of the council and I have been discussing this, and so there is a difference between the meetings that we've been discussing and the meetings that are on this chart, The main one being that under the California Fair Maps Act, for the council meetings, the council meetings actually have to state a specific time on your agenda in which you'll hear this item. And so with respect to the public hearings that we would start in two weeks at your next meeting on September 21st, all of these times would be at 7 p.m.

And so I will come back in two weeks and just do an overview of the redistricting legal criteria, law and process that we'll go through. After that, we'll come back and as you'll see on the next slide, we'll go through some public workshops at different locations throughout the city. We'll come back on Tuesday, October 5th to go over those census data details and do a census report for the city of Santa Ana. And that census report will not only include 2020 census data, but it will also include 2019 American Community Survey data.

most specifically what's called citizen voting age population data which we use to test racially polarized voting and majority minority areas of the city. And so that would take place on October 5th. And then October 19th we will come back and provide a draft map or maps for you for approval and for public circulation. Those maps have to be published on the city's website seven days in advance, and so those would be available on October 12th, and then we come back once again and have those draft maps in front of you on October 19th.

The California Fair Maps Act also requires another couple of public hearings before those maps are adopted by the council, and so we come back on Tuesday, November 2nd at your council meeting and hold a public hearing. you're getting input from the public about those draft map or maps and then according to this schedule on Tuesday November 16th we come back with a final map for your approval once again that has to be published seven days in advance and so that would be available to the public and on your website on November 9th and then and so that first reading once again would take place on November

16th and then the final adoption of the district boundaries maps would take place on december 7th and as you may recall this requires i believe a two-thirds vote of the council to be approved as well

as i mentioned earlier we also have community workshops that will take place in between the september 21st presentation on the legal and redistricting criteria and process and before the census report is heard by the council and so we have four community workshops that would take place between Thursday September 23rd and Tuesday September 28th one of them being on a Saturday at the deli center and as you can see you know there are four different locations spread throughout the city and so with that mayor and council members I'm happy to answer any questions certainly I would

like you to approve this item so I can get to work but beyond that I'm here to

answer any questions that you might have great thank you thank you for that presentation and let me go ahead and bring it back to the council councilmember mendoza yes um

thank you for the presentation are there only going to be just the four community workshops and are they going to be in several languages so uh yes so as it's proposed right now there

there will be four community workshops uh there are a variety of other hearings as you can see in front of the council throughout this process before the end of the year and in my discussions with the clerk of the council we are going to provide materials in not only in english but in spanish vietnamese chinese and korean and so the the translation of materials is being done by the city in live interpretation would be done by the city and so i would leave it up to your clerk to decide which languages they would make available at each one of those public workshops but those are the four languages that we're dealing with.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you Councilmember. Any other questions or comments?

So let me, I just have a couple of questions just because maybe I'm a little flat-footed on this. so we have four community workshops and they're all going to take place within a five-day period

uh i believe so i believe that's what the calendar shows yes between the 23rd and the 28th

okay um so they're very very close in time to one another yeah um what if it's not a good week i I mean, it just seems like they're very bundled up together in a short period of time. I know that we're in a, you know, we'd like to have addressed this item earlier, and I think I had brought it up, I think, over the summer. But, you know, the census data wasn't available. But I guess I wanted to see if you could speak to this, because I think we're going to be authorizing your contract as well in this item, correct?

Yes.

So, you know, with all due respect, I know that we had a demographer previously, and I forget, I think his name was Paul Mitchell, because I always remember the hair care product. So, you know, so I remember he, you know, he did some work, and I think he did a good job, and I'm sure you will as well. But the Fair Maps Act, I guess, has really changed the game on this, where we have to have a website, we have to do certain things that maybe weren't required of us before, or any deliberative body when they're looking at redrawing lines.

But, you know, are there, you know, I guess what I was hoping to see in this was the different processes that were, you know, that were allowed under the Maps Act, right? I mean, whether it's putting together a citizens commission that would draw those maps and bring those to the council, we would go ahead and install commissioners that would do that, and I know that we've discussed that in the past. And then there is a process where I guess sort of a hybrid, like what we're talking about here, it sounds like, which is going out to the community, community comments, and then they bring those back to us,

but ultimately we decide on those maps based upon constituents and residents kind of giving us their thoughts on what lines they believe would be appropriate. And then there's probably, I would say, the least extensive outreach, which is just kind of going out and maybe having or having a couple of internal public hearings and drawing maps ourselves. So is that, are those the three options? Or, you know, I guess that's where I wanted us to have a little bit more of a conversation and presentation and overview.

Sure. So in general, Mayor, you have an accelerated timeframe to be completed this year, right? So that schedule is built on being completed by the end of December. And so that doesn't give you a whole lot of time given the number of council meetings AND THE FACT THAT THIS COUNCIL ONLY MEETS TWICE A MONTH TO BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH THAT SCHEDULE THROUGH THAT PERIOD OF TIME. SO PART OF THE SCHEDULING ISSUE IS THE ACCELERATED TIMELINE THAT YOU HAVE TO GET COMPLETED BY THE END OF THE YEAR. THAT BEING SAID, WE ARE PROVIDING THE WEBSITE, AND WE'RE BUILDING IT OUT NOW AS WE SPEAK. WE WILL HAVE AN ONLINE MAPPING TOOL THAT WILL ALLOW

THE PUBLIC AND ALLOW MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL AND YOURSELF MAYOR TO DRAW MAPS IF YOU CHOOSE TO, YOU OUTSIDE OF ANY DISCUSSIONS THAT I MAY HAVE WITH YOU. SO ALL OF THAT WILL BE IN PLACE BY THAT TIME. IN TERMS OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONFIGURATIONS THAT YOU HAVE, ULTIMATELY THE CALIFORNIA FAIR MAPS ACT ONLY ALLOWS AN ADVISORY COMMITTEE OR AN ADVISORY COMMISSION TO DO THE PART UP UNTIL THE DRAFT MAP. RIGHT SO EVEN THOUGH WE'RE DOING A COUPLE OF PRESENTATIONS TO THE COUNCIL ONE ON KIND OF THE LEGAL ALL THE LEGAL ISSUES SO THE COUNCIL REALLY UNDERSTANDS WHAT THE DOES AND DON'TS OF

REDISTRICTING ARE BECAUSE IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM LITIGATION SO YOU HAVE THAT AND YOU HAVE THE CENSUS REPORT RIGHT GIVEN THE TIMING OF THE CENSUS DATA I MEAN THOSE COULD BE COMBINED BUT THAT'S YOU KNOW WE SEPARATED ABOUT IN THIS CASE BECAUSE WE DIDN'T WANT TO TAKE UP A whole lot of the council's time on a particular evening. But if you look at the California Fair Maps Act, it only allows a advisory committee, or even staff and a consultant, to do those public workshops that are up front. Everything else has to be done by the council unless a city has an independent commission.

And so, and my understanding is that in order to do an independent commission in Santa Ana, you'd need a charter change. And so while you could set up a redistricting advisory committee, right, they're pretty much done by October, right? By the time we get to October 19th, you know, whatever it is that they've done is completed. And frankly, you know, it's really yourselves, the members of the council and you, Mayor, it's your responsibility to adopt whatever map there is. and so having this buffer of community advisory of a community advisory committee that sets up

expectations for the community about what maps might look like and then they come to the council and the council changes in many ways i think sets up false expectations particularly in this

accelerated timeline um yeah i guess that could be one scenario but you know what you're talking about is having four public engagement meetings in less than 20 days right um or five i guess well i see four community workshops um but the first of which would take place on the 23rd of this month

yes right so as i said we come back on september no understood and you don't have to repeat yourself

i understood what you said i guess my chant my concern is is that the whole idea of yeah you know the council will ultimately look at the different maps adjust them draw them appropriately with population shifts and you know we've done this before I mean so we went through this when we went from an at-large election system to a district by district election system so we it hasn't been that long that we looked at redrawing maps but I just don't remember compressing the number of community outreach workshops for in a five-day period. Do you think you're going to

be able to do enough outreach to be able to engage the public sufficiently that they're informed?

I believe so. Once again, we've been working with the clerk of the council already on the outreach portion of this contract. The website is pretty much done. I just have to reveal it one more time

But our community is a hard to reach community. They don't look at websites, I mean, as often as maybe other communities, we have a lot of people that aren't even connected to the Internet. So, you know, what are the other alternatives that you're going to use to be able to engage those people that don't have access to the Internet, they don't know how to navigate websites, how are they going to be able to opine and comment on how these population shifts affect them and what they believe are lines that are going to be drawn that are genuinely going to be helpful to them?

WHAT WE DO IS WE WORK WITH THE CITY AND MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE A LISTING OF ALL THE COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS IN THE CITY. WE DON'T KNOW THE CITY AS WELL AS YOU DO. AS WE GET THAT INFORMATION FROM THE CITY AND WE CAN DO OUTREACH DIRECTLY TO THEM, AND IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE WEBSITE, BECAUSE YOU'LL HAVE HARD COPIES OF PUBLIC COMMENT FORMS, FACT SHEETS AND A VARIETY OF INFORMATION IN EACH ONE OF THESE HEARINGS THAT THE PUBLIC WILL HAVE ACCESS TO and can fill out during these workshops. You have a 90-day process here, right? It's a compressed process of 90 days, and you have to do a lot of things in those 90 days.

And, you know, and frankly, you're talking about needing to get out a draft map in about six weeks, right? And so there's not a whole lot of time here, Mayor, to do much else.

No, the fact that we're under a time constraint is a given. Nobody is saying that we're not. the idea is to do a quality job rather than just check the box right and what it looks like to me is we're checking some boxes here just to get through this compressed timeline and that really isn't the I think that really isn't the purpose of this and that wasn't the intent of the Fair Maps Act the Fair Maps Act was to make sure that we engage as many members of the public as we can and to make sure that they're aware of what we're doing when we're redrawing

lines and redistricting so i don't know if this is achieving that intent right and the spirit of that act so that's my concern is if we're going to do it let's do it correctly let's do it quickly but let's do it as qualitatively as possible because i just see this as a way of just going through and you know whipping through this in order just to get it done and say yeah we had four hearings and maybe you know five people attended each you know and and and and then having it come back to us and then why go through that exercise let's just go ahead and draw this thing ourselves so that's my

worry and believe me i'm not trying to pick on you but we've had these problems with other you know public engagement efforts because we know we have a hard to reach city and i think this is so important just like what we're doing with voting rights throughout the country making sure that we engage the public as much as possible because we are you know we are subject to them telling us this is what we believe we should see in these new lines and these are wards that we believe make sense to us and then you know lines cutting through neighborhood associations line is cutting through

neighborhoods and districts so those are the things I think that we are you know we can't take lightly so I'm just a little concerned with this timeline and And I get that we're trying to do this. Nobody wants to extend this. I just think we want to do it in a way that makes sense and that we can support later on when constituents come to us and say, I didn't know what you were doing. I was never, I was never reached. I didn't have a chance to go ahead and comment and opine. And that's, that's the response that I want to have a reasonable answer to. So I hope you appreciate that. Those are my comments.

And, um, you know, again, just questions I have, uh, council member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Yeah, I do. Hi. So is four community workshops the standard number that we would put forth when we're doing a massive process like this?

No, the California Fair Maps Act only requires you to do one public workshop. And so it really depends on the city and what they desire. Some cities want to do one for every council district or every council ward. other cities prefer to just do one or two. So it really just depends on the jurisdiction.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Actually, I didn't even think about that. Having one per ward, I would not be opposed to that. And I do think that we could probably space these out. That wasn't something that I thought at first glance.

Jessie LopezItem 4

So, I don't know.

I can appreciate that, council member. What I will say is that given the timeline that the city is in, it would be very difficult to find another contractor for this contract. We're fully booked in October and November. These are the only dates that we can do it if you want to get the process done this year.

We can certainly look at adding a couple, but this is what works for us.

Jessie LopezItem 4

That's what I was going to follow up with. so you're amenable to adding at least a couple other community workshops.

Yeah, I mean, we're open to that. I mean, it certainly would be an additional cost because the contract is based on the number of hearings and workshops that have been proposed, but yes.

And I do see that Council Member Hernandez has his hand.

I think we have Council Member Fannin and then Hernandez.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Hi, I think maybe I just spaced out, and I don't fully understand. Obviously, we have this pretty compressed timeline, and the 2020 census was pretty crazy. If the deadline is April 2022, why do we have to finish by December 2021?

So the California Fair Maps Act requires the city of Santa Ana to be completed by April 17th of 2022. In my negotiations of this contract, I was asked to come up with a schedule to be completed by the end of the year, and so that's what we did.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Okay, but so there's no legal requirement that we finish by the end of the year. It could go until February 2022, correct?

Yes.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Okay. And so how would that change, let's say, you know, if you do add hearing dates or let's say public input workshops, I can understand how that might include or entail more funding or cost, right? Because you're adding two or three or four more meetings. but if we did one a week for seven weeks we'd still be within the window to finish before April

2022 no yes but once again I'm not we're not available in October and November right so we can do with the winds at the end of September so your company is not available in October

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

correct okay got it but it could be done say two in september two in early november once again once again sorry early december excuse me it could be in early december and then the rest

of these dates that we talked about could happen in 2020 right push out for two months we would

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

still be well within the april 2022 window correct okay i mean at least if we're looking at only four workshops and the concern was the timing aspect if we did two in September you know that would give folks some time and then we would do a couple more in December again people more time to look at it I don't see maybe that would address your mayor your concern about you know condensing everything into one

week look I'm a little I'm a little stunned that you know we're I don't see a good procurement process here as well. And look again, no disrespect, I just think demographers are in high demand, especially around these times. But I just don't know why staff, you know, why we're here at this point. Now we're almost, I almost feel like there is a, you know, and I feel bad for those that want to figure out where is my district. That's my concern is that we should not even be asking this question. We should have had a much better roadmap but yeah I think that look this looks to me like we're just kind of

checking boxes right just getting through this and I and just to meet your compressed schedule which with all due respect here you know you're probably very very busy and that's understandable but nonetheless I don't know what I don't know the disservice that we're doing to the public here as a result and you know just to meet you know your schedule and our you know sort of deadlines but I do think if we're working with an April deadline to the extent that we can do that as quickly as possible in a responsible way would make sense but look I I've already made my my thoughts known so I don't want to repeat

myself well I think in general for us mayor you know certainly you know having until April to complete the work is a lot easier for us right there's a lot more flexibility in terms of time but that's not what we were asked to do and so I can only come forward with what we were asked to negotiate.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

So can I ask, Madam City Clerk, is there a reason why we said we have to do it by December 2021?

So my whole purpose of trying to have this resolved by the end of the year is several reasons. One, we have candidates that won't know where they're going to be represented, and so they need to know what they would be having to consider. And in addition to that, there's a lot of election material that needs to be generated and produced. The maps need to go to the ROV, make sure that it matches with what they're already putting together. So the later we put this, the more complicated it's going to get. And we won't be able to do what, I don't know how well you understand, or the council knows about geocoding.

So essentially it's just making sure that every address is within the district. So if we want to have an opportunity to do that, the objective would be to try to get it done by the end of the year. So there's several reasons, but putting it further back would really throw a wrench in our process.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

So, I mean, I understand that for sure. And I think this, the 20, you know, COVID has put a wrench in the entire process. But I do agree with the mayor and to the extent that, you know, having a meeting and all that, I'm literally gone every single day of that all four meetings because we have the league conference and I have, you know, and hopefully I can be back Monday and Tuesday. Right. And that's just me. I can't imagine how many other members of our community might have stuff that weekend. So, or those few days. I guess I don't really see why we can't push it out, at least in my experience.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Many candidates have either already declared or they will declare sometime closer to May, June, or July when they're running in local elected office. So, I'm not too concerned about that. And, you know, geocoding, yes, it'll take time. Getting to RV would take time. but we would still have our maps ready and people would still be able to see those and it being compliance I guess I'm more concerned with public input because we have to live with this for 10 years versus the technical aspects

right and I have actually committed to reaching out to all of the community interest groups I'm working with Margarita she's connected me to a lot of groups and I'm proactively actually calling them, emailing them, and I'm meeting with them. And I'm getting to know the community. And I've been here for two years and I don't know the community that well, especially because of COVID and all of the other things that hurdles that I had to go through. But now I have that opportunity. And these are dates that they've all been open to. I have, like Khmer, it's one of the meetings in Dalhousie Center.

I've connected with someone to provide Khmer translations for that and I've never had that community and you know involved in the city as far as I understand so I feel like the outreach that I'm doing right now to the communities has been more effective than stretching it out in certain days or I think it's been more about how we've communicated to the community it's not just sending out an email saying hopefully that they reserve their time I'm actually going out to the communities.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

So just a final question. You know, we have the four public input workshops in which the demographer would be available, but also would it be available to have you or staff hold additional, you know, meetings and whatnot if the demographer is not available, or is that not recommended?

I'd have to really communicate with the demographer and see how that would work. I do want to open it to other community members if for some reason they felt like they couldn't participate in one of the ones that we have listed. And I do want to make myself available to them. And it could be just me going out to them, talking to them, and then having them complete the public comment interest cards. Is that what you're calling them? And then having them complete that and then providing that to the, you know, the consultant.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Or recording the meetings and ensuring that the consultant receives and considers those comments and meeting notes. Is that a possibility?

Yes. I mean, ideally, you'd want audio recordings. But once again, what's required by the California Fair Maps Act is that two weeks after every public workshop or public hearing, there has to be an audio recording or a written summary of that that's published on the city's website.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

okay because um i'm not sure if the 23rd is a comlink date for example um you know we want to have comlink be available and have one of those meetings and things like that so um i think that concludes my comments hopefully we have some solutions in there somewhere yeah thank you um

councilmember fan is hernandez yes hernandez and then mayor pro ten thank you mr mayor i just

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

wanted to remind the demographer that i acknowledge the busy schedule but at the end of the day this this body's commitment is to is to serve the residents and come to meet their needs so when we are asking for for this to be accessible to residents that's not something we're looking to negotiate we want to make sure that as many meetings are made available to members of the public i think the right thing to do would be for us to just figure out a way for us to have meeting in each district because then that ensures that you know we're checking checking

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

off the boxes that truly matter not just to meet you know the schedule busy company i acknowledge great work you're doing but at the end of the day our commitment is to these residents so i would i I would want to see us have these meetings in each of the districts. And if that means us delaying it to December or November, then I think that that's a good strategy because you're right, Mr. Mayor, we're gonna live with this for the next 10 years. And we wanna make sure as a city that we're doing our due diligence. And I think that this would be the most responsible thing for us to do.

Thank you, council member. Mayor Potem, Pinalosa.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I just wanted to thank you for your presentation and also state that I'm in agreement with what my colleagues have stated in the fact that I'm not just—the whole goal of this was always to be as transparent as possible as we can going down this path. And having four meetings condensed into a five-day period in agreement with my colleagues, I don't think is the best approach, and I don't think it's appropriate when it comes to really, you know, to not just checking off a box, but really, you know, engaging the community that we serve and having them, you know, have proper notice.

David PenalozaItem 4

I mean, the first meeting is only, you know, two weeks away. And then the remaining four are just a couple days after that one. So we technically only have two weeks to do outreach to a city that's 27 square miles. and you know I know the census numbers say otherwise but close to half a million people in my in my opinion that that we need to get this information out too so whatever we could do to expand the meetings maybe one in each ward maybe if you could work with the city clerk's office to work with the neighborhood initiatives program too they have scheduled neighborhood

David PenalozaItem 4

Association meetings in the next month or couple of months. I know that recently we approved the trash contract and our Public Works Department did a great job at presenting at each one of those meetings or the ones that wanted to hear from from Public Works on what what was happening why we were doing this the status of that that'd be an additional way where we could present to the community and get that that engagement going. So just wanted to state that that I agree with the mayor on the condensed timeline. It's a little too condensed for me. That's so definitely I'm hoping there's room to improve on that. That's it, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you for those comments. Councilmember Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree we want to make sure that we're as transparent as possible and we want to make sure that, you know, as the mayor mentioned, getting the word out to our community is not always as easy as just hitting send on an email. One thing though I would point out, and I appreciate that our clerk mentioned this, and that is it's really how we reach out and whether it's a condensed timeline or a longer timeline. Even if we took six months to do this, it wouldn't matter if we didn't do the right kind of outreach. And I think what we're not hearing up here is, well, we are hearing

Phil BacerraItem 4

a little bit of this, and that is if we need to amend what it is that we're doing when it comes to the actual outreach. Let's do that or let us know. And maybe that's something that you come back to us with as like an additional item. But I think the thing that we need to keep in mind is this community was impacted back in 2020 and we had to get folks tested. We had to get folks out to get the vaccine. And these aren't folks that were all necessarily running out to get it done. We had to be proactive. And our city, I'm very proud of our city's efforts. We went out into our communities and we were able to connect with folks that

Phil BacerraItem 4

wouldn't necessarily answer an email or even a flyer. So what I would ask our clerk to do, work with this gentleman here, is to let us know what can be done, I'd say regardless of the timeline. I mean, I'm not opposed if we have to expand it a little bit, but I recognize some of the constraints that we're hearing here tonight as to why this calendar is being proposed the way it is but what I think we need to really focus on no matter what that calendar ends up looking like is how we conduct that outreach and I think that the good thing is that the city has a great track record when it comes to doing that outreach in our

Phil BacerraItem 4

community and so I don't think it's going to be a monumental effort for us to duplicate that level of effort so I have faith and confidence that we will be able to do that I would just ask our clerk to work with you and to make sure that we are able to have that substantial outreach as part of this whole effort regardless of what we ultimately arrive at on a timeline thank you

Jessie LopezItem 4

thank you for that councilmember lopez i do have final thoughts um i'm supportive of you know moving the timeline down as councilmember fan said some of us are going to be representing the city in sacramento and won't be able to make it even if we wanted to because we're going to be out of town and so wanting to see a different timeline for these and taking into consideration which i know is going to be a big ask but maybe not you know scheduling the same days that some of us have other priorities like i sit on the board of directors for orange county fire authority and

Jessie LopezItem 4

that's every fourth thursday um from six to ten or eleven whatever it might be um so keeping those states in mind would be helpful for us and i'm also not opposed to expanding these it doesn't have to be four it can be seven it can be eight as long as you know we are truly making sure that our residents are included in this process i think that is what everyone is hearing from all of the council members um that that is going to be a high priority for us thank you

Great. So I think everybody's had a chance to speak, and I think, you know, again, sir, I don't want us to be disrespectful to you because you, sounds like, you know, are very busy. So, as all demographers are, so we want to make sure that, you know, we're being responsible with our responsibility that we have to our constituents and our residents, while at the same time meet their schedule and not the contractor schedule right or somebody who whose firm we're retaining and it sounds like we're trying to make you

know we're trying to fit it into the to your firm's schedule because there is such a demand for demographers you know in this season so yeah I think what I'm hearing is maybe a an effort to do more robust outreach to include it because I don't see the type of outreach that we've been aggressively trying to encourage staff to do and other vendors that we have working for us and with us, while at the same time expanding the number of community workshops and maybe having one in each ward is what I heard more than once.

I mean, I think that's fair because we all have very distinct wards. We all have very unique, unique makeups of residents and so to the extent that the council members can do their best effort to also work with staff to push out as much information as possible. You said your schedule is, when are you not available again?

Pretty much October and November except for the dates that are already scheduled with the council.

So you're available?

December, January. In the month of December? Yeah.

Okay, which isn't the optimal month because people are busy, you know, with seasonal things and taking time off. But I guess I just want to understand when your availability is so we can work around, I guess, your schedule and, you know, and try to figure out how we can, you know, outreach to our residents. Is there a way that we can adjust this timeline and say maybe, you know, in the month of September, we have maybe three meetings or workshops in the community, and then in December we do another three, and that's six in each ward, but they're spaced out maybe a little bit more. Mr. Mayor?

You know, something like that, but I mean, any thoughts on that?

If I may offer, and I'd like to strategize with Andrew a little bit more because I know I've done this already in Santa Rosa, while Santa Ana was doing theirs, and we had, I went to some of the community meetings without my demographer because I was trying to meet that need. I wanted to make sure I connected with the community that I had a personal interest in wanting to communicate with them, but also wanting to encourage them the importance of participating and providing their input and how they could do that. because it doesn't necessarily only have to be drawing a map, and that's primarily what his role is going to be,

is sharing with the public how to use those tools. It could be if they want to be able to do that. A lot of times they already have that skill set, and so they just go off on that. So my hope is that maybe I can strategize with Andrew in doing in addition to these meetings, because these have already been coordinated, and I think I'm going to get a really large crowd on each one of them because I've already communicated to them, to the different groups, and I've already committed and asking them to have some time so that they can provide their input during these four.

But I'm thinking in addition to these four, maybe I can go out to like other parts of the wards in the city in addition to these fours because these four are the same ones that were used in 2018, and it was there I think they're part in four different quadrants no I get it and I think I think no I completely understand and I just want to kind of in addition to these four I would love

to I appreciate that that that comment I know we have a couple of other comments from Mayor Pro Tem and Councilmember Becerra but I guess what I what I wanted to you know sort of wind up saying and what is a little difficult for me right now is number one what are we going to do tonight if we have all these ideas you know floating around about how we can address this obvious issue well

we I do have a contingency amount of the twenty eight thousand five hundred and that was for that very reason is just in case we were going to have additional so and and I know I want to give the

city manager you know some time to speak as well but it sounds like you know but for these two months that you're busy we could have met this end of the year you know robust thorough out outreach, no offense to you, it's just the challenge that we're in. It's just the reality of where we find ourselves because we're limited on options. So that's where I'm trying to just problem solve this. But Madam City Manager, before I go to the other two council members.

So just a suggestion, as the city clerk mentioned, she does have a rather large contingency fund built into the contract amount. And there is an hourly rate for additional outreach services provided, of course, the consultant does have the availability. So tonight, if you don't want to delay this anymore, you certainly could authorize my execution of the agreement, pending additional outreach events be scheduled utilizing the contingency fund. And that way we won't have to return to you.

And then the city clerk would be able to add on the additional, whether it's three and you want to do it on all seven wards, we can certainly work with that. I would be able to assist the city clerk. And if the consultant is not available, it is something that we could probably do with our existing staff.

All right, I like that suggestion, and that means that we're not bound by this timeline, because it could be extended to include additional outreach efforts that are not going to be confined to four meetings within one week or a five-day period. So I think it was Mayor Pro Tem and then Council Member Becerra.

David PenalozaItem 4

Just really quick, Mayor Semento, and again, thank you. So you said you weren't available October and November. Your team wasn't available in October and November, correct?

Correct.

David PenalozaItem 4

And that is because you're just booked with other cities doing similar work, or is it vacation time?

Yes, I mean, most of the work that we had was already booked before this contract. And so we tried to make it work with what the city was looking for in terms of a process that was done by the end of the year. But we're doing a variety of cities and other jurisdictions throughout Southern California. And this was the last one that came up.

David PenalozaItem 4

Okay. And so I guess my question would be for you, Madam City Clerk. Is there a reason why we waited this long to try to procure a contract with a demographer?

Yes. So for the very reason that he just mentioned, I was not getting responses back. I had I put out an RFP in February who I intended to select I did a one-on-one with every councilmember in March with that person and I what we were connecting with it did not there was no response to the contract so he he really was the last one okay thank you for that thank you You're welcome.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Mayor Prashan.

David PenalozaItem 4

Who was it? Go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 4

I'm going to take a crack at making a motion here because I think we're all getting to the same point. So I appreciate what the city manager had suggested. So I'm going to go down that path and authorize, make a motion to authorize the city manager to execute the agreement with bear demographics with the additional condition that the clerk and bear demographics return to us at our next council meeting with a revised timeline with additional meetings included for the council to review so

that's my motion at this point great and I think councilmember fan had a question

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

as well oh it wasn't a question I wanted just an update on the updated timeline once you know if we decide to approve this that would be really nice because but Phil added in his motion. So I would second that.

There you go. Great. We have a motion and a second with a friendly amendment for some updates. Any other questions or comments?

One last question, Madam City Attorney. In 2017, when we were redrawing maps, when we were shifting from at-large elections to bi-district elections, how many meetings did we have?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

I don't want to be quoted on this, but I'd like to say maybe seven or eight meetings. We had multiple.

It looks like there was a total of five.

Total of five meetings? Mm-hmm.

Okay.

All right. So we have a motion and a second on the floor. Let's go ahead and vote.

Council member Hernandez and Becerra.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

I'm not sure if the application is working for me, so I'll just give you my vote. It's a yes.

Thank you.

Okay, motion carries 7-0 with council member Becerra, Hernandez Lopez Mendoza-Fann, Mayor Prozhen-Penalosa, and Mayor Sarmiento-Borinez.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Moving along to item number 33, this is the resolution on the climate emergency resolution.

Mayor, we do have a brief presentation. Should Council Member Lopez and Council Member Fann like us to do that?

Council Members?

Jessie LopezItem 4

I'm fine if we do it.

Okay. Daniel from the city manager's office will walk you through the highlights of the resolution. And this item has been discussed before you a couple of different times. So we're happy to come back with a version that we are recommending your approval on.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. At the request of members of the City Council, staff has shared a resolution declaring a climate emergency, committing to policies opposing fossil fuel expansion, and accelerating the clean energy transition as part of the Safe Cities movement, committing to policies that will reduce both new and existing lead contamination and endorsing the call for a global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. This resolution originated as a council member requested item from council member Lopez with assistance from council member Fan.

The resolution, if approved, accomplishes the following. It declares a global climate emergency. It endorses the call for a global fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty and urges the state of California and the US federal government to support it as well. It commits to investigating and implementing policies to limit or prevent fossil fuel expansion. declares the city's intent to investigate and implement policies to limit or prevent exposure to lead and other environmental toxins supports land use that will accommodate more park space that would mitigate pollution declares the city's intent to investigate and implement policies

promoting decarbonization and electrification of buildings and transportation and other development to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and achieve maximum energy efficiency water efficiency and and safety.

The resolution also seeks to achieve 100% of electricity power supply through clean, renewable, and zero carbon emission energy sources before the year 2045. Declares the city's intent to investigate the feasibility of building microgrids to ensure safe and reliable access to electricity in Santa Ana. Declares the city's intent to continue to investigate community choice aggregation as as a means to meet the city's 100% clean, renewable, zero emission, equitable electricity goals by 2045.

Declares the city's intent to explore how to achieve a just transition to a clean energy economy to spur clean energy, investment, decarbonize the local economy, benefit local ecosystems, access to nature, boost biodiversity and poverty, and tackle systemic injustices. The resolution also declares support for the rights of workers to organize, unionize, and collectively bargain.

The resolution also declares the city's intent to work with the labor and business communities, as well as the state and federal government, to investigate how to achieve a just climate transition and zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Commits to updating the 2015 Climate Action Plan by the end of 2023 to maximize the city's public and private contributions to reaching zero emissions as soon as socially equitable and possible, and commits to aggressively pursuing state and federal funding relating to climate resilience.

The resolution also declares the city's intent to determine the appropriate advisory body to advise the city council on the policies relating to this resolution. Declares the city's intent to make findings of the advisory body publicly available. declares intent to share this resolution with federal, state, regional, county, city, tribal, and other relevant agencies and to request their support. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Thank you for the presentation, Daniel.

David PenalozaItem 4

Daniel, thank you for the presentation. Now I will, at this time, I will bring it back to the city council to see if any of my colleagues have any further additional comments.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Councilmember Lopez yes sorry about that go ahead um thank you for the presentation Daniel I do want to start off by thanking Councilmember Fan for being amenable to working with me um as we all know this was brought forth earlier in the year and we agreed that we would work together to bring something back that was attainable for the city and that it could lead to it being more than just words on paper and so we went through it we reviewed it and the red line version that you have access to is the outcome of that meeting and so we also submitted it to our legal department in

Jessie LopezItem 4

june they cross-referenced it with our climate action plan and i want to thank staff for working on that and on our behalf and so i do think that this is a massive topic and one of the things that Santa Ana residents will ask themselves is why they should care about this issue or these issues and I would say to them that doing nothing to help address the issues in this resolution would only further negatively impact our quality of life and as one of the callers said we have seen the ocean be on literal fire northern California is currently burning as we speak

Jessie LopezItem 4

and we've seen firsthand the devastation of how unprepared you know we are when we are dealing with these crises and so we also understand the low-income communities and communities of color are going to continue to be negatively impacted and I know that there are many things that we have in our community that we need to address but i also don't think that we should be restricted in legislating from a point of only trying to focus on one thing i think that we can do a good job

Jessie LopezItem 4

on focusing on various issues that impact us on a daily basis and so you know that we have seen the city of irvine adopt something similar last week the city of los angeles voted to phase out fossil fuels they are one of the largest cities in the state of california and so i asked myself if the city of la can do this why can't we um and so this you know is a path forward as we've said in the past it is a blueprint um and it's really comforting to know that we are not alone and and

Jessie LopezItem 4

when we are trying to fight for a hundred percent you know of electricity power of trying to reduce our carbon footprint, we have electrification, we have solar, we have renewable energy that ultimately is gonna help us get to those goals. And folks probably don't remember, but when people talked about solar, people said that is unattainable, that cannot happen. And look at where we are now. And so we also saw the IPCC report come out and essentially say it is code red for humanity. And so I think, you know, when I ask myself,

Jessie LopezItem 4

how am I going to help as a legislator, I think this is a great way. And it helps answer that even though we're a city, we're not necessarily, you know, a state doing these things, it is part of our responsibility to do something. And so that is why this resolution is, details what it does. And so Council Member Fan, I know you worked with me on this. I don't know if you have, or if you would like to add anything.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you, thank you Council Member Lopez for bringing this forward. As many of you may remember, I had a lot of questions and concerns about, you know, the language and the targets in here. And so we had several meetings actually to go over that as well as what the target, what the goals are that are in this. The first thing I'd like to say is that, yes, this is a very robust and wide-reaching, you know, resolution. But the point of it is, and I think Councilmember Lopez mentioned, is I see it as a roadmap. You know, when you are in your home and you want to renovate, you want to fix, you want to make sure it's safe,

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

you have a list of items that you want to address, that you want to remodel, that you want to fix. This is what I think this resolution does. It tells us, you know, line by line, what items we need to look at. Does it mean that we will, in fact, join a community choice aggregation or something like that? No. But I think it lays it out there so that we do address it and that we do look into it and we don't have to be confused about which steps we need to take or look at in order to achieve, you know, in order to address climate change. And I know it's really hard, I think, for a lot of folks in our community to kind of

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

see, well, why do I care? We're a low-income community. We should be focusing on other things. But I guess what I can say is that many of those in our communities don't have AC, right? And the world is getting hotter every day. You know, just living here in Orange County, we feel it getting hotter every summer. we have to address this issue and frankly it's a little bit self-serving because having a resolution like this also makes us better eligible for grants that are available at the state and federal level because Governor Newsom is already committing to appropriating millions of dollars

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

to addressing climate change and so has the Biden administration and so because we are a low-income community that has a high need by you know approving this resolution we're telling other governments hey we we have a game plan here and we just need your help to do it this is i think a first step it is not the final step and you know we can go down the list and address each one of them but i really think that all of these are related to the issue of you know environmental justice, climate justice, as well as health for all of us because I know that you really can't separate those anymore.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

They're all interrelated. And so I really do hope that my colleagues up here support the resolution. Thanks.

Thank you for those comments. Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to express my support for swift and meaningful action in addressing climate change and transitioning the city to cleaner forms of energy. But while the resolution that's before us is a slight improvement over what we previously had, many of the changes, frankly, appear arbitrary, like tacking on 20 more years from the last draft of this resolution for achieving the securing of 100 percent of our electricity, our electric power supply through clean, renewable, and zero carbon emission energy sources. Some of the actions called for in this resolution can and should be pursued.

Phil BacerraItem 4

And they don't need a resolution to move forward with. Yes, let's absolutely update the city's climate action plan. Yes, let's end new fossil fuel exploration and expansion. Although I don't know that Santa Ana has any current efforts to expand or explore for fossil fuels here. But yes, absolutely, let's make sure we don't do that. And let's absolutely implement policies that are going to limit toxins and other polluting materials from impacting our residents, our communities. But we are already doing that.

Phil BacerraItem 4

We're updating our general plan right now. And the policies that we will put in there, I believe, will accomplish that. In fact, because of the numerous meetings that we've had with folks concerned about environmental justice, there's no way that this council is not going to be held accountable for not putting those in. We are absolutely, I believe, going to see a general plan updated with those principles in mind. And I also know that most of us on this dais don't need a resolution to express our support for allowing and asserting that our workers have a right to organize and unionize.

Phil BacerraItem 4

So I think if we focus on the realistic actions mentioned in this draft resolution, most of which we're already working on, I think we can accomplish those goals that will actually benefit our residents. This is a very aspirational resolution. And again, there are some things that we should really look at, but I think there's just some things that really we don't need a resolution to do this. In fact, half of the things in here we're already pursuing.

Thank you for those comments. Any other comments from the council? Yes, Councilmember Vann.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I definitely appreciate your comments about, you know, what these targets and whatnot, but I want to say specifically that they are not arbitrary. In fact, I was very careful to look at what the state and federal government was doing at the time that we updated this. The 2050 date for zero greenhouse gas emissions is set by the Biden administration. The 2045 date was set by the Newsom administration under the state of California for renewable zero emission equitable electricity goals. These are state and federal goals that we are aligning ourselves to to ensure that we can better get and obtain grants.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I mean, part of the reason why I expanded the 2025 goals, or excuse me, the 2030 goals, for example, was that it was originally based on a goal set by the city of Denver, Colorado, and I felt that we were not, you know, similar enough to be able to achieve those goals, which is why we're setting it at the federal level. So I just want to say that each of these items, you know, are based in facts and other agencies, and that if it is something that we are already achieving or we are already doing, I think that might point to supporting it because congrats to us. We've already achieved it.

Thank you for those comments. Council Member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Yeah. You know, Council Member Fan, when you were talking about the game plan, it reminded me that we are doing the work and while we can sit up here and say we don't need a resolution to care or to acknowledge the issues the fact is that we have known about lead in the city for a really long time and what has been done about that absolutely to the best of my knowledge nothing and so yes we need something like this to keep ourselves accountable and not just do that but to acknowledge the issues in our community and i'm really proud you know to say that council

Jessie LopezItem 4

member and fan and i when we sat down and looked at this we said okay what how do we go beyond that and one of the things that we've moved beyond just having a conversation is you know advising the city and and saying hey there's a 2021 lead hazard reduction grant program and we ask that the city apply and so maybe if this conversation wasn't happening i don't know that that would have happened to be quite honest and so you know i think that there was a lot of care and a lot of thought and a lot more thought is going to come after this if you know um people consider voting

Jessie LopezItem 4

yes and supporting this because i think that this can be very transformative for our city and most importantly for the people that live here the people that have been talking about these

issues for a very long time thank you everybody I think I'd like to respond

Phil BacerraItem 4

mr. we are so you know I'm a little confused because in one one comment it's we've known about these issues for so long and then if it wasn't for the resolution we wouldn't be taking action we as a council have the opportunity every meeting to put items on the agenda we can put right away we can ask the city manager to agenda is doing something about the climate action plan we can ask for a lot of these things are already in here we don't need to resolve that we're going to eventually do it. Let's just do it. Thank you.

Great. Seeing no other questions or comments, is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve, Mayor Sarmento. We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem. Is there a second?

Jessie LopezItem 4

Second. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I'll second, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. I think Council Member Hernandez shouted everybody down, so good. We got a second by Hernandez. Seeing no other questions or comments, colleagues, if you'll please vote.

Okay, motion carries with six council members voting yes, and that's Councilmember Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza, Fan, Mayor Pro Tempeñalosa, and Mayor Sarmiento, and Councilmember Becerra voting no.

Great, thank you. Motion carries. Thank you, everybody. I shouldn't have said he shouted everybody down. He had the loudest second is what I meant to say. All right. Good one. There you go. Moving along to item number 34, which is the informational report relating to police oversight.

Yes, Mayor. We do have a presentation on this one as we embark down the path of establishing some form of police oversight or accountability. the last time we were before you, you did ask for some pretty heavy lifting as far as researching four different cities as well as doing extensive community outreach. So Daniel from my office does have a presentation. It highlights some of the information that we found from the feedback surveys, the six community events, and the virtual community forum and panel. So it's really about sharing that information that you asked us to obtain, and then we have a couple of suggestions

on how to move forward and we're looking for your additional direction.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. As a follow-up to direction from the City Council, staff has prepared an informational report on police oversight. While the staff report contains details on different police oversight models and an overview of the boards or commissions from four cities across the state, This presentation focuses on the results of a community survey and highlights next steps for the city council to discuss and consider.

The city council began discussing police oversight back in June 2020, shortly after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

At that time, the city council directed staff to explore the models, frameworks, and best practices of police oversight. Staff returned in September 2020 with an informational report that provided that information. The data from the presentation was retrieved from a variety of sources, including the US Department of Justice, the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, or NACOL, and others. At that meeting, the City Council directed staff to conduct additional research and and gather more detailed information regarding the different police oversight models,

as well as launch a community survey to ask our residents their thoughts on police oversight. In December 2020, staff returned with an informational report and highlighted the findings of that survey. That survey data and the accompanying staff report are both available on our city website.

At that meeting, the city council directed staff to further explore two particular models, the auditor monitor and investigation focus models. The City Council also requested information about police oversight mechanisms in Berkeley, Oakland, Riverside, and Anaheim, including their scope of responsibility, use of subpoena, operating budgets, and staffing. Those details are provided in tonight's staff report. Finally, the City Council directed staff to continue engagement efforts through a new community survey. In addition to sharing the survey using the city's digital tools,

staff attended community movie night events across the city to connect with residents, pass out flyers, and be available for questions and with a tablet for folks to fill out the survey real time. Finally, our staff worked with four different jurisdictions to host a virtual community forum and a moderated panel with practitioners and subject matter experts to share their experiences with police oversight. Next, we'll go over the findings of the latest community survey.

We launched our current community survey in May 2021, and here are our findings. Of our 398 respondents, 330 identified as being a city resident.

We asked respondents to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the following statement. The city of Santa Ana should establish a police oversight mechanism, such as a police oversight board or commission. 61.7% of respondents, or 245, strongly agree.

Next question, if the city of Santa Ana were to establish a civilian and police oversight mechanism, what should the qualifications be to serve as a member? From most popular to least, the responses were Santa Ana residency, must not be an elected official, must not have a family member in law enforcement, knowledge, experience, training, be a registered voter, No criminal history, college education, recommendation by the city council, and must be a former law enforcement officer.

The next question, if the city of Santa Ana were to establish a civilian police oversight mechanism, how long should members serve? From left to right, the bar chart depicts term lengths from shortest to longest. The most popular response was a two year term and the least popular was more than four years.

Next question, if the city of Santa Ana were to establish a civilian police oversight mechanism, how many members should serve on it? From left to right, the map shows one to more than ten members. The most popular responses were seven, ten, and five members.

Next question, if the city of Santa Ana were to establish a civilian police oversight mechanism, what power or authority should it have? From most popular to least, the responses were, hear resident appeals, investigate complaints independently, review discipline, subpoena records, impose discipline which may include termination, recommend discipline which may include termination, subpoena witnesses, hear officer appeals, impose discipline, and recommend discipline.

NACOL, a nonprofit organization that provides technical assistance to local governments in exploring police oversight, offers the following considerations for cities that are considering establishing one of their own. Those are, establish a planning or advisory committee or group, begin to meet regularly to educate the group on the pros and cons of various oversight models, legal requirements, collective bargaining limitations, or other issues. This planning group should include a perspective from law enforcement.

Next, identify the proposed police oversight board or commissions objectives and scope.

Based upon the agreed objectives and scope, select an agency structure, identify staffing needs, Develop a specific and detailed budget estimate.

Prepare an ordinance to establish the police oversight boarder commission. And appropriate monies to fund the police oversight boarder commission.

Next are some options for the city council to consider. One is to direct staff to prepare an ordinance establishing a police oversight boarder commission. At the discretion of the mayor, appoint an ad hoc committee to develop the specific characteristics of the police oversight mechanism. Direct staff to return with additional information, including a perspective from law enforcement, or take no action.

I'm available for any questions you may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Daniel. Thank you for that presentation. Let me go ahead and bring it back to the council and see if there are any questions or comments on this.

Jessie LopezItem 4

item? I already do have a comment. Sure, go ahead, Councilmember. Thank you for the report, Daniel. I do have a question for you in the staff report. If you could just let me know offline. There's a neighborhood chart and I'm just dying to know that big blue bar, or what neighborhood that is, because it doesn't necessarily say. But out of the four recommendations the staff is making or asking us to do today, I am supportive of possibly having an ad hoc with members of this council

Jessie LopezItem 4

to develop the specific characteristics of the police oversight mechanism, given that we've had the forum, which I've heard nothing. When I was talking to War III residents, they all had really great feedback about it. They really, really enjoyed it. So thank you for working on that. So those are my initial comments.

Great. Thank you for those comments. Any other additional comments from the council? Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 4

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. When myself and then Council Member, now Mayor Pro Tem, and then Council Member Sarmiento, now Mayor, when we put this item forward, I know that I never saw our police as needing this in the sense that there was an issue that plagues other police departments. I think our department is actually quite progressive and it has a history of being that. With that being said, I also don't think there's anything wrong with our planning department, and yet we have a planning commission as well. So I think it's important that we continue to build the trust of the community in our police department.

Phil BacerraItem 4

And I think a way to do that is through something like this, an interactive oversight commission. With that being said, in looking at what you present to us, Daniel, and thank you for that presentation, thank you for all the research that you've done. I mean, you've provided us with an exhaustive amount of research, and this council has been very patient in trying to make sure that when we do move forward with a certain direction that we are armed with all the necessary knowledge. I have to say that I'll just put it out there. I'm partial to the Riverside model. I think

Phil BacerraItem 4

that really we need to go more towards the investigation focused model. I think frankly for Anaheim, I think it's they seem to be more of a commission that receives information. I think that our commission once it's formed should be more of a two-way street. I think I think all the commissions have certain attributes that I think we need to look at, but I think really the one that has the most that aligns with what I think would fit Santa Ana, it's Riverside. But I do think that to go forward, I think we should convene an ad hoc.

Phil BacerraItem 4

I would like to see us move forward and not kind of drag this out too long, but I mean, I think there's some main key components that we really need to consider in forming this committee, whether it's the number of members, how they're selected, how long they're in the office, what exactly are their duties and responsibilities, and how often do we want them to meet. So I think at some point my suggestion would be to my colleagues is that we, at least to our mayor, since he has the power to convene such an ad hoc, but I think we would need to put together an ad hoc to really drill down and bring it back to the council.

Phil BacerraItem 4

But I'm really excited that we're at this point because I think this will prove to be a good thing for the community. I think for the city of Riverside, I've talked to council members out there to get their input about their commission and they had very favorable things to say. And so I trust their judgment on what we were discussing. And so that's where I'm leaning. but again, I think we should convene in ad hoc so that we can really fine tune the details that we would bring back to the full body. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. Mayor Pro Tem.

David PenalozaItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I want to agree with what has already been said by both my colleagues, Council Member Becerra and Lopez. I think, you know, Council Member Becerra said it, you know, great if, you know, that are don't personally think that our department is in deep need of something like this but it is something that can't hurt our department and only make it better with that said I would like to see maybe my colleagues would entertain this is is seen out of the four options number two and three at the same time

David PenalozaItem 4

you know have the the discretion of the mayor appoint an ad hoc committee but also you know try to get that direct staff to come back with the destroy information including something like a perspective from law enforcement because that is something that I think we should know we should also has as part of the record and what that looks like you know across the country so those are my Councilman Sarmiento, it's just my desire would be to see that when this comes forward, seeing that perspective.

And yeah, that's it. Great. Thank you for those comments. Any? Councilmember Mendoza?

Thank you. My recommendation would be to direct staff to return with additional information, including a perspective from law enforcement. in addition to see how this has been successful in other cities, if there are any such committees, and to find out what worked, what didn't, and whether it was initiated in other places, in other cities across the nation,

and what were the results in comparison with a city which is similar in our population. Also, I would like to see about having law enforcement because the committee is going to need some kind of guidance from somebody who has experience in that area, somebody who can guide and provide historic knowledge and perspective from law enforcement view.

In addition, we need to have a city attorney present to allow or to inform the committee what is illegal and what is not, because there are limitations as to what a committee can do. And in addition, I'm concerned with the committee subpoena records because that's highly confidential. It's going to require maybe background checks for the people who are part of the committee.

Not everyone can or should be looking at records of this sensitive nature. In addition to subpoena witnesses, I think that's something that the attorney will be able to guide the committee on. So we're stepping on some very, very sensitive areas. And while I agree with the oversight committee, we need to follow what is the letter of the law and not get ourselves into any kind of potential risks of lawsuits from any of the

people who are going to be involved or the officers who are, what's the word, looked into the claims that come up. So we need to make sure that our city is not at risk of potential lawsuits in this kind of if we take this kind of action.

Great. Thank you for those comments. Councilmember Phan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you, Mayor. I do support calling it ad hoc. I think initially when you had thought about brainstorming ad hocs, this was one of the ones that I had suggested. I do think that there are just so many aspects to an oversight commission. I've met with several organizations regarding this topic more than once. And so I think it seems like we're all pretty much in agreement. I think we can definitely return with additional information with law enforcement perspective, but I almost feel like that can just go straight to the ad hoc, and then they'll give us a recommendation.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

And I'm fine with either, but, you know, I think we have an ad hoc. We can just have them do that work to start.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I do also want to say in my conversations with staff, you know, we have a personnel board that does review often police officers and employment. And so that could end up, most of their reviews tend to be police officers in such employment. So it might be something that we can replace instead of add on to. And that would, you know, that already has staff time attorneys. And like Council Member Mendoza said, you know, this is really sensitive. However, our personnel board does in fact review and discuss these very sensitive topics already. So it is something that we can make sure not to duplicate.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

And with that, I guess I would move to just support item two, or recommendation two, to appoint an ad hoc committee regarding this item. I would second. Councilmember Hernandez has his hand up.

Okay, so we have a motion by Council Member Fan, a second by Lopez and Council Member Hernandez, do you have a comment?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say that I concur with Council Member Fan. I think it would be great to see us have an ad hoc. I think that that would be extremely helpful when it comes to dialogue. I do also think that having the ad hoc be able to take a look at the strongest oversight and bringing that back to account for the council meeting so we can discuss as a whole, I think would be helpful. And lastly, I think that as we take a look at oversight, we have to remind ourselves of why is it exactly

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

that oversight is a conversation today in this country. Last year, the world watched and paused as we saw an officer kneel on George Floyd for nine minutes. That's why we're having these conversations about oversight. Who polices the police? And this isn't a matter of being anti-police or pro-police. This is a matter of justice. This is a matter of equity and transparency. So it's important for us to center the voices and the experiences of the people that are experiencing police brutality, that are experiencing discrimination because if there was no issues we

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

wouldn't have to have a conversation of oversight so let's start there I just wanted to say I'm in favor of oversight and I'm in favor of seeing an ad hoc created that concludes my comments great thank you for those comments I think

seeing none in here just a clarification mayor this is an informational report

seeking direction so you don't need to take a motion on anything so if I can summarize when you're done with your discussion to make sure I'm accurate?

I think everybody's spoken with the exception of me. So I agree with almost everything that everybody said. I really like the comment about when Council Member Becerra was talking about, you know, we have a parks and rec, you know, commission. I always thought we needed one having to deal with, you know, public safety because we devote so much of our general fund to that. And the discussion about the personnel board. Now, I know the city attorney and I have had many discussions about, and with you, as well. You know, how we have these two parallel commissions or, you know, the other one being a

board, but that one is a charter board. So that's tricky. That's what we'd have to figure out. But to Council Member Mendoza's point, we're looking at models that are all legal. So I want to make sure that we are starting from that point, that nobody is looking at overstepping anybody's rights, especially all, you know, our civil servant rights of the officers that are employed by the city so that's just a starting point and an ending point that we wouldn't we wouldn't breach so I think you heard kind of what everybody was saying I like the idea of what councilmember then our mayor pro temp and your loss I said

about number three maybe that being incorporated to an ad hoc that information going to an ad hoc but that information should be shared with the entire council so that's one of the things I think that on all our ad hocs what I'm going to recommend to staff is that any material that's provided to ad hoc members should be made available to the entire city council, even though the ad hoc will be able to delve into things a little deeper and have more conversations with staff and be able to report back to the full council as to what they've learned and hopefully, you know, a recommendation of some type.

But that way, we're all working from the same script and material and nobody feels like they're, you know, having any information that's excluded from them. So that would be my only caveat or suggestion.

David PenalozaItem 4

Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you for that, Mayor. And then just to quickly add to that, you know, I want to make sure that it doesn't come off as we're trying to have a oversight commission that micromanages a police department or tries to delve into that. So definitely law enforcement perspective as well as that of the chief of police. you know it'd be important to really just get the the that you know perspective into the conversation going into the ad hoc just wanted to state that for the record yeah I think that's well said I

think nobody I mean the good thing is that I think we're doing preemptive work which is what should be done always and being you know accountable and responsible and this is what a lot of people spoke about during the election cycle last year and we'll be you know continuing to talk about this in the future. So I think is that sufficient direction?

Yes, sir. So I can return at the next council meeting with the necessary staff report for you to establish and appoint the ad hoc. Where I was a little bit unclear is because I'm not sure if Mayor Pro Tem actually said I first believed he wanted the law enforcement perspective to be brought back as well at that same meeting for the entire councils. But please correct me if I'm wrong.

David PenalozaItem 4

Initially, but since we are creating or having the discretion of the mayor create this ad hoc, you know, it could, I mean, that's information that's going to be shared to the entire council anyway.

But I'm fine with just making sure that the ad hoc gets it.

I'm clear.

Great. And the only other thing I would add is that, you know, council members, as we've done with other ad hocs, let me know what your preference is if anybody would like to serve. Feel free to let me know.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Mr. Mayor, I have one quick question. does this item need to come back for the mayor to create the ad hoc or can the

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

mayor just create the ad hoc? I'll defer to the city attorney. The mayor can create an ad hoc doesn't require council approval. Okay so we don't have to return back then. Yeah and I'd like to

express my interest in serving. Thank you and and what I'll do is I'll come back and report back at the next council meeting to say these are the members of the ad hoc committee and again so the information that would come to us I just require that it goes to all the council members as well. All righty. Okay, so that's item 34. We're now on to item number 35, which is the summary of policy direction for proposed amendments to the Housing Opportunity Ordinance, and I'll go ahead and turn it over to the staff.

Thank you, Mayor. For this item, we do have a presentation, and Min is not with us, so Alvaro is going to be stepping in and earning his new promotion to provide this presentation for you.

I like the bill's one page. Mine has 13 slides. Just for the record. It was mint's original presentation. We'll try to be quick. Again, this is the 2021 affordable housing opportunity creation ordinance.

So to recap, on July 6th, City Council received the report on the progress of the housing ad hoc committee and discuss the changes to the housing opportunity ordinance recommended by the committee. On July 26, City Council conducted a work study session to receive input from community and stakeholders and provide feedback regarding the ad hoc committee and recommendations on the WHO. The staff contacted developers and labor unions to obtain construction and labor costs.

The purpose, a summary of feedback received from the City Council. review amendments to the WHO and obtain city council direction regarding changes to the WHO.

July 26, the feedback. Develop a sliding scale for the in-loop fee for projects that incorporate skilled and trained workforce. Require mandatory skilled and trained workforce to create living wage, incorporate local hire requirements, prioritize production of housing for large families, prioritize down payment assistance, regulate applicability and vesting, add rental protection for tenants and address displacement and protection to the ordinance.

Staff at the direction of the city council met with local developers, the BIA and construction construction unit. This included the building and construction trades council, local 652 of the laborers international union of North America based here in Santa Ana, local 411 of the international brotherhood of electrical workers, local union 105, I think that's the machinist, the Southwest regional council of carpenters and again the building industry association. As part of the feedback from the BIA, the proposed $15 per square foot to the HUFI cannot be absorbed by the residential project.

The STW requirement would significantly impact the feasibility of construction, a project in the city and would drive projects elsewhere and then indicated no projects have paid the $15 fee. Again, this is the input from the BIA.

From the labor unions, the labor unions acknowledge the cost increase using skilled and trained workforce. They contain a waterfall of tangible benefits addresses the core of the affordable housing crisis. That is, an employee earning a living wage with employment benefits can attain decent housing and a higher quality of life, a reliable and stable workforce, reduce public reliance on government assistance programs, higher efficiency from trained employees, a career pathway to the various construction trades, promote regional job housing balance, promote environmental benefits from reduced vehicle miles traveled,

local pride of regions on a project development and the labor unions also express support for a sliding scale approach to incentivize the use of skilled trained workers.

In addition, staff constructed another independent type of research, independent from the BIU and the labor unions. This is a Turner Center, it's a Berkeley study that indicated that hard construction costs fluctuated between 177 to 222 per square foot. The SDW prevailing wage adds approximately $30 per square foot in labor. This increases the hard construction costs of a project on the average between 14 to 17%.

We're going to skip that one.

The local hard costs. The estimated local hard cost range between $130 to $250 depending on housing and construction. Using skilled training workforce adds approximately 15 to 20%. Adding the skilled training workforce in WHO adds 21 to 27% at $15 per square feet and 17 to 19 at 5 per square feet.

This is the 2015 WHO applicable areas, which is one of the key aspects in comparison to the proposed WHO applicable areas, which is a little more expansive throughout the city. the application.

Again, as far as the passing of the ordinance have been applied and regulated, the most critical component will be the implementation of the ordinance and this will serve as the cut-off threshold and provide clarity for development projects proposals currently undergoing approval process. Under the who applies to projects without entitlement approvals or with no building permit or have not paid the who. Both vesting options meet legal standards and are commonly practiced by local government.

Here's the policy direction and the proposed refinement to the ordinance. A. Develop a reasonable sliding scale in lieu fee, a schedule for projects with skilled and trained workforce. So they would pay $15 per square foot per project without skilled trained workforce workforce or reduce to $5 per square foot for projects incorporating skilled trained workforce. Require mandatory skilled and trained labor to address living wage. It would apply to 20 more units and exempt 19 or less units. Applies to projects receiving funding from

the Inclusionary Housing Fund. Those are the two. Apply local hire requirements. Again, Again, applies to 20 or more units and exempts 19 or less units. Applies to projects receiving funding from inclusionary housing funds. We require 30% of the total work hours. And then policy and guidelines to be approved by city council.

The fourth item, prioritize production of housing for large families. That would be a yes. Prioritize down payment assistance. Again, that would be a yes. Regulate applicability investing. Again, the options is approved entitlements or when the building permits are issued, depending on where they are in the process. Obviously, rental protection will be a part of the housing ad committee and address this payment and protection also evaluated through the housing ad hoc committee.

That's it.

Let me go with that one. Great. Thank you for that, Alvaro. Let me go ahead. You know, I was thinking about this, and I know this, you know, we might have deferred this because I know this is a lot on your plate. It's already close to midnight. We have a lot. This is a very, very heavy subject, but let's try to muscle through as much as we can just because we've already had the presentation. But, you know, given that, you know, the director is not here, and so thank you for stepping in, Alvaro, and doing a good job in the presentation. So let me bring it back to Council to see, because this isn't really an action item tonight.

This is simply to give some additional guidance and some direction on some of these suggested, on the feedback that was given after the study session. So I think we have Council Member Hernandez who wants to comment.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Council Member? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, can you hear me now? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say that I'm happy to see the inclusion of skilled and trained workforce. I think that that's gonna help us when it comes to building community and ensuring that our residents have equity in this city. So I'm happy to see that inclusion. I am also in agreement that if there is that in lieu fee, that that in lieu fee is implemented if somebody is not implementing the skilled and trained workforce. and I do think that if they are,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

I think it is certainly something that I'm in support of to see a slight reduction there. Not something too significant, but a fair reduction I think would be what's certainly suffice because of the skilled and trained workforce component, so just wanted to say that was something that I was supportive of.

Thank you, council member. Any additional comments on these items?

Councilmember Mendoza yes I am in agreement that if the project has the incorporating this skilled and trained workforce that that the fee should be reduced to five dollars and also I'm looking for the component that includes local hire so is that already in here and I missed it somewhere yes that 30% of the total work for 30%

of total local hire oh yes I see that now yes and so with that included that I am in in favor of this

um changes great thank you for those comments council member becerra thank you mr mayor um

Phil BacerraItem 4

you know yeah i i mean for me these these proposed amendments are painful because i know they're not going to encourage more housing i mean history is on our side we know that increasing the fee didn't bring in any projects sure as heck didn't bring in any loom fees So we didn't help folks when it came to trying to build more affordable housing using this fund I mean, there's just so many things I can go through here the fact that we're applying this to projects under 20 units We don't have that many projects under 20 units and these are usually small mom-and-pop builders

Phil BacerraItem 4

These aren't the big developers that we think have endless amounts of resources. So I just don't see how that's gonna help I appreciate that we're having the discussion on the dais today about trying to incorporate a skilled and trained workforce into this ordinance. I think of my grandfather who was a carpenter and I think of how could we incentivize a builder to make sure that someone like my grandfather would be hired. And I don't think this does it. You don't take what's an existing fee, jack it up, you know, triple it, and then say, oh, we're going to offer you something by bringing it

Phil BacerraItem 4

back down to where you were at. I think if you want to incentivize, if you're actually genuinely extremely serious, that means building the housing and actually trying to bring in a skilled and trained workforce, maybe you would bring that dollar amount down past five. Maybe you would make it four, three, two, zero. But I think that's the way you would actually do that. So this does not do that. Forcing a project that is built in phases to pay all the fees at once, no other development an impact fee does that. And not just in Santa Ana, but in almost every other city, whether you're

Phil BacerraItem 4

paying fees for parks or other impacts, you usually would pay it in phases. So to revert back, I think that's not something that's going to help encourage building. Requiring the covenants to run in perpetuity. One of the things that we see in our city is that because Santa Ana has had affordable housing going back to the late 60s, we have units that have had a limited time covenant and we've been able to go in there utilizing resources, whether it's CDBG funds or other funding sources, to go in and rehab those units. If you put them into a

Phil BacerraItem 4

perpetuity or a covenant in perpetuity, we don't have that option anymore. That gets taken right off the table. So while I know the intention is to make sure that they're stable, but what we're doing is not providing a mechanism so that we can make sure that these units are of quality because over time they will suffer wear and tear. And I think that we've had a good track record of going into these units where the covenant is getting close to expiring and being able to work with those property owners to rehab those units. And as far as for the first sale properties for the affordable units, for those covenants to run in perpetuity,

Phil BacerraItem 4

well, you've taken those properties off the property tax rolls. That means less resources going into our coffers to help provide basic city services. So that to me is another punch in the gut there. And then the amendments to how the in-lieu fees are going to be deposited into the inclusionary fund as far as where they can be spent, I also feel is very counterproductive. You know, for instance, one of the items is creating affordable units from the existing market rate housing stock, including but not limited to the purchase and rehabilitation of units. Well, rehabilitating a unit is not creating a unit.

Phil BacerraItem 4

So that seems conflicting right there. So hopefully, as these things go on, we are able to look at where these funds could go, especially, and I've been harping on this from the beginning of the meeting, and that is down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.

Phil BacerraItem 4

That was stricken from here. And I think that that's unfortunate. I think that should be a priority. I think we're so enamored with building more and more affordable housing. We naturally as a city have done that. Again, I'm going to go back to saying history being our guide. It has showed us that in the last RENA cycle, we built 11 times more than what the state required of us. And some people will say, well, we haven't built enough. Well, 33 other cities need to step up. It can't always be Santa Ana. that we need to stabilize our economic resiliency. And if we don't do that, we're going to provide less and less services.

Phil BacerraItem 4

And at some point, either this council in a couple of years or a future council is going to be forced to raise taxes, which I think would be terrible, especially given the fact that historically the city in the far past has had low tax rates. But that's because we did a good job of stabilizing ourselves economically. So I want to ask for clarification, and I don't know, Alro, if this is you or Madam City Attorney, but so will the proposed section 41-1909A5 require all developers, whether they're building market rate or affordable housing, to provide a commitment that they will use a skilled and trained workforce?

Thank you, don't mind.

on page 35-4 of the staff report.

I have a summary.

Phil BacerraItem 4

That's okay. Look, that's fine. I would just express for, since we're, staff is taking direction, I would just like to see that if we're going to go down that path, that we apply it across the board. That if we're going to require for housing to be built in the city with the skilled and trained workforce, let's not pick and choose. Let's give all the opportunities that we can for our brothers and sisters in labor to build all the units. One other thing I just want to bring up is the fact that, you know, one of the things, whether you're a builder or just a consumer, you want certainty.

Phil BacerraItem 4

And I think one of the things that I see in this ordinance, at least the way it looks like 41-19A is proposed to be amended, it basically sets it back to where even before the amendments to this ordinance that had put the fee for the in-lieu fee at 15 bucks a foot, there was uncertainty because there wasn't a per square foot scale for the in-lieu fee. It was taken out to a third-party consultant who came back with a NASA-level study, and then, and here's the poison pill,

Phil BacerraItem 4

and then it was subject to council approval. So when somebody came in having done their performa and assumed, okay, this is what I'm going to owe, the same way that they look at our schedule of fees and they say, well, this is what I'm going to owe for parks. This is what I'm going to owe for each development impact fee. The wild card was in lieu fees from the WHO. This language I can see being interpreted as it's subject to council approval. And what scares me about that is now we've taken away that uncertainty or taking away the certainty. You know, I, the way I look at it is imagine

Phil BacerraItem 4

going to the grocery store. You've gone and you've looked at items on the shelf and you saw the price tag underneath it and you picked out the items that you believed you can afford and you got to the check stand and the cashier said, well, I'm going to charge you 200% more, 300% more. And what are you going to do about it? And that's not fair. Nobody would say, well,

Phil BacerraItem 4

I mean, that's okay. No, people say, no, you should have the certainty that when you went in and you saw the price that it wasn't going to change by the time you walked up to the cash register. I think that's the same here. I think that having the per square foot fee provided some sort of certainty that allowed for folks to make that decision. Could they afford with all these fees to build in Santa Ana? And I think if we take that away, we are getting to the point where we're not providing that certainty anymore. So I'll just conclude my remarks with this.

Phil BacerraItem 4

You know, somebody on the dais not too long ago posed the question of who we're building for. I think with these amendments to the ordinance, my answer is we're building for nobody. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for those comments. Any other members of the council wish to provide any direction, additional direction? Council Member Van.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you, Mayor. So the first thing I would like to address is this skilled and trained workforce requirement, as well as the $5 step down. I guess I don't know how to, you know, the 5 and 15 differential. The language in the skilled and trained provision just says, for example, that if they use skilled and trained, they only need to pay $5. I think that is section...

That's part of the option, yes.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Yes, so, well, I'm just looking at the ordinance itself. So it's in section 8. So section 41-1904 C2. right developer of a project consisting of 20 or more units residential can pay essentially five dollars because use skilled and trained well it doesn't really say what percentage of skill and trained it's not clear to me if it's you know if they use all their workers are skilled and trained then they get five dollars or if it's only one person who's skilled and trained then it's five dollars so I think that we need to clarify that a bit more I do know that

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

some of the comments that were made tonight said, you know, we might not be able to find everybody in skilled and trained. I've met actually with the developer last week. Like all the weeks are starting to blur together. And you know, one of the concerns were they, there's certain areas in construction that they couldn't find skilled and trained for at the time. And so I'd like staff to look into, you know, what is a reasonable percentage? What is something that is pretty consistent with what some of our projects have done, right? Because if I'm not incorrect, I know Legacy Sunflower used skilled and trained.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I think Bowery used skilled and trained. I think Main Place, even though they have a DA, they have skilled and trained involved somehow. So we have a few out there that are already doing it. So clearly this is something that is feasible. So I'd like to see that conversation with these stakeholders and see what can we do, what's feasible, what's a percentage that's workable. I do like the idea of a reduced fee, depending on the percentage of skilled and trained that they use. I think, at least when I look at this, it's not just to say we want to have someone pay

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

to help build affordable housing, but also that we want the people building this affordable housing to be able to afford to live here. I also think that it's, I think it's just really important to kind of balance that out. The other thing I wanted to address is regarding the, you know, the idea that, you know, the small mom and pops, five to nine units, 10 to 14, you know, under 20 units, right? I think at the end of the day, you choose to get into this industry, then you should know what you're getting yourself into.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

and there is in fact a need I mean just quickly looking at the exact rental unit that I was in before I bought my townhouse a one-bedroom 750 square feet is now going for $2,600 a month that's more than my mortgage more than my three-bedroom townhouse mortgage so to me I think it is imperative that we find ways to get this money in and you know and to comment on speaking with that developer I spoke with the developer he told me to my face that they had $15 per square feet in their pro forma when they applied to the city and stuff happened