Read the March 15 meeting.

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Thank you.

Thank you.

Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still

¿Para qué vas a olvidar si solo quiero tu amor?

It's the soul that tells me to follow you

I want to give you all your forgiveness

Yo no sé de amar, corazón

Yo sí sé de amar, sí sé de amor, corazón, corazón

You'll find me more

Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song Song

I love you, and fight for a life that is worth the price That's love, I understand And I have a love, I have a love I have a love, I have a love I have a love, I want to give you all No quiero que quieras Sé de amor, corazón

Sé de amor

Eres mi, eres mi corazón Eres mi corazón Yo te quiero por el amor Entendelo

Que ahora mi perro Sin alma

Sin alma que me dice Que me dice que te siga

Is the soul that tells me, that tells me that you are the same.

Still Still Still

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I love you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Still Still Still

Still Still Still

Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still

! Still Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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Thank you.

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I love you.

Thank you.

I love you.

Thank you.

I love you.

Now I'm

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still

Thank you.

Thank you.

Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

guitar solo

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For members of the public who have joined us by way of Zoom or telephone, if you would like to make a comment on any agenda, non-agenda item or public hearing items, please raise your hand in zoom or select star nine if you want to speak on any public hearing items please hold your comment until the mayor opens the public hearing si desea hacer un comentario durante la reunión sobre la tema de la agenda por favor marque estrella 9 por teléfono o marque el icono

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Recording in progress.

Thank you.

Great. Good afternoon, everybody. Let me go ahead and reconvene this regular session of the Santa Ana City Council meeting for March 15, 2022. And let me just begin with some opening remarks. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom. The public can access this meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. And please, as usual, bear with us as the technology may interrupt the flow of the meeting. Let me go ahead and ask the Clerk of the Council to call a roll, please.

Thank you. Council Member Hernandez?

Present.

Council Member Lopez?

Here.

Council Member Mendoza? Present. Council Member Peñalosa?

Present.

Council Member Fan?

Here.

Mayor Patan Becerra?

Here.

And Mayor Sarmiento?

Here. Thank you. And before we move along to the Pledge of Allegiance, let me go ahead and turn it over to the clerk for some opening remarks as well.

Thank you, Mayor. To request to speak on any agenda or non-agenda items within the city's jurisdiction, with the exception of public hearing items 27 and 28, please dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled Raise Hand from Zoom at this time. Please hold your comments until the mayor opens public hearing items for for public hearing items 27 and 28 only and announce your name, ward, or neighborhood you reside in within the city of Santa Ana for the record. Thank

you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Let me go ahead and ask Councilmember Nelly Mendoza to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Please stand.

Place your right hand over your heart. For the military personnel you may salute ready begin

of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing

for the invocation actually we're gonna have words of inspiration so feel free for those of you who want to sit I believe who some a loose is gonna be joining us and he is with us virtually is that correct yes that's correct thank you

the floor is yours my friend thank you very much mayor first of all i greet you with greetings of peace assalamualaikum honorable council members and all residents of the city of santa ana over the past few weeks we've all watched the start of another tragic cycle of war destruction, dispossession, and fleeing refugees. This time it was in Ukraine, a result of Russia's unjustified aggression. Whether it's in Ukraine, Syria, Burma, China, at our borders, or in our own cities, such humanitarian catastrophes remind us how vulnerable we are,

and how dependent on each other's humanity we also are. these tragedies expose the worst of greed selfishness hatred and bigotry in some within our humanity but also can highlight and celebrate the abundant kindness generosity and compassion expressed by many of us piety is not merely how many times we pray in our mosques churches synagogues and temples. Piety is not merely how much time we spend to read the Quran,

the Torah, the Bible or any other sacred text. True piety is when we seek God, Allah, God Almighty, in the service of those who are in need of food, medicine, shelter, refuge and love. I'll share with you something from the Islamic tradition. There's a saying taught by the Prophet of Muhammad peace be upon him. That illustrates that meaning. It says that on the day of judgment, Allah God Almighty will ask or will say to people, oh son of Adam, meaning all people, we're all in the Muslim belief and Christian

and Judaic belief, we're all children of Adam and Eve. Oh son of Adam, I was sick, but you did not visit me. A person would respond, my Lord, how can I visit you when you are the Lord of the worlds. God will say, did you not know that my servant was sick and you did not visit him? And had you visited him, you would have found me with him. O son of Adam, I asked you for food, but you did not feed me. He will say, my Lord, how can I feed you when you are the Lord of the worlds? God will say, did you not know that my servant asked you for food, but you did not feed him?

and had you fed him, you would have found me with him. Oh, son of Adam, I ask you for a drink, but you did not provide me any drink. He will say, my Lord, how can I give you a drink when you are the Lord of the worlds? God will say, my servant, my servant asked you for a drink, but you did not provide for him. And had you given it to him, you would have found me with him. Actually, there's a very similar story that is mentioned in the bible as someone who went to christian schools and studied the bible there's a very similar story in the book of matthew the meaning is shared by all religious

backgrounds and ideologies and faith traditions so the point is we ask and pray that we may always strive to be kind and compassionate toward one another and we ask and pray for the safety of those who are enduring poverty, war, and all sorts of difficulties. Thank you and Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Hussam. Thank you for those words of inspiration. Let me go ahead and move along to the next section of our meeting, which is the ceremonial presentations. And let me begin with Mayor Pro Tem Becerra, who's going to be making a certificate of presentation to Lydia Salveira.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Lydia, can I have you come up here?

Phil BacerraItem 1

Good evening, everybody. So it's my opportunity to recognize Lydia Salvetta, who's a longtime resident of Republic Homes where she serves as the president of the neighborhood association which she has done for many years over there. Lydia is very active in our community and she has served in many capacities throughout the years. She served as a board, I'm sorry, a member of the board of directors for the greater Santa Ana chamber way back in 1987. She was a past member of the board of directors for the Southland Economic Development Company, an organization whose purpose is to benefit the

Phil BacerraItem 1

communities it serves by stimulating employment, private investment, and expanding business opportunities. She was awarded Woman of the Year from the Athena Foundation, a foundation that is committed to nurturing and supporting the next generation of STEM women leaders in our community. Lydia also served as an advisor and a board member of the National Hispanic Business Association. The active role that Lydia has played over the years is a testament for her love to our community and i wanted to take this opportunity to recognize lydia for all the work that she has done

Phil BacerraItem 1

and so with that i wanted to present you with this certificate of recognition on behalf of myself and the city of santa anna thank you would you like to say a few words i want to say thank you

councilman phil becerra i just want to say thank you for all the good years that I spent here in Santa Ana and now that my husband has passed I will move on to another city but still in the county thank you

Thank you for that and thank you Sylvia for all your work in the City of Santa Ana. We wish you well. Let me move along to the next item which is Council Member Lopez that will be presenting a certificate of recognition to the Pony Board in recognition, the Santa Ana Pony Board in recognition of their contributions to the community. If there's any members of the Pony Board come on up. I thought it was the guys in the suits that were going to come up. Maybe not. Just kidding.

Just kidding.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Hi, everyone. And so we are here to recognize the board for Santa Ana Pony Baseball. And last year, we recognized the kids of Santa Ana Pony Baseball. But in recognizing the kids, I got to know Elias. Where are you? There you are. And Elias is also a War III resident. He lives in West Floral Park.

Jessie LopezItem 2

And, you know, truly through the work that we've done, you yelling at me, you know, So I really have gotten to know how driven you are and how passionate you are and how, as we say in Spanish, you know, all the ganas que tienes to really not just talk about change but help create it. And so that's why it was important for me to recognize Elias and the rest of the board because there's a couple pictures that we actually wanted to show today. So Daniel or?

Jessie LopezItem 2

Somebody can please pull them up.

Okay.

Jessie LopezItem 2

Thank you. Yes, so very early on a Saturday morning, we had the board members here and some of their children that took it upon themselves to renovate the snack bar at Riverview Park. And we've already done improvement there, but this is a snack bar that they use every weekend when their kids are playing there. It was very old, it was worn down, and this is a community project that the parents decided to take on themselves with their children and luckily unfortunately they invited me to be a part

Jessie LopezItem 2

of it and scrape the old paint paint the new paint and you know the entire concept was also designed by another sanayana resident and so i was really impressed and so thank you elias for you know leading that but the organization does consist of 28 board members and it is led by president elias Casales all of the board members are volunteers who do this work because they have love for their children and our community and at Riverview Park they volunteered their time and resource to make this improvements to the snack bar as I said they added new artwork they upgraded the snack bar bathroom

Jessie LopezItem 2

facility they installed new dead boat locks a fan for air circulation and new LED lights and I you know I had the pleasure of joining them and getting my hands dirty and making sure that this got done and Thomas Miraz and Michael McCullen parents of a few of the players on the team they brought their artistic and design talents to make sure that the new logo was on and so here we are today to recognize this group for providing a healthy athletic option for Santa Ana youth who enjoy playing baseball and for going above and beyond and caring for our community

Jessie LopezItem 2

and the parks that we use and the facilities that we use so elias this is for you and i would love

for you to just uh you know share a couple words okay um first of all i want to say thank you councilmember lopez for being very supportive and coming out and helping out these little guys and ourselves renovate the snack bar but this this award truly belongs to our Santa Ana families and our Santa Ana board because without them there would be no Santa Ana pony and thank you everyone that has supported our league

and has supported these young kids to play baseball thank you

Thank you.

Thank you, San Anapone League, and thank you, Councilmember Lopez, for that presentation. Let me go ahead and now turn it over to Councilmember Mendoza, who is going to be doing a certificate of recognition presentation to our homicide unit in recognition of their 2021 Orange County Homicide Investigation Case of the Year. So, gentlemen, if you'd like to join us up here.

All the way. All the way. This is a different kind of pony league.

Come on, all the way over.

In times of increased crime in our city, it is good to see that our officers, our detectives, our men and women in blue are out there protecting us. And this case in particular has received national recognition because of the difficulty and the complex nature of it. I mean any murder is complex, but it took a team such as these experienced men and women probably behind the scenes. we have an incredible team that not only risk their lives when they're out there

solving the crimes but they have the experience and the quality that takes for to resolve something such as as the atrocities that that happen in our world so I'm very honored when and proud of the entire police department and not because it's election year and they've never donated to my campaign. It doesn't matter. We should honor them because without these men and women in the streets to protect us it would be chaos. And so the families who have gone

through this tragic loss, they depend on this kind of skill to bring closure to their their situation and although that they will never forget their loved ones closure is very important and that's exactly what this team has done the homicide unit is an incredible team of incredible officers and detectives corporals well here today we have the the Santa Ana Police Department homicide unit. Commander Jose Gonzalez, Detective Sergeant Mel Sarabia, Detective Corporal

Paul McClaskey, Detective Corporal Dan Padron, Detective Corporal Renee Bonilla, Detective Eddie Nunez, Detective Frank Gomez, Detective Nick Vega, Detective Gus Moroyoki, Detective Justo Capacete, Detective Matt McLeod, Detective Mike Gibbons, Detective Chris Shin, Sergeant Matt Lemon, and Corporal Andy Garcia. Every year the Orange County Homicide Investigator's Association

OCHIA for short reviews all of Orange County homicides to determine the case of the year. The award is given to the agency whose detectives solved a challenging case and brought positive recognition to their unit, to their department and OCHIA through exemplary performance, perseverance, and superior investigative techniques. OCHIA selected the complex case involving the torture and murder of one of Santa Ana's residents, Manuel Ramos. So this case was selected as the 2021 Homicide Case of the Year

with special recognition going to the Santa Ana Police Department Homicide Unit. This case was extremely complicated and involved collaboration not only with the Santa Ana PD gang unit, the career criminal unit, the Orange County Violent Gang Task Force, but it also reached across borders involving the Mexican law enforcement authorities.

The tireless efforts and persistence of our Santa Ana PD homicide team ultimately resulted in the suspect being taken into custody by Mexican authorities, who is awaiting extradition to finalize the case. had it not been for the tenacious investigative skills and internal collaboration of this team with federal partners this heinous crime may have never been solved and the families would never have received closure for this reason OCHIA awarded this homicide investigation as the 2021 case of the

year for Orange County on behalf of the City of Santa Ana a city council in our community, we thank you for your acts of heroism, bravery, and making the city of Santa Ana a severed place. Thank you very much, officer.

If you would all like to say something, I have plenty of time, so come on up and And come and tell us a little bit about yourselves and your team or your, or in this case.

Thank you very much. My name is Commander Jose Gonzalez, and I have the pleasure of overseeing this incredible unit. What you have here in front of you are the most seasoned, the most skilled detectives that the agency provides. It's through their dedication that we're able to solve and handle the most complex cases, really the worst of the worst. and because of their tireless efforts we do solve cases for those grieving families and you know all of this isn't possible without you know support from the top chief valentine our command staff provides a tremendous support to

the unit as well as city leadership as you can see this is why we're here so on behalf of the homicide unit we really appreciate the recognition and thank you for that

I CAN.

OKAY.

Phil BacerraItem 3

I'LL CALL NAMES. ALL RIGHT.

DETECTIVE SERGEANT MEL SERABIA.

THANK YOU.

DETECTIVE CORPORAL PAUL MCCLASKEY.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

RIGHT OVER THERE. SMILE.

DETECTIVE CORPORAL DAN PADRONE.

NO, THAT'S FOR YOU. Are you going to take it?

Detective Corporal Renee Monia.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Detective Eddie Nunez.

Detective Frank Gomez.

Detective Nick Vega.

Detective Gus Moceroki.

Detective Justo Capacete.

Detective Matt McLeod.

Detective Mike Gibbons.

Detective Chris Shin

Sergeant Matt Lemon

and finally Corporal Andy Garcia

Congratulations

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you gentlemen. Thank you for all the hard work that you do. Thank you, Councilmember, for that presentation. Let me bring this back to staff. We have a few presentations that we are going to be listening to tonight and we'll begin with the presentation from the Orange County Transportation Authority on the OC Streetcar project and I'll turn it over to staff. Thank you, Mayor. We

We actually have a combined presentation. You will hear from our Executive Director of Public Works on his efforts. You will also get an update from our Economic Development Manager, Mark Morley, on the BIF, and then you will hear directly from OCTA. So we're going to start with Executive Director Nabil.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp, members of the City Council. This presentation is a summary of what we have done so far in terms of adding signage to the downtown area to attract businesses to the downtown area.

We do have a map that shows some of the signage that we have implemented so far.

Again, the purpose of the plan is to show our efforts in providing signage.

Director Saba, if you can maybe speak up a little louder and closer to the mic so the recording can catch you.

Sure. The purpose of this presentation is to show our efforts in providing signage to assist the downtown merchants in maintaining directions to their place of business. As you can see in this plan, there are three kinds of signs that are already in implementation. An existing wayfinding signs that direct traffic to the downtown area. Those are the blue dots. The yellow dot shows parking directions or signs that show or direct traffic to the parking structures.

The red rectangular sign is the changeable message signs that OCTA has installed throughout the downtown area to direct traffic to the downtown again. The green dots is banners that have been placed throughout the downtown area, again, to indicate that business is open during construction. The red dots are proposed OCTA and City of Santa Ana signs that will be soon to be installed throughout the city. If I can go to the previous map, please.

Yeah, as you can see, the red dots are the ones that are proposed and are in the works. And those are banners that we are working with OCTA to install. Now we can go to the more refined one.

This map shows the signs and how they are scattered throughout the downtown area. Again, this effort is continuous. We will have the banners installed soon. And the changeable message signs are also in there. Those are the rectangular signs that we have. And that concludes my portion of the presentation. I will turn it to Mark Morley for the Business Interruption Fund.

Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council. At the March 2nd City Council meeting, $1.5 million was approved for the Business Interruption Fund. To accommodate businesses in the downtown, we placed one of our staff members in an office, a temporary office. We are pleased to report that 134 applications were received and 60 have been approved for payment. Businesses are expected to receive payments starting this Friday. And as business, as the construction continues to move down 4th Street, more businesses will become eligible for the program. That's my presentation.

Good evening, Mayor Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem, Becerra, and Council Members. I'm Ross Liu, OCTA Program Manager for the OC Streetcar Project. And joining me in the presentation is Teresa Oliveri, OCTA Senior Public Outreach Representative. We also have Jim Beale, Executive Director for Capital Programs in the audience joining us. Today's staff will provide an update on OC Streetcar community outreach and public engagement effort associated with the construction on 4th Street in downtown Santa Ana. This is the same presentation that we gave our board yesterday.

Moving on to slide two. There was a slide before this.

There we go. Can you go to the next slide, please? Thank you. So before I provide the update, I will share brief chronology on how this project came about and to highlight the teamwork and partnership between OCTA and the city. So back in 2008, about 14 years ago, the City of Santa Ana requested OCTA's financial support to conduct alternative analysis and locally preferred alternative for a fixed guideway through the city. Our board approved the funding request. In 2014, the city as the lead agency for environmental studies conducted public outreach for the draft environmental document which documented the streetcar as the preferred

alternative and the preferred alignments to Santa Ana Boulevard and 4th Street. The council certified the environmental document the following year in 2015. Also in 2014 the city made a request for OCTA to serve as the lead agency for design, construction, and operations of the streetcar based on the city's preferred alignment. In August of the following year the board approved a memorandum of understanding with the city that accepted OCT as the lead with city's involvement. This partnership was further detailed in a design and construction cooperative agreements with the city. Through this partnership and

teamwork the design was completed and signed off by the city in December 2017 and construction began in November 2018. During the design and construction phase the team conducted 15 open houses to present project information and enforce Street alignment. Regarding the funding, our board approved a revised funding plan of $509.5 million this past December, which included an increase in total M2 contribution of $203.8 million. Next slide. Thank you. So that leads us to today and ongoing work on 4th Street. We understand the importance of the businesses in downtown, so it's important that both OCT and the city

plan early for the work as I previously shared with the council a year ago we conducted a field walk of the downtown with city staff contractor and construction management team in the office and in the field we also included emergency services we are currently in phase one with closures between Broadway and Main Street and between Bush Street and French Street the phase one work began on February 1st and is anticipated to last up to six months we have made very good progress and on pace to complete the track work and roadway paving before the six months.

If you were in downtown yesterday, you may have noticed that the contractor pulled rails into the work zone. So you're going to be seeing a lot of progress because basically we're out of the ground now, which is a great accomplishment.

The infrastructure for the embedded track will now start to form, and so you will see that work followed by concrete of the embedded track and then paving in the adjacent side, and then from there opening it up to traffic. Detour around the closures as shown on this exhibit. As noted, the downtown business is important, and we have provided early communication with the businesses which Teresa will expand on.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members. Before I address the specific issues related to the project, the goal with every public outreach program at OCTA is to have a community conversation and a conversation where we are sharing information about the projects and its benefits, and more importantly, we're listening, and we're learning about what's important in your community. And this is an ongoing engagement. So, as Ross has said, construction on 4th Street began on February 1st, 2022. And since then, during our outreach and our discussions with business owners on 4th Street

And in the general downtown area, five themes or requests have emerged. Enhanced safety, cleanliness, and sidewalk accessibility. Increased signage to address challenges for drivers and pedestrians. Direct economic relief payments. Opportunities for expediting construction and observations that the contractor is not present for the full eight-hour day. And availability of free parking in the safety, as well as the condition of the parking garages.

So as teammates, OCT and the City has collaborated to address the five concerns that you see here and I'll start with the first one. OCT understands the importance of pedestrian access and it made all sidewalks next to the construction zone accessible. Through our contractor, we have also placed temporary asphalt ADA ramps in several locations to further open up the area for pedestrian access. Dust control with frequent sweeping of the sidewalks and removal of construction debris a monitor throughout each day. With the past and upcoming windstorms, maintaining dust control has been a challenge,

and we're doing the best we can to control the dust. Our contractor has also installed additional crowdfencing to protect the public from the work zone. We have heard public comments regarding vandalizers, therefore we had the contractor dedicate a security staff to be at the construction zone daily and primarily at night. Please note that the role of the security staff is to discourage public entry into the work zone. If a crime such as vandalism is witnessed, the security will contact Santa Ana Police Department. Construction security is not a replacement for law enforcement. There's also concerns with crime at parking structure.

Therefore, the city has increased the private security presence at the structures. If security continues to be a concern, the parking structure in 4th Street, a suggestion would be to probably increase the Santa Ana police presence in those areas.

The next area of increased signage, we understand that a construction site can be challenging to navigate and that ample signage can be helpful when visiting the area. For pedestrians, we have placed more than 100 banners along the inside and outside of the crowd fencing with the following messaging. Business are open, fencing is in place for your safety, stay alert, and pardon our work, good things coming soon. For drivers, in addition, as Nabil mentioned before, we've added there are four electronic signs placed as part of the maintenance of traffic plans.

Four more were added to the entrances of the parking structures, access from 3rd and 5th Streets. Community feedback also requested more electronic signage outside of the boundaries of the downtown. We've accommodated those requests with four more electronic signs on Grand Avenue and 1st Street, Main and 1st, and Main and 17th, and Broadway and 17th. The messaging on those signs alternates between closure information, all businesses open, and messaging directing people to the structures on 3rd and 5th, bringing a total of 12 electronic signs for the four-block area

under construction. The City and OCTA have also agreed to additional traffic signage for drivers to enhance the maintenance of traffic plans. Through feedback I received from business owners by weekly meetings that I have with them, different versions of signs have been developed to meet the concerns of businesses. This includes providing window and door signage in the event that doors are closed. Two versions of the open for business window signage have been offered to every business on 4th Street to address the concern that if businesses were closing their doors, that their customers wouldn't know they were open.

Those designs were developed with input from a small group of merchants that I meet with on alternating Fridays. I've also sought feedback from merchants to help reflect their input and experience in other items, such as the design of the Eat Shop Play banners that will initially highlight participants in our ESP program, but will eventually include everyone with a business on 4th Street. There are other wayfinding signs that have been printed. They will be installed tomorrow. As a matter of fact, they'll be out there hanging them. Those would be the wayfinding signs at the cross streets.

Those will be placed to help visitors as they approach 4th Street from the parking structures. We'll also put some banners in the structures to help guide visitors to choose the closest exit for their destination. In addition to those, the banners that were represented by the, I believe it was red dots on Mr. Saba's exhibit, are at OCTA and they will be delivered to the city tomorrow for installation. We have also added and it recently was approved by this the city this week will be decals that will be put on the sidewalk as you exit the parking structures that will lead you to 4th Street as well as some of the

businesses on 3rd Street. And while we would like to implement every signage request, specifics including sign placement, maintaining driver sight lines and other municipal regulations must be evaluated in coordination with the City of Santa Ana's traffic engineers. The next item was request for direct financial assistance. The construction for this project is within the public roadway, and OCTA is providing access to every business for business owners, visitors, and municipal services. We have coordinated trash services, delivery access,

and met with emergency responders to ensure timely response times are available. While we cannot provide direct funding to individual businesses, we have funded numerous programs to support downtown businesses. OCTA entered into agreements with the two business associations, the Santa Ana Business Association and Downtown Inc. These agreements are intended to support the downtown area with funding to expand the number and scale of events, expand their marketing program, and to assist OCTA in sharing information about the benefits of the streetcar and upcoming construction activities. Both associations are in receipt of the

maximum amount allowed in the agreements. We have invited business owners to join our free bilingual Eat Shot Play program, providing paid social media ads that expand the reach of awareness for their businesses, and we have printed Eat Shot Play ads on buses whose routes are near the downtown. We also have a media plan that will run ads on Spanish radio, so that we have ads running on Que Bueno, as well as newspaper ads for the Excelsior in the OC, Los Angeles, and Inland Empire markets. These ads will help make the public aware of the construction and offer information about where to park.

A separate media plan to promote the Eat Shop Play participants is in development with plans to implement it before the end of the month. An e-tool kit that includes bilingual maps, flyers, some previously distributed and some and recently revised materials that businesses can use on their own websites or through their own marketing efforts have been approved and distributed.

So regarding the expedited construction, we have heard many comments to expedite the construction and we are in coordination with our contractor to do so. However, the expedited work needs to be performed efficiently and safely. For example, working at night is challenging and has increased safety concerns. Certain vendors and material suppliers don't deliver at night. The contractor also has limited work resources since the forces are distributed at various locations within the four mile corridor. Furthermore, 4th Street is narrow, so the work has to be staged with the prime contractor and the subcontractor accordingly.

There simply isn't enough room to perform multiple tasks or accommodate many workers. We feel that a potential solution may be to extend the work hours and include work on Saturdays. However, we're still working out the details with the contractor to determine the time savings. The city staff are aware of our effort and support them. And lastly, regarding parking, in response, the city has increased the duration for free parking. OCT has assisted by producing and distributing maps of free parking locations. In addition, we increased the visibility of the structures with large format banners on the side of the structures.

We also provided signage at the lots with A-frames and directional signage to call attention to the parking entrances and assist visitors as they exit them. Our outreach team continues to walk the downtown, engage the business owners, and provide them with information about upcoming construction activities, and most importantly, listen to their concerns and make adjustments as we can. We spend several hours, multiple days a week, providing targeted support on 4th Street. That concludes our presentation and we're available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ross. Madam City Manager, is there anything else from our staff on this? or is that? No, that completes the presentation. Why don't I do this and you know sort of similar to what we did last time the presentation was made. I have some speaker cards from members of the public that wish to address us on this item. I'm gonna go ahead and take those out of order and call on them. It'll be difficult to do it virtually. We do have some virtual speakers. Please go ahead and sit down at Teresa and Ross, but I think it might be helpful for you all to hear maybe some of the comments and I know I want to thank you know

members of the public who called in to the OCTA meeting yesterday morning and who made their voices heard and also made remarks for the record. So let me go ahead and begin with those that are here with us in person and I'll begin with Valentin Martinez followed by Mario Rodriguez followed by Delilah Snell.

Welcome, Valentín. And then I'll translate your words in Spanish and English.

Hello, good evening everyone. My name is Valentín Martínez, I'm the owner of Ninos Braero. I've been 32 years old, I've come to this great country, and for more precisely, Santa Ana. Like many families that have already been established in this community, after 10 years of hard struggle and many sacrifices I made my American dream, being the owner of my own business, giving my work to many families and satisfying my clients with my beautiful and innovative products. But, two years ago, a cruel and mortal pandemic began to slowly apagate the American dream.

And finally, not to end the pandemic, we came to a bad and destructive construction. in my work center. I am here because I am not willing to allow me and my colleagues to come down to our businesses closing and closing the workers, asking them to intervene in a proper and just solution, because we are not yet to have any solution. Because if a lot of people don't care about our community, especially the directors of OCTA, I am. Thank you.

VALENTIN MARTINEZ, VALENTIN MARTINEZ, VALENTIN MARTINEZ, VALENTIN MARTINEZ, Good evening to all. I'm Valentin Martinez. I'm an owner of Nino's Bridal. 32 years ago, I came to this wonderful country, and more specifically to the city of Santa Ana. And like many families here, after 10 years of fighting and sacrifices and hard work, I achieved my American dream by becoming the owner of my own business. I created jobs, I satisfied clients with wonderful designs, and something happened a little over two years ago during this cruel and hard pandemic. And this has brought down, has torn down my American dream.

And this, then a little while later, the destruction that came through the construction that started. it. And I'm here because I'm not going to allow you to take down our businesses because then we have to fire our employees, our workers, and we just want to find a just and fair solution because what you're proposing is a non-solution. And if you don't care here, including OCTA, I do care. Thank you for listening.

Thank you. Mario Rodriguez, followed by Delilah Snell, followed by Carla.

Mario?

Delilah, go ahead. Maybe Mario comes in a little bit later. We'll call on him again.

Then after Carla Guadalupe Barragan.

This is going to be new for me with my phone. Sorry. Good evening. Thank you again for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Delilah Snell. I'm the owner of Alta Baja Market. I'm in the middle of basically the construction zone right now on Bush and forth. Last Thursday, I was waiting for my husband to pick me up after work, and I was standing in the middle of 4th and Bush, and I just looked down 4th Street, and I saw one person. Usually, you're hearing, like, people laughing and people having drinks. You're hearing music from multiple businesses and cars. You hear the city, and I saw one person.

That was it, and it was heartbreaking. I mean, it, like, brings me to tears just saying this to you right now.

It's impossible. to have somebody survive this. It is literally impossible. I feel like we're being choked. And it's really hard to have this happen after a pandemic.

You know, people might think that having a small business means that the owner's rich, but that's not the case. You know, many of us, you know, are having a hard time paying ourselves right now, especially with what's going on. I have sacrificed my paycheck so I can keep my employees through this because I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know how long this is going to happen. And we're investing back into the community all the time. We hire people from the city. And it's not just the city. OCTA needs to treat this as an emergency because that's what it is. It's an economic emergency.

And they need to do it now with financial assistance and the items that we have been asking for since the beginning now. And listening, you know, the listening of OCTA is too late because there's been damage done. and businesses have suffered a tremendous loss. These programs funded by OCTA does not excuse them from doing their job and properly preparing the community for a project of this magnitude. The Eat Shop Play marketing is not supporting the businesses to retain their current customers who are we are losing daily. I lose customers daily because they just give up coming here. And OCTA's delayed

reaction to just this whole thing. Santa Ana needs to pressure OCTA to take responsibility and proper action to right their wrongs now, immediately. And 1.5 million, we appreciate it. We appreciate the fast turnaround. I thought that was amazing. It was faster than getting signs out on 4th Street, honestly. But it is just simply not enough. This is an emergency. And thank you for your time.

Thank you, Delilah.

Carla followed by Guadalupe Barragan followed by Layla.

If everybody could get ready just to speak in queue. Then followed by Danielle Barragan.

Hello. My name is Carla. We have both signed up for public comments.

If you could get closer to that microphone.

We both signed up for public comments. But can we use our time separately? So I am here to represent Charlie's Tattoo Supplies. We have been in downtown for over 25 years and have invested our lives here. We are a family owned and operated business in the heart of Santa Fe.

Carla, if you could pull the mic a little closer to you. There you go.

I pulled it out.

We want everybody to hear you, that's why.

Can I continue or do I go back? Go ahead.

So, our business is family owned and operated in the heart of Santa Ana. My parents sold their home and invested over $200,000 in our business so our business can prosper. I have been coming to a lot of your council meetings and I always sit back and hear but never really come up. I get a little anxious of coming up here. However, I feel that it is tremendously important to come up here and speak. Everything that was done with the street cart has been terribly put together. No one, absolutely no one thought about us, the merchants.

Have you guys ever sat back and thought for one second, how are these people going to survive to feed their family? It is really heartbreaking for me. And when you completely move forward with this project, you never thought about us losing 90% of our clientele and our revenue. Do you guys not see the severity of this situation, how we're losing our businesses? We feel like we're begging over here for money that rightfully should have been put aside for our businesses to survive during the time of this project. We think that there is a lot more that can be done. to alleviate this problem.

This is our tax money that is being used towards this smart car, and we know that there is much more that can be done. Have you guys tried to put yourself in our shoes? That's really all we're asking for. Recently, we received a grant for our businesses that were impacted by the whole street car, and we really want to thank you for that because it was a fast turnaround, but $1.5 million for the whole businesses that are affected there, it's certainly not enough. We pay in downtown a very high due to foot traffic and we have no foot traffic now. How is this fair and what will you do or can do to help us in regards to this?

This is really an emergency and we are reaching out to Walsh and Okta, Teresa herself, and neither one takes responsibility for the damages caused by lack of security. I believe that we really need you guys, the City of Santa Ana, to step in and put a little more pressure to this matter. Thank you for your guest's time. Thank you.

Was that Carla?

Yes.

Okay, so you are?

Layla. Layla Barragan.

Gotcha. Go ahead.

So thank you for taking the time to be here, first and foremost. I am here on behalf of Charlie's Tattoosa. We are a family-owned and operated business. We have been tremendously affected by this streetcar project. We are unable to offer our tattoo services since the dust is coming into our facilities every single day. My family has been experiencing tremendous financial hardship. I know you guys provided us recently with $1.5 million, and like they stated, we are grateful for that.

But we are being affected all of the businesses, not just our business, and we want to express that this is not enough. and we would like to expedite this project to get back to normality. And also we would appreciate if the City of Santa Ana puts pressure on Okta to provide us with more funds to help us for the remaining time of this project. I would like to know what is it that, as our city that collects our taxes, can do to help us stay in business.

We have reached out to Okta and WASH on numerous occasions, and they are very defensive and refuse to help with even losses and vandalizing that are occurring in our businesses. We want to remain in business, and it's becoming impossible to keep up with our bills and rent since we just stepped out of a pandemic, and now we're stepping into this financial, you know? and yeah I'd like to thank you for your time and for hearing me out thank you

for those comments

get it soon but they stay me number is Guadalupe Barragán perfecto okay pues muchísimas gracias nuevamente a todo el personal del concilio les agrademos de antemano todo lo que está haciendo el señor Vicente Sarmiento Jonathan Hernández, muchísimas gracias por su apoyo. Lamentablemente no puedo decir lo mismo por algunos miembros de su consejo. Lo que estaba diciendo ahorita Teresa, dice Teresa que esto fue muy bien proyectado, lo cual yo digo que no es verdad. Dos de mis clientes se han caído por este fierro tan feo que está allí saliendo de mi negocio. Está muy, muy mal.

Todo esto me ha causado un drástico gasto en nuestra bolsa. Hemos estado comprando bolsas de plástico para envolver toda nuestra mercancía, playeras blancas y negras que están muy manchadas de polvo. Este fin de semana tomé a mi hijo de 18 años y le dije que por favor me acompañara a la ciudad de Tasting, a la ciudad de Irvine, a la ciudad de Anaheim, a llevar toda mi mercancía para poder sobresalir e ir a la tienda y comprar comida. Me fue y me acompañó mi hijo alrededor a vender mi mercancía.

Quizás ustedes van a decir que soy dramática, pero eso no es un drama, esta es una realidad que estamos sufriendo. Yo pienso que esto no fue, no sé cómo les dije la última vez, quién fue el que tramó todo esto, pero esto sí estamos siendo muy drásticamente perjudicados.

Necesitamos de su ayuda. En el año 2010-2011 nosotros hicimos una gran apertura en la calle 4. Venimos a pedirle ayuda a la ciudad de Santana, lo cual me cobraron muchísimo dinero para que los policías vinieran. Me adquirieron dos policías, los cuales se les pagó sus honorarios. We spent a lot of money, I had to sell my house, now we don't have it. And unfortunately, I feel very bad to say to you, but we need economic support. I think right now it's more than Octa, because of you we received a million and a half a million and we are waiting for another. Thank you very much.

Thank you to all the staff and the City Council members, especially my name is Guadalupe Navarragan. Thank you, Mayor Vicente Sarmiento and Council Member Jonathan Hernandez for all the support. We thank you. But I can't say the same for some of the other City Council members. Like Teresa said, all this was projected and anticipated, but I don't think that's true. Two of my clients fell and hit themselves on the steel that's there in front of my business. We have to pay for lots of expenses.

I have to buy extra plastic bags to secure all of my T-shirts and merchandise. I have white T-shirts and black T-shirts, and they're all getting full of dust. So I had to take, last weekend I had to take my 18-year-old son with me to Tustin, to Irvine, to Anaheim to sell some merchandise so I can pay for my food. You might say that I'm being dramatic, but it's not being dramatic. It's the reality that we are suffering through. Like I said before, I don't know who plotted all of this, but we need your help. back in 2010, 2021. We had a grand opening for our business,

and the city charged us a lot of money for our police officers. We paid their fees, and now we have to sell our home. I don't have a home anymore. So we need your monetary support. And OCTA needs to do some more. I know you're helping us with $1.5 million. Thank you.

Danielle?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 4

Yes, that's me.

Give me one second as I call some other names that are going to follow you as well. Marcela Prado, Juliet Castro, Alfredo Bolaños will be following. Go ahead.

Good evening, council members and honorable Mayor Sarmiento. I'd like to first and foremost thank you and start off by introducing myself. My name is Danielle Berrigan, one of nine children of Guadalupe and Carlos Barragán, entrepreneurs and business owners of business owners on 4th Street for over 24 years. I take a lot of pride in saying that. I am here postpartum 10 days. I brought my 10-year, 10-day-old daughter with me because I feel a tremendous amount

of stress not only on my parents but our what our businesses excuse me but our businesses we are extremely impacted and and I feel I feel the need to let you guys know I'd like to thank you guys to in cleaning your ears to hearing our situation and we demand extreme attention and prompt action to this matter. Something has to be done for small business owners on 4th Street, not only our family. I think we're all suffering as a unit. Anyone who owns a building or rents a building on 4th Street knows of this matter. We need we

need you council members and honorable mayor to stand in the gap and intercede for us. I feel I feel like our business is dying. We're deserted. There's no income there's no revenue just fading away we've been digging into our our own savings to be able to pay our light and our rent there's no sufficient funds to be able to do so for up and coming months please take action any on any financial relief I think I need to cut it short thank thank you for listening

Thank you, Danielle.

Marcela Prado, followed by Juliet Castro, followed by Alfredo Bolaños, and then Maribel Gómez.

Buenas noches. Mi nombre es Marcela Prado. Tengo un negocio aquí en la calle 4. Aquí estoy nuevamente.

I live in Garden Grove, I work in Santana, I don't see the need of streetcar, but well, is it part of the progress? No, I don't know. I want to thank you for the help that has been approved to rescate the situation in which we are all the negociates of the Calle 4, but at the same time, let them know that it is not enough and we need to keep us supporting. Ya no es tiempo de ver quién originó este desastre, sino buscarle remedio. Lamentablemente les tocó a ustedes y a nosotros la peor parte.

Les pido nos ayuden, ya que para nosotros es bastante desgastante el que aparte de la preocupación de no tener ventas, tenemos que estar reuniéndonos para discutir cómo proceder para pedirles a ustedes el apoyo y para prepararnos para presentarnos aquí. and ask them help. Here we hope you can help us to meet our needs, because apart from doing everything we are doing, we have to help our needs.

For me, these days that have been been especially stressful because of the sound of the cement machines that I have in front of my door, and we can't even talk about the dust that is left every time they are working. We need help to cover all our needs and not only part of our business rent. We want to approve the new proposal and distribution of funds and help us to put pressure on Octa, which are the causes of the damage we are experiencing and the loss of loss. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Marcela Prado. I'm a business owner in 4th Street, and I'm here again to talk to you. I live in Garden Grove, and I work in Santa Ana. So honestly, I don't see the need for the streetcar. You're saying it's about progress? Maybe. I don't know. I don't know about that. But I want to thank you for the support that you have given our businesses, but I want to tell you that it's not enough. It's not enough. We need your continued support, and this is an issue. This is a very big problem. We need your help because

we are not having sales. Our concerns are not only just the loss of sales. We have to meet, to prepare, to come here and ask you for your support. We need more than just,

we need to pay for all of expenses and in addition to our rent. This is a very stressful situation to have the cement breaking machines right there in front of our businesses, not to mention the big dust that it generates. We need your help to pay for all of our needs, not only for our rent. So and to hold OCTA responsible for all the damages and the loss that they have caused.

ADELANTE.

but I also ask you to help us, because my business moves by people who walk by the streets and the streets are closed, they don't help me to do my work. The buildings exigono their rent every month, and they don't want half of their rent, they want the entire rent, because I have a contract to comply. If I do not comply, they can demand them. Andash.

Desde el 1 de febrero hemos estado pidiendo que nos ayuden con la radio y la televisión, porque tenemos clientes que vienen de San Juan Capristano, de Lake Forest, de Laguna Miguel. Imagínense cuántos negocios pasan para llegar aquí al downtown.

Y ellos se sienten identificados con esta gente, Luz Latina, es su ciudad, ya que aquí encuentran precios más baratos si no, no vinieran a esta ciudad.

These six months, only we ask that we help us, that we understand that if we can go to each of our businesses, if we can check our agenda. I am an all the cuts I do, I am a stylist. And the prices that I do are not 100 dollars, they come from a cut of 10 dollars. Imagine my other stilists that work for a 60%, they don't have to reach for anything. The gasoline already has been up. who knows in 4 or 6 months how will we be affected our business. Put your shoes on, please. Entend to all of us. In every building in there are more businesses.

We are people of Latin, we are not going to be able to buy any one dollar. The people of Octa, please, I ask you to put your shoes on and understand that we want to work. After this project, we will continue to work the same or better. A lo mejor la ciudad se va a ver hermosa. Muchas gracias. Pero también apóyennos en este momento. En estos 18 años que yo tengo aquí trabajando en Santana como empleada, nunca he pedido ni un dólar a nadie. Siempre me lo he ganado con el sudor de mi gente y de mi trabajo. Así que esta vez yo les exijo su ayuda, por favor. No se olviden de nosotros. Gracias.

Good evening. I'm a resident of Santa Ana and I have a small business in Santa Ana. First of all, I'd like to thank you for your help, but also we need your continued help. My business is made by people coming in and walking and walking through. And closed streets do not help my business. We don't have walking traffic. And owners of our establishments, they want the rent every month, not just partial rent. So I have a contract to fulfill, and if I don't fulfill that contract, I might get sued. We ask for your help in February, getting us some radio and television spots,

because we have clients coming in from other cities as well, San Juan Capistrano, Lake Forest, and Laguna Niguel. And if you can imagine how many businesses they go by to come to downtown Santa Ana, They come here because they like our prices, and that's why they come to us. And for the next six months, I'm asking for your help so that you can take a look at each of our business, look at our agendas, look at our client appointments. I'm a hairstylist, and I don't charge a lot, but I can imagine the people who are charging 60%,

and that's not enough to pay for our expenses. so this is the gas is going up for the next four to six months we don't know what's going to happen we're inviting you to put ourselves in our shoes we are hard working families we're Latinos, we are businesses inside our businesses so we want Okta to put themselves in our shoes and we are working hard we think and we hope that we are going to be better after all of this happens But we need your help now. In the 18 years that I've been in business, I've never asked for any financial help.

I earned all of my money, but now I'm asking for your help. Thank you, and don't forget about us.

Alfredo Bolaños, followed by Maribel Gomez, followed by Maria Perez, followed by Raul Álvarez.

Good evening. I keep closed more days than normal for no having a appointment. I don't have enough expenses. The owners of the buildings don't wait for their rent every month. We have to see how to get.

I've lost many clients every day and I don't want to survive. I know that with the project that is making OVTA a la ciudad de Santana se va a ver muy bonita, pero yo no sé si en cuatro o cinco meses yo pueda aportar o pueda sobrevivir y eso no estoy de acuerdo porque he luchado por mantenerme ahí y con esto que está pasando no quiero sobrevivir. Necesito que nos ayuden y nos apoyen económicamente porque realmente tenemos cosas o familia que mantener y con lo que estamos perdiendo de clientes no es lo suficiente para mantenernos de pie. Gracias.

Good evening. My name is Alfredo, and I'm a small business owner of a beauty shop.

And first of all, I'd like to thank the Santa Ana staff for all their support that is upcoming. But we know that that is not going to be enough. We have to pay our rent. We have to pay our taxes. and personally my business has gone down 60% in clients. And I've had to close some days completely because I don't have any appointments, any clients that day. And we can't cover our rent. The owners, they're not going to wait for the rent. They want the rent paid every month. We have lost our income. We have lost many, many clients.

And we don't know what's going to happen in the next four to six months. I'm hoping that I can survive it, but I'm not sure if I can survive all of this. So we need your support, your financial support. We have families to support, and we have lost a lot of clients. And this is not going to be enough. So thank you for your help. Thank you.

Maribel Gómez followed by María Pérez followed by Raúl Álvarez followed by Juan Romo.

Buenas noches a todos. Mi nombre es Maribel Gómez. Mi negocio es Aries Virizalón que está en 320 en Orsicamor, en la ciudad de Santana. Les pido a ustedes, señores del consejo, nos apoyen y representen con OCTA a que nos proporcione para el economic urgent.

Thank you very much for what we received, that is a tremendous help, but not enough. And we want to make sure that we can approve the new proposal for distribution of funds. Thank you, thank you very much for what we received, but not enough. Escuchen nuestras voces, por favor, porque ustedes probablemente vayan y duerman tranquilos, pero créanme que muchas personas de una edad como la mía, hay muchos compañeros míos que ya no estamos para soportar más de esta situación tan estresante. Muchas gracias a todos.

Good evening. My name is Maribel Gomez, and I have artists beauty salon on 320 North Sycamore in Santa Ana. And the city council members, I'm asking you for your help with our money. We want to thank you for the help that we receive, but this is a very urgent matter. We need your financial help. we do want to thank you for the money that we received but that is not enough we need to provide we need to receive money to stay afloat, to stay alive this is not enough, we're asking you to listen to our voices and maybe you can go to sleep

and sleep well at night but many of us here cannot stand the current stressful situation thank you for listening Adelante María.

The decrease in income, in my case, is more than 60%, which makes it very difficult to comply with our passive and operational costs. The people who before iban to buy, they say they prefer to go to another side because the difficulties they have to access to our businesses, as well as the powder and the excess that implies walking between machine and personal, doing maneuvers. This point I just mentioned is very important, gentlemen, because today the spaces or paths that are designed to that people walk to our business, are also used by the workers of the work or by their machinery,

removing the steps completely. We, as a business owner, like the company Octa, we have projects to make our business grow, but, unlike the company, we do not have We are not working with state or federal resources to take them to go. We need to help us to put pressure on OCTA, Mr. Vicente Sarmiento, to understand that it is not just that they are losing or closing businesses as a consequence of their project. The putting signals and water to prevent the dust from the water is not sufficient support.

OCTA should be contemplated within the budget the delivery of support in money or in the businesses affected. OCTA is taking on a project that has been signed for years and not took into account the new owners of businesses. We are asking what we consider just, Mr. Vicente Sarmiento and Mr. Councilor, we ask that please support us to provide the the company that provides resources with those that they have to give support in the money to affected businesses. Thank you very much.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento, Vicente Sarmiento, and City Council members. And thank you also to the city staff for all the monetary support that you've given us. and this is like a little bit of oxygen to help our businesses breathe. But with all due respect, we're telling you that this is not enough. We need more support. My business has lost income, reduced our income by over 60%, and we need help.

The people who used to come to my business, they tell us that they are choosing to go elsewhere because there's a lot of dust. There's a lot of machinery that they have to walk through, walk around. And they don't want to do that. Speaking of the spaces, the spaces for our businesses, for people to come through to our businesses, sometimes they're being used by the workers or they're being blocked by the machinery. and so people can't get through. So we are here to asking the city to pressure OCTA to increase the help for our businesses.

And just like OCTA, we are businesses, but we do not have the support of state monies or federal monies to see us through. So we ask you to pressure OCTA, Mayor Sarmiento, and City Council members. It's not fair that we lose our businesses because of this project. And when you put water on the streets to calm the dust, that is not enough. Our businesses are affected a lot. We need your support for that.

And OCTA has a lot of years in this project, and they're not considering. the business owners, and they are not doing the business They made deals with the previous business owners, but they don't have deals with the new business owners. So we're asking for what's fair for OCTA to support us financially and to support all the affected businesses. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Raul Alvarez followed by Juan Romo followed by Ana Padilla, who's going to be our last in-person speaker. Raul Álvarez Juan Romo Adelante Thank you.

Mayor Sarmiento, let me introduce myself. My name is Juan Romo.

I'm in 118 West Forestry. I'm here to thank you for your help, 1.5 million you give to us pretty soon. I believe kindly we ask, I'm talking about my friends, my partners, for more help because it's not enough because we also, we have more expenses.

It's not just the rent. and we got to support our families, our mortgage, and all the expenses we have.

And another expenses. Thank you again.

Thank you.

Ana Padilla.

And Ana will be our last in-person speaker.

Good afternoon.

I'm Ana Laura Padilla and I'm an owner in downtown Santa Ana and I'm here before you also representing many other businesses of the same area and dire situation. First, I want to take the time to thank you Mayor Sarmiento for the continued support and advocacy in favor of the Santa Ana business owners at the OCTA meeting this past Monday. I personally feel very honored that you represent us. SECONDLY, I CONTINUE TO EMPHASIZE THE URGENCY FOR THE COUNCIL TO ACTIVELY STRESS THE NEED

FOR OCTA TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL RELIEF TO SAN ANA BUSINESS OWNERS TO ENSURE THEIR OVERCOME TO THE DIFFICULTIES ARISING BY THE CURRENT CONSTRUCTION OF THE OC STREET CARD. I ALSO SENT SOME PICTURES TO THE CLERK IN REGARDS OF THE STREET CLOSURES. SO THEY SAY THEY PUT THESE FENCES BETTER. I SENT PICTURES THAT I TOOK THIS MORNING AND I ALSO TOOK YESTERDAY JUST TO PROVE THAT THAT HAS NOT BEEN DONE.

I ALSO SENT PICTURES OF THE WAY THAT THEY PUT THE STREETS TO CONNECT TO OTHER BUSINESSES are being blocked by the construction workers' cars, and it's just impossible for some clients to get to the places, to all the businesses in one of the areas. I document all this on the email that I sent for you guys to review later.

We also want to formally thank you, thank the city for the economic support of the $1.5 million. dollars. Although this will start the relief of some of the financial strain, it's not sufficient considering the losses that have been experienced since the construction began. With this being said, I also took the time to send a proposal to change the guidelines because I've been receiving a lot of feedback of the current guidelines right now, and it's not enough what people are qualifying for the money at the moment. So I would like for you to consider

the new amended guidelines that I also sent to you this afternoon. So what else I have right here? Okay, so I just want to lastly said the purpose of this streetcar was to attract more customers to downtown Santa Ana so we can share our culture, art, and services. However, the construction has been doing the complete opposite. It's killing our business. There will be nothing left after this project is completed. Please, we need your help. Thank you.

Thank you. Ana Ana was our last in-person speaker and it's hard to distinguish who online or virtually is is wanting to address us on this. So I think what I'll do we'll go ahead and reserve those comments for the public comment section and I'll bring it back to council to see if there's any additional questions or comments they may have of our staff of economic development or of OCTA staff that's here and present. We certainly appreciate Jim, Ross, and Teresa being here and listening to those public comments as you did the comments yesterday that were made at the OCTA meeting.

So let me go ahead and bring it back to the council to see if there are any comments or questions that they have.

Go ahead, Mayor Proton.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. Well, I wanted to thank everybody for coming out again, those of you in downtown for coming to the Council. I also want to thank OCTA staff for providing this update on what is a very important but yet very impactful project. Last meeting, though, I asked, has OCTA secured the construction signs in the construction zone? You know, the ones that are going through some of the downtown businesses' windows. And I don't need you to answer. I know what the answer is. It's no. And you know, it's one thing if you didn't want to do it, but our staff received an email in which you guys were going to tell me

Phil BacerraItem 4

that they were already done and that I needed to learn that they were done, right? Wasn't that what the email said? Or something to that effect. I'm probably lightening it up just a little bit. But if staff would show two pictures that I did send to our staff to send to OCTA, in which I got the somewhat pleasant reply from. Can we put them up? Okay, so these are two pictures that I took personally in downtown. So let's just start with the one on the left. Does that look secure? I mean, I'm the first one to accept if I'm wrong. Is that sign secured? So does it look like a sign that, you know, at night when the

Phil BacerraItem 4

security guards are not there, it could go through a business window?

Phil BacerraItem 4

How about the one on the right? Now, there is a sign next to, and let me be clear, not attached to the barricade. And for OCTA staff, yes, I do know what a barricade is. Okay? Now, the sign to the left of that, though, on the picture on the right, is that sign secure?

Phil BacerraItem 4

OCTA staff felt the need, not the ones here, but other ones felt the need to tell me that I need to learn what the difference was between a barricade and a sign. I don't know. Do you guys seem to see it? I seem to see a loose sign that at night could go through a barricade, or I'm sorry, go through a window. So I would really appreciate, in fact, more so I think our businesses would appreciate if we could secure those signs. We've asked it multiple times, you've heard multiple speakers ask for it, please secure the signs. Okay. Speaking of construction sites, NOVA Academy over there on San Ana Boulevard and right near,

Phil BacerraItem 4

I'm sorry, on Ross near San Ana Boulevard and Sasser Park, they've asked OCTA staff to limit the impacts that the project staging areas are having over on their facilities. Okay. They came here last meeting asking for help. I just received an email from them this morning indicating that the staging area near their school, this is where kids are going to school every morning, every day, and they're encountering a site that's not secured. They see a bunch of homeless debris back there. They see, fortunately, a lot of things I don't want to mention here in

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public, but I think you get the picture of what they're unfortunately having to witness and experience. It's not right. It's not right for any child to witness that, and it wouldn't happen if that site was secured. So, you know, I attended a meeting recently with OCTA staff, and I want to thank you OCTA staff for attending with some of the downtown business owners. And there seemed to be confusion about the ask for security. So let me be clear. I don't think in any way, shape, or form we as a city want to abdicate or relinquish our obligation to provide a safe environment through our police department. But what we're asking from

Phil BacerraItem 4

OCTA, it's a simple ask. It's more eyes on the streets. I mean, you heard one business owner say that she looked down the street and saw one person, and I'll bet you she saw that during the day. So imagine at night when nobody is there, and those signs that you guys say are secured, guess where they end up? Okay? We need to see more from you guys when it comes to just fulfilling that obligation on security. I go down there, I don't see the security guards. Nobody here would be here if they did, if they saw those guards there. So there's definitely a disconnect here on that.

Phil BacerraItem 4

So yeah, so security. And then finally, on March 2nd, as it's already been talked about, and I want to thank Mark Morley and his team for what they did to turn around with the City Council approving the financial assistance through the Downtown Business Interruption Fund. And everybody that spoke tonight is absolutely correct. It's not enough. It's not enough.

Phil BacerraItem 4

It pains me that we can't provide more, but what really, really frustrates me more is when I hear OCTA staff tell us that they can't provide more because the federal dollars can't be allocated toward direct business assistance. And they may be absolutely correct, but I don't believe that this project is 100% funded with federal dollars. In fact, one of your slides up here indicated, what was it, $165 million in Measure M money.

Phil BacerraItem 4

$165 million. I mean, we doled out 1.5. I wish we could dole out more. Honestly, these folks need it. This is, I mean, a double whammy. They got hit with COVID, and now this construction, I would hope that there could be more collaboration and direct assistance for these folks. Downtown is strong and downtown is thriving, except for when it gets hit with things like a pandemic and massive infrastructure construction. Downtown will survive. Downtown will thrive when the streetcar is running, but it needs help to get there. And I'm looking at OCTA and saying, please help us help them. Okay? We've stepped forward. We put 1.5 million

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together, our staff has jumped to the task, has processed applications to get money into their hands, but I mean 1.5 million scattered among hundreds of businesses downtown, it's not enough. We need your help. So I would just ask you guys, you know, you are listening, now please start responding to what you're hearing. Thank you.

Let me bring it back to other questions. I know there's Council Member Hernandez. I just want to remind everybody, let's all abide by our three-minute rule that we require our residents to also abide by. Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento, and thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, for your comments. I fully concur. There are a number of concerns. the concern with the fencing, I would like to see Okta come back to us and actually commit to having fencing installed at the construction sites. Barriers aren't very attractive. They're still very risky. Two residents have fallen. You are not only placing your organization at risk of lawsuits, but you're placing our community at risk of their safety and their health. and with that being said that's also you know there's children a lot of these

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

business owners have children their children spend their time after school at their businesses so I'd like to see much better fencing especially with the budget that you that you all have and I see that 203.8 million and measure M2 monies December 2021 I'm sure there's opportunity for you all to to have much better fencing at these construction sites and on these fencings I would also like to see banners of the businesses that are on the opposite sides of the of the fences so as it pertains to the side of 4th Street if I'm looking at at the fencing rather than that barrier I think that barrier looks really cheap it

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doesn't look like you guys are taking this really seriously when you just install those cheap barriers that we can easily pull apart if we had fencing we can install banners posters that that are reflective of the businesses that are surrounding. I do need to emphasize we need these signs to be secured. Whether that be with zip ties, they need to be secured. It's absolutely unacceptable that Charlie's Tattoos and American Barbershop have had their businesses vandalized where people have thrown those signs through the windows. That's costing these business owners money and it's costing the city

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resources for having to respond to this crime. So, Okta, you need to do your due diligence and secure these signs. There should be no reason why at the next meeting we continue to have the same issues and complaints. And recently our City Council took the step forward to introduce $1.5 million in funding and And that's the right thing to do. It's not enough. And I'm asking Okta, I want to see you guys match that money. I want to see you guys match that $1.5 million. I think that it's only indicative of other cities that potentially would look at a streetcar,

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would probably refuse to do work with you if you don't take care of these businesses. I would encourage any other business, any other city that is looking at a streetcar, if Okta does not get this right, do not do business with them. You guys have a duty and a responsibility to right this wrong. We at the City of Santa Ana Introduced 1.5 million. I'm asking you today If that's something that you guys can do is there somebody here that can respond to that

Good evening, Mayor Sarmento. Thank you, sir. Your name, please. I'm Jim Beal from the Executive Director of Capital Programs. Thank you, sir. The request you made is a discussion, as you probably heard, that was discussed yesterday at the OCTA board meeting with our board of directors. And staff is looking at the parameters that was requested to come back and report to the board of what we can do. So that's really all I can respond to at this time. But it is being looked into, as brought up by Mayor Sarmiento and a few other of our board of directors. and we'll keep you informed on how that goes.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Thank you. Can you give the residents and the businesses a timeline of when they can expect a response on whether or not Okta will be able to move forward with a potential 1.5 million matching the cities?

We would have to bring that information back to our board, and it's really a decision that would have to be made by our board.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Okay. That's important to all of the businesses here. If Okta does not do their job, Unfortunately, the Santa Ana City Council will have to carry that burden once again to make sure that these businesses have the support and the financial support that they need to make sure that they don't have to close their businesses down and that they're able to keep their homes and whatever their living situation looks like. This is a dire situation that requires immediate attention, and I hope to hear response promptly from you guys over at Okta. Understood, Councilman. Thank you, sir.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

And lastly, some of the merchants today said that they had concerns about the business interruption funding that the city introduced and that they wanted to see the guidelines change. I just want to let you know, I am always willing to meet our businesses where they're at here. And if you guys are looking to have some of these guidelines changed, please email me at my office. I would be open to supporting that as well. Thank you.

Thank you.

You call on Councilmember Phan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you to all the business owners who showed up today. A lot of you might not know, but my stepdad owned a small business. And I'm very emotional listening to you because, you know, his small business was destroyed in a flood. and I know the kind of dedication it takes to go to work every day and to think about it 24 hours a day. It's your livelihood, it's your child, it's your hopes, your dreams, especially when you come from an immigrant community. And so I saw that. I saw that from my dad and so I feel for you. A

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couple things just maybe to address staff or OCTA and just a few ideas I've not spoken to you today. Well, first I want to mention I was down by Hopper and Burr on Sycamore and Fourth last Monday and actually took some videos. Mayor Potem had photos, that's great, and I, you know, there's probably five people the entire two blocks out on the street, and it was a ghost town. It was really sad because I remember coming down there, and it's just such a vibrant space to be at all hours of the day, right? People getting out of work from the county,

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

from the courts, all of that, and they're really going there to grab a bite to eat and things like that. And there's a couple things. One, to OCTA. The, and this is, you know, the fencing has been addressed, but a couple things I am actually really concerned about is that temporary bridge that goes over Fourth Street. I was taking some photos of it. There's kind of nails, construction nails all over the place. It's not very sturdy, the bridge itself. So I definitely want us to look into that. I've mentioned before my mom uses a wheelchair, and as we

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have a lot of customers who are ‑‑ they need ADA accessible travel, and it's not a very safe area for folks to be able to go if they make it down to downtown. The other thing I also wanted to mention is that it was about 4 o'clock, 4.15, and there was nobody working. And I understand that there's some conversation, at least based on the LA Times, that OCTA is having with Walsh to potentially extend the working hours, and I really hope that this lawsuit that they sued is not going to slow down construction. It is extremely concerning on our end to hear that there's this big lawsuit.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

And if that goes forward and no work is happening, I really hope that our representative Mayor Sarmiento and you can come back and let us know what's going on because now we're not just looking at six months, seven months, but we're potentially looking at something indefinite. and that really scares me. The last thing I wanted to address, and I don't know if it's OCTA or staff, but we did hear several of our small business owners mention that, you know, rent is still due, electric bill is still due, water is still due. What are some things, aside from direct financial assistance, that we can do as a city?

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Can we waive water fees for a while? have we spoken to SCE to see what we can do in partnership with them have we talked to some of the property owners I know that chases have been willing to work with the city before I don't actually know they own any of the buildings I'm just throwing a name out there to see what they're willing to do to assist these small businesses because many of you are long-term tenants and as we know you know property owners don't want to lose long-term tenants and And they're hard to replace. So I would like for both OCTA and staff to work with our small businesses and some of

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those agencies to see what we can do to assist our small businesses, even if it's not direct financial assistance at this point. I'd also like to hear, I know you're going to have an update regarding the direct assistance from OCTA or what you can do. So I look forward to that at the next meeting. Thank you.

Any other comments from members of the council on this item? Councilmember Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento.

Jessie LopezItem 4

You know, some of the things that we're asking for today are some of the things that we asked from OCTA a month ago. So it's really unacceptable that an organization, an agency as large as OCTA is, to me, unwilling to be a good community partner in the city. and you know some of the requests are really basic like clean and safe work environments signage we're talking about signage we're continuing to talk about signage and you know the nighttime construction the security and for staff

Jessie LopezItem 4

I want staff to understand where I'm at we need to work with OCTA we need to demand that OCTA remove the staging area away from Nova Academy that site is unacceptable it is inappropriate the way the conditions that it is currently in and I do not have any faith in OCTA to manage it so when they come back staff needs to let me know that they are at that site is no longer a staging site for OCTA also with the lawsuits I think it would be I think it's more than

Jessie LopezItem 4

acceptable for if staff is able to or in partnership with the OCTA if they're able to provide some sort of community update from time to time you know I found out about it online and I had a lot of questions like is that going to hall construction is that going to push the 2024 deadline further back so I think like most people I just want to know what's going on with the lawsuit and what does that mean for the construction happening in Santa Ana now I mean maybe those are questions that we that staff can address tonight I'm not

sure Christine I would defer to OCTA and returns to the litigation that's not something that we're a party to so I wouldn't have access or be able to push that information on that.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Okay. So is OCTA willing or can OCTA know?

Through the mayor, this is Jim Beal, Executive Director of Capital Programs. We have no comment on ongoing litigation. We were just served with that like yesterday.

Jessie LopezItem 4

Okay. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 4

I also think it would be a really good idea for staff to compile a list of the businesses that have shown up here today. I heard some people say that, for example, some of the hairdressers, they have no clients, and maybe we can spotlight them, share their information on social media, and hopefully that they can gain some business from there. I think it's just good for us to keep them, have some sort of hub where we have their information. If anything were to change, we can do some outreach via email or whatnot. So those are my comments. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for those comments. Any other members of the comment? Councilmember Mendoza.

In addition to what my colleagues have mentioned, I think we could help the businesses by what Councilmember Lopez briefly touched on, is helping the businesses in building their websites and and have a social media push out there so that the customers come back because they may not realize that because the construction was as it was and the obstruction and because for the past two years many businesses had to alter their business hours. And so if they come, it's hit and miss.

Maybe the business is not open and it's due to COVID. It's due to the construction. So there's a lot of factors that have caused our businesses to lose some of their profits. But I think one way that we can help them is by maybe having our IT department or somebody go out to the businesses and help them in promoting on social media platforms and also put it on our city website and our newsletter that the businesses are open and we just need to have some clarity from the businesses. If you're going to open, what are the hours?

Do you have any incentives for your customers to come back? You know, discounts so that you can start drawing them back because, you know, When we give things away, people will be there. So you open up your doors and you have some incentives, I think, in addition to what OCTA and the city is doing in collaboration to remedy the situation. I think we also need to bring that social media aspect into getting our businesses to thrive again. And let's not see it as something that is against one another, but we're a community.

Santa Ana, OCTA, the businesses, the residents, the customers, we are all one and we all need to work together. Let's not point fingers, let's work together and I think in that form I think we could be more productive. Thank you. Any other

comments or questions? Councilmember Pinalosa. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to

I agree with every one of my colleagues. And anything else, watch the last two meetings. Thank you.

Thank you for those comments. I love those. If somebody will please start the clock on me because I want to make sure I'm brief.

I've already said a lot, I think, on Monday. So I want to thank our staff. I want to thank OCTA staff for being here. And I mostly want to thank the merchants who came here. I don't think any of us could do any better a job or make any more compelling an argument than what was articulated here tonight by the merchants. I think they told their story well. They told their story accurately and compellingly. So I'm going to direct my questions, as I did yesterday, to OCTA staff. I'm going to direct my questions to our staff and comments that I think we might be able to help with.

One of the things I think that we can do is use more of our marketing tools that we used well. I remember we did a campaign when COVID was spiking. We did it with the school district. We did it with the college district. We did it with Latino Health Access, and we put things up on our digital reader boards. We had signs. We had a whole campaign. Maybe we could do something jointly with OCTA to make sure that we get the information out, that our downtown is still open. That's one. Number two, I know that they have a marketing effort called Eat, Shop, and Play in downtown.

That's something that if we combined our resources with their resources and we did this marketing tool well, because we know how to reach our community. I think for OCTA, it's not that they're not trying. I think they're not as familiar with it as we are. So I think we could do a combined effort on that. Number three, I think something that I mentioned yesterday at the OCTA meeting were the waist-high barricades and fences. And so this is more directed to our public works director to see if he can work with OCTA staff to see if we can increase the height of those and either put a mesh or make it solid.

Because what I heard from the merchants yesterday who spoke to OCTA or at the OCTA meeting was that the dust and the noise was really, really difficult for them to continue doing business, conducting their business. And I know a lot of bridal shops have their merchandise outside. It's white or light colored and the dust just really damages their goods. So that was something else. You know, the other thing is I would direct our staff to have an item before the legislative subcommittee of this city council to talk about whether or not we can

address the Federal Transportation Authority to see if there are any monies in the infrastructure bill that might be able to help with merchants that are undergoing these interruptions. We know there's infrastructure occurring throughout the country. There have to be impacts to other businesses that are going through similar experiences. And so it's up to us to see how we can get our federal advocates to see how they can either find some funding for us and things that we can translate into funding and support for our merchants here. The last thing I would say to

my colleagues is that, you know, it's great to talk about all the things that, you know, are going bad. We're just repeating what the merchants have said. And, you know, my family has had a downtown business and does have a downtown business. So I am extremely familiar with what people are living through. But we will have an item on the later on in this agenda called the early direction for spending on upcoming in the upcoming fiscal year. Let's put our money where our mouth is if we really seriously feel like we need to help businesses. So those are my comments. And with that, thank you,

everybody. So I'm going to take something out of order in staff presentations. I know that we have something from Travel Santa Ana and I guess we'll have our representative do that and kind of jump ahead of the other two because those the other two are done

internally. Thank you so much Mayor and tonight you have the president of Travel Santa Ana, Wendy Haase, who is going to do her first ever report to the City

Council. Good evening my name is Wendy Haase, I'm the president of Travel Santa Ana and I thank you for the opportunity to present. Travel Santa Ana is a 501c6. It is the official destination marketing organization for Santa Ana. Prior to January 1st, 2021, Santa Ana was the only major city in Orange County that did that did not have its own destination marketing organization. But thanks to several business leaders who are now members of the Travel Santa Ana board who worked with the Santa Ana hoteliers to add a 2% assessment to their hotels

and created the Santa Ana Tourism Marketing District to fund Travel Santa Ana. The organization was born on January 1st, 2021. There are 17 hotels and motels that fund the organization, all within the Santa Ana boundaries. The Travel The Travel Santa Ana board is comprised of 11 volunteers, six of those representatives of the Santa Ana hotels and motels, along with representatives from the city of Santa Ana, Mark Morley, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, along with members of the tourism community. I am currently the only staff person.

I was hired as of August 2021.

The Travel Santa Ana budget potential would be $1.67 million based off of pre-COVID hotel revenue. This is being projected based off of historic reports from STAR, which are Smith's travel research reports from the past 10 years. As you can see, 2019, those hotels generated $83,852,673, which if you added a 2% assessment to that, that's where you get the 1.67. Actual for the revenue that was generated in 2021 was $749,779.

This is primarily due to the new organization and COVID restrictions limiting visitors at our hotels. PROJECTED FOR 2022, WE'RE LOOKING AT 1.2 BASED OFF OF THE RECOVERY OF THE HOTELS AND WHAT THE INDUSTRY IS SAYING ABOUT 30% LESS THAN PRE-PANDEMIC. ACCORDING TO THE TOURISM MARKETING DISTRICT PLAN, THE ALLOCATION OF THE REVENUE IS BASED OFF OF THESE PERCENTAGES. AND SOME HIGHLIGHTS, So the highlights are based off of August through December when there was a staff person with Travel Santa Ana.

When I first started, we were still in the midst of a pandemic and traditionally leisure travel drops off after Labor Day when children go back to school. And last summer, leisure travel was really driving the revenue at all of the hotels. So we look to an opportunity to take advantage of a Visit California co-op campaign via Expedia that we started in September. This campaign will run through June of 2022. And as of February, it resulted in 11,440 room nights at our hotels worth over $1.5 million in hotel revenue.

So that's approximately a 17 to 1 investment. We also launched TravelSantaAnna.com, which is a splash page, aka a temporary website, until we have a brand and an identity, but it gives us a presence on the internet. We have a stay, eat, play, and getting here section. The stay highlights all 17 hotels that contribute to the TMD, and also highlights those that have meeting space to attract groups. The getting here, we have added the information about parking structures and the OC streetcar construction to make sure that visitors also know where to park. Under play we

have events where we curate all the events going on throughout the city that are public. Arts and culture and an LGBTQ page in anticipation of the Pride parade returning in June. We recognize that our hoteliers are our main ambassadors. We want them to be aware of all the fantastic things going on throughout the city. And so we partnered with Santa Ana Downtown Inc. and Santa Ana Business Council to create the first walking tour with our hoteliers. The hotel, the walking tour highlighted event venues, restaurants, art galleries, and it

was an opportunity to really show the hoteliers who are not always familiar with the city that they're promoting what there is to going on, what's going on. We anticipate this to be a quarterly event where we highlight different aspects of the city with our tourism partners. In keeping with that and making sure our hotel community is engaged, we distributed table tents to all of the hotels for their front desk that has a QR code linked to TravelSantaAnna.com so the visitors know what's going on within the city. We created a monthly email highlighting all the upcoming events taking place throughout the city.

This is not only distributed to the hoteliers, but it has also started curating some visitors requesting this information. And then in conjunction with Dia de los Muertos, we've created messaging to the hoteliers and delivered holiday themed gifts to them to make them aware of the event taking place in the community.

Right now as we are building our brand, the only social media channel that we communicate through is LinkedIn and we promote a lot of the activities going on from restaurants, Taco Tuesday, and events taking place. You can see engagement from when we launched the LinkedIn page for Travel Santa Ana. And looking ahead for 2022, we have created a three-year strategic plan that includes a vision, mission, values. Some of the highlights of that strategic goal is to create a brand for Santa Ana that's not only embraced by the

Destination Marketing Organization but by the city tourism partners and business community as well. We will be hiring a director of sales to help support the efforts of the 17 hoteliers and to bring in group business keeping those events that are held here in Santa Ana's visitors and vendors and participants in Santa Ana. And we will also be identifying key markets and putting together a strategic print and digital campaign. For 2022 sales and marketing, as I mentioned, we'll be hiring a director of sales who will be targeting trade

shows specific to the niche audiences that will come to Santa Ana for corporate and business travel. They will take part in visit California roadshows and we will have presence on Cvent which is the largest platform to receive RFPs in-person meetings and business travel and corporate travel is really what drives the Santa Ana hotels business and that was decimated by COVID so by having a support person to help them to look to new opportunities to work with the event venues where the quinceneras and the weddings, those attendees are staying in Santa Ana hotels.

And like I said, with the events happening in the area, making sure that they're staying in the Santa Ana hotels as well.

Currently, we've positioned ourselves on Metrolink. We are a partner with the Transportation Hub. So we have a presence on there. We also have an Add and Visit Anaheim's Destination Guide. And like I said, we have the Expedia campaign going on right now as a Visit California co-op. Once that ends, we will have an independent Santa Ana campaign, and we will also be participating in OC co-op campaigns. We will have a presence on TripAdvisor, and we will have a pay-per-click campaign in conjunction with our website. We will take advantage of Visit California opportunities, and we will be promoting the

destination and the meeting spaces in various meetings trade opportunities. Marketing after After we hire a director of sales, we'll be looking to hire a content and community engagement manager. We will have an official website, social channels, a visitor's guide by the end of the year, video content which we started curating with Boca de Oro this past weekend. We will be having video content highlighting all of the events, annual events throughout the year. We will also be conducting our first photo shoot at the beginning of April where we are looking for community volunteers to be a part of that photo shoot and we will be

hosting our first travel writer at the end of this month her and her family will be experiencing Santa Ana along with a couple of other destinations in Orange County and we've partnered with Taco Tuesday which is an extension of Orange County Restaurant Week to highlight about five to seven restaurants in Santa Ana and we have also budgeted for and are looking to explore potential opportunities for cannabis tourism in Santa Ana as well.

The research that Travel Santa Ana will curate from a tourism economic impact report, which will be available at the end of April, beginning of May, which we hope to highlight during National Tourism Week, will be valuable because it will show the importance of tourism to the local economy from the number of people employed in the industry to how it impacts local and state taxes. We have monthly visitor intelligence that can also be utilized by the events looking to write grants and the economic development for future potential tourism product built. And then the monthly Smith travel

research reports which are STAR for short. These are monthly reports that show how valuable it's vital information that's on the 17 hotels, their occupancy, average daily rate, and what the revenue that they generate to the local economy. So I want to say thank you to the community for welcoming me and Travel Santa Ana. I am excited and appreciate the opportunity to work with civic leaders, police, and tourism partners to elevate Santa Ana as the authentic and welcoming destination in Orange County. Tourism really is a key

to revitalizing Santa Ana's local economy, and I look forward to being a part of that and to contributing to that. I'll take any questions if you have them.

Great. Thank you for that presentation. Thank you for sharing that with us. Let me bring it back to the council to see if there's any questions or comments, and I'll start with Councilmember Phan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much for that presentation. I am really appreciative of a lot of that information, and there's a couple comments I wanted to make. I know I understand the map is or the website is kind of a placeholder. I really like that you mentioned cannabis because that was my first comment. There's nothing on this website that talks about a cannabis tour, a walking tour of cannabis, or any of those experiences, and that has to be, you know, top three. I've told staff and I've told others, you know, Santa Ana to me is known for culture, cannabis, and history, right?

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

art history and cannabis and those are the things we really need to I think highlight and emphasize so that's one the other issue I wanted to bring up is regard the eats portion and I grew up on the west side so it's where a lot of the Vietnamese restaurants are and a couple of the restaurants that I know are just institutions in the Vietnamese American community our favorite and Jill Joe restaurant, they're not on the list. And so I'd love for you to reach out to them and see if they'd be interested in participating. The other is, in looking at the list of restaurants here,

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

it mentions Asian, except there are a lot of countries in Asia. And so I'd like to see it say Asian slash Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, any of those kind of countries of origin. because when you think about the food, it is different. So I would like to see that. Finally, the other thing as you work on the new website is for the points of interest map. As a millennial, these kinds of things, I expect them all to link to whatever points of interest we have and make sure that it's in the high quality. I have a 4K laptop.

Thai Viet PhanItem 4

I expect everything to be able to display on 4K. And so because some of the images are lower res, it just looks it looks like you're looking at a website from 15 years ago And so I think it's really important that anything we put on is high resolution Link clickable and that way folks don't have to google it Separately when they're looking at their website, but other than that. Thank you so much for your work I'm really excited to see what else you can do. Okay. Can I respond? Yeah, okay

So in regards to cannabis tourism I have attended numerous, I'm a part of the Cal Travel Cannabis Tourism Committee. I have attended numerous cannabis virtual conferences. There's a careful way of going about that versus just putting up a list of cannabis stores. So, once Travel Santa Ana has a brand, we'll be looking at how to best position cannabis is tourism within the community and what works for Santa Ana versus what works for, you know, there's a number of different destinations within West Hollywood and Northern California

that have different offerings. So we'll be looking at how to best position that for what works for the community, for the city. In regards to the restaurants, I apologize for missing anyone's favorites, but I personally curated that list simply by Googling, and And it's an Excel document. And as I mentioned, this is a splash page, so it doesn't have the background depth. So it's literally an Excel document that's copied and pasted into a website. Once we have an actual built-in website, we will have a back end. There's no cost for the restaurants or shops that are tourism related to participate.

And we will have that content community manager managing that and adding those restaurants and giving more depth descriptions to them, pictures to them. This was just a placeholder to have a presence. So if you have any suggestions, you can email me at wendy.travelsantana.com, and I'd be happy to add your favorite restaurants to the list. And the last one was, again, the JPEG and the points of interest map. Again, very elementary because it is a splash page, not an in-depth website, and once that website is launched later this year, there will be a point of interest map

where a visitor who is staying at the Doubletree can call up what is around them. They will have access. They will pull up the listing and the images and the distance. It will be much more robust and engaging.

Thank you for that. Council Member Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. Thank you for such a great presentation, and it was really heartbreaking to see how much revenue we've lost with with the pandemic we're still very much in the midst of it I echo comments similar to councilmember fan I do think it would be beneficial to highlight cannabis we were the first city in Orange County to do it there's a lot of good actors in the city as well so I think it'd be beneficial for us to include that number two is it pertains to eat very similar comments to councilmember fan I'd like us to to specify much much more in depth

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

than just Asian and specifically when it comes to Mexican food we're very much a hub in Orange County when you want authentic Mexican food I mean it's like Mexico down here and also a fun fact Santa Ana has the oldest Mexican restaurant in Orange County starting on as to mala factory which is in Ward 5 It's been there since 1938. So that business isn't on there. We definitely need to include Sarananas Tamala Factory. I'm looking at your site right now.

Oh, okay. That sounds familiar, so I apologize. Is it that's what I'll ever say? So I have big plans for the whole taco scene. Because if you also look, 25 of the 50 best places to get tacos in Orange County were in Santa Ana. So there's a drop down of best tacos in OC. That's partly why we partnered with the Tacotuesday.com. I envision a taco trail having a full scale of more in-depth information about the tacos. We love to hear it. I actually want to know how we can get Taco Capital of Orange County or even Southern California,

how we go about establishing that without just saying it but having the backup for it.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Absolutely. I'm happy to see the little onion on there as well. It's celebrated 50 years recently. I don't see Avila's on here as well. Avila's has been a restaurant right off of First Street in Tustin. It's been here for a very long time. And lastly, the arts and culture picture, now that you've broken down that the website is not complete, the picture's antiquated. The statue's no longer there.

Okay.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

So that's my final comment. Thank you so much.

I will take that down and replace that one. That's an easy fix.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 4

Perfect, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Mendoza.

Thank you for that wonderful presentation. I missed where the hotels were located. I'm wondering if outreach was made to the surrounding hotels to try and draw some of the tourism from Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm. So are these hotels also participating from the cities, from Winter Park, from Anaheim, Orange?

No, those hotels in other cities pay into their own DMOs. So Travel Santa Ana is funded by 17 hotels and motels within the Santa Ana boundaries.

I see. One more question. I see at the airport that there's a lot of brochures of the different attractions in the area. So would it be possible to have one of ours there at the John Wayne? I mean, that's a lot of tourists coming in on a daily basis.

Absolutely. You're jumping ahead to all things planned. So I spent 11 years with Destination Irvine prior to coming to Santa Ana, and we had a presence at John Wayne Airport at the other hotels throughout Orange County with a visitor guide, points of interest map. So as soon as we have our official brand, we will be producing all of that collateral and having it distributed through Visit California Visitor Centers at John Wayne Airport. We will have a presence. It's just a matter of Getting that brand which should be finalized by the end of May early June. Good work. Thank you. Thank you

Any other comments from the council? Mayor Pro Tem.

Phil BacerraItem 4

Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you. Just great presentation. Thank you for that. And to echo Councilmember Hernandez's comments about Sarianas, that's a very special place, not only because it is the oldest Mexican restaurant in all of Orange County, but it's also where my grandfather bought his first house just a couple doors down. The houses are no longer there anymore, but it's very sentimental for me. But I know that this is a progress report, so I appreciate that you're taking in the feedback from the Council and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come back with. Thank you.

Thank you. Great. Thank you. I think those were all the comments from members of the Council. I'll simply just say thank you for the presentation. I appreciate you coming to us and updating us. You know, I don't want to one-up anybody. So Santa Ana is probably home to the, is probably the only city with two Bolivian restaurants and there's only three in the state. So, you know, so, all right.

But, you know, I think we could go on and on with all our favorite places to eat and how significant and historic they are. The only thing I would leave you with is I really appreciate the fact that you're not trying to brand us as something we're not. And that's really, really important. I remember years back, I've been on this council for about 15 years. We, you know, tried to be labeled as a South County city. How can we be something else and something that we're not? We have so much authenticity, as you heard from our own business merchants here, that you can't find a community like Santa Ana anywhere in the county.

And I challenge almost anywhere in Southern California. It is very unique, and that uniqueness is going to make your job to sell us to people who travel and want to see a very unique place here in the area. Fairly simple. We don't have a coastline. We don't have mountain ranges. But we have a community that really has something genuine to offer. So hopefully that'll be an asset rather than a detriment, as some folks saw it before. I see it as there is no other genuine downtown in the county. And so that's something that we want to make sure we sell as well.

The destination is truly authentic and unique. And the community's passion and pride in this city is evident. And I said from the very beginning, it's not, I don't have to create anything. It's already here. We just have to tell the story.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Let me bring it back to staff because we have a couple more.

And let me turn it over to the city manager for her COVID-19 update.

So I do have an option for you, Mayor. Since our region has been the COVID-19 outcomes continue to improve, what I was going to talk about tonight with some of our revived Santa Ana programs. Nothing time sensitive in light of it approaching the 8 o'clock hour. We can certainly shelf this one should you desire.

Let's do that. Why don't we, because I think we have some, you know, some robust discussions coming up. Do we still want to go forward on the AQMD update?

I would defer to Mayor Pro Tem because that item was a request of his.

You want to hear? Yes, please. Okay. Is that for Director of Solidarity?

Yes, it is. So Executive Director of Public Works has a short presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council. I have an update for you on the South Coast Air Quality Management District funding update.

AB 2766, motor vehicle subvision program or subsidy program. In 1990, Assembly Bill 2766 was adopted by the state of California. This legislation authorized a $4 per vehicle surcharge on annual vehicle registration fees.

40 cents of every dollar is distributed to the AQMD for distribution to local government to promote air pollution initiatives to clean air. Next, please. AB, the funds are used by three different agencies within the city of Santana. Human Resources utilizes the funds for employee commuter reduction programs.

ride share programs, employee educational and promotional program costs, annual vehicle ridership surveys, and bus use and alternative fuel zero emission vehicle use incentives. The planning and building utilizes the funds for general plan land use element updates to promote smart growth and transit-oriented development to reduce vehicle trips. Also the funds is used for general plan circulation element updates furthering active transportation

and it's also used for CEQA air quality and greenhouse gas studies. The Public Works Agency utilizes the funds for transportation improvements, alternative fuel vehicle purchases, and conversions in addition to the development and the construction of alternative fuel infrastructure for vehicles. Next, please. The fund, as received from the AQMD, ranged from about half a million to $0.3 million over the five years, past five years. As you can see, half a million was received last year. Next, please.

In the 21-22 budget, 1.7 million was budgeted out of that fund. 1.1 was for the Public Works Agency, 174,000 for human resources, Planning and building received $356 for that year, or for this year, actually. Next, please. The budget versus actual. As you can see, we budgeted about $1 million for the public works agency, $300,000 for

planning and building, $145,000 for human resources. The spending was not as much, and that's due to the pandemic. We were not able to spend that much. Public Works Agency, next please.

Public Works Agency has a commitment for the funds right now to build our renewed CNG fueling station. It is in design right now, and there's about a million dollars committed to that project. We are also earmarking about $150,000 for the EV charging stations. For future projects, we have plans to purchase more electric vehicles, the construction of more charging stations, and the use of alternative fuel vehicles for the purchases and the retrofits so we can phase out the diesel equipment that we have.

Next, please. Bus Pass Subsidy Program. Council proposed a 30% subsidy for the purchase of a regular 30-day pass by Sanana residents to encourage new riders. Based on the annual ridership over the last three years, the cost for the subsidy ranges from or between half a million to about a million dollars a year. The cost is an estimate from OCTA, and it's based on...

Well, the cost is an estimate from OCTA, and OCTA really does not track customer addresses, and is based on a number of unique regular 30-day pass riders traveling through Sanana per year, some of which may or may not be from Sanana. Next, please. The bus pass subsidy program, as it continues, passes can be purchased online through the OCBus mobile app and at various locations throughout the county, including check cashing places and

grocery stores. Retailers do not collect customer personal information and OCTA does not track customer addresses. Because of this, OCTA has indicated that the agency would not be able to or do not have the ability to administer a subsidy program on behalf of the city. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you, Director Saba. Let me go ahead and

bring it back to the Council to see if there's any questions or comments. Mayor Pro Tem.

Phil BacerraItem 7

Thank you, Mayor. Director Saba, thank you for researching this item. I recognize that we don't have an unlimited amount of the AB 2766 funds allocated to our city. But what I'd like to suggest is that the city sell a limited supply of those 30-day regular monthly passes to individuals from Santa Ana that come to our City Hall that can provide proof of the residency at that 30% discount that's subsidized through those funds that are available to the city. So, again, recognizing that it's not going to be something that everybody's going to be able to take advantage of because we

Phil BacerraItem 7

will have a limited allocation. I'm hopeful that, you know, well the other thing I was gonna say is that there's no way you're gonna be able to determine who are first-time bus riders. It's just virtually impossible. So, but I appreciate your research on this and I'm hopeful that this is something we can implement for the next fiscal year. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments

or questions? Councilmember Lopez. Thank you, Maristomberto. Staff, when this was

Jessie LopezItem 7

first brought up last year I had a series of questions you know those were

addressed in the PowerPoint I don't remember the questions I'm sorry

certainly we can attempt to answer them tonight it the item has been back a couple of different times so I'm not sure I'm even aware of which questions

Jessie LopezItem 7

you're referring to I would have to go back and check I don't remember what I asked at the time, but it was about if we're not able to do something like this, can any of the 2766 funds, AB 2766 funds, be used to incentivize folks to buy, you know, electric vehicles or anything like that?

So typically, as Nabil stated, for the three departments that receive it, it is more internally focused for programs such as CNG fueling stations or commuter passes for our current employee population. That doesn't mean you couldn't use those outwardly. We would just the amount of funds we receive is fairly limited and as the bill mentioned most of them are already encumbered for current projects So mayor part mayor pro temp, but Sarah's idea about doing it as part of the budget is the way that it would have to be due If you want to shift those funds for anything else

We would have to identify the cost that would be associated with it For example if you wanted us to become a ticket seller for bus passes we would have to have staff, would have to have a counter, would have to have hours, would have to front inventory of those tickets. For your idea, it would be a similar backbone would be needed to achieve that.

Jessie LopezItem 7

Okay, got it, thank you. And for the bus use and alternative fuel slash zero emission vehicle use incentives, what exactly is that?

Nabil, can you answer that question? Yeah, give me a second.

That's...

Jessie LopezItem 7

It's under HR, not necessarily public works.

Human resources uses these funds to incentivize employees for that. I am not really sure exactly what the, let's see.

Jessie LopezItem 7

I wouldn't expect Director Sal to answer that since it's under HR.

For HR, typical programs would include incentives to commute instead of driving alone. There could be vanpool incentives that are used to decrease the number of individual drivers commuting to and from work.

Jessie LopezItem 7

Okay, so would you say that under bus use maybe some sort of a potential pilot could be

Jessie LopezItem 7

placed under?

For the Human Resources Department to sell to the general public. That wouldn't be the department I would have selling to the general public as they have no outward facing counter or Staffing to do so so if you are interested in seeing that type of a program It would be best to address it through the budget and we would identify What we would need as for the cost to implement doing a program like that. Okay, and do we know because I know

Jessie LopezItem 7

Recently we talked about the pilot that allows young people to ride the bus for free So do you know if this idea is targeted for low-income residents of Sanana? Is it for only seniors? Because I believe OCTA does something along those lines already. So I'm trying to understand what.

Yeah, Council Member Lopez, you're exactly correct. So OCTA is the entity that administers the bus and the bus passes. And they do have the student rides free, which they continued on beyond the pilot. They also have multiple senior mobility programs that they do as well. So this ask was something specific to our city Why staff is struggling and I'm sorry we don't have all the answers for you It's not a line of business that we do as a city. It is a regional Regional process that's administered by OCTA. Okay, thank you, Christine

Thank you seeing no other comments, I'll go ahead and just move it along. Thank you for that presentation. Let me go ahead and now begin with the public comment section of the meeting and we have fewer comments at least in person because we took the other public comments from the merchants in the downtown on item number four out of order. So I'll just remind everybody that this is the time and place for members of the public to address the council on agendized and non-agendized items pursuant to the Brown Act. We cannot enter into any conversation with you pursuant to those comments and if

you please state your name. You don't have to give us your exact address, but let us know if you live in the city, what ward or neighborhood you live in, and you will be given three minutes to speak. And I'll begin with speakers that are here physically present with us. They were updates, so there's nothing to report at a closed session. Is that correct, Madam City Attorney? Great. Thank you. So let me go ahead and begin with our first public speaker here, Alan Wu, followed by Danny Vega, followed by Claire Campo.

Looking sharp, Alan.

Mayor Sarmiento and members of the City Council, it's my pleasure to be here before you today because you represent our diversity in the city, so I think you will understand what I'm going to be talking about today. I'm speaking in advance of a motion that the Honorable Councilman Jonathan Ryan Hernandez and Thai family will be working on and presenting, and we have a meeting set up with the city manager to discuss it further. I am Alan Wu. I am a 35-year-old resident of Santa Ana in the Riverview area, and there's a plaque

outside of the chamber with my name on it that said I was part of an All-American City Award Committee. And I want you to remember that because All-American is what I want to talk about. America encouraged free and open immigration during the 18th and 19th century. And they came to China because America oligarchs needed workers. So they knocked on our door, went out to a valley and had agents say, you know, you sons of China, we need workers to work on the railroads, to work on the mine, and to work in our agricultural businesses. And they promised us a mountain of gold if we came here just to work. And

so we did. But we never got that mountain of gold. After we did our job of connecting this nation from sea to Sinai Sea, they asked us to go home. And sometimes not politely. But we stayed. And when we stayed, we stayed in sundown towns. And what does that mean? Sundown towns are towns where they crafted laws, intimidation, fear and violence, and segregated, discriminated policies. And Santa Ana was one of them. It was a leader in Orange County of that.

Orange was one, Anaheim was one, Costa Mesa was one. And so, Santa Ana's Chinatown, which is what I'm here to talk about, began in the wake of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. And this was a specific federal legislation that was directly targeted at a specific ethnic minority immigrant group. And in 1906, the city of Santa Ana at that time, under the president of their board of trustees, George A. Edgar, and A.C. Tilde of the trustees, and John Cubbon, there's a

screening after him, George L. Wright, and James Sleeper, directly contributed to the xenophobic discrimination and racial violence faced by Chinese immigrants with the support and encouragement of City Attorney Colonel W.F. Heatman and Horace Head, who was the Orange County District Attorney, who was a son of a KKK community leader.

Alan, if you'll start wrapping up here.

I'm sorry. They passed a resolution on May 25, 1906 and directed the city marshal to burn Chinatown, and so it did. So what I'm here today is to talk about what we want. We want to honor the history and contribution of Chinese Americans in Santa Ana's Chinatown and bring marginalized groups there to tell their story. And we want to recognize that all groups have a place and bring healing to the community. And we want a redemption for a trauma with a day of remembrance and a resolution of apology. And I say this because Rick Ng from the executive board of the National Chinese American Citizen Alliance

and the LA chapter and the organization Chinese American OC and Los Angeles and the JACL and all these other Asian organizations are contacted, said, for now, just being allowed in public to know that many people have been killed, many communities displaced, and many livelihoods ruined that can be emphasized on the occasion of the faith of Santa Ana, Chinatown, being acknowledged sometime in the near future can inspire other cities to do right. Because we led the way in terms of the discrimination violence against Chinese American. We need you to rectify it, and I know you understand that. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for those comments. Danny Vega, followed by Claire Campo, followed by Rocio Guzman.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Where is Councilmember Peñalosa? Did he go to a Nina Turner event today?

He's actually online via Zoom.

Okay. I am here to speak on the budget and show my support for allocating funds to a police oversight committee. I had the chance to participate in Chispa's police oversight forum. and one thing that was apparent to me was that we all have a different experience when it comes to

interactions with police and unfortunately for some that interaction isn't a positive one and that creates distrust with the police and and unfortunately that's true for a lot of community communities out there in Santa Ana and this is why I believe a police oversight committee can mend some of that trust because I feel like the communities would start building that trust if they knew that we could hold the BAT police accountable. Having said that, I want to make sure that the call for police accountability doesn't drown out the unfortunate fact that we

still have high crime in Santa Ana and therefore we still need the police. I just checked the crime statistics today and in the last every single month since 2020 we've had double-digit rapes. I want you guys to really think about that. I also want to not lose focus on the need that we need more police officers. Last week in the Measure X committee meeting I learned that we are understaffed when it comes to police officers. According to the chief, the police per capita, according to the police chief, was way below

the average for a city of our size. And not only that, but we saw that based on some figures presented in the meeting that there does seem to be some correlation with having more police officers will equate to having better police response times. So the bottom line is we need more cops. I take that back. We need good cops. And so this is why I believe that funding the police oversight committee and continuing to fund the hiring of more police officers will allow us to effectively tackle crime because in the end the community needs cops and the cops need community. Thank you.

Claire Campo, followed by Rocio Guzman, followed by Catalina Iniesta.

Claire Campo, Rocio Guzman, Catalina Iniesta.

Thank you.

in this topic.

That's it. That's it. I'm going to give you a public comment this night. I thank you in your name so that the public comment doesn't take more hours. We appreciate it. We have a lot of that we take a position to protect our youth youth. We hope that this important ordinance

complete the number of the agenda. that is adopted formally this night in the second lecture. Thank you for listening to the community and the neighbors of Santana. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Catalina Iniestra, and I'm a volunteer with America On Track for over five years. And I'm here to thank you all for your vote to end the sale of flavored tobacco in our community. And on behalf of all the people and the organizations that worked so hard on this issue, I want to thank you in representation of the many people. So we don't take up hours of public comments. We just thank you for protecting the health of our youth. And we hope that you approve item 11 on the agenda and adopt the second reading.

Thank you from the city. Thank you from the community and the people of Santa Ana.

Ibrahim Duell. Ibrahim. Victor Mendez followed by Madeline Spencer.

You're up, Vic. Give me just a second.

Thank you. Got my own stopwatch now. A few comments on the OCTA presentation. I fully agree with Councilmember Pham about the conditionals bridge connector bridges. In fact, I wrote a memo or an email to Teresa outlining several hazardous conditions in the immediate area. It hadn't been responded to. I did talk to Mr. Beal and they'll respond to him, but there are tripping hazards. There's a lot of different things. Those connecting bridges, I can punch them out with my fist. I'm a 63-year-old man with a disability. Those have to be fixed.

along the way of trying to contain maybe dust and you know noise I would agree with the use of a kind of a high wall with a nice color I saw one the other day on Wilshire Boulevard and here's a suggestion for you Hernandez maybe you can get an artist some artists to paint around those walls and commission them you know make some nice things nice signage I think a lot of some of the accommodations about visibility and things can be done but I'll be honest that fourth street looks like somebody dropped a bomb on it and that's just unacceptable. These merchants deserve a lot better than that.

So I think maybe kind of a high wall that kind of encloses it a little bit, signage, whatever, you can actually staple those other or attach those other signs to the wall and therefore get rid of the problem of people taking off those signs and throwing them into the window. But again, I saw it the other day in West LA, it looked beautiful. You wouldn't know a construction site was there. It looked like there was another building right there in the middle of the street. Beautiful coloring and everything. On marketing, sounds good, but they're behind the curve and just frankly a little bit too late.

As I mentioned earlier, the MPA of LA gives $50,000 a year to their merchants. And they have done for about five years. They've awarded about $36 million to date. I'll send over the guidelines to Councilmember Hernandez that they're using. maybe you can compare the two, see if it works out, and see if there's some improvement.

But I've yet to come across something that specifically says FTA cannot fund financial assistance. MPA has been doing it for five years. Well, how are they doing it? I don't know. But maybe somebody can find out and get to the bottom and see if FTA funds can be used for that.

Lastly, I gave a proposal to fund the 1.5 million, and I think you could use that perhaps to, if in fact OCA doesn't step up, to go to the deferred maintenance budget for the RTC. I think trying to help these mergers out is a lot more important than trying to fix some leaky toilets in the RTC. Not to say that's not important, but I think the money's there. And if things get tight, go to that deferred maintenance budget at RTC, and there's still plenty of money left. Is my three minutes up, sir?

It is now.

Thank you. You owe me three seconds down the road.

We'll give it to you the next time.

Just a question for the clerk. Do the members of the public know that, you know, is there something that they can read the time on? Great.

It's actually, they have the same monitor we have right in front of them. Awesome. Thank you.

Our last speaker, in-person speaker, is Madeline Spencer. Madeline, the floor is yours.

Good evening, council and staff. I'm Madeline Spencer, and I work for Santa Ana Business Council as a consultant. And I actually just wanted to ask one last thing. I heard everybody speak today. I know that they've spoken in the past. and over like in 2017 I actually had a study done about the exact things that are occurring now and knew that this was going to happen in advance and one thing that I know is that the only people that were here when this originally was all voted on was Sarmiento and our clerk of staff and maybe our legal and so all of

you are new when it comes to the fact that the streetcar and the problems are there but one of the requests that was made which I would love to see because all of you are legislators which means that you can actually put something into a law is that you take into account when there's the EIR process for this city also the environmental and social costs of a project and it should be done on every project in this city that's done that's has construction and it's something that over 150 businesses in downtown requested, and there's a federal code for that

specific environmental and social cost, and I believe that it would help people in the future not to have to come to this point, which is the full crisis mode of our downtown, and then be asking now because it was asked for before and there was nothing done and so as of now today I'm asking that this legislation put it in the law so that the next council that's up here that doesn't remember what happened it's written there.

Madam Clerk let me go ahead and turn it over to you to see if there's any members of the public that wish to address this there online or virtual.

Yes, thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. Before our meeting callers, I'd like to begin by reporting the following summary of emails provided as of today. We received one Santa Ana resident who commented on not feeling safe in the stadium parking lot in the city of Santa Ana. One Santa Ana resident commented on offering congratulations for a redistricting decision. One Santa Ana resident commented on the CARES Act funds that aren't enough to help the COVID-19 expenses and losses.

Item four, four comments from Santa Ana residents spoke on the impacts of the OCTA streetcar construction. Item 11, item two, Santa Ana residents commented in favor of passing the item. and then one Santa Ana resident commented on issues with the response for reporting. Item 26, three residencies not disclosed commented on fully funding police oversight, three Santa Ana resident commenting on funding the police oversight, one Santa Ana resident on fully funding the community-based organization,

one Santa Ana resident commented on increasing funding for jobs for youth in city government, One Santa Ana resident commented on increasing funding for the youth service programs within City Hall. And one Santa Ana resident commented of having at least one youth specific budget input session in partnership with community organizations. And with that, caller Zoom ID, name Linda Barber, if you would please select the microphone icon

to unmute your call and proceed with your comment.

Thank you, counsel. My name is Linda Barber. I'm with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. And I want to urge you to support the ordinance for tobacco retail license. I know many of my colleagues and friends are in the room tonight with you. And I just want you to know that we are all behind you and support your effort. And thank you for your support tonight.

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

Hello, yes, good afternoon. Thank you so much. We are proud to support your policy ending the sale of all flavored tobacco products without exemptions. Please pass this ordinance tonight to protect San Ana residents from nicotine addiction and tobacco related deaths and disease for generations to come. We thank you so much.

Thank you. Zoom ID, Isabel Rivera, if you would please select the microphone icon to unmute your call. You may proceed with your comment.

Yeah. Hola, buenas noches a todos los presentes. Mi nombre es Isabel Rivera y soy una madre de Nova Academy y residente de la ciudad de Santa Ana. Estoy preocupada, decepcionada y conmocionada por lo que se ha permitido que suceda frente a lo que una vez fue un hermoso campus. Ninguno de ustedes querría que sus hijos estuvieran expuestos a lo que está sucediendo actualmente en Nova Academy debido al sitio de puesta en escena de octa. Consejales de la ciudad, por favor, escuche a los miembros de la comunidad que ustedes fueron elegidos para representar.

Necesitamos su influencia, compasión y asistencia para garantizar que Nova Academy, Escuela de Universidad Temprana, siga siendo un lugar seguro para que los estudiantes de la comunidad aprendan, crezcan y persigan sus sueños académicos. Por favor, ayude a mover el sitio de preparación de OPTA lejos de nuestra escuela. Gracias.

Good evening to all here present. My name is Isabel Rivera. I'm a mom of Nova Academy. I'm a resident of Santa Ana. And I'm concerned and I'm worried of what has been allowed to be placed near the beautiful campus of Nova Academy. Our kids don't deserve this. what's happening here, that OCTA is placing their staging work, their staging area in front of our school. You were elected to protect us. You were elected to represent us. And we would like you to help us in this issue.

We want Nova Academy to be a safe place for our students to learn, to grow, and to develop academically and to achieve their academic dreams. So please have them move the staging area away from our beautiful school. Thank you.

So my Dean Renee Lancaster, if you would please select the microphone icon. Thank you may proceed with your comment.

Honorable mayor Sarmiento and city council members. My name is Renee Lancaster from Nova Academy, early college high school, and I'm here to represent the families, students, and staff who are part of the city of Santa Ana. We have more than 400 families and staff members attending our school, and we have been in the community for over 18 years. And there's so much talk about community pride as something we hear a lot about in speeches and on Santa Ana's website. We moved into the building in 2016.

We were filled with excitement and yes, pride. We were thrilled to be a part of the blossoming downtown Santa Ana and our community success. It is heartbreaking what has happened to our campuses and the businesses that are around us and we wanna help in any way. It is disheartening to have no input or control as other agencies encroach upon our space and destroy our home. And it's infuriating that our pleas for help have seemingly been ignored while OCT continues to decimate the entire area in front of our campus.

We have gone to them many times and went and talked to them in 2018 and to the city of Santa Ana asking that the staging area not be in front of our school. Right now, the city is promoting the Santa Ana Neighborhood Block Transformation Contest on its website. Per the contest description, and I quote, the contest is designed to encourage and promote community involvement in keeping Santa Ana a beautiful place to live, work, and play. It will recognize and reward residents of winning neighborhood blocks whose properties reflect their community pride

and have made significant aesthetic improvements to their parkways and properties, end quote. We want Santa Ana to be a beautiful place to live, work, play, and learn. We want our property to reflect our community pride and we are begging for aesthetic improvements through the removal of OCTA's staging site. Let's not punt this down the road and let OCTA continue to treat our neighborhood.

I know this wouldn't happen in Newport or Laguna. We don't need a contest to do our part. I know that you can help us. I know that you want to help our families and the community, thank you so much.

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

Good afternoon, honorable mayor and city council members. My name is Thomas Lawton, and I wanna thank you tonight for giving me the opportunity to speak. I'm a member of the National Hookah Community Association, and I'm here to speak on agenda item 11 regarding the flavored tobacco product ban. i agree that matters should be taken to ensure that tobacco products stay out of the hands of our youth and i applaud actions taken to do so though before you inadvertently vote to bam the nearly a thousand year cultural tradition of hookah with the flavor ban being considered on

agenda item 23 i ask that city council consider adding hookah exemption to the proposed ban the flavor ban is meant to put an end to the youth vaping epidemic yet there's no teen hookah epidemic the FDA and CDC reports have made it clear that hookah is not the problem with our youth and there are no facts that support a ban on hookah according to the FDA teen hookah use is at a 0.8% level nationally at the lowest it has ever been failing to exempt hookah from the flavor ban will inadvertently affect the livelihood of hookah retailers in the community the COVID pandemic has also caused financial hardships retailers who have worked

very hard to remain open to serve their customers and support their families if retailers are forced to stop selling traditional flavored tobacco products then customers will simply find other means to buy their products potentially creating an unregulated illicit market the additional loss of sales would translate into lost jobs and likely store closures i ask that the city council reconsiders a flavored tobacco ban ordinance until californians vote in november on whether under the California statewide flavored tobacco ban law under Senate Bill 793 is approved or appealed. Voters should be allowed to have their voices heard.

Thank you for your time.

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

Zoom ID Sandra Gillen, And if you, thank you, you may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, everyone. I just wanted to bring up an encounter. I was a little concerned with our, us paying the higher taxes throughout the county, but not having high quality of life. On March 6th, my husband and son were driving that Sunday morning at seven in the morning to take my eighth grader to a feeder team, high school baseball, you know, for Sigurdstrom high school. They were on their way to Troy and on Bristol North getting to Raymar, someone came out of there and shot at them. They shot the side of the truck, the black window broke out of all days. I didn't go with him that day. So my son was in the front.

Damage was done. My family was not injured. Police presence did arrive and they were cooperative. They were helping, but I just feel that police officers are exhausted, overwhelmed, and do not have resources and community support. We do need to support them. and you as a council had people fooled or, you know, told to vote on this high tax rate for what? We don't have quality of life. The homelessness problem, the transient problem, now shootings for no reason. You can't be out with your family and enjoy, you know, the outdoors. And we want to see a community with police out here because it's getting crazy.

And that week, obviously, with the low of Pico and Santa Ana High School lockdown, what is going to happen? We cannot defund the police now. Thank you.

Thank you. Zoom ID, Donna Moore, if you would please. Zoom ID, John Ramirez, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device to unmute your call.

Madam Clerk, can you hear me?

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

Yes. Hello, my name is John Ramirez and I've been a resident here in the city of Santa Ana for over 40 years. And I'm currently residing in ward four. I'm calling in regards to agenda item 26. I believe the city council should make hiring more police officers a top priority in the upcoming budget plan. I watched the virtual citizens measure X forum last week and based on their data presented, that has been shown that hiring more police officers has decreased the police response time for priority one through five calls. We must ensure our police department is always fully funded, fully staffed and has our full support always,

especially given the recent events at our Pico and Lowell Elementary Schools and at Santa Ana High School. I also believe the council should make a police oversight committee a priority as we do need accountability in our city to help restore public trust between the community and our police department. Thank you. This concludes my comment.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Shua Sadat, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Good evening, council members. I'm from Ward three. I'm here to speak on agenda item 11. I would first like to share a statistic that has been published by the FDA. Hookah usage amongst youth youth is at 0.8%. How is it that hookah is the least used tobacco product at 0.8% youth usage and yet vapes, cigarettes, cigars and tuned tobacco are at much higher rates yet we don't see council promoting a ban on half of these products. We as a community or government shouldn't be blaming a culturally significant pastime on the issues we currently face with youth tobacco usage. Are we really trying to save the youth

when we're still letting them freely access the second most used tobacco product in high schools and middle schools? We already know that back in 2008, the city put a ban on hookah lounges. And here we are again, targeting these same minorities when we are not the problem. I am begging this council to please work with us like you promised back in December. Shisha is not the problem. It isn't being sold in shops that can be accessed by youth. And it's a product that has never been advertised in any forms of media, unlike other tobacco products. The city should not spend time nor taxpayer money

on a flavor tobacco product ban ordinance. The voters should be allowed to have their voices heard in November 2022 and the board of supervisors should wait until the election in November. Please save hookah, thank you.

Thank you. Zoom ID,

Zoom ID CEA, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device to unmute your call.

Zoom ID CEA, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device to unmute your call.

Persona usando Zoom con el nombre CEA. Active el sonido en el aparato en cual está usando.

Sí, buenas noches. ¿Me escuchan? Sí. Buenas noches. Mi nombre es Sara Iyer Pero. Buenas noches, miembros del concilio. I am a lead promoter with Latino Home Access and Consejer of Living in the last three years. I am here to recognize all the effort that has been done with the CARES and SAVES, with the great team that is leading the city, who have worked hand-to-hand with organizations and the inquilines. I am a member of the state's and as a member of the state's estatales no es perfecto, pero sí uno de los mejores programas,

ya que muchos inquilinos de otras ciudades no tienen la misma asistencia donde se les puede acompañar con sus procesos para asegurar que completa a completarán los requisitos y llegar al programa para no ser desalojados de sus viviendas por las deudas que se adquirieron en cuanto a la pandemia. Recordando que las protecciones por parte de las Cortes terminan el 21 de marzo, el primero de abril ya no hay más protecciones para los inquilinos que no tienen deuda de renta o con sec a consecuencia de la pandemia poniendo nuevamente en riesgo de desalojo o quedar en condición de calle a las

familias en santana quiero compartirles que hay ciudades que han creado programas pilotos para atender casos de vivienda y evitar más personas en condición de calle estos programas son tienen los tres siguientes componentes asistencia legal consejería de vivienda una especie de mediación antes de llegar a la corte asistencia de renta continua hasta que las familias pueden puedan valerse por sí mismas y salir adelante el día de hoy les pido que consideren el comenzar a explorar estos modelos que apoyaran a nuestras familias en santa ana y mantendrán a nuestras familias juntas saludables

y seguras gracias buenas noches gracias good evening my name is alayar pero members of the city Council and I'm a health promoter and a promoter with Latino Health Access and also a housing counselor for over three years and I want to thank you first of all for what you have done with the CARES program and the SAVES program so I'd like to thank the city team who has done all this wonderful work. You work with the organizations to provide this great assistance and I know that other

I've seen the work in other cities and what they've done is not perfect. What we have done is not perfect, but we've done more than other cities have done. We've done a great work, a great job. And other cities do not necessarily help the applicants. In Santa Ana, you help them fill out the requirements, fill out the forms, and help them as much as you can. But I also want to remind you that at the end of March, the protections end. the eviction protections end, and coming April, many families in Santa Ana are going to be

at risk of being evicted and of becoming homeless. So other cities have instituted some pilot programs to help in these situations to help avoid homelessness. And some of the elements of these programs are assistance with rental assistance, information assistance, mediation before going to eviction court, and other issues. So, asking you to explore all these models to see something that can help our families and keep our families safe and keep them together. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Zoom ID, Fred Besharun, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device and proceed with your comment.

Can you hear me?

Yes, he can hear you. You may proceed with your comment.

Sure. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Councilor. I'd like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you. My name is Fred Bascarone. I own a business on Tustin Avenue. I have been in the business for 15 years. I built my business from scratch. I have four employees working for me for years. I respect your decision to ban the flavor, but our problem, sir, is I have about $50,000 worth of inventory in my store. And I do not know what to do with my merchandise if you guys decided not to give us enough time to sell out the product. I do not know what else to do.

You guys force us to close our business and let my employees go because I cannot afford to keep them working for me.

Sir, I reach out to my vendors and I ask them to buy the merchandise back from me and all of them, they refused. So what I'm asking you to give us some time to sell out the product. One month is not enough to sell $50,000 worth of merchandise. I cannot afford to throw them in the trash. So I ask you and the council member to give us enough time to get rid of all our merchandise. I really thank you very much for your time and I thank you for your decision.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Nathaniel Greensides, if you would please select the microphone. I can may proceed with your comment.

Thank you, my Ward five resident. There was an individual who called in recently to one of the special city council meetings regarding redistricting and noted that one of the current council members disliked all the maps presented at a previous meeting to that because all those proposed maps failed to take into account the current and past experiences of black residents of Santa Ana. There seems to me to be a continued desire to obfuscate and deny actively the wrongs committed past and current upon our black community members not only here in the usa in our city but worldwide the idea that black lives matter should not be

controversial to the contrary i only wish that the phrase could have been easily adopted and ingrained into our culture existing here in the 21st century yet instead of accepting and embracing the notion that black lives matter many still find themselves uncomfortable with the idea of spotlighting the of historical and current injustices faced by black individuals here in our community. Just because the population of black folks could never constitute a majority in any manner of drawing the maps does not mean that historically black neighborhoods should be disregarded. This is a part of the problem continuing the injustices

faced by black communities in our world today. Santa Ana is known as downtown Orange County for some reason or another. Local media when violent crime occurs and even some comments tonight always ensure that they specify the name of our city. But when something great takes place in our city, local media and the cultural zeitgeist instead opts for calling it Orange County, California. This type of obfuscation of success markers, to me, serves as continued evidence of how the cultural hegemony prefers that certain historically enfranchised and empowered communities are able to continue to exist.

It is our job as individuals existing in today's world to ensure that this stops. I applaud the bringing forth of the history of Santa Ana's Chinatown, which was erased under racial pretenses. I pray that we can continue to highlight and uplift stories that aren't told in American history classes in high schools all around our state and nation, and that the wrongs of the past may finally be righted for actual liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Zoom ID Chispa 2, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Hi, can you hear me?

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

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. I'm Jairo Cortez. I'm the executive director at Chispa. I'm calling in for item 26, which has to do with the early direction to city staff for the fiscal year 2022 and 2023 budget. As staff prepare the first draft of next year's budget, we urge you to incorporate the following priorities. First, we ask you to anticipate the costs of pending police oversight legislation and include space within the first draft of next year's budget to properly fund a robust and effective police oversight board. Allocating appropriate funding to police oversight

will demonstrate that the council also is making headway and implementing a strong police oversight policy that enjoyed 74.3% support from Santa Ana residents in the city's 2021 survey, as well as ensure that a police oversight body has funding from its inception and the resources to begin working for Santa Ana residents rather than requiring a mid-year budget reallocation in the future. Secondly, we ask that you allocate funding for grants to CBOs that provide mental health services for LGBTQ youth re-entry services for systems impacted youth and counseling support and preventative services for young people.

Third, we ask that you increase funding for existing employment programs for young residents. These should include part-time and full-time job opportunities for young people that can lead to long-term career opportunities in the city of Santa Ana. And in addition to paid internship programs, certification and training programs in partnership with Santa Ana Work Center. And lastly, we ask that the city hold at least one youth specific budget input session in partnership with community organizations. Over the last couple of years, young residents have been some of the most active participants

in Santa Ana's budget conversations, delivering hundreds of letters, public comments, and phone calls to the city council. Organizations like Chisplan, our partners, have organized our own independent budget forums for young residents, and we believe it is imperative that the city we commit resources and staff time to engage specifically with this very active constituency and hold a minimum of one input session targeted to youth in Santa Ana. I'd also like to echo Alan who's asked tonight for a resolution of apology for the burning of the Santa Ana Chinatown.

These proposals that we are making, I think also follow in, And following this, and one of like the last meetings when the council also, a majority of the council also directed city staff to come back with proposals to address public safety through, by investing in mental health, by investing in intervention.

15 seconds left.

And we believe that these proposals help us to achieve goals already outlined by the council. Thank you.

Thank you. Zoom ID Donna Moore and Melissa Muir, you both need to update your Zoom. I cannot unmute your call. So if you want to disconnect from Zoom and try again, Zoom ID Donna Moore and Melissa Muir, if you can please disconnect, update your Zoom and you can try to reconnect. I cannot unmute your call. Zoom ID Sandra, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Yes. Yes, hello.

Hi, yeah, you may proceed with your comment. Okay, sorry about that. Good evening. My name is Sandra and I'm a long-term resident and my family owns a couple of stores that do sell flavored tobacco. I'm calling on that agenda item, I believe it's 11 and I just had a few points to make. I'm also a parent and not a smoker. And I feel it's really important for us to really take a look at where this education needs to take place, which is in the home and at schools, because there are plenty of law-abiding retailers that are not selling to minors.

And aside from that, I mean, it's gonna take us a long time to sell what we have. I know a gentleman called a bit ago saying, you know, he had something like $50,000 worth of products. So we have more than that. And I don't know how, we can't just give it back. We can't just get our money back from the vendors. That doesn't happen. It's like giving back, you know, medications to a pharmacy.

And it may sound far-fetched, but I believe that if council could please consider giving us a year to get back on our feet. I mean, we're not on our feet from the pandemic. We're still suffering from all of our losses from then. We're still trying to figure out what to do, creative approaches, maybe we have employees that, a woman called and was talking about evictions and homelessness, that's something we have to think about as well, I mean, this is such a domino effect. So I ask that you please wait till November, or if not, if you could consider giving the retailers in Santa Ana, at least, I don't know, six months,

excuse me, a year, it's really not feasible to sell off all this product, you know, within three months or so. Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you.

Zoom ID, Reema Khoury, if you would please select a microphone icon. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Reema Khoury, Khoury speaking on agenda item number 11. I'm general counsel for Fumari, a premium hookah tobacco manufacturer. And I'm also one of the founding members of the National Hookah Community Association, which was established to protect and preserve the rich cultural tradition of hookah, which was around for hundreds of years and is practiced by Middle Easterners, Turks, Armenians, Indians, North Africans, and other minority groups. NHCA serves as a voice for these traditionally underrepresented minority

groups that do not speak English. They usually speak English as a second language and are intimidated by the lawmaking process. Hookah tobacco is a very unique tobacco product that is greatly misunderstood. Hookah only comes in flavors as has been the case for hundreds of years. According to the CDC, hookah usage among youth is at an all time low at 0.8% and that number has been going down over the past 10 years. The FDA has stated that although they see a correlation between flavored tobacco and youth initiation, they do not see the same correlation with hookah due to its low prevalence amongst youth.

Hookah is not the problem with youth. That is why Senator Hill exempted hookah in 21 and over establishments in the California flavored tobacco ban SB 793. And we ask that Santa Ana do the same and protect our right to practice our cultural tradition. Please save hookah. Thank you. Thank you.

Zoom ID Bloss, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device to unmute your call. Thank you, you may proceed with your comment. Can you reduce the volume on the other device? Yeah, thank you. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Blas Garcia, owner of Color Beauty Bar. I'm a new owner in downtown Santa Ana. Honestly, if I would have known this whole construction was gonna be going on, I would not have chosen this location. and I signed a five-year contract. Now I really don't know what is going to happen. This construction has affected me drastically because now there is hardly any foot traffic. How do we get clients and like that?

Plus the clients we do have think about going because who wants to get their hair all done and walk near all that construction and get dust or dirt blown in their hair and nice clothes. Plus parking is another issue. Who likes to go to a place and struggle for parking? You'd rather not go. Another thing for that 1.5 million that was given, thanks, appreciate it, but come on. Half of your rent for six months isn't enough. This construction hasn't affected only half of our rent. It's affected full rent plus earning.

We need to pay employees, utilities, supplies, car notes, insurance, et cetera. We get behind on our bills, what happens? Our credit gets damaged. We all know credit is everything in the United States. Later, we try to get another business. We are going to get rejected. Hope you guys take this in consideration. Thank you.

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

Great, thank you. Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Yaneth Rodriguez, public health researcher at USC in the department of population and public health sciences. I'm here to provide you with some information from our Tobacco Center of Regulatory Sciences. I'm speaking in regards to item number 11. A main research point that I would like to highlight is that a strong comprehensive ordinance to regulate e-cigarettes flavored and menthol tobacco products has a tremendous potential to substantially reduce youth use of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. A Southern California research study that we conducted

showed that a strong tobacco retail license to prevent sales to minors was associated with lower rates of youth and adult initiation of combustible and e-cigarette use. A comprehensive ordinance restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products would include traditional combustible menthol cigarettes and cigars, as well as chewing tobacco and hookah. I also wanted to share some additional research. This is utilizing some national data. However, I think it's still important to share since you do have a high population of Latino youth and you also have the Santa Ana College community. It has been

found that Hispanic Latino adolescents are actually more susceptible to hookah and 44% are more likely reported to current hookah use. And 44% more likely reported to report current hookah use one out of four college nicotine users started with hookah for each of these two data points i also have articles and that i could share and i can email to you we hope that this research can educate and inform your decisions please let me know if you have any questions our

team may be able to answer thank you thank you caller with the last three numbers 663 if you you would please dial star six to unmute your call or select them. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Amr and I have been a business owner of a retail tobacco shop. I've recently a year ago moved to the city of Santa Ana and I moved my business over there. I have 10 employees that are working and have been with me for the past three years and they have families and they have been, I've been supporting them and I've been through the pandemic and through everything, I didn't even request for money because I was working really hard and to make sure that my employees are being supported and being able to support their families.

I'm also a parent and I wish if everybody, a parent can hear me because this is from the bottom of my heart. I know the regulations and everything. I came from a country, I came from Syria, and I became a US citizen probably two years ago. I came from a country where I fear of my business. I had an internet cafe. I don't wanna go through the story, but I came from a country where I fear and everybody was like chasing me like I was somebody who would not be able to run the business. and they were strictly enforcing us to do things that we should have been able to access.

I came to this country and I started my business and I started growing and I was just hoping to grow more and more and support my employees and support the community and the city that I'm in. I definitely have specific instructions to all my employees not to sell and check every single ID once they come to the store. My issue is that the sellers that are selling to people, and I'm not talking about shots, I'm talking about people because I'm a parent and I have a daughter, a 12 years old daughter, and I live in Mission Viejo. She got introduced to a vape in school.

And I even went in depth and asked her, how do these people provide you with that or like show you about it? And she mentioned that other kids are selling them. And so they're buying it in a black market where people are selling to these people. It's not retailers, it's not us. We don't wanna harm your kids. I don't want my daughter to vape. But from my side, what I did is I educated my daughter more and I told her and I educated and I told her about nicotine and see how she shouldn't use it and how she shouldn't even approach it.

And I understand that, but just like there is the nicotine, there's also weed. 15 seconds left. They're getting introduced to this as well. So my request is please consider and let the voters, Californians decide whether they want it to stay or whether they want it. And this would give us time to be able to sell inventory. Thank you, your time is up. Thank you, thank you.

Zoom ID Loretta Reis, if you would please select a microphone icon on your device to unmute your call.

I think you may proceed with your comment.

Zoom ID, Donna Moore, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device, you may proceed with your comment.

Hello, do you hear me?

Yes, we could hear you.

You may proceed with your comment.

Great, good evening. My name is Donna Moore and I am on staff at Nova Academy Early College High School. First, I wanna thank Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member Lopez for your comments about the situation at Nova Academy. OCTA's staging site for the OC streetcar has devolved into a homeless encampment, creating new and unnecessary dangers to the students and staff at Nova Academy. Although there is fencing and a locked gate to the staging site, this is not a secure area, but an apparent safe haven for the homeless.

Sorry. Staff members have personally witnessed transients going in and out of this area with no problems, even when it is locked. One employee even saw a man hoist his bike over the fence before entering the area himself when it was locked. The trash that has accumulated is a horrifying combination of personal belongings, drug paraphernalia, food containers, bottles filled with urine, beer cans, and so much more. OCTA's lack of concern for the appearance and cleanliness of its site is evident, given that this trash

is also strewn on and all around its equipment and construction materials. To give you an example about how the site is affecting our students, one day in our biology class on the second floor facing the staging site, some girls started screaming and shrieking. When I asked what the commotion was all about, they said they saw a homeless person out the window exposing himself. Should our students really have to choose between learning an environment that feels shut in with closed blinds every day, or alternatively take the risk of being traumatized by indecent exposure and suffering emotional harm?

OCTA holds no regard for the eyesore and both physical and mental health hazards it creates for the students and staff at NOVA Academy and the many others who work, live, and walk near a building. I am here today to implore you to help us. This area needs to be cleaned up and moved away as soon as possible. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Donna Moore, if you could still hear me, when you disconnect from Zoom, please log into Zoom and update it under your account because I had to move you in order for me to unmute you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Loretta Reese, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device. Thank you. May proceed with your comment.

Zoom ID, Loretta Reese, we cannot hear you. if you could increase your volume on your device? Or perhaps your device has been muted? Your sound maybe is muted? Okay, Mayor, it looks like she's not able to connect to her audio, so that was the last Zoom I called her.

Great. Thank you, Madam Clerk, and thank you to the members of the public that called in today and visited us in person. I'll go ahead and bring it back to the Council to see if there are any items that they would like to pull off the consent calendar or mention any abstentions or any recusals. I'll go ahead

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 7

and start with Councilmember Hernandez. Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I would like to pull item 22. Thank you. Any other members of the council? Councilmember

Thai Viet PhanItem 7

Pham? First I'd like to announce my recusal for item number 16. My employer, Rutan and Tucker, represents Penske and Cerritos and this is Penske, so Penske cars and this is Penske Chevrolet of Cerritos. So just out of an abundance of caution to make sure if there's no like a, you know, corporate umbrella or something like that, I will be recusing myself from that item. And on top of that I'd like to pull items 11 and 12 please. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 7

Thank you. Any others? Mayor Pro Tem? Just want to echo pulling item 22. Any others to my left?

Madam Clerk, I know we have Councilmember Beñalosa who's joining us by Zoom. Is he good?

He does not have his hand raised.

I'm good, Mayor. I'd make a motion to approve the balance. Great. Give me one second. We'll hold your motion in advance for a second. I just want to make sure I pull one item off the calendar as well. I want to pull off item number 18. and on 21, I'm going to go ahead and recuse myself on that. I received a financial contribution from an arborist company. I'm not sure if it was West Coast, but out of an abundance of caution, I'll go ahead and just recuse myself on that. And so we have a motion on the floor to approve the balance and a second. Council members, please vote.

Councilmember Peñalosa, were you able to vote?

And Mayor Potembecero? Okay, motion.

I was mad at court.

Yes, you were. Motion carries 7-0 with Councilmembers Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza, Peñalosa, Fan, Mayor Potembecero, and Mayor Sarmiento voting yes. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, everybody. Let's go ahead and move along with the first item that was pulled. That was item number 11 by Councilmember Phan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you to all the speakers, callers, commenters who brought this item up. I did have a couple, I guess not questions, but, well, I guess it is a question. Madam City Attorney, one of the areas that I'm particularly concerned about is, you know, as you've heard, a lot of these retailers have stock. If you're a tobacco shop and all of that, you have stock that is existing. And I want to also preface that I am not a supporter of smoking tobacco or chewing tobacco or

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

doing anything else with tobacco. In fact, I suffer from asthma, my sister suffers from asthma, and that's because both my biological dad and my stepdad smoked cigarettes until the end of their lives. So I know personally the effect of smoking, specifically secondhand smoking, on children and on adults. So I want to make that very clear to everybody who's an advocate here. I understand. But what I also understand is the plight of the small business owner. I'm not talking about big tobacco, not talking about Marlboro, I'm talking

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

about these mom and pops who own convenience stores, gas stations, and tobacco shops. We just heard today from dozens of small business owners in downtown Santa Ana who are saying they are barely making it by every day. And I am supportive of a ban of flavored tobacco, no exemptions for hookah. But what I am concerned about are those small businesses who have tens of thousands of dollars of inventory and nowhere to put it, and it'll be a loss at the end of the 30 days once an ordinance is passed.

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

What we've heard and what I guess retailers have said when they reached out to me is they can't just sell it back to the wholesaler. They won't take it. They won't buy it back. And I can ask you, you know, the bakery shop, if you bought flour, could you sell it back to the wholesaler? If you bought milk, could you sell that back to the wholesaler? If you bought other goods, fabric, could you sell it back to the wholesaler? I would say for the most part, probably no. And so regarding this ordinance, Madam City Attorney, is it possible to adopt this ordinance

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

but also to, you know, whether it is halting enforcement for six months or something like that, maybe essentially an amortization period to allow these small retailers, these mom-and-pop shops, these small businesses to maybe sell their product to other retailers outside of the city of Santa Ana. So they can go to Garden Grove, they can go to Anaheim, they can do something else to get rid of this product so it's not being sold to residents here in the city so they can actually recoup some of the losses and you know try to stay afloat and also

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

change their business in light of this prohibition. Is that possible? It is

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 11

possible. The council could give us direction on whether you'd like us to you know halt enforcement for a certain period of time. We could perhaps ask those who have an inventory to notify us. That may be the preferred way. That way, in case we do enforcement, we don't get someone with an excuse saying, oh, I was only selling my inventory. So maybe those who have concerns about their inventory could report how much they have. And as we go out, if we get a complaint and do enforcement, we could ask better questions. I clearly do not believe this ordinance was intended to cover that. I understand that it

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 11

does. We lawyers understand that the sale is a sale, but our office would not necessarily prosecute if someone is selling their, what they have in stock outside of the city. We will be looking to sales to, you know, to miners, sales of these products to everyone in the city, not a large sale to someone, to another retailer, say, in a neighboring town. Thank you. And I would

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

ask my colleagues to consider that, so they can get rid of these products, and I agree with Madam City Attorney, where if you want to get the benefit of being able to get rid of this product, that you must inform the City Attorney's Office the amount of products you have, how much you have, and that way we have a record. And by the end of those six months or a year or whatever my colleagues might entertain, you know, we can double check. Anything left over, look, you had your time. You had that opportunity. But, you know, again,

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

I mentioned my stepdad had a small business. And the idea that within 30 days he had to get rid of $50,000 worth of product, it's not possible. And I really, really hope that all of you who are advocates tonight understand that it is not because I support tobacco or flavor tobacco or anything like that. It's because I'm trying to find a way where we can promote public health but also help our small businesses get through this. And in the future I'd like to direct staff to assist these tobacco retailers, convenience stores, and markets to

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

transition their shelving or whatever else they need to do to sell other products, whether it's groceries, fresh produce, or anything like that, because they require permits in some cases to transition that type of business. So with that, I would move to approve the second reading, but with the understanding that, or the direction to staff, that they would, you know, current retailers would to be able to report to staff the existing product that they have and allow them, you know, six months to sell it to a seller, a retailer, outside of the city to get rid of that product. That would be my motion, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you for those comments. Are there any other members of the council that have any comments? Mayor Porton?

I would second. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I would second, but I would ask for an amendment to maybe for three months because when we last heard this issue, the businessmen who came on, businessmen and women, mentioned that they wanted at least a 30-day moratorium. So those businesses felt that they could sell back whatever stock they had. And so also I want to point out that many of the callers today are probably not even Santa Ana businesses because I know that there's been callers across the nation, the ones who are advocating for,

are actually opposing the ban, and they call city after city after city after city. That's why they're not here. So it would be great to see them here and actually see that they are Santa Ana businesses. We had an overwhelming amount of people here. You saw last time we had America on track. We have tons of students here in favor of banning flavored tobacco sales because they are the first ones who see this. They see that at their schools, and it's a matter of health. We're not looking at profits here.

If one of the callers who said he has $100,000 worth of stock, Does that mean like 300,000 in profits? Come on, we're not looking at profits. We're here to protect the public, and we need to ensure that this gets on, that we enforce this ordinance sooner rather than later. So I would ask that we give them the three months, 90 days is plenty of time to sell the stock,

As I mentioned, someone said 30 days was fine, which will be about 45 days once we get this ordinance going. And so six months is too long because that means 100 more of our youth could be addicted within those six months. We cannot allow that. We need to look at the health over the profits. And if the businesses who need help with the city, I mean, do they need help with the profits as well? We're not in the business of helping people sell back their stock. We cannot do that. We can give them 30 days and I would second that.

I'm sorry, three months. And I would second that motion.

So, Council Member, is that a substitute motion? Because you can't second a motion that's different than what you're stating. So you have a substitute motion for three months rather than six. Thank you.

Thai Viet PhanItem 11

I never got a second. Understood.

But she could still make a motion on that. Go ahead, Mayor Proton.

Phil BacerraItem 11

Thank you, Mayor Sarmento.

Phil BacerraItem 11

I'm just kind of taken back that we're going to compare tobacco to flour and milk. So things that are essential to life versus something that can kill you. and we're somehow trying to bridge that gap. That's one heck of a gap to bridge. I'm sorry, I'm not even gonna come close to that. And then the way we're talking about this, as I said the very first time we had this item, either we're gonna ban it or we're not. If it's not a ban, it's not a ban. It's regulation. And this council voted to ban, voted to ban it. And now we're backpedaling, and it's very disappointing. And to think that for all these regulations

Phil BacerraItem 11

that we're proposing, we're gonna somehow have code enforcement, which is already overburdened, we're gonna have them wade into this. They're gonna somehow go out to all these stores. They're gonna go through all the inventory. They're gonna monitor all of them. For anybody that's called code enforcement, I mean you must be thinking they are a different agency here because that is not what they're able to do. I mean I wish they had that capability, but they don't. So to even propose that is just not reasonable. And And as far as timing, you know, for these retailers to unload their poison into the

Phil BacerraItem 11

community they've had after the first reading, okay, first of all, they knew it was coming, right? A second reading, which is two weeks later, plus 30 days before it becomes effective. So we're giving them that time. We've had this discussion already. I'm very disappointed that we're continuing to have it. This should have been passed as part of the consent calendar. So I'll go ahead and offer a substitute motion that we just approve the second reading as is.

All right. Mr. Mayor, I'll second the Mayor Pro Tems motion.

Great. Thank you. So we have a motion and a second now to support the recommended action as adopted in the first reading. Any other members of the council wish to speak? Let me go ahead and just inject myself into this conversation. I don't think it's 30 days. I don't think it's 45 days. I remember that this conversation happened last fall. So the fact that there's been sufficient notice, and my family has small businesses, and I know plenty of small business owners, and unfortunately there are changes in legislation that affect goods that we sell, services that we provide.

And I personally think that this is a material change from the first reading. So I would not be supportive of amending that, whether it's three months or six months, I think I'm prepared to support the motion and the second on the floor to go ahead and just, you know, support the second reading because we have had plenty of notice. And, you know, that's one of the things I think was fair about this process when we began talking about it. I remember speaking to, you know, the merchants, because they needed some time to understand what this ordinance was about. And so I think they had, since I believe the

conversations I started having with them was back in November of 2021. We're now in March of 2022, and this won't be effective for another, Madam City Attorney, another 30 days, I guess, from this point. So we'll be well into April. So I feel comfortable that there's been sufficient time. And, you know, as a good business person, you have to navigate these changes. And so, you know, we can't do that. I think there's a compelling reason to do that, which is, you know, the impact it's having on our youth and the fact that, you know, I've worked with, you know, this group in

the past with America on Track and I think they've been a responsible, reasonable advocate. They haven't asked for unreasonable changes and it's something I'm ready to support unless there's any other questions or comments on the floor. I think we have just one single motion that received a second. Mayor, I withdraw my motion. It never received a second, so we're not going to consider it anyways. But in any event, we have a motion and a second to go ahead and adopt the ordinance as before us for the second reading. And seeing no other questions or comments, let's go ahead and vote.

Council member Lopez, if you would please announce your vote if you're not able to.

Jessie LopezItem 11

I am able to and I did click on it, but I don't think it's coming on your end.

If you could please verbalize it. It doesn't look like it appears on our end.

Jessie LopezItem 11

So it's a yes.

Thank you.

Okay, motion passes 7-0 with council members Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza, Pinalo, Zafan, Mayor Potembe, Sarah, and Mayor Samantha voting yes.

Thank you everybody and I know this was not an easy item and there's plenty of strong arguments on both sides but we appreciate your advocacy and your words on both sides of this issue. Let me go ahead and move along to item number 12 which I believe is also council member

Thai Viet PhanItem 12

fans, I'll turn it over to her. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Oh, so for clarification, it was just a clarifying question. It's for Madam City Attorney. I know there's some electrical technical stuff going on over there. All right, so Madam City Attorney, just for clarification regarding this item, we, and it was actually something that came up today, which is for the abstention in which an abstention is considered a yes, this does

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 12

not include an absence, correct? It has to be an actual abstention where you were present on the dais or if you and refused to vote. Okay so so you can't

Thai Viet PhanItem 12

have one of those you know council members who don't show up or absentee in the future or something like that and they just you know then their default yes every time. So with that mayor I would move to approve. Thank you. Great

thank you. There's a motion is there a second? I'll second. We have a motion and second. Any other questions or comments from the council? Seeing none, councilmembers please vote.

Motion passes 7-0 with councilmembers Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza, Peñalosa, Fan, Mayor Potembecerra,

Mayor Sermon, the voting yes. Great. Thank you, everybody. I think the next item was mine. That's item number 18, which involves a contract for asphalt work to be done by All-American. The only comment I had, I'm not technically, you know, opposed to the staff recommended item. I just wanted to ask a little bit more on the procurement process. So when I was going through the staff report. I know it shows, you know, the you know, the lowest bidder, the highest bidder, and the others that the other three vendors that bid on this. And I know that we went with the lowest bidder

on this. But one of the things I think that we're a little thin on in the staff report that might be helpful is to talk about some of the work that was done, you know, by the vendors that are submitting, you know, their their requests to be considered. I know that we've had a lot of remedial work that's had to be done with some of our vendors, and I know we've used All-American in the past. I know we've used RJ Noble and some others as well. But as we go through the procurement of these contracts, it would be helpful to see if there is sort of a track record, right, to see,

you know, whether the work has been sustainable. Some of the work I know has been flawed in the past by some of our vendors. I don't want to in any way denigrate All-American. I just want to make sure that we have that included as we go through the staff report to see if there's been any work that we've had to correct and that we've had to cure. And I think some of these contracts that we have have some, like, sort of guaranteed for a year before they start spidering or cracking or, you know, having potholes. Because we did 300 miles of streets and roads, I remember, you know,

about maybe now 10 years ago. So I know some of those streets may be failing, but there were some vendors and we split that contract up amongst several vendors. Some vendors did excellent work, some didn't. But I'm just asking that as we go through giving contracts, we request that of our vendors just to see what the track record has been with the city on the work that they've previously done. The second thing is I know that we have a local preference for local vendors that submit RFPs or responses to RFPs. And I know none of these are Santa companies, but we had a concentric way of looking at it. So first it would be city,

then we go out to county, then we go beyond. And I know that there is a vendor on here that is from Orange, which is closer than obviously the Riverside County vendor that we went with. So I just want to make sure that we consider that as well. Folks that have businesses here usually hire locally and they hire people that live in our city probably more closely than maybe other vendors that live in other counties. So in any event, those were just two things for us to consider as we are presented with some other proposals for us to consider in the future.

So with that, seeing no other questions or comments, if there aren't, I'll go ahead and move the item. Second.

Council members, please vote.

Okay.

All right. Thank you. I wanted to make sure that Councilmember Penielosa was able to vote. So motion passes. Oh, I'm sorry. Councilmember Penielosa, I'm not seeing your vote. Would you like to announce your vote if you're not able to connect?

Correct.

We will go ahead and mark you as absent. Motion carries with six zero with council members, Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza, Fan, Mayor Pretend, sir, Mayor Cermando.

Madam city clerk, excuse me, I lost service for a second, but can you put me down as a yes, please?

Yes, I could change that to make a yes. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

Motion carries 7-0 with also including Councilmember Penielosa voting yes.

Great. Thank you, everybody. Let's move along to our last consent calendar item, and I believe that was item number 22 that was requested by Councilmember Hernandez and Mayor Pro Tem. I'll turn it over to them.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to pull this item because as an elected official, it is my responsibility to make sure that we are making sound financial decisions. item 22 is amending the agreement with graffiti protective coatings for graffiti removal services increasing the annual amount for fiscal year 21 to 22 by 300,000 and by 600,000 annually for the remaining term of the agreement madam city manager when is the what is the remaining term of this agreement.

Sorry, Councilmember Hernandez. The term of the agreement ending on October 31, 2023 with five one-year renewal options that are exercisable. So it brings the total amount of the contract to a not to exceed a 14.9.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

14.9. That's very expensive when it comes to graffiti removal. For the topic of downtown Santa Ana, there's a parking lot where the rooftop of this parking lot is just riddled with graffiti. And Mayor Pro Tem, you recently sent us all an email of how that looked and how ugly the graffiti removal looked. I mean, these were different colors. So I'm bringing this up because I'm concerned that this is only going to be a small band-aid to a much larger problem. There's going to continue to be graffiti issues and I'm sure that within the next

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

five years we would probably see this amount increase by very similar if not doubled. And the reason why I bring this up is because there's a number of murals that we have brought up in the city of Santa Ana. There's an artist that I am in awe of the work that he does, Brian Peterson. He did the mural that's at Osea. he did La Placita Cinco he has done a number of projects with the city of Santa Ana neither of his projects have ever been defaced nor have they nor have there even seen the slightest of markings in addition to that the La Raza mural that has been in the city of Santa Ana for over 30 years has never been

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

defaced once a number of murals across the city especially in downtown many of our residents and community members respect these murals. So I pulled this item because I want to discuss something that is more proactive in developing and cultivating relationships and having conversations around graffiti. The reason why is because in California there are more than 100,000 youth under the jurisdiction of California's juvenile justice system. We recently introduced a pilot program and funded it at a very small amount of $50,000 called the

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

graffiti arts program. In contrast to this amount, I'm concerned about our approach to a much larger problem and I guess my question to you Madam City Manager is what is the endgame of this proposal here of increasing this? Do you think this is going to stop graffiti?

So first to clarify, actually we've had a pretty good working relationship with this company and they've done an exceptional job. They are not responsible for removing graffiti inside the downtown parking structures. So that's not included in the scope of this agreement. This item is before you because in January, based on priority, you did appropriate additional money for other things that you felt we needed in the city. The item right before this, which was enhanced tree trimming and then enhanced graffiti removal, just because of the significant number of instances that we do have of graffiti.

So the amendment is to ensure that we have the resources in place to do the fast turnaround from all of the app submissions, but this doesn't include the parking structures.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

Okay. So this doesn't include the parking structures, but it covers citywide with the exception of the parking structures.

Right-of-way, high-traffic areas, trails, of that nature it does. So they go all over the town, and they do both reactive and proactive graffiti removal.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

Okay, so I in theory am supportive of having graffiti removal to an extent. I also want us as a city to have a proactive approach because if there is an overwhelming amount of graffiti happening in the city, for one reason or another, and I know I don't support why somebody would go out and illegally deface a building, but the majority of the graffiti that does happen is youth. So I want to see us have a a preventative and proactive approach to making sure that that we are creating access for children to be able to develop these these skills

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

that can lead to you know becoming a college student becoming a business owner an entrepreneur and and I just am worried that this amount is only going to continue to grow and we're only going to continue to have to remove more and more graffiti so so madam city attorney would within this amended agreement would it be appropriate for us and would we be able to see this proposed agreement not go to the 600,000 amount but to a lesser amount and appropriating some of those monies that would have went to that full 600,000

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

to the graffiti arts program that we recently voted on as a pilot program so I mean we will

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem 22

document memorialize the direction of our city manager and staff as given through the City Council so yes legally we can renegotiate if but the negotiations and the scope of work is something that's done out of the department so if that's something that they want to accommodate you just direct us and we can draft in terms of appropriations I believe you'd have to agenda that on a future agenda what you could do because we're in an existing

agreement with the vendor so we would have to go back to renegotiate that but But the item of increasing the amount is what's before you. So if you chose to not increase the amount and told us to reprogram it somewhere else, we'd have to return for an appropriation request as to where and determine that we can use the source of funding for that. But we do have a lot of programs based on your request. Yes. Some of the revived dollars and the pilot program that I think you'll be pleased to see. I would personally hate to reduce our capacity to address the graffiti that's

out there. If you give us the opportunity I think you're going to be quite happy with some of the other things that we're doing more in line with what you want

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

concerning the youth. Yeah I think for the sake of of just making sure that the graffiti that we do have that is illegally throughout the city that that this graffiti is removed I would like to to offer my direction to staff that I I do want to see a much more robust budget and more preventative efforts when it comes to graffiti and engaging youth in the arts because graffiti is an element of art. And I think that if we were, take for instance the parking lots in downtown Santa Ana, they continue to have the issue of graffiti. So as a response, I think it would be much better if we do have a graffiti arts program

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

with sufficient funding, we could have students and children help create art at the very places in the center of our city at these parking lots. And I think that sends a much better message than having a bunch of different color blotches in our parking lots. So with that being said, that concludes my

comments. Thank you, Madam City Manager. Thank you. Councilmember Mayor Pro Tem.

Phil BacerraItem 22

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would tell you GPC, the contractor has done an amazing job of removing graffiti. I know because I'm constantly reporting graffiti through my Santa Ana app. In fact, I asked our city manager, is this item because of me? Because I do report it and I don't just reserve it to seeing it on a wall. It's whether it's on the sidewalks, whether it's on electrical boxes, signs. I mean, our community deserves to be graffiti free. And to the point of public art and murals that enhance our quality of life and that aren't defaced, That's amazing. And we do need more of those. And I think this council supports that.

Phil BacerraItem 22

I do think these are probably two separate items, though, because I believe what we're talking about today is a direct contract with a vendor that is performing a specific task. And, you know, the amount that we're increasing it to, in fact, I'm going to go in a completely different direction from what my colleague was talking about, and that is in regards to the downtown parking structures, Councilmember Hernandez is right. they have been atrocious, especially, you know, for a while I would park on the ground floor, the second floor, and then I would go up to the top per a recommendation of one of the business

Phil BacerraItem 22

owners downtown, and I was just appalled at what I saw. And we just had Boca de Oro downtown a couple weeks ago, and I just kept thinking, oh my God, how many of those children and their families are not going to come back to downtown because of what they saw? And it was such a wonderful event and so many folks were downtown that to have that impression is just it's just terrible. So after speaking with staff and reviewing the agreement, this is a separate agreement, not what's before us, but the agreement with the parking structure operators and what their obligation was to handle the

Phil BacerraItem 22

graffiti in the structures, I learned that it is woeful. It is it is done in such a way that it would probably cost more for the city when it comes to graffiti removal. And Councilmember Hernandez is right. If you see these mismatched color splotches in there. The great thing is GPC has done an amazing job of trying to color match when they remove graffiti throughout the city. And so what I was hoping we would actually look at doing today, because I think it's something that benefits every business, everybody in downtown, by having these safe and clean parking structures. What I'd like to do is I'd like to ask staff

Phil BacerraItem 22

to go back to the vendor. And now I don't know if maybe this would be a separate item or if this would be something we would amend this item, but I'd like you to go back to the vendor to see if we can have GPC bid on taking on the downtown parking structures for graffiti removal. Because the way that the agreement is with the parking structure operators now I don't believe is efficient. You've already got a company like GPC that's already going out citywide. And as we talk later about the budget, I'm going to express more about my concerns about how we treat downtown on certain basic services differently.

Phil BacerraItem 22

It's kind of ridiculous. But on this item alone, to stay focused, I would like to get input from staff. What would be the best way to approach this? Would it be just to adopt this tonight? You, staff, would go back to the vendor and try to see if they would be willing to take on the downtown parking structures? Or or should we amend this one tonight?

So, Mayor Pro Tem, I think for the city, we need this enhanced contract. So I would like to see you proceed with this one. In regards to your suggestion, it's an excellent suggestion. We have a contract that was just recently awarded with a brand-new parking operator of our downtown structures, and one of their obligations in that contract is to remove graffiti in the structures. And they were hiring a painter to do so. So we would need to go back to the operator

and see if they've already entered into a contractual arrangement, or if they could reach out to GPC to see if GPC could contract directly with the operator to be the one that does the painting within the structure. So I'd need a little bit of time, and we'd have to circle back to the operator.

Phil BacerraItem 22

And I appreciate that. Thank you, Madam City Manager. But what I'm hoping that you'll do is look at possibly adding the city parking structures to the contract. What I'd like to see you come back with is an amendment to this contract to add them, not to have them go through the parking operator. It just seems very convoluted. We've, on the economy of scale, we already have them covering 27 square miles except for these little pockets. It just makes sense to add them to the contract. So I would like you to explore all the options and see what makes the most sense from an efficiency standpoint and an economic standpoint.

Phil BacerraItem 22

We can do that. So my motion then would be to approve the item with the additional direction to staff that they look at adding the downtown parking structures to the contract or find another way to have the operators utilize them as well.

Right. Either way, it's probably going to take an amendment with the operator agreement.

Okay.

Okay. Thank you. So there's a motion to adopt with some additional...

I will second that motion.

Thank you, Councilmember. There's a motion and a second. Let me go ahead and call on Councilmember Phan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

Thank you. Madam City Manager, so just for clarification, or Mayor Pro Tem, could we, for this, I'm not excited, let's be frank, of adding, you know, this additional $300,000 and $600,000, and it's a lot of money to be doing the same thing all the time, right? I think all of us up here are interested in preventative measures. And if you're going to graffiti walls, maybe make it pretty, you know, please.

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

But I guess my question is, following up on Mary Pro Tems' comments, is it possible that if instead of approving this item today, going back to GPC and say, hey, we want you to do the parking garages as part of this amount because I would prefer to see this increase go to preventative measures wrapping our you know I guess our electrical boxes painting them supporting that type of program that's more preventative than just to go around and painting the same wall ten times on

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

the corner of New Hope and McFadden because there are literally three empty walls facing the same intersection. So if I were to approve something like this, I would like for it to include services to the parking structures. Is that possible?

MS. Once again, we have a contract in place with the parking operator to do graffiti removal in the parking structure. So I would need to revisit that agreement and return to you.

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

So, but I guess my, when does, well, I guess you have to tell me, you have to visit it to figure out when that ends. So I would move to continue the item for you to figure that out and see what we can do, because to me, you know, with that contract, which I don't know the value off the top of my head, on top of this almost $15 million contract over the next five years, we're, you know, we're potentially spending, what, $15, $16 million just on graffiti abatement, not prevention. And while I know this is not the item to discuss prevention, I really think that we should

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

revisit this prior to saying, yes, we're going to commit this amount of money to, again, continue to paint the same beige-colored walls over and over and over. And so with that, I would move to continue the item to give staff the opportunity to revisit those contracts and come back to us with the options or discuss some of the items that we have mentioned here. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 22

Thank you, Councilmember Fan. I just want to say, if we invested over the next five years $16 million into communities that are burdened with graffiti, I guarantee you the outcome of those children and the children living in those communities would be vastly different than anything we've ever seen. So, yeah, I do agree. If you invest those $16 million into those children and communities, watch this city change. Thank you.

Thank you. any additional members of the council wish to comment give me one second let me go to other people who haven't spoken yet

Jessie LopezItem 22

sure I'm supportive of the continuance because I want to see the different options that our city manager is going to bring back and I do think that you know 15 million is a really high number and so I want to make sure that if we go back and I understand that we have a current contract with the folks that do the garages so I understand why we need time to discuss this with them but if we move forward with this amount I would like to see them be included in this in the staff recommendation so the 15 million for the entire city including

the parking garages great thank you for those comments any other members of the council wish to comment is Pena Loza good it's I'm good mayor thank you great Thank you. Let me go to myself and then I'll go to Mayor Pro Tem as well. So, you know, we just have a lot of graffiti to abate and that's just the reality, unfortunately. I do agree with some of what was said is that I remember in the past when we were, before we even entered into a contract, there was like, we used to do graffiti abatement in-house before we went outside and worked with the vendor and that was really, really difficult.

I think we did as good a job as we possibly could, but the volume was just so high. And some of the things that we explored were the things that are being discussed now. How do we prevent the things from being tagged and graffitied and damaged? And I know that part of it was talking about murals as well, as was discussed tonight. If you look at some of the murals, they've been untouched for years. and I think what it does is it gives you an intangible value as well. You support the arts, you support people that are creative, you make our city better looking, more aesthetically pleasing. We looked at things like vertical

landscaping where we could, where we could get some, you know, vines growing up on, you know, walls. You can't graffiti over, you know, over, you know, softscape. So, you know, those were things that we thought of that, yeah, they seem to cost a lot when you cost them out. And we were looking at flour at one time, all those blank walls, and it was like a blank slate. But had we vertical landscaped that area back then and spent the money, we'd be saving millions and millions of dollars, right? And everybody said it was sticker shock from everything that we were considering back then. In any event, look,

hindsight makes it really difficult, but I think if we don't invest in things now, we'll never see the benefits of those later. And so we just keep paying into this, you know, constant revolving, you know, cost that we have. So, you know, I do agree that I don't want to let the garage vendor sort of, you know, because it sounds like you've negotiated, you know, terms of that agreement with this new vendor for the garages that include a baiting graffiti, right? But, you know, so I don't want to let them off the hook and then they get this windfall of saying, okay, now we don't have

to do a bait because you're going to bring in a third party that's going to come in and bait for us and they get a benefit of that. Maybe what this vendor could do is what a lot of the merchants were asking for and I think what Councilmember Hernandez is asking for, why don't they retain an artist? Let them do murals. Let them paint signs of what the businesses are in downtown. So when somebody parks, they'll see a sign of Chavitas. They'll see a sign of Teresa's Jewelers. And that will probably less likely be tagged than a blank wall. You know, so I just think that there are creative ways that we can get through this,

especially because the dollar amounts are now so significantly high. Those would be my, you know, just my comments on this. And, you know, I don't know where we are. I just wanted to ask staff, is it a time-sensitive item? Because I know every time we put things, you know, on hold, you know, do things fall apart? I mean, are we not going to have a vendor for the next 30 days as we're waiting or whatever? So I just want to be sensitive on the timing of things.

So, Nabil just reminded me, in January, when you added these additional dollars to this, you did identify the areas you wanted to make sure we focused on as well, and it did include the railroads. So by not moving forward with this contract and the additional amounts, we wouldn't be able to kick off that program, which we've been working really hard on for the last few months. So it is somewhat time-sensitive, but of course, you know, we will take the direction from the majority.

Let me go ahead and go back to Mayor Pro Tem.

Phil BacerraItem 22

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate some of your comments. You know, this graffiti, it's not something that, you know, graffiti removal is not the, like, we're not going to invest in murals, right? It's not an either-or situation. I think it's a, you know, we have approach both. I mean the fact is is that do we want to see our city tagged up? And yes, should we have more murals? Absolutely. And I think all of us up here agree that more murals the better. But in the meantime, there are blank walls on flower. I wish there were murals tomorrow morning, but there aren't going to be.

Phil BacerraItem 22

But do I want to see a bunch of tagging left up? I don't. And when I go down MacArthur and I see some of those blank walls and they get tagged up, I'm appreciated that we have this contract before us, or that we have in place. And so this isn't an either-or. I think that what we should be looking at is this is one part of it. We need to keep our city clean. We should be proud of our city, and it looks beautiful and gorgeous when it's not all tagged up with graffiti. And it would be even more beautiful when we do add some attractive murals. But what's before us today is one part of that equation, and that is to remove the

Phil BacerraItem 22

illegally placed graffiti. So my hope is that we can get this contract approved tonight with the direction of having staff come back to us to address the parking structures in downtown because that is an awful first impression for folks to see what was up there for a while. Thank you.

All right, seeing no other comments, there's a motion and a second for a continuance. I'm not sure how long that continuance was. I'll ask the

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

make her the motion I'm okay with just to the next meeting if that's enough time for staff to look into the existing contract with the parking structure and bring it back to us I know that's basically a one-week turnaround is that

possible or is it two meetings so it's two different departments we'll make it happen in the two-week turnaround because I think it's more important and And I do agree with Mayor Pro Tem, it's two different items. So this is citywide graffiti abatement related to the app that we are adding supplemental services to just keep up with it. Councilmember Hernandez, we are working on the artist plan that he had requested and you did appropriate money for already. And the structures would be a perfect place. And our Economic Development Department is getting ready to launch that program. They've been doing the initial assessment of it.

that program could do the very same urals in the downtown structures that you want to incorporate. So if we need to delay this to figure out what we're going to do with the parking structure, we certainly can. We could approve this, and then we could certainly go back and modify the operator's agreement because the provision in the parking operator's agreement to remove graffiti is on a reimbursement basis.

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

So I'm just not ready to make that commitment tonight. And I'm not saying put this money, I don't think any of my colleagues are saying committing to putting this money to the art, you know, the anti-graffiti. I'm just saying, you know, if we're doing that in downtown, in the parking structures, if we're allocating a certain amount of money, let's see where we can be more efficient. Let's see where we can work together and what that cost really is.

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

So that's why I'd like to see it come back in a couple weeks and maybe have a more robust discussion on how we can work on that project. I don't think it's time sensitive in the sense that, you know, we're not going to have a graffiti abatement company in the meantime. Thank you.

All right.

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

So two weeks.

Two weeks. That's acceptable to the second. Whoever seconded. I think it was just a quick I just let me just ask who was the second on the

Phil BacerraItem 22

email okay yeah that's acceptable okay two weeks go ahead one question so so I think it's been asked a couple times but I wanted to make sure I understood so we don't approve this item tonight we continue it are we going to be out of a contract with this vendor when does the contract expire with the vendor well

So you would have a fixed budget for the current fiscal year. So if Nabil reaches his maximum for the fiscal year, we would no longer be able to use the vendor for the fiscal year. Nabil, if you can talk about if that's a possibility of happening.

If the contract continues to be funded, we have six and a half years left on it. Okay. But it needs to be funded so we would add more technicians to take care of the railroad issues that we've been experiencing and all the calls. Graffiti is not going away. And it's pretty expensive. We need two technicians, two trucks to handle just the railroad and that's what this money is going to pay for. In addition to everything else, I get the calls every weekend, not just on during the week.

Phil BacerraItem 22

And it's a serious issue. I'll just throw my hand up and say I know some of them are for me because I would call about the railroad and what's along the Alton bike trail and what all the kids have to see when they're going to and from school. So thank you for that. So it sounds like that uptick then comes from the tremendous amount of graffiti that we're seeing along the road. Okay. I mean, I'm reluctant to support a continuance, but knowing that we are going to continue to have graffiti abatement proceed.

It would continue, sure.

Phil BacerraItem 22

Okay. So I could support a two-week continuance. Is that what we're looking at? Yeah.

Thai Viet PhanItem 22

Actually, Nabil, can you just stay up there really quickly? Are we going to run out of money for graffiti abatement in two weeks? No, okay, there you go. Thank you

Thank you, so okay, we will continue I'm sorry mayor graffiti will continue and we need to deal with it ongoing basis

Thank you, and I think all of us said you know tortured this item to death so we've everybody spoken and I think there's a motion and a second for a two-week continuance on this item with some additional additional requests to maybe look at these both of these contracts. Go ahead Council Member.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll be very quick. And this is just a point of clarification for director Saba. Director Saba, I know you mentioned that this is specifically for graffiti along the railroads. I hope we're not taking, you know, that that's not on our dime or are you specifically talking about the bike trails that run along the railroads or the actual graffiti that's along the actual railroads because i know there's there's litigation and there's a setup there was a settlement with the railroad company that they were to take care of all the this cleanup on their own dime can you

can you just specify which one that was yes it is for the enhancement or the level of service THAT WE'RE TRYING TO ENHANCE IS TO DEAL WITH THE GRAFFITI MAINLY ON THE RAILROAD. THE RAILROAD WALLS ARE PRIVATE AND THAT WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE SETTLEMENT. CLEANING OF THE RAILROAD PROPERTY WOULD BE I THINK IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE RAILROAD COMPANY BUT NOT THE WALLS WITH THE GRAFFITI ON IT. THAT WE LEARNED RECENTLY THAT WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF THAT AND THAT'S WHAT THIS is about got it thank you that's it mr mayor thank you for those comments seeing no other

questions or comments council members please vote on the motion on the floor

council member pañalos if you would announce your vote please

Motion passes 7-0 with council members Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza, Peñalosa, Van, Mayor Potemba, Sarah, Mayor Samantha voting yes.

Thank you everybody and thank you to staff for the indulgence on the questions that we had. Let's move along to the first item on the business calendar. That's item number 25 and that's the progress report on the general plan. I'll turn it over to staff.

So Mayor, we do have a short presentation if you would like it. However, this is the annual report that is required to be filed with both HCD and OPR and the staff report provides all of the details. So I will leave it up to your option as to whether you would like to see a brief presentation or if you're ready to move the item.

I think we're good. In any event, is there any questions or comments? Seeing none, I'll go ahead and entertain motion. I'll second.

I'll go ahead and move the item. I'll move it second by Councilmember Hernandez. Councilmembers, please vote.

Councilmember Peñalosa, if you could announce your vote if you're not able to.

Thank you. Motion passes 7-0 with Councilmembers Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza, Peñalosa, Fan, Mayor Pro Tem, Becerra, and Mayor Sarmenta voting yes.

Thank you, everybody. Let's move along to item number 26, which is the early direction that council will provide for the 22-23 budget cycle to staff. And staff, I'm sure, has a presentation for us.

Yes, may we do. So myself, along with the executive director of finance, have a brief presentation for you. I'm going to start it, and I'll be turning it over to Catherine Downs. But I can't believe it's now is the time to focus on building the budget for our upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1st, 2022 and runs to 2023. We want to share some high-level budget topics with you and receive any early direction you may have. This direction will assist us as we move forward in the process to propose allocation of resources for you. So the topics we're going to cover tonight include an overview of our fiscal health,

an organizational alignment change, reconfirm the city events, revisit the cannabis allocations, discuss city financial commitment for infrastructure and public parking at Third and Broadway, seek guidance on miscellaneous fees, propose a pension debt strategy, check in with our 10-year outlook for our general fund, and then finally go over the budget timeline and the significant steps in the process. So first I really want to recognize the financially strong position we find ourselves in. It's a result of your leadership and some very heavy lifting from all of our operating departments.

We fully anticipate the proposed budget will be balanced for the upcoming year with being just two years out of a pandemic it is not normal. A lot of municipalities are not finding themselves in this favorable position. Our most recent credit rating is strong it's a double A and the recent refinancing of debt saved us a hundred and thirty eight million dollars. We have our policy required general fund reserves in place to mitigate risk and support cash flow. And while we only budget a single year at a time, we continue to focus on the longer horizon by maintaining a 10-year financial forecast which has substantially improved

over the last two years. While outside of the general fund, Santa Ana takes advantage of every opportunity to secure federal and state funding, including for pandemic response, housing, economic stimulus, and direct assistance. Our city was very adept at managing its spending during the pandemic to ensure our fiscal sustainability. So one change you will see in the proposed budget is the transfer of park maintenance to the Public Works Department. Incorporating this function, which is already performed by Public Works for all other city assets, is a best practice for municipal operations.

The move will result in increasing the city's operational efficiency, create consistency for the community, and ensure a uniform level of service executed by one single agency for all public facilities. This is the model that is used for 25 of the 30 parks and rec agencies in our county. It will also provide an increased focus for community services on the parks and rec department to ensure engagement, recreational opportunities, events, and community cohesiveness.

And then recently, we did provide a receive-in-file which listed all of the events that we had proposed for the remainder of the current fiscal year, but we also gave you a preview from the comments that we've heard of what we propose for the upcoming fiscal year. So these are those events. We certainly would look for your confirmation or any direction on any changes. That will help us do the programming. And now I'm going to turn it over to our Executive Director of Finance, who will get a little bit more into the numbers.

All right. Thank you, Mayor and City Council. So the first bit of direction that we are looking for tonight is if the City Council would like to make any changes to this events list here. Any additions, subtractions, changes, we'd happily accept your direction.

Let me just ask staff right now if this is kind of the way maybe we proceed slide by slide where you need some direction from the council as opposed to waiting until the end. It might be a little bit more long-winded. Is that helpful? Whatever way you want to proceed, I'll go ahead and accommodate.

We'll happily take it slide by slide.

Sounds good. Let me go ahead and ask the council then to see if there's any suggestions they want to make. Councilmember Hernandez and with Councilmember Fan yes thank you director

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Downs for this presentation I really like the diversity of the celebrations that we have most notably with the indigenous people's day celebration it's important for me that this celebration is organized curated and led by Native Americans or indigenous people can you confirm that that will be the process in in which this event is coordinated.

Certainly with that direction, and I know we had a Zoom meeting on the topic already, we certainly can do that.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Wonderful, just wanted to make sure I brought that up for a sake of transparency with the public. Happy that we have Juneteenth, Dia de los Muertos, that's exciting. There's two proposed events that I want to introduce. One is a former event that we used to have in the city of Santa Ana, Fiestas Patrias. I would like to see that event be brought back to the city of Santa Ana and funded and I would also like to See the city of Santa Ana bring back the black history parade that is now in Anaheim that started in Santa Ana 42 years ago

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Those are the two

Events I would like to introduce. Thank you for those comments and thank you for being brief Any other members of it? I'm sorry. We had councilmember fan then Lopez

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

I'll be brief too. I would like to see an event targeted specifically to the Vietnamese American community. There is not one on this list. And I think two events that you can look at and work with our Vietnamese community liaison on is the Mid-Autumn Festival or the Tet, Lunar New Year. Either would work. I think that there's a lot of options there and you can work with her to figure out which one works better. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember. Let me go ahead and move along to Councilmember Lopez and then Peña Losa

Jessie LopezItem 26

Thank you. I'll try to be brief as well for the park maintenance kind of going back one slide So the new budget the coming up budget is going to have parks You know transferring pot parks into public works the parks maintenance. I should say

Only the maintenance division you will still have a parks and rec and community services agency

Jessie LopezItem 26

okay then I do want to say that I when the budget comes back I want to see that the parks maintenance is going to be fully funded within the Public Works Department thank you and so moving on to the city events slide what is the

summer at the plaza I know our executive director of parks and rec has a lot of fun activities program for that she talked about it briefly before but because of the success that we had in doing the winter village in the Civic Center she wants to incorporate that area and do a lot more activities during the summer months okay so just activities here at the civic center Plaza great she does have activities planned in other locations but wants to

incorporate a lot of activities in the Civic Center okay got it I'm not crazy

Jessie LopezItem 26

about the 4th of July celebration especially if you know we were trying to ban fireworks because of the quality of there I think that would also be a factor to for me anyway but I'm supportive of fiestas patrias and with the black history parade I know that now it's in Anaheim now so possibly maybe if we can do one year with them one year with the city of Santa Ana and just so that we can get the hang of it and also with tech I think other cities do it oh

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

yeah I was not recommending at that parade please do not try to introduce

Jessie LopezItem 26

one yeah like we don't have to recreate the wheel with some of these we can work with other cities that's gonna be it thank you thank you

councilmember Pena Lossa thank you mayor Sambienta I just want to say for the the record that I am very supportive of seeing a fourth of July celebration come back. I think one of the talking points that we have had with the people that are trying to, the community members trying to oppose the, or impose the firework ban, is that we would have a central firework location centered around Centennial Park, like we've done in the past, fourth of July, to give people an incentive to, hey, you can't do fireworks at your house, it's a dangerous thing to do, but we're gonna have a show that's free

to the public. So that's very supportive of that. I do want to echo a little bit of what council member Hernandez mentioned in regards to fiestas patrias. I know that the last month when we had this discussion about the budget, I specifically remember saying, please do not remove the fiestas patrias name from the celebration because that's something that our community is used to and has celebrated Fiestas Patrias, I'm using air quotes here, for decades. So I want to see Fiestas Patrias included in the name of celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.

You know, it would be a good thing to have. The other question I had is for staff, why isn't the movies in the park reflected on here? Is that because that's part of the revive?

dollars?

Council member Penelosa, I believe you did answer the question. So we were doing additional ones with those dollars. We do have Birch Summer Nights listed on here as a city event.

Okay, so the movies at the park is still funded using revived dollars, correct?

Correct.

And the reason why I mentioned that is because because under the revived funds, we also had listed Hispanic heritage month and we had a couple of these also listed under the revived funds. So how did we decide which ones would be using two streams of funds or is it just that the more expensive ones are used? Is there a reason why that was split up the way it is?

Partly because when the pandemic hit and we adjusted the budget down, we didn't have budgeting for the events for the last basically almost two years. And then when we were able to do some of those, we did utilize, like the 5K is a perfect example. So we didn't have plans, we didn't have budget for it, but we were able to utilize Revive because it was a healthy activity to get the community out. So it was a part of a mixed reason as to why we used Revive when we didn't have it already programmed in the general fund. but the goal certainly would be for our city to get back to every year doing these city events

regardless of any funding from the American Rescue Plan. Does that make sense?

It does, Madam City Manager. Thank you. And the final question, it's more like a comment just in regard. I'm very supportive of celebrating black history in our city and our historic black neighborhoods. but I just also wanted to just touch a little bit on what Council Member Fan and Council Member Lopez mentioned about duplicating or reinventing the wheel. You know, it's, you know, want to make sure that if we do do this, we're not duplicating another parade or we're inviting the organizers of the parade in Anaheim to do it in Santa Ana so that, you know,

we're not reinventing the wheel and that's it. Thank you, Madam City Manager.

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

Thank you. The events that I would like to see come an annual activity for our residents is Dia de los Abuelitos, you know, Senior Citizen Day, which last year we had the first annual. So this year I'd like to have a second annual for August 26th at the same place, at the Southwest Senior Center. And then the month of August was declared to be Chicano Heritage Month. So we'd like to, in partnership with my colleague Hernandez,

Chicano Heritage Month and celebrate it at the Delhi Center either on the 27th or 28th. And this is the second annual, and it will continue on.

And the next one is Caregiver's Recognition Day.

Something, I don't know, we can talk about the details, but not enough attention has been given to the caretakers, especially with so much illnesses. I think we've forgotten that the caregivers need mental health and other productive attention. So caregivers' recognition day. And the last one would be an Alzheimer's monthly educational series for seniors at the various senior centers in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

and maybe if there's a demand for any other language, but a short one-hour series on a monthly basis and rotated among the various community centers.

And lastly, I have a question on the Fiestas Patrias. Would this be for the Cinco de Mayo event or is it for the 16th of September? or is there, they're both kind of used the same celebration of Mexican Independence Day?

So I don't know if we have, I'll have to look back on the receiving file that had the date on it, but Fiestas Patriots was included in the celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. We wanted to just make a bigger celebration out of it than just a weekend like it always was, but it would be incorporated within the Hispanic Heritage Month.

Okay, very good. And that's it, Mayor. Thank you. Let me go to Mayor Pro Tem, then I'll call on myself, then Councilmember Hernandez. Thank you. I'm very

Phil BacerraItem 26

happy to see that the Winter Village was such a success that we want to continue to program the Civic Center. So I'm happy to see those events. I would absolutely want to keep the 4th of July, and I think Councilmember Pelosa hit all the write notes on why we'd want to keep it and why folks that were proposing a fireworks ban want to keep the civic celebration of Fourth of July. I was frankly shocked not to see fiestas patrias on this list so I hope that that will return. One event that other cities do not celebrate that we should be celebrating is our own city's birthday. So I would like to see us celebrate that.

Phil BacerraItem 26

We have a proud history. Brian from the library has done a fantastic job of always bringing together the history that we have and documenting the history. And I think there's a lot that can be shared through an event like that. Maybe it gets combined with the, you know, 5K because it ain't going to be funded with revive forever. So with that, those are my comments. Thank you.

Thank you for keeping it brief. Let me just, you know, go. I think what staff is looking for is direction. And I don't want to add to your list. I think you have a pretty comprehensive list. And if I'm not mistaken, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month is more of an umbrella term that incorporates Fiestas Patrias. And so I don't think any of us want to lose that name. And Fiestas Patrias technically comes or is held right around the 16th of September, which is not only Independence Day for Mexico, but it's Independence Day for many, many other Latin countries as well. So that's why we call it Fiestas Patrias.

Cinco de Mayo is the Battle of Puebla, which is different than the independence of Mexico. In any event, just seeing that difference. What I do want to, you know, sort of lift up here is I want to make sure that, you know, and we don't want two black history parades. I think if Anaheim, you know, look, the organizers will say we feel more at home in Santa Ana or we want to come back home to Santa Ana, which is where it originated from, then certainly that's something I'm supportive of. If they say we're fine in Anaheim, then that's fine too. But let me just make a couple of suggestions on Fiestas Patrias. It is a big deal.

When we used to do it here, it was a three-day weekend, and we used to bring in over a quarter of a million people into Santa Ana, and many of them spent the weekend here, spent money here. It was probably one of the largest events in Southern California. it was comparable to what Miami calls Calle Ocho, which is their big parade for sort of celebrating what the Cuban folks have there. So we should get started pretty soon because there's vendors and sponsors and all these other really technical things that need to be done. We work in conjunction with the Mexican Consulate's office, so the sooner we can get started on

that, the better. We used to make a profit towards the end. I mean, it became so successful that it was no longer being subsidized by the city, but we were actually making a profit. On the Winter Village, I think it was great with, you know, with Revive dollars. I'm not, the price tag was a little high. You know, so I'd like to, you know, kind of reconsider that as we go through this. I'm not completely supportive of it. But there's one thing that we might be able to augment it or do something that's, you know, around, you know, year long.

is I know that youth came to us and said that they wanted to have just a roller rink, you know, and they'd be able to check out roller skates and be able to, you know, roller skate around the city. And I remember that was something that we all thought we could, you know, look into. So I would be supportive of something like that, you know, maybe and kind of revisit that one. But everything else on this list is really good. The only last thing I would add is on the concerts and the park series. If you could do me a big favor, let's include a jazz concert. You know, I know other cities, big cities, have their jazz concerts.

We have plenty of good Latin jazz around here, and we need that. You know, African jazz, you know, Latin jazz. We just need to get that vibe in the city somehow. So those are my comments, and I think, was it Hernandez? Did you have one more comment?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say I'm in agreement with Councilmember Mendoza, Chicano Heritage Month this is a a city with with very rich Mexican American history and for people like myself I've never been I was too American for for Mexico and to Mexican for America so Chicano kind of just fit well you know shout out to Selena Quintana for coining that there but but Chicano Heritage Month is an important month and and I think that that's something that I I am absolutely proud to support. I am in support of us celebrating the city's birthday as well, October 27th.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

And I also, it's extremely important, I already emphasized it, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, us keeping the name Fiestas Patrias is imperative to me. Also, during Hispanic Heritage Month, that we diversify our digital advertisement to acknowledge some of the local Hispanic heroes, people like Chepa Andrade and some of those some of those other folks that have helped contribute to the legacy here of Hispanic people people like Lydia Romero Cruz who we have a school named after I think that would be also a great use of us collaborating with our library to talk about local history during

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Hispanic Heritage Month I can only imagine the impact that you have on children when they have like a coloring page and they're coloring people you know at a library in the very community where these people grew up. I think that's immensely powerful and I think a good way for us to streamline and for us to have a robust black history celebration is similar in taking the approach for Hispanic Heritage Month. If we shifted from just having the Black History Parade to having a Black History Month and having the parade be part of that and having a concert series and things of that sort, I think it would be

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

immensely powerful for a number of reasons. Number one, the first city in Orange County to hire a black police officer was the city of Santa Ana when we hired Harlan Lambert in the 1960s. Santa Ana has always been on the cusp of change. Being the first city to hire the first black police officer, I think that when it comes to black history in Orange County, there's no city that comes close to Santa Ana. We have a number of businesses. We have the most amount of black churches here. And Helen Shipp, founder of the Black History Parade, bringing them back home to Santa Ana.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

I think if we had a Black History Month celebration, I think that would be a great approach. And it ensures that we're not duplicating any efforts. And I can assure you, the celebration would love to come back home and leave Anaheim. That concludes my comments, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Let me go ahead and bring it back to staff.

A lot of great suggestions, and we will incorporate those in the budget.

Thank you.

Next up is the Cannabis Public Benefit Fund. So we have an updated estimate of the available funding in this fund. After the midyear adjustments, we still have an estimated total of $2.6 million, or $2.7 million available to appropriate in future periods. so that would be 1 million from the youth column and 1.6 million from the enforcement column so tonight we are seeking City Council direction for preparing our draft budget would you like the draft budget to include a

proposed spending plan for the remaining 2.7 million dollar estimated balance and if there is a two-thirds set aside is approximately 13 million dollars again for the upcoming fiscal year, what portion should we budget for youth? So those are the items that we'd like direction on.

Great. Let me go ahead and once again maybe do a round-robin. And if you don't want to say or clarify anything, or if you've heard it from a colleague, then, you know, no need to reiterate the same thing. But let me bring it back to Council to see if there's any direction on that.

Council Member Phan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

Thank you. So, Director Downs, we had talked about the cannabis fund, and what we have left, I would like to see it allocated and obviously to work with our planning department and code enforcement to see how much more we can invest in code enforcement. We have a lot of code enforcement, but it's just not enough for the city that's our size. And code enforcement can do a lot of things, and they kind of fund themselves, given that those who are subject to code enforcement pay fines, pay attorney's fees, pay all sorts of things. And it's like the IRS, you know? And so I would really like for us to do that to ensure

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

that our commercial businesses that are not complying with our code are adequately dealt with and can, and they will actually pay the bill. But in conjunction with that, I don't know if it's possible, maybe it's another area in the budget we might get to, is the sister side of that, the other side of the coin, which is planning staff, because once you have code enforcement who are, you know, who's telling me all the things that's wrong with my business, I need to go through planning to make sure that everything is up to, you know, up to par, up to code, and actually allows me to get back out there and conduct my business.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

So I would like to see that go together. I don't really know whether planning could come out of the cannabis fund. It might not, but I did want to make that comment. As to the two-thirds set aside, I guess I don't really know how to put a number on it without first going through the list of items that's possible. And I would really like for our planning and code enforcement department to actually tell us what they need. And I am very serious about wanting to fund code enforcement.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

And this is everything from, you know, nuisance abatement for that one hoarder house that will never clean up their yard and it's a fire hazard. This has to do with illegal red-tagged buildings that could potentially kill people. This has to do with those slap houses that are dangerous for our community. And this also potentially is a policy issue down the line. dealing with all those abandoned cars and some other calls that, you know, barking dogs, things like that, that we don't have to send our police officers out so they can take care of those priority one and two calls and our code

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

enforcement officers can do that. So I guess I'm not ready to mention to talk about the two-thirds set aside until we kind of see what that budget looks like.

Thank you, but that does help your priorities in code enforcement and planning. So when we do program anything we will certainly ensure that the enforcement side addresses those. And I do want to say we have code enforcement does need additional needs. Since 18, 19, we have increased from 16 to 23. I think we're up from seven to 20 actual code enforcement officers. But they do have the admin support behind them that they do need additional dollars to help fund.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

That's great. And, you know, I want to make sure that as we're getting all those citations out, that we're also getting those permits out. Thank you.

Thank you for those comments. Let me go to Council Member Lopez and Hernandez.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Thank you, Mayor Cervantes. So I'm not ready to give an exact dollar amount regarding the two-third. I think, you know, as was mentioned when we discussed the programs, I think we'll have a better understanding of how much money needs to be allocated. But I also want to see a recommendation come from the Youth Commission. I think it's important that we engage with them and that we ask them what it is that they want to see be done with the youth fund but I do want to also one of the things that we talked about last year was making sure that we have funding for grants that can go to community-based orgs here in the city and

Jessie LopezItem 26

you know providing make one of the big asks that we heard of last year was from Alianza Trantatinx and so I want to make sure that we're also when we're moving forward this year that we're including them in the conversation as well reentry programs and services for system impacted youth like underground grit and project kinship those are all really holistic and organizations that I would like for the city to continue to partner with I would also like to see increased funding for youth within city government in terms of internships or jobs and I

Jessie LopezItem 26

also would like to see I also one of the things I heard from the public today and I don't know if it would be part of this or it would be part of the general fund I'm thinking the general fund but anticipating the cost of running the police oversight board slash Commission and so I want to see staff prepared for that and have some sort of line item budget coming back to us and saying this is what we anticipate this is what the council should be approving because we've heard every member of this council support a police oversight board and so I want to see that come back thank you thank you councilmember councilmember

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Hernandez and then mayor pro tem I thank you mr. mayor I'm in for in favor director downs of seeing the majority of these monies go to youth services however I do want to place emphasis that that code enforcement along with planning should should get that support as well because I think I think those two go hand in hand so you can't have code enforcement without having staff you know being involved in the planning process so so I did want to make sure that I placed emphasis on that as well I am supportive of us having this be

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

brought to the Youth Commission as well I do want some direction from them I think that that youth empowerment looks like that I also am in favor of the youth Commission having some sort of an advisory role similar to our Community Development Commission where as it pertains to the topic of youth funding maybe they can give us some direction on what their priorities are maybe it's Maybe if it's art programs or sports or what have you, I'd like to see what that looks like. Something else that is extremely important to me is what tobacco taxes did in the 1990s

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

is it funded early childhood education and it funded Head Start programs. So I would like to see a much stronger early learning emphasis from the city where we commit our dollars to Head Start programs, especially as we hopefully make our way out of this pandemic eventually there's gonna be a lot of families returning to work a lot of people are having children as well having head starts is is essential early childhood learning I think that the library is doing a great job and I think that the cannabis funds would benefit our library so that they can strengthen the efforts that they

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

are already working on at the at the main library by Civic Center I know that our director of the library has tons of innovative ideas and how we can utilize some of these cannabis monies I think it would be a great decision for the city to move that direction something else that's extremely important is intervention prevention and reentry and wraparound services I can't place enough emphasis that these monies should be utilized to reach the most directly impacted justice impacted communities we know that the the war on drugs affected a

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

lot of people who live in poverty there's people doing life sentences for two grams so I think if we if we place these monies into more intervention prevention and reentry services there's great organizations like underground grit project kinship neutral ground all of which are former justice impacted individuals these are college educated folks that are doing very important work on the ground I would need to see them get that support as well and lastly mental health support there's a number of mental health organizations that are

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

doing wraparound services with foster families as well as children in our schools and there needs to be a much more robust support for mental health services and the last thing I want to emphasize is in addition to mental health having mental health services for LGBTQ and trans youth since there's very little organizations and support there I do think it's important that our city is inclusive with these monies and as far as the cannabis fund this concludes my

comments here thank you thank you councilmember mayor pro tem thank you

Phil BacerraItem 26

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I like that idea about having this go to the Youth Commission to get their recommendation. I think that's an excellent idea. We're trying to program for the end user, and they are the end user. I, as well, am not 100 percent sure what the exact amount should go which way tonight, but just a couple of priorities for me. When I hold my monthly community office hours, every time I'm done as I'm walking out of upped an all-access park over there in Thornton, the first thing I hear is, so when we get lights over here on our basketball courts? And I think that we need more lights in our parks.

Phil BacerraItem 26

I think that if we don't want to see bad activity happen in our parks, we need to encourage good activity in our parks. So that means lighting up our recreational facilities. It means implementing our park host program. So if we're talking about youth spending, I think that would be excellent to have more lights. We've heard a lot about code enforcement. I couldn't agree more. And I think that there's so many of the quality of life issues. It's the broken windows theory. The more that we can do to solve the smaller stuff, you know, we don't have to have as many ceremonies tonight talking about homicides

Phil BacerraItem 26

and the bigger crimes that our PD is forced to have to solve. Another issue, though, that hasn't been brought up is parking enforcement. We are woefully deficient in parking enforcement. And this is not just an issue in a certain type of neighborhood. I mean, we've got folks at Comlink that came from Wilshire Square that were complaining about the fact that there's zero attention to parking enforcement in these neighborhoods that actually went through the whole hoops and hurdles to actually get the parking permit programs implemented. And just this morning, I know Councilmember Hernandez was copied on an email with me from

Phil BacerraItem 26

Logan that was saying, hey, we don't get any attention when it comes to parking enforcement. Why do we have these permits if nobody's going to enforce them? And my understanding is we have one officer that covers the entire city on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. One officer that covers all the city and all the different parking permit areas. So I'd like to see us increase that. I think that most of those positions would probably pay for themselves, but I'll wait to see what Kat brings back to confirm that. And then my last item would be looking at ways to reduce the call or the response times

Phil BacerraItem 26

to the priority three, four, and fives calls that. You know, those are the more quality of life issues. So we already have a really respectable response time for the priority ones and twos. But after two, we jump. I mean, we're looking at anywhere between, I think our stats show between 25 and 35 minutes for an officer to respond. So, or if it's not an officer, maybe it's a service officer, whatever that might be. But anyways, I'd like to, those are my items. I just, again, as far as an exact percentage, which way to go tonight, I don't know. But those are some thoughts as far as priorities. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Let me go to Councilmember Peñalosa.

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I just, basically, with these cannabis funds, I'm not ready to commit an actual amount of how much is going to go to which department or whatnot. but I do want to make sure that we don't forget about our code enforcement department. I know that for years now, every time I have conversations with Alvaro in planning, you know, and I ask them, how many code enforcement officers do you think a city our size should should have? And I mean, the number, I believe one time he said 30 plus, and I think we currently have around 15 or 16, which is for, you know, they're stretched thin. And he's the only

any department that never asks for help. I mean, I hear every department asking for help, but he's the only one that consistently says, hey, you know what, we'll try to make it work and we'll manage. So I appreciate that. But I know that they are searched in, so I'd be very supportive of seeing some of this funding go to code enforcement. Obviously not all of it, because our youth services is extremely important. And I wanna make sure that there's a large, you know, the lion's share of that goes to youth services as it was intended to. But with that said, that is it, Mayor Sarmiento.

I know I have other just general ideas that I've been kind of talking about with some community members in regards to making one of our pools an indoor pool and closing it. I know that there's a couple of pools that are already kind of suited for that. it would, we do have cold days and, and, and rainy days and not, obviously not many. We're in Southern California, but I mean, just the last month alone has been in, you know, low sixties every day. And I know that I've heard from some swim groups that they would like to be able to

have indoor year, year round swimming. We already have year round swimming, but obviously it's not But when it's cold, we don't see that being used as much. So that's just long-term visions and conversations that we could have. But that's it for now, Mayor Sarmiento. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for your comments, Council Member. So I think everybody's had a chance to speak.

Not yet.

Go ahead, Council Member Mendoza. I apologize.

That's okay. Thank you. What I would like to see with the use of this cannabis money is let's start back up with some of those after-school programs so that we can have some of these work in collaboration with the school district to be able to have the parents have a safe place for the kids to come because the COVID restrictions are lifting and so kids are going back to school and we need to have some kind of daycare. Like we used to have, for example, at John Muir,

Portola Park served as the after-school program where the kids were there from after-school from two to six and it was funded by the city and it was a really good and productive way for the kids to have a safe place and for the parents not to worry about the kids being out in the street or walking home alone or having the latchkey kids. In addition, I'd like to see if we can get that old firehouse refurbished and going and have a PAL program installed there.

If not at the old firehouse, then find another place where we can have a second PAL program. As you know, I did the tour over at the one in McFadden, and it's an incredible place. It's quite popular, and it's just overflowing with kids. We need to have a second one somewhere in our city. In addition, we need to go back to doing something for our youth during the summer. something like employ the 16-year-olds and above to be recreation leaders, have art at the park programs,

roller skating, or just some activities through the community centers.

And I think we also need another dog park because the one that's coming up is one end of the city. So another one towards the other end of the city would be great. I mean, during COVID, you know, there was many, many, many adoptions. And so now we need to get those pets out there and exercise and maybe even have some, with the youth summer programs, have some children's training on how to take care of their pets. because I did see over at Portola Park, which is over in Santa Clara, I think there's a need for it there.

There's a family playing with their dog inside the tennis courts, so they're using that as the dog park inside, and the kids were roller skating in the tennis courts, and there was dog waste afterwards, So we need to have a dog park somewhere out there so we can get our pets exercised.

And so that's it. I'd like to focus on youth-oriented activities with that money.

Thank you for those comments, Councilmember Mendoza.

If somebody could start the clock on me, that would be great. I want to just, you know, not repeat what a lot of people said. I really do agree with everything that was said regarding the Youth Commission. It's already an advisory body, so they, you know, should maybe tackle this. So hopefully our staff can work with them on some of these options and alternatives, and that way they can go ahead and come back to us. You know, a lot of what I heard, we probably already do, right? So what would be helpful is staff could tell us what programs we have that are ongoing,

but we may want to revisit them to see if we have the right provider doing it. Because what I want to see is I want us to fund and work with organizations that aren't our recurring, you know, really high-end organizations. And I think it was said, you know, earlier, you know, some of these newer programs, whether it's Underground Grit, Project Kinship, you know, what was that?

the neutral ground, but I think there was something else, the Alianza. So, you know, those groups, I think, are very underfunded. So to the extent that they could provide a service to a, you know, to a population and to our community that isn't, you know, hasn't been well served, I think that would be helpful. I'm not really supportive of funding or using these cannabis funds for programs that are operated by the police, such as PAL, because that's a separate issue, right? The way I see it is that those programs could be funded directly by PD as part of their crime

prevention efforts. So to the extent that we can have programs that are done by other departments, whether it's community development and whether it's parks, that would be something I'd be supportive of. And one of the things I wanted to ask for, I know that the 13 biggest cities we all received an allocation, you know, formulaic allocation of funding for internships for the youth. So I remember the number was like a million and a half, so I don't know where that is, or four million actually, but a lot of it went to admin, which was unfortunate, you know, and some of it, you know, the residual

was going to be left over for the youth, the actual paid youth programs. I think it was 16 to 25 was the age range. Can we look at where we are with that? It can augment what we're doing because I think it's an incredible resource that everybody I think was real excited about when we received that allocation. So let me see if there is anything else. When it comes to code enforcement, you know, really supportive. And I was going to give a shout out to to our city attorney, but since she's not there, maybe I won't. No, I'm just kidding. I'll go ahead

and say, so you know, so code enforcement is, you know, is what we do. I mean, that's the front line. But to prosecute a lot of these cases, we need city attorney staff to be able to do that. So maybe if you can, John, just tell Sonia to, you know, plug in, I think, what she would need, whether the ratio is, you know, one staff attorney to, you know, 10 code enforcement officers. I don't know what that is, but we looked at that at one time. So, you know, let us know what support you need from your department just so, you know, we take that into account. Of course. I think that was it.

and hopefully everybody was able to, you know, I kind of wanted to echo what, you know, Council Member Lopez said because I think she went through a much more thorough list of what, you know, what programs for youth, I think, and I think Madam City Attorney, I may have sent you something in writing on some of that. So I don't want to go through those now.

No, thank you, everybody. This is excellent input and it will make our job easier when coming back to you. And what I kind of see happening is a lot of the local community organizations that focus on our immediate area are receiving revived dollars and are doing a lot of this stuff. So maybe it's just the possibility of turning those into permanent programs using our revenue stream as opposed to the revived dollars because a lot of this is exactly the programs that you guys requested that we're rolling out the RFPs for. We have the free daycare, the early childhood.

So it would be great if we can incorporate those in our regular budget and keep them in place.

Excellent point. Let me call on Council Member Fanshawe. She says she has a five-second question.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

Yes, I do.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

How are you going to, you know, we've obviously asked for a lot of things. How do you prioritize that? I guess I want to put on the record I am not supportive of the second dog park. We haven't even gotten our first one up yet. And maybe because I'm a cat parent, so I'm a little bit biased. But I think it is important to get the first one up and see how that goes. And that's it. Thank you.

I'll tell you my secret, Councilmember. I write little numbers next to the ideas of how many of you reiterated them. So we do walk away with a good idea of what's interest to more than one individual and we would start with those as our priorities. Councilmember Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

I just wanted to be on the record too I'm not in favor of having an additional dog park we need more parks for kids. Much better use of money is building something similar to a small park in front of our library. I agree with those

previous comments I have a dog but but you know you know and I and I really respect you know councilmember Peña Loza's advocacy for the dog park I think we need one but we we may you know we want to walk before we can run and let's

get that mayor Samiento really quick absolutely go ahead as the dog park guy I want to say that I also agree with you guys let's get one off the ground first thank you comes for Mendoza but you know let's try to get one off the

ground first and then we'll think about that later thank you council member thank you all right let's

hand it back to staff now okay thank you we appreciate all that direction that we got okay the next item up is the city has entered into a development agreement for the property at third and broadway the existing city parking garage would be demolished which means our parking revenue will temporarily decrease, of course. The agreement obligates the city to fund up to $13 million.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

I'm sorry to interrupt you. I actually believe that I am recused with the Third and Broadway Hotel project. Is it a...

There's no action. This is just general direction from the city council.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

Okay, I'm just going to go ahead and leave the dais anyway, just for this discussion. It's the Caribou Industries project, right? That is correct. So I will leave the dais because Caribou Industries is a client of my employer, Rattan and Tucker, and I will come back when you're done discussing. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Go ahead.

So the agreement does obligate the city to fund up to $13 million of public improvements to be repaid by the developer over time. The city will likely need to make this $13 million contribution during this calendar year. So we are seeking direction from city council. With the mid-year report on March 1st, We estimated the general fund will have a $20 million balance available for spending at June 30. So should we prepare the draft budget to use the available general fund balance for this $13 million contribution? The developer would repay the general fund

over time with interest. This is the staff recommendation. Or should we pursue debt financing for this $13 million contribution? And of course, the developer would be responsible to make the debt payments.

Thank you. Let me go ahead and bring it back to staff on this, or excuse me, bring it back to council on this. If there's any comments, Mayor Pro Tem, go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 26

First question. So the $13 million contribution is to what?

It's to prepare the infrastructure and then also replace the public spaces, and then we would receive reimbursement back from the developer over time based on the revenue from the parking operations.

Phil BacerraItem 26

So we're saying that the developer is not able to make this investment?

This was a part of the development and disposition agreement that council approved. These are the terms of it.

Phil BacerraItem 26

So if it's part of the terms, why is there a question before us?

The question is not whether we comply with it. It's whether how you want to fund the obligation from the DDA. So we have a $13 million obligation. We're staff is recommending, because we have an excess in the general fund that really should be used for one time, that we could utilize a portion of that to meet this obligation and then receive the payment back right into our general fund. The other alternative would be we would go out for private placement or some type of another debt instrument and finance it.

Phil BacerraItem 26

And if we did the debt instrument, would that be on the developer's shoulders or on our books?

It would be on ours, but the payment would come back through the developer.

Phil BacerraItem 26

Okay. From what you're describing, it sounds like it just, if we have enough to do it, it sounds like it makes sense because we are going to receive it back, and I'm assuming with interest.

Yes. And so that's our recommendation. But I didn't want you guys to get a proposed budget and say, what is this $13 million allocation? So.

Phil BacerraItem 26

I think as long as it's clear that this is $13 million with the anticipation of recouping it with interest, I think that sounds fair. Thank you.

MR. Thank you. Councilmember Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 26

MS. Thank you, Mayor Sorrento. City Manager, maybe it's because I'm new, but please correct me if I'm not understanding this correctly. The city is paying the developer $13 million to demolish the parking garage?

MS. It goes for different things, and is Stephen still in here? He could probably explain it a little bit better. So we own the parking structure and we have the public spaces in it. We did an RFP to do a private-public partnership so that we could develop that site as part of our obligation in that it is doing the necessary infrastructure and the replacement of the parking spots and we're advancing the funding to the developer. The developer is investing far more than our total amount. Can you provide any more details on

You've done really well. This is one of those things where we are going to be fronting the money. The developer is responsible for repaying the city. It is for public improvements as well as demolition of the parking structure. And by public improvements, he has to build a public garage under his facility. And he's also returning the street grid system to the street to build a public plaza between the two buildings, the residential tower and the hotel tower.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Got it. And how many projects has the city fronted or uploaded, you know, millions for in the past?

Well, in the old days of redevelopment, we probably did one a year. But since redevelopment has ended in the state of California, this is our first disposition and development agreement that we've done in some time.

Jessie LopezItem 26

And so what does the project have to present to the city in order for the city to say, we will front the money for you to...

A public benefit, mainly. It's a subsidy, and they provide us evidence of a public benefit. In this case, it's the hotel bed tax generated by the property. It is the property tax generated by the property, and the sales tax from the retail areas on the ground floor.

Jessie LopezItem 26

So can any hotel come into the city and say we're providing a public benefit, VR taxes, therefore, or maybe the city should front us money to develop?

An attractive enough project, we, Christine, might meet with a developer and bring that to you. That is certainly optional.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Interesting.

Okay. But again, it's the decision of the city council, not us. We would bring it to you.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Right. And when was this project approved?

I think September or October of 2021. No, 2020. Yeah.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Oh, okay. And what is the timeline that developer is going to repay the 13 million?

I don't have that.

So under 30 years? It's up to 30 years based on our finance directors.

Jessie LopezItem 26

And in the contract, does it stay or does it stipulate a hard amount per year? Or could a developer wait 29 years before we see anything?

It does contain language in the contract and it is also tied into the parking revenue, but there's an estimated receipt amount of about $760,000 per year.

DR.

Jessie LopezItem 26

60,000 per year?

DR.

760,000 per year.

Jessie LopezItem 26

DR. Okay. Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 26

So the staff option is, does the council wish to use available general fund balance to make the $13 million contribution? Or does the city council wish to pursue debt financing?

Correct.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Let me go ahead and go to Councilmember Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Madam City Manager, so I have a clear understanding of what's being presented now.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Are there any other projects in the city right now with a similar approach to what we're looking at here?

Not exactly for this one, but it is not that uncommon of an arrangement. So cities often for economic development, and what Stephen spoke about, for the benefit that it drives, whether it's presenting an amenity for the community, whether it's generating a certain type of a tax stream, helping you diversify your tax stream, is fairly common arrangements to make, particularly if you have a challenging area that you really wanted to see developed. I can think of the YMCA building. That was a building that sat on the city's books for years and deteriorated.

And the city went out multiple times for an RFP to see if they could get a private-public partnership. And I don't know how many times, but it was very unsuccessful, several times. And so it did take the city working with a developer in order to make that transition. So they're not uncommon.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Okay. Do we have an example of a project that was successful where we did get our money back, similar to this?

I've been here less than three years. I can't recall off of my head a project that did something similar to this and got their money back. But certainly in redevelopment days, part of your process was to do just that. And oftentimes, it wasn't about getting paid back the exact dollars that you invested. you were investing in because you were investing in for the economic future and the tax revenue streams and the amenity for the community.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

So there is language that there would need to be a minimum of $6,000,000, $760,000 per year, correct? Invested into this project annually?

That would be the estimated amount that he would pay back for our $13 million investment. But I don't want to get too far off track of the agenda item that's before you. It's not about the DDA the DDA is already been approved by the council This is really just a finance question as to do you want to contribute? Money that we have in the general fund to meet this obligation or would you prefer that staff goes about seeking favorable?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

Financing for it. So can you elaborate on what the what us as a city pursuing debt financing? What would that look like?

Well, you have a very experienced finance director at this and we just did the refinancing of all the pension bonds for a small amount like $13 million, it could be a pretty simple process. It could be a credit line. It could be a private placement. It would not be a massive bond issue like you went through with the pension refinancing. Okay, perfect. That answers my questions. Thank

you. Thank you, Council Member. Seeing no other questions or comments, you know, I think the The question before us is very simple. We have an obligation that we have to comply with. I mean, there really isn't too much for us to discuss with respect to the benefit or the harm or just the substantive question. It's how we fund this obligation that we have. So the only question I would ask of staff and Director Downs is if we went out for debt service on this, or if we, excuse me, if we didn't go out for debt service on this and

just paid it directly out of the general fund, would there be any detriment to any ongoing programs that we have, any services that we deliver? Would that be compromised in any way? And in your professional opinion as a fiduciary for the funding and our revenues, do you see that it is more prudent to go out for debt service given that we have a double-A credit rating, we have, you know, we don't carry much debt as a city compared to other organizations. You know, I just want to make sure we have enough flexibility and we don't bind ourselves with something that's unnecessary.

It's really a matter of, so the first part of your question was if we used the available general fund balance would we jeopardize any other programs or services the answer to that is no the other programs and services are fully funded because this is available general fund balance again we like to recommend that the city council use it for one-time purposes so if you didn't use it for this one-time purpose then we would recommend other one-time purposes you know such as a

project that's not a recurring program so it just is a matter of do you want to use that money for this or do you want to use that money for some other non recurring item which would be of course our recommendation if we do pursue the debt financing that that is completely doable the city manager is correct for this small amount for our city and our portfolio we're you know I think we could do a private placement pretty pretty quick and easy that you know so

it can be done the interest on a private placement would likely be a little bit more than the interest that would be paid if if the general fund funded it And then we got the payments from the developer to reimburse the general fund. That's probably at a lower rate of interest. So those are just some of the differences.

All right. So that helps a little bit. I think, you know, I'm always worried that, you know, we may find that we have a need for a one-time expenditure that we say, well, now we can't do it because we've just, you know, we've just committed ourselves to, you know, to paying this $13 million. So I have always felt that we don't carry a lot of debt as an agency, and that's something that, in a way, when you carry some debt, it helps your credit rating when you're timely with it and you return it. It shows that we're a well-managed agency. So I am very uncertain at this point.

I mean, I think we can, but I would not be opposed to going out and financing this debt. And that way we leave these funds available in the general fund in the event that we need them for something that comes before us.

Jessie LopezItem 26

I have a final question. Councilmember? Yeah, I do. I have a final question. I want to make sure that I leave this conversation very clear. So, you know, we were with the $13 million, I heard it was an obligation.

Jessie LopezItem 26

So do we even have an option? Because it seems like an option is being presented.

You don't have an option in the fact that we have an obligation to fund $13 million for the project. What you have an option in is how do we come up with the $13 million to fund it.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Okay.

Jessie LopezItem 26

So we're saying the $13 million is going to come from the general fund?

We're saying we were looking for your guidance on whether you wanted to use because Kat reported a $20 million overage that would be one-time money available for you. So we were recommending taking the $13 million from that. Then the payback and the interest would go back into our general fund. But the other option would be for us to go out and do financing to come up with the $13 million to make our obligation on the project.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Okay. Understood. Thank you.

All right. So I'm not sure if you received direction. It sounds like you've received more questions than direction, but are you clear on?

Yeah. I think what we can do is we can go out there and analyze, and I believe this obligation is going to be coming through probably the first quarter of the next fiscal year. So what we can do is we can go out there and we can get some pricing for some financing, and that might help you make a better decision.

Excellent. Thank you. That's great direction. Let me go ahead and hand it back to you then.

And I swear we're almost done.

No, no. I have 20 more things for you. I'm just kidding. Okay. Miscellaneous.

Director Downs, when you start getting punchy on us, that means we're getting late. So, you know.

Miscellaneous fees. So the city charges cost recovery fees for services that are provided to individuals. These are services where there is no public benefit. A specific service is provided to a specific individual. We're allowed by state law to recover our costs for that. This includes things like permits, facility rental, and recreation programs. So in last fiscal year, let's see here, let me stick to, okay. So as our costs increase, we do recommend increasing the fees each year. So last year, the City Council waived the fee increase.

This year, staff can recommend increasing the fees by up to 4.3%. So we're seeking direction from City Council. Should we prepare a budget with a fee increase of 4.3% or something less?

Thank you. That was a very short, concise presentation. Let's hope there are very short, concise questions and comments. Let me begin with Councilmember Hernandez, then Mayor Pro Tem. Then I'll go to my left to Councilmember Mendoza.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

I'll keep my comments short. I am in favor of something less, and my reason being is many of the sports leagues that use our parks recently reached out to me and shared that they may have to leave the city because some of the costs are too high. So that not only hurts children and families, it hurts the sports community. And, yeah, I'm not in favor of increasing it. That concludes my comments.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

Phil BacerraItem 26

I'm going to respond to your question with a question. So we can go up to 4.3%. What I'd like to know at some point is how little can we raise fees?

Zero. Anywhere between zero and 4.3. Well, no, no, I get that.

Phil BacerraItem 26

Oh, sorry. I'm just saying within reasonable, in other words, for cost recovery. In other words, going to waiving the 1.67% obviously impacted our budget last time. We did that obviously because of the pandemic and we wanted to provide that relief for our residents. But as we emerge from the pandemic, obviously we still are in the business of recovering costs for services we provide. So I'd like you to return back with some number that's not zero. It's not 4.3, but something that's a reasonable amount that we can live with.

Thank you for that. Let me go to Councilmember Mendoza and then Lopez. Yes, my feeling was so we could raise it

but not up to the 4.3. So just bring back whatever you work out.

Thank you. Councilmember Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 26

Yeah, quick question for clarity on my end. When we're talking about permits, facility rental and recreation programs, what is it that we're specifically talking about?

Any fee for cost recovery. So if we're providing a service like street sweeping, which benefits the public at large, we don't charge a fee for that but if somebody walks up to our planning and building counter and wants to get a planning permit we're looking at their plans we're approving their permit so we're focusing staff resources on just that one applicant and so we're allowed to recover our costs for for the services that we provide to that one applicant okay and do we have a trajectory

Jessie LopezItem 26

chart of where we've been in the past and where other cities comparable to our

size are at now with a with a fee we have thousands of fees and so it if you wanted us to bring back some benchmarking with other cities on fees I would recommend that maybe if you're interested in a particular area that might help focus us rather than trying to do benchmarking for thousands of fees

Jessie LopezItem 26

okay well I guess I would leave it up to staff to kind of guide me in that sense because obviously I would want to say yeah sure let it be zero but I also understand why we're having this discussion and I want to make sure that we're being comparable with other cities our size and and I might add to that you

know these services are being provided by city staff and city staff gets annual pay increases that have been negotiated through MOUs so one one of the things that you could look at is just the potential of what was the salary increase for that group of employees for those group of services. That would be the kind of recommendation that would be less than 4.3 percent that I would bring back. Okay, thank you, Kat. I appreciate that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 26

Thank you. Let me go to Councilmember Fan. You took my idea, so I'm going to roll with that.

Thank you. Councilmember Pinalosa, are you good? Because I think you're the only one

that hasn't spoken. I'm good. Thank you, Mayor. Great. Thank you. So I think I'm, you know, I'm kind of fine with this. What did you just say, Director Downs? The salary increases, which are less than the 4%, 4.3%. So that'd probably be something that I would bring back. Okay. Why don't you do that? And that way you give us a better idea. I'm agreeable to that as well. All right. Seeing nothing else, I'll go ahead and hand it back to you. Thank you. Moving right along.

Okay, so as we talked about earlier, the city recently refinanced its pension debt to save approximately $138 million. This graphic was included in your February 15th staff report with the final results of the project. So the graphic shows the debt service for the bonds in gray and the estimated payments to CalPERS in yellow and a line for our current budget. So when comparing our obligations, the gray and the yellow, to the line for next year, we expect initial savings of $9.4 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

In future years, however, we expect the required payments to exceed the budget. That's where you see those gray and yellow bars going above the line. So our recommendation, which we included in the February 15th staff report, but we just want to get your direction at this point in time before we finish building out the budget, our recommendation is to transfer that initial $9.4 million of savings into a pension stabilization. It's a trust that the city has already established. So it's a pension stabilization account to provide for future payment spikes.

So this allows the city to have a more predictable budget for pension debt

payments in the future. Great let me bring it back to Council for some suggestions let me just call on myself and say I agree with putting that 9.4 back into the stabilization fund because we know that we're going to have some spiking you know years ahead of us we may not see those for a while and maybe some of us don't see them at all but I would ask that they be just placed back That was sort of what the thought was when I was at least discussing the refinancing of this pension debt. So let me go ahead and call on other members of the Council as well. Let me start with Hernandez and Mayor Pro Tem.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 26

I have the same exact comments as the Mayor. I'm in agreement with this. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Phil BacerraItem 26

What happens per that chart in 2043 when we just stop paying CalPERS? I mean, is there something I should be aware of?

Maybe Fiestas Patras gets a whole lot better.

Phil BacerraItem 26

I want to echo my colleagues' comments. I was just a little curious about that. Thank you.

Anybody opposed to what's been already mentioned? All right. Looks like there's concurrence. There you go.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. So this was our general fund 10-year outlook when the current year budget was adopted. There was an expectation that spending would exceed revenue in the future unless either our tax base increased or the budget was changed. The good news is this is our updated 10-year outlook. This includes all adjustments made through the mid-year report on March 1. The current year budget includes $31.3 million of one-time spending. So the recurring portion of that budget is only $355 million compared to our revenue of $364.

So, therefore, the current year recurring budget is balanced. At this time, the outlook is a budget surplus which grows when the police building debt is paid off. However, when the Measure X rate decreases in 2029, we expect the general fund budget will have deficit spending unless, of course, another change is made to either our tax base or our service levels. so this out updated outlook is just simply an opportunity for us to strategize for the future the city could use the revenue surplus in the coming years to fund much-needed capital improvements around the city or the city

could bank any revenue surplus to help smooth the transition period to rebalance the budget when the measure X rate decreases at this time we're not seeking direction this is only to provide information for the City Council to consider when reviewing the proposed budget for 22-23. Once we do have a draft budget, the 10-year outlook will be updated again.

This is a summary of our budget process timeline. We have five community budget meetings scheduled in March and April. There are two City Council workshops scheduled on May 3rd and May 17th, and the public hearings are scheduled for June 7th and June 21st the City Clerk's Office has identified two additional dates of May 12th and May 16th that can be used for budget workshops either in lieu of the normal May meeting dates or in addition to so if you'd like to provide any feedback with your preferences for those additional dates we're happy to receive it at this time

otherwise we'll just simply continue to work with the City Clerk's Office for

scheduling. Great. Do you want input now or do you want to just? Sure. If you want to let us know that you want a third or a fourth budget workshop or you want to use those dates instead of the regular city council meetings so that you simply have more dedicated time to discuss the budget, you could go either way. Yeah, I'm not sure what my calendar is going to look like at that point, so it's a little tentative, but I think we may need some additional dates. I think it's always helpful.

So to the extent that we can all have our executive assistants work with us and work with your staff to include an additional or you know one or two more I think would be helpful. And I will note that it's already reserved on your calendar. Excellent. Good thinking. Mayor Pro Tem and then Councilmember Pham. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. On the community budget meetings

Phil BacerraItem 26

Are there any of those on the south side of town? I'm not sure the Pentecostal churches