Read the March 11 meeting.

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Phil Bacerra

recording in progress

hey mayor the meeting's being recorded

great let's wait for a couple more people to come into chambers

Thank you.

Wait a couple more minutes. We have some council members still meandering into chambers. I believe we have council member Mendoza on the line.

Yes, we do. Thank you.

All right, let me go ahead and call this meeting to order. Welcome everybody on a Friday evening to a special city council meeting on March 11, 2022 of the Santa Ana City Council. Let me go ahead and just make some opening housekeeping remarks. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom, and the public can access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. And as usual, please bear with us as our technology may interrupt the meeting. And I'm going to go ahead and ask the clerk if she'll please call roll.

Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Hernandez?

Present.

Councilmember Lopez?

Councilmember Mendoza? Present. Thank you. Councilmember Peñalosa?

David Penaloza

Present.

Councilmember Fan?

Mayor Potem-Bacero?

Here.

And Mayor Sarmiento?

Here. Let me go ahead and call on Councilmember Peñalosa if he'll lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

David Penaloza

Of course. Thank you, Mayor. If you could all please rise and face the flag. And put your right hand over your heart and follow along, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you for that. And let me go ahead and move along to the public comment section of the meeting. and I believe we have one speaker card for somebody who's going to be addressing us in person. And then I'll go ahead and hand it off to you, Madam Clerk, to go ahead and call on those that are online or joining us virtually. I just want to remind everybody, if they can please state their name, and you don't have to give us an exact address, but just tell us what ward you reside in. And as usual, please limit your comments to three minutes. and I believe the only person I have here in front of us to address this in

person is Victor Mendez. Go ahead Victor. Thank you. Yes, I think if I heard some

of the comments over this past several weeks I'm kind of concerned that this process or some of the comments may be leading to some type of splintering or division within the community, while certainly you have a job to do, and I think this process that you've observed has been great, I just want to encourage you not to get caught up in how these new districts should really be divided. They should be divided fairly equitable and something representative of the community, but I think sometimes we get into certain criteria that I think is a little bit kind of a little bit too much or a little bit

too much of an extension, you know, it just could lead to divisions. I think we just need to understand we're all neighbors. We all care about each other. We all want to do what's right. And I think at the end of the day, you know, if we're going to live next to each other, we just got to kind of find a way to get along. I don't think we should worry too much about, you know, issues of environmental impact or whatever. Certainly, we don't want to marginalize our communities. But sometimes when I hear these comments, I wonder if we're really kind of fractionalizing our city, but through these comments that I'm hearing.

So I just encourage everyone on this diocese to do the right thing. Be mindful of the fact you're trying to not only kind of figure out how the city should vote and who they should vote for, who the representatives might be, but also, you know, we don't want to create a city that's, you know, so balkanized where one part of the city is this and the other part of the city is that. you know i think we should all just look at the city as one you know and work together help our neighbors um and do what we can just to reach out when you know the city needs his help so that's

what i'm really saying is that i'm just kind of concerned that some of the comments are you know kind of concern me and i just encourage you to look at your your responsibilities make sure in In addition to creating fair and just lines, you also don't put in, you don't create some type of friction or some type of division necessarily in the creation of those lines. And I think you're doing a very good job of hearing everybody out. I appreciate what you've been doing. I think this is about as fair a process anyone could ask, but this is all I wanna say. I mean, whatever you do and end up with, I'll be probably pretty happy.

I just wanna see this could become kind of, like I said, a balkanization of Santa Ana through different political perspectives or whatever. I wanna see a city that kind of works together in unison, cohesion, and we're a community where everyone kind of looks out for each other. And I think that's what Santa Ana's all about. Thank you.

Thank you, Victor. We actually have one more person that would like to address us in person, and that is Lino Paras.

Lidoparas Duarte came here just to see how you do the redistricting because we also have our own redistricting right now going on. I also noticed that the present city council does not have any black person, but then when When I look into black representative, when I look into the demographics, then it gives me the answer. So, but anyway, so I'm just here, driving all the way from LA.

Took me a while to look for a place to eat around the place, because I thought I'm gonna be late. And also, for full disclosure, our city attorney is also one of your council members, which is Tai Pan, so I'd like to see her performance also here. Thank you.

Well, if you're looking for a place to eat, go to downtown. There's a lot of good places to eat. Thank you for that. Let me go ahead and turn it over to the clerk, because I believe we have some members of the public that wish to address us that are online.

Thank you, Mayor.

Before I unmute the callers that have joined us virtually, I did want to announce that we did receive written communication. Four in support of MAP-L, three in support of MAP-L2, five support of MAP-L2 revised, three in support of map M, one in opposition of maps F and K, and one general comment on the process and consideration of newly added maps. And with that, Zoom ID, if you would please select

the microphone icon on your device to unmute your call.

Hello. Hello, honorable mayor and city council members. My name is Ana Charco and I'm here on behalf of Latino Health Access with the San Ana with the shooting coalition. I first want to thank you for your time and effort to compromise. I also wanna thank Daisy for getting the interpretation. YouTube, a lot of our base are actually watching this meeting and might be joining us. So I was, therefore I wanna go ahead and continue proposing L2 and the revised L2 map we submitted. Recently as a coalition, I believe this the L2 revised maps and L2 do the best

compromise while maintaining neighborhood associations and communities of interest together. A few points to mention is we are against K2. Unfortunately, K2 continues to place communities, low-income communities with more affluent communities. For example, the Ohio Madison Park are still together with Republic Homes and Metro Classics. Communities are completely different you need a plan K2 the south coast area is placed with the cornerstone village community and then for the council members that might not be familiar with cornerstone village neighborhood association that association is composed of the mini apartments and standard

apartments as known to the community i am confident that residents in the south end of the city do not share the same interest as the residents in the the mini apartments or the standards apartments Please make these revisions that maintain those communities of interest together and do not delete the voting power of low income residents, how K2 is doing. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

Zoom ID, Benjamin Vasquez, if you would please select the microphone icon. Thank you. You may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council. This has been Camille Vasquez. I'm a resident of Headinger Park and I'm here to support a newly submitted SARC map or the L map. It creates a great central ward for Santa Ana that keeps Energy Park together. The standard reduction coalition was developed with community input over the course of nearly half a year and it emphasizes lived experiences communities of interest such as low-income people, people of color, working families, and people living in mobile park homes. So we continue to have, we have a South ward

and we continue to have a strong Vietnamese ward as well. I believe this map is the best representative of Santa Ana. So I would be in support of map L, the Sark map. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID Araceli Robles, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Si buenas tardes. Si puede con el chan. Si. Ok gracias. Mi nombre es Araceli Robles. Yo vivo en la ciudad de Santana por 20 años. Yo vivo en el vecindario de Isai que está muy cerca del vecindario mini. Estoy llamando para apoyar el mapa que estamos pidiendo junto con la coalición. Algo que también me preocupa muchísimo muchísimo. Es todo lo que están haciendo ustedes con nuestra comunidad. They are not doing a political political. Inacceptable, because they are not talking about map, but they are talking about the lives in our lives, the family, the community, who is playing for the next 10 years.

I ask you please take more consideration that you are public servants and support and serve the community. Please, what does the community have to do with the people who live in the area of the South? no es nada personal con ellos simplemente con ustedes que tomen en conciencia y lleven los recursos que realmente necesitamos como comunidad les pido no no les pido les exijo que realmente dejen de estarse haciendo ese juego político entre ustedes tratando de proteger una silla que al final del día nosotros los pusimos ahí cuánto dinero no se han gastado por una reunión

y otra reunión porque es un juego entre ustedes están jugando con nuestras vidas con la de nuestros hijos eso no se puede soportar aquí en la ciudad de santana les pido que realmente tomen una decisión con conciencia y en la noche que se vayan a dormir a su cama diga hicimos lo correcto lo que la comunidad necesita recuerden que todavía estamos en pandemia y no sabemos cuántos recursos más vamos a necesitar como comunidad así es que hagan lo correcto y hagan su trabajo gracias gracias

Good evening. My name is Elacerio Robles. I've been living in Santa Ana for about 20 years. I live in the East Side community near Meany Street. And I'm here to support the map, the coalition's map. And you are supposed to be doing the work for the community and not doing political game. This is not just about maps, but this is about the life of our families. This is about the community and what we will have to bear for the next 10 years. So we are asking you as public servants to do your job and serve the community. What

does the mini community has to do with the communities in the south of the city? This is need to be reasonable with this. And we are asking, no, I'm demanding that you stop your political games and to protect, stop protecting a chair because we are the ones who put you in that chair. All the money that you're spending on this, this is to, this will be supposed to be to protect our lives and the lives of our children. We want you to make a conscious and conscientious decision so that when you go to sleep tonight, you can say that you did the right thing. We're still in the middle of a pandemic and we don't

how many more resources we are going to need. So we're asking you to do the right thing and to do your job. Thank you.

Thank you. Zoom ID or caller with the last three numbers, 477. If you would please, you may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, mayor and city council. This is Dale Helbig, 32 year resident of Ward 3. I submitted the letter and I'll just paraphrase some of the stuff that I put in it. Essentially, it's disheartening that on Monday, the city council said that more maps can still be submitted. And over the course of the next four days, it appears that nine more maps were turned in. And there's at least 10 maps now that have not even been evaluated to be considered. So I don't know why the request was to submit more maps if you're not even gonna look at what residents are submitting.

So that's one thing. The other thing is the city attorney last Monday also said that the 10% threshold was a hard and fast number. And I'm hoping that she'll clarify that tonight because 10% can be exceeded under extenuating circumstances that I think can be justified. When we're dealing with 76.7% Hispanic population and we're trying to get an Asian plurality when it's only 12 in the whole city it's extremely difficult to do that as you guys saw when you did

the uh modifications to the five maps that you looked at last week uh if if we exceed it and we have zero neighborhoods that are split up that would be my goal and that's what i submitted was zero neighborhoods get split in half and I think that's important and I'm hoping that you guys consider that you guys drew lines right through neighborhoods last Monday and so no matter what map you pick I'm hoping that council members contact neighborhood association presidents for

neighborhoods that are split in half and you talk to them make sure they understand what's happening before this gets approved and you know, they need to get involved as well, but you know, for some reason they're not. And based upon the number of speakers that are here tonight at city hall and probably calling in, there's very little involvement and they're going to be rudely surprised that their neighborhood got chopped in half. So good luck to you on your selection process once again. And I would like to see the community maps that were submitted this last week

be evaluated by redistricting partners. Thanks.

Thank you. Zoom ID, Vincent Tran, 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.

Okay. Good evening council. My name is Vincent. I'm the Community Engagement Coordinator of URIs and a member of the Santa Ana Redistricting Coalition. I'd like to express my support of the newly revised L2 proposed map by the Santa Ana Redistricting Coalition. This newly drawn map addresses the various concerns stated by various council members during Monday's redistricting hearing, also keeping together important communities of interest that have stated their desires to be placed in the same wards. This includes keeping the South Coast metro area full in order to respect the numerous residents

who have spoken in favor of that change. Also brings together similar neighborhoods associations such as the St. Anne Memorial Park, Wilshire Square, Headinger Park as requested by Council Member Penaloza during Monday's redistricting hearing. In addition, this map strengthens the voices of housing burden residents from Willowick and Sullivan and keeps Little Texas whole. This map also provides substantial representation to environmentally impacted communities such as Delhi and Madison Park by keeping them in the environmental justice corridor and creating an environmental justice ward.

Delhi and Madison Park residents have voiced their request to be kept together in a ward separate from South Coast Metro as they share a few commonalities and that request should be respected. The same as residents requesting to keep South Coast Metro full. And it's crucial that this council move forward with this map as it provides best representation for all communities in Santa Ana. On the other hand, I urge council to remove map F and F2 from consideration as it does not respect public comment that's been made by Delhi Madison Park residents to keep their neighborhoods separate from South Coast Metro

and said they want to be paired with Logan and French report neighborhoods, which has heavily impacted neighborhoods with environmental issues. In addition, map F and F2 also splits the concentration of mobile home parks on first and Fairview into two districts rather than keeping them whole. And lastly, it breaks up the housing burden communities such as Willowick and Sullivan. Again, I would like to express my support for map L2 revised by the Santa Ana Redistricting Coalition. And I urge the council to vote yes on it. Thank you.

Thank you.

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

ZOOM ID, MARIA VALENCIA, IF YOU WOULD PLEASE SELECT THE MICROPHONE ICON ON YOUR DEVICE.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. MY NAME IS MARIA VALENCIA. I'M A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER WITH OCUL AND A LIFELONG SANTA NA RESIDENT. I currently live in Ward two, I mean Ward three, but before coming to live in the Lyon Street community, I used to live in the South Coast Metro area for 12 years. I actually graduated from Segerstrom High School back in 2010. To me, it doesn't make sense to have any district that includes the Delhi community with the South Coast Metro area. The needs of these two communities are completely different.

putting them into one district will dilute the needs of the Delhi community. I feel like where I currently live in this Lyon street community makes more sense to be included in a district with the Delhi community because we both face environmental justice issues regardless of what others might think. That is a big concern for me, ensuring to have someone that could voice our concerns as a community. And there's also a lot of apartments of low income status and immigrant mixed status. Our word map should have a district that protects the EJ corridor

because those are concerns for us as residents in that area, which is disregarded by draft maps F and K along with those revisions. Those maps dilute the voice of the community. That is why I urge the council to consider draft map L2 revised submitted by the Santa Ana redistricting coalition. And that coalition has taken months to outreach and engage the community that probably wouldn't have even be calling in today. And this process is extremely important to us and to myself as a resident because we want to be heard.

and we want for our needs and concerns to be the forefront of the maps for the next 10 years. Thank you for your time and consideration.

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

Buenas tardes. Mi nombre es Fatima Paque. Buenas tardes, alcalde y miembros del consejo de aquí de la ciudad de Santana. Mi nombre es Fátima Paque y yo soy una residente de aquí de Santana desde más de hace 16 años. Soy voluntaria de Ojo Orange County Congregation Community Organization. Pertenezco a la iglesia de San José en la Civic Center y la MEI. Las necesidades que nosotros tenemos aquí son muy altas, puesto que la mayoría de los habitantes somos de bajos ingresos.

Me interesa mucho el mapa L2 y he mirado las cambios que hicieron porque todo el área desde la Main hasta la Guarnia, la mayoría de los apartamentos, pues somos de comunidades latinas y somos muy diferentes, por ejemplo, al Santiago Par, a las Flores. and so I'm supporting these maps of the coalition because they are listening to the voices of the community so that the future council members that we have have to defend and propose positive changes for the city and not only for their pocket and not only for their pocket and not only for them but only for them to think about the balance of the different communities and diversities

that we have in our own homes in Santa Ana. Yeah, Santa Ana is a city that abribe a todas the communities, sin importar their race, their color, their money, and they also helped us in the concilio to satisfy the needs of housing, health and education, and among others, but especially for the development of our city. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Fatima Paque, Mayor, City Council Members, and I am a resident of Santa Ana for over 16 years and I volunteer with OCO. I belong to St. Joseph's Church on Civic Center in Maine. and the needs in our community are very high. For example, we are a very low-income community, and I'm interested in supporting Map L2 because this, and I saw the changes that you did, that you created in the map, and along Maine and Warner, we have a heavy Latino population, and we're very different from other communities, such as Santiago Park and Las Flores.

Las Flores. And I'm supporting the coalition maps because they listened to the community needs. And we want any future council members to protect us and defend us and not just be looking out for money in their pockets. And we need to balance the community's needs in Santa Ana because Santa Ana is all about community, irrespective of race and color and money. So the City Council needs to look after our needs and housing and education, etc., so we can have a better city. Thank you.

Zoom ID Irene Bautista, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Buenas tardes, ¿me escuchan? Sí, puede continuar.

Oh, oh, sí, buenas tardes, honorable alcalde y miembros del concilio. Es un gusto volverlos a saludar. Mi nombre es Irene Bautista, soy voluntaria con OCO y pertenezco a la Iglesia del Mesías. Nuevamente me presento ante ustedes para pedirles que por favor sigan apoyando a los mapas de la coalición de redistribución de distritos. Específicamente el mapa L, L2 y L2 revisado.

Good evening, honorable mayor and city council members. Hello, it's good to be here again. My name is Irene Bautista, and I'm a volunteer with OCO, and I attend the Church of the Messiah. And I'm asking you to support the maps submitted by the Coalition, and the L2 and L2 Revised. And these items keep the communities of interest that we've been bringing to you for a long time. And this is the low-income communities. and we want you to support these maps. God bless you and may he direct you and help you in your decisions. Thank you very much.

Zoom ID Miguel Hernandez, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Yes, good evening, council members. My name is Miguel Hernandez. First of all, I want to thank you for being here on a Friday and for all your efforts. I am a long life resident of over 50 years of Santa Ana and I am currently living in the South Coast Metro area. Previously I lived in the Delahide community for over 16 years and I'm speaking today in support of MAP L, L2 and L2 revised. I believe these maps support both the south coast and the delhii community's interest

of having fair representation the south coast metro area and the delhii community are very different communities the delhii community is a working class low-income latinx community with many renters and the south coast community is a middle class community with many homeowners by voting on map L2 or L2 revised, we can ensure that our historically marginalized communities have a voice, which will make our city safer and help everybody thrive. Thank you.

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

apartamentos realmente no tienen nada en común. En lo que es este el vecindario de Metropole. Nuestras necesidades realmente son muy, muy diferentes, sí, y no es nada personal con aquellas personas o con aquella comunidad verdad? Entonces, realmente a mí me gustaría verdad que cuando están tomando este tipo de decisiones o están tomando hacer este tipo de cambios que nos tomaran en cuenta no porque como comunidad nos ponemos en la silla en la que ahorita están y también queremos ahora como comunidad pedirles a ustedes exigir de

que puedan tomar la mejor decisión que se pueda porque va a impactar por 10 años a nosotros yo vivo en el área donde estoy estoy rodeada de fábricas están las vías del tren en nuestras Las paredes están llenas de graffiti. No creo que estén igual así en lo que es la comunidad de Metropole. Entonces realmente sí exijo que se tome la mejor decisión posible, porque también aquí nosotros las familias tenemos de tres hasta cuatro trabajos para poder solventar los gastos, lo que es la renta, lo que son nuestros billes. Entonces realmente piensen muy bien la decisión que van a tomar.

I am so in control of K2 and support the two versions of the map L2. It is not easy for you, we know, but we also want to know that decision that, as I mentioned, will affect 10 years ago, to what is my community, to what is my community. I am talking about a Esther, a Adriana, a Edith, many people who are not present here to talk, ni presencialmente ni quieren dar a caso voz porque creen que van a tomar sus datos y este va a venir inmigración y los van a deportar estas son las razones por las cuales a veces la gente no se

acerca o porque no sabemos lo que realmente está pasando y así como ustedes lanzan una campaña para hacer concejales o para hacer alcaldes también lo mismo hagan verdad de darnos un aviso al menos for for real una carta se va a ser esto present en sesitiana no comment a new o algo verdad por aportar gracias por su atención y de verdad tome la mejor de se queda quien says a menos gracias gracias

good evening mayor Sarmiento City Council members my name is to see a paredes Guzman and I've been a resident of Santa Ana for over 20 years I'm in the Cornerstone Village community and around Minnie Street. We have lots of different apartments, like the standard apartments as well. And these apartments don't have a lot in common with Metro Point. And the needs are very, very different than theirs. This is nothing personal against them, against that community. We just would like that the decision that you make that you take

into consideration that the changes and that you listen to our community. And we as a community demand to have that you make the best decision for the community because this decision will affect us for the next 10 years. And we, in our community, we live with lots of factories around, there's railroad tracks, there's a lot of graffiti, and I don't think that's anything like what they have in Metro Point. So I'm asking you to make the best decision possible. We have families that some of us have three and four jobs just to pay our expenses,

our rent and bills, et cetera. So we'd like you to think this thoroughly when you make your decision. I don't agree with map K2, but I agree with map L2. And we know and understand that this is not an easy decision for you, but again, your decision is going to affect us, our community for the next ten years, is going to affect our people for the next ten years. So I'm speaking here not just for myself, but for Edgar, for Adriana, for Edith, who are not here and don't want to speak up because they're afraid that you might take their information

and immigration is going to go and deport them. Those are the reasons why sometimes they don't speak up. But just like you have your campaigns for city council or for mayor, send us a letter. Let us know what's going on so that we can make our comments. And thank you for listening to us.

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

Zoom ID Florinda, if you would please, or Florinda, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device?

Buenas noches, me escuchan? Oh, si. Puede continuar con su comentario. Okay. Permitan mi poquito.

Buenas noches, señor alcalde Sarmiento y concejales. Mi nombre es Florinda Rojas y soy residente de Santa Ana desde hace 10 años. Yo vivo en el vecindario Cornerstone Villagi, un vecindario que es que se compone de mini apartamentos y estándar apartamentos. Estos son apartamentos que no tienen nada en común con el vecindario de Metropoint. Nuestras necesidades son muy diferentes a las necesidades de los residentes de parte del sur de de la parte sur de la ciudad. Por eso estoy en contra de K2 y apoyo a los dos versiones del mapa L2.

Primeramente, Dios, esperamos que ustedes nos ayuden.

Que nos tomen en cuenta en sus decisiones que van a hacer ahorita, porque si la verdad nosotros ocupamos de ustedes, aparte de nuestra familia que va chiquita, y pues ustedes nos han de ayudar y que Dios los bendiga. Gracias.

Good evening Mayor Sarmiento and City Council members. My name is Florinda Rojas, I've been a resident of Santa Ana for 10 years. I'm a resident of Cornerstone Village and comprised of mini apartments and the standard apartments and our community has nothing in common with Metro Point. Our needs are very different than the needs of the people in the south of the city. And again, I'm against MAPK2, and we support the two versions of L2. And may God help you and support you, and you supporting us, and that you make your best decision for us. We need you to make this decision for our small families.

And God bless you, and thank you.

Zoom ID Carl Benninger, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

Good evening, council and mayor. I first of all appreciate all the hard effort that you guys are putting in. I've been there for many of the hours and I know you've worked very hard on this. I'm still in favor of the math F2 and K2. And I like them because of the fact that you look at the diversity in all five wards and the sixth ward being Vietnamese polarity. And I really think it does the best job representing the city. I also like it because I also like what you guys did on Monday where you went through each one

of the maps and the consultant made the changes. I like the changes that he made because what it did is it brought neighborhoods together which is my second point. I truly live in Ward 4, south side of the city. I do see the need to keep in the south side together as well as the north side together. I guess what I did for what the mayor on is that I think the economic environmental mental justice if it was divided into two wards so be it because then you have two council people responsible and that's really not the issue the real issue is a fair evaluation of what the

hazards are and get working on cleaning them up and that's really what we need to do rather than years of study as will sometimes happen so thank you for your efforts you're making I hope you go through what you did on Monday night with the consultant reviewing each one of the maps talking about what people like and dislike and making the adjustments and I think we're also close of getting there tonight so with that I want to thank you again for your effort and and hard hard

work thank you thank you zoom id occco if you would please select the microphone icon thank you you

may proceed with your comment yes hi good evening mayor and honorable council members and staff This is Karen Alvarado, again, leader organizer with OCO and part of the Santa Ana redistricting coalition. You already know that I'm calling in support of the SARC maps now being renamed, you know, given some of the council feedback in the last meeting. During this past few days, we have engaged with community members and given since the last public hearing regarding the proposed revisions now known as L2 and M2 and within

those conversations it is clear that community members are not okay with M2 but are open to the revisions that resulted in the creation of L2. We also created a revised version of L2 that we think incorporates all the feedback the public and you all have given in the last public hearings hearings and we agree that neighborhoods must be kept together but most importantly communities of interest need to be kept together today I also want to take the time to take a little bit of a step back and speak from the perspective of my faith tradition given

that I organize across the city in various churches and congregations with multi-faith leaders And during this time in my practicing faith is celebrating what we refer to as Lent, which is a time for intentional reflection and growth. It is really about putting the idea of loving your neighbor into practice, especially recognizing that we are all different and based on our different life experiences. So this also puts us in a place to think that we really do have to listen to the feedback that people are giving us, right? And that's what leadership is, is learning how to listen and lead

from where others are sharing from. And really, that's really what the coalition has done in the last few months. I believe that this council can come to a compromise that bridges and unifies the city. And that is what the coalition tried to do in the most recent L2 revised map that was shared with you all yesterday. I want to reemphasize that these maps were drawn based on direct community input that center the live experiences of highly impacted communities please consider them and i hope you make the best decisions thank you thank you

zoom id kayla kyler if you would please select the microphone icon on your device

hello can you hear me yes you may proceed with your comment awesome hello honorable city council

mayor this is kayla asato again former ward 3 resident with orange county environmental justice part of the sarc uh like the rest of the council i am very very much looking forward to this process being over i am happy that we are talking about compromises that we can live with on the dais and i'm happy that we actually have community input so that we can get community feedback before voting on one of these maps which i suppose brings me to the issues that i have with some of the maps K and K2 in particular. In Map K, we split up Madison Park into two districts, and in K2, we split it apart from Delhi.

Most of you today works very closely with MPNA, Green, the Cedar Street communities, and Delhi in particular. Before today, the council has heard from Madison Park residents one time, just once. And in that testimony, they said they don't want to be split up from Cedar, Delhi, and even going up as far as Logan. I'm here today to say the exact same thing. They shouldn't be separated from those communities. By all means, we should have the South Coast Metro area have their residents have their own voice. Why does it have to come at the expense of people in Madison Park and Delhi?

Several maps have Southern districts that keep the EJ corridor intact, but also have the South Coast Metro area residents having their own district. but three council members kept voting against those maps um uh so i was just wondering has the council looked at the environmental burden data regarding the south coast metro area versus the ej corridor it's vastly different from some of the areas in the industrial corridor east of main street doesn't matter what metric you use soil lead air quality water quality general to toxin burden, the superfund sites, anything. It's different.

On this metric alone, we urge council to ditch map K and K2, but I ask that the council does what is right for the community and stop trying to break up the EJ corridor. Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom ID, Lionel Flores, if you would please select the microphone icon on your device.

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

Thank you. Hi, my name is Leonel Flores, lifelong resident of Madison Park. And just tuning in today to vocalize my support for the amended L2 map.

And my disapproval for map F or K2. after talking with the community, we feel that the compromises made with MAP L2 are acceptable and we hope it's something the city decides that they can move forward with since it keeps Madison Park intact and it keeps us united with the different EJ communities that we've been serving for the last couple of years. So once again, just wanted to express my support for MAP L2, the revised one. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor, that was the last member of the public that wanted to provide a comment virtually.

Great. Thank you, Madam Clerk. So let me go ahead and go to our single item for the business calendar today, which is the public testimony and draft maps and the Council's consideration of these maps. And I know we have our consultant probably on the line and is available to answer any questions. He has a full presentation for us, but we've gone over that a few times. So I'm going to just go straight to the council and have them ask any questions, make any comments, identify any maps, and I'm sure that the consultant will be available for any questions.

And Madam Clerk, is there anything that you wanted to report out or tell us since the last meeting that we had on this item?

No, I have nothing more to report out.

Great. Thank you. And City Attorney, you're good as well?

Yes, I'm good.

I know you're all thrilled to be here on a Friday evening. That's one thing I can tell. Everybody's smiling.

I was going to say to the extent the council has further questions on the 10% deviation, I'm happy to.

You want to maybe just speak to that at this point? And I know that there was a couple of questions and maybe it was from the from the council, but also from members of the public, and maybe we can just address that issue first.

Ms. Sure. I'd be happy to. Sorry, they told me last time to speak into the microphone. I don't believe on Monday that I said a total population deviation above 10 percent was prohibited. The 14th Amendment and the Fair Maps Act require substantially equal population. And so case law has found that a deviation in the total population of below 10 percent is minor or de minimis, not requiring government justification, and that a plaintiff cannot

rely on a population deviation alone of less than 10 percent to prove a violation of equal protection. So, above 10 percent, and I believe this was the question that Councilmember Fan had asked on Monday, is considered constitutionally suspect and is subject to greater justification.

Right. Sounds like, you know, maybe not so much a bright line rule, but there are some, anything below 10% would prevent any challenge or any serious challenge, it sounds like, from what you're saying.

Mayor, if I could throw in a couple words on this as well, because we've had members of the public contacting us directly and we don't communicate with members of the public outside of the public hearings. We have not at Redistricting Partners, we've done 100 redistricting this cycle. We have never done a plan that had more than 10% deviation. And in fact, the only kind of modern case of that 10% deviation being used regularly is in Hawaii, where if they didn't exceed the 10% deviation, they would have portions of islands in different legislative districts.

And so for that reason, they have districts that are over 10% deviation, but I haven't seen it anywhere else. Great. Thank you. That's an example of the really special case. Understood.

All right. Well, let me go ahead and, you know, just bring it back to the Council. I think we all are familiar with some of the maps that are before us and maybe even some additional maps that were just offered up from members of the public as well for consideration. And, you know, let me just begin tonight's comments and discussion in saying I think we're all in the spirit of trying to not relinquish this responsibility to others if we don't have to, especially, you know, others that are not as familiar with the city as we are. It doesn't make us perfect in knowing what answers there are to some of the questions

and how lines should be drawn. But I think that, you know, amongst all of us, we were given this responsibility amongst many to just try to figure out the best way to get to some solutions. So I hope we do it in the spirit of good faith and we do it in the spirit of compromise and trying to come up with a good product that may not be ideal for everybody, but at the very least gets us to a place where we can all agree is a better step than just certainly just relieving ourselves of that decision making. So with that, let me go ahead and ask any members of the council if they have any comments

that you want to start with, any maps that you want to discuss first.

Great. And before I call on Council Member Fan, please, Clerk, if you'll let me know if Council Member Mendoza has her hand raised. I can't, you know, that way you can keep an eye out for her as well. Council Member Fan.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Thank you, Mayor.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

So I guess I'd like to first start off with we are seriously approaching a deadline that would greatly jeopardize the city's position. I have talked to the city clerk and asked, well, what is the cost if we end up going to litigation? If we don't support, first, if we don't select a map, approve a map in time, what does that look like? Well, that could cost us $400,000 to $500,000 for failing to come to consensus on this dais.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

I think for $400,000 or $500,000, we can do a lot of good in our community. community. And so I do urge my colleagues to come to consensus and to compromise. No one will get everything they want. No community will get everything that they want. But I do believe that we can get most of what we want and continue to work together. The second thing I do want to also say is that if we do select a map that does not comply with the Fair Maps Act, it seriously jeopardizes our position again. Because we would have would still be sued. In fact, jurisdiction, San Luis Obispo County,

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

they're raking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in defending their map against litigation. And finally, I want to also say that in the event that we are sued and a court decides how they want to pursue drafting a map, we don't really know what that would look like. I've heard that in Santa Monica, they deposed council members to say, why did you select that map that was challenged? In Palmdale, they required all council members to be reelected at the same election and restart the clock on each person's terms. So I think that's the seriousness that we need to take this

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

and we need to make that compromise. And so with that, I would like to elevate and discuss a few maps. First is map M2. Again, this is a compromised map that Councilmember Peña Losa worked to try to adjust. You know, what we've heard today is that we really want a map in the EJ corridor. But I also want to remind the public that the climate emergency resolution that was brought forth and passed was initially brought forth by Councilmember Lopez. She does not live in the EJ corridor. The other person who worked with her greatly on it and had many

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

meetings with community groups on it was me. I do not live in the EJ corridor. And when we passed the climate emergency reso, I believe it was passed unanimously, not or by a majority. And again, not all of us are in the EJ corridor. So I do believe that many council members can work together to support climate justice and environmental justice throughout the city wherever it may be. So I'd like to bring that forward. The second map I'd like to see brought forth is map L2 revised. I do think that it meets many of

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

the conditions that we've requested and it does keep the communities together. The other map I'd also like to see brought forward is map ID 118257.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Those two are substantially similar and they have, you know, different preferences. So I'd like to see my colleagues discuss that. And then another map I'd like to see brought forth is map 118741.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

I'd like to make a couple edits to that map because I don't think it's fully population balanced but I think we can make it population balanced in order to comply with the Fair MAPS Act. So if it's okay, I'd like for Paul to bring that up and for us to kind of just adjust it

so that way we're talking about the same thing. Sure. If everybody's okay with those, with the selection of those maps. Were you talking about Paul bringing up the last map that you referenced?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yeah, 118741, because I think the population's at like 11 percent. If you do a small adjustment, it will meet the under 10 percent kind of rule of thumb. Great. Paul, can you find that in your

file of many maps so we actually this was a map that came to us this afternoon so it's still in the uh distrctor platform but I can bring it up and we can definitely make changes to it here um council member fan is correct uh if you look here you have a district that's 6.42 percent over and then you have another district that is 4.1 percent under so a total plan deviation of just around 10.5%. So what that means is that one of two things needs to happen.

Either the district here, this District 4, needs to grow a little bit, taking population from somewhere else. Or this district number, this green district needs to shrink a little bit, giving some population to either the district on the western side or giving population to one of these three districts on its perimeter.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

So I have some recommendations. Is that okay, Paul?

Yeah, sure.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

So for the Yellow District, and I do want to briefly comment, there was a commenter who stated that, well, they're only 12% Asian. Why do we have to have an Asian plurality district? We were sued. We settled the lawsuit because the Asian American community in Santa Ana to live in a substantially similar area and they have never been able to elect a candidate of their choice until we were redistricted under the California Voting Rights Act. So this entire council does not want to go to litigation again to relitigate an issue that we have already settled. That is why the Asian

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Plurality District is necessary and we're all in agreement on that issue. And with that, Paul, for the Yellow District right where the river is below Willowwick, you're kind of looking at south of First and west of Fairview. So that block right there. Yep. So all of those added into the Yellow District. And then if you go to southeast Santa Ana, everything south of Dyer.

Let me look at what's happening here so far.

Okay.

This would be balanced, but you want to do another one?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yes.

What's the other one?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

So go to south, southeast Santa Ana, to where the green and purple meet, or green and magenta.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Okay, this purple.

Dyer?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

South of Dyer, put all of that into the green.

To along the, from the freeway across?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yes.

Okay.

All right, so now we're at a deviation of 7.31.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

And can you bring it up actually also to the commercial corridor right there east of Costa Mesa Freeway? The Costa Mesa Freeway?

Where do you want me to go?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

So that... This part here? Yeah, that whole block there close to Tustin and Irvine, I think it is actually a bit more similar to South Santa Ana. So if you have the entire rectangle. Yeah.

Diagonal rectangle, this whole thing?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yes, sir.

Phil BacerraItem 1

All right, let's see what happens here.

Yeah that's fine your total plan deviation is

seven basically.

Okay let me fix this there's a little fix there.

Yeah, so we could get something like this, you know, done tonight or over the weekend, get it to you in the same PDF format with all the different data tables, but all the data is here. You can see the layout. We can zoom in if people have questions about where boundaries are.

But we can get you the actual PDFs of those after the hearing and we can give it a letter if the council members choose to elevate it.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Thanks, Paul. So those are, I guess, the four maps that I'd like for us to discuss. Once again, that's M2, L2 Revised, 118257, as well as 118741 with the edits that Paul made. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for those comments and identifying those maps. Anybody else want to offer anything up? Councilmember Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. Thank you, Councilmember Phan, for your comments. I wanted to lift the map that staff recently submitted. Let me try to find the map number. I believe the ID number is 118741.

That's one we just looked at.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Yes, yes. So that map is a map that I'm supportive of. I'm also supportive of L2. and I think that's the only map. Is there still SARC map one? What is the name for that map now?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Is that L?

SARC one is L. It's SARC one A is L two.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Okay, so both SARC maps I am supportive of. I'd like to bring those to the front as well.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

So the map that I want to take a look at, and these are some of the recommendations that I have, for map L2, the map that I'm looking at right now on my screen, if there's any way that you can put this on our screen here so that members of the community can see it. Which one is it? L2.

Oh, sure, yeah.

We go to here, I've got all of them.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

And it's the most revised one.

That's L2 revised right there.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Yes, okay, so this map is a map that I am supportive of. I think that this is a map that has met the needs of many comments from members of the public. Many constituents that do live within my district have also echoed their support. Most notably, it keeps the Willowick community intact, keeps the Artisa Pilar neighborhood together, and it keeps the black businesses and churches, although there is a very small number, it does keep them together, and it also keeps the Sullivan community together.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

So my support will be going to this map today. I will not be supporting Map F or Map K.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

And that concludes my comments.

Thank you, Councilmember. Let me go ahead and go to anybody else on the Council that has questions or comments.

So I think we have right now, do we have five maps that have been elevated? Or what's the total count? I know Councilmember Fan elevated four and I believe Councilmember Hernandez did you elevate an additional one?

Or is it one of the same ones that Councilmember Fan had already mentioned?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

I believe it was one it's two of the ones I already mentioned L2 revised as well as seven seven one four or seven four one

Yes, that is correct. Thank you. How's Councilmember Mendoza doing is she good?

Yes, she hasn't raised her hand Councilmember Fan, just for clarification, did you want to consider the one that PAW modified or the 118-741?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

No, it's 741, but as I mentioned, the modifications that we made on the dais.

Okay.

Thank you. Anybody else have any? Councilmember Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem 1

Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. The question, I just wanted some clarity. and thank you, Council Member Pham, for your comments about L2 with the changes that I had or suggested changes that I had made on, was it Monday night or Tuesday? I don't even know when we last met. But I pulled up L2, Paul, the one that's posted, but it doesn't, I wasn't sure if that's the one that we made changes to from was it m2 or l2 that we did on on monday night

so uh we did a lot of them uh with l2 is sark 1a and then we did an l2 version a which was the revised revision of that i believe that's where it got confusing yeah i i

David PenalozaItem 1

I figured it out now. Thank you. The, the, just a little bit, the issues I have right now with L2 is the fact that it continues to break away Memorial Park from, from Wilshire Square, which they have that shared community interest of Main Street corridor.

David PenalozaItem 1

Both of those communities have been very active the last couple of years in advocating and and just staying on top of what's happening on the Main Street corridor and with the updates of the general plan and the fear that's coming along with that. And also the fact that we know that there's a lot of development coming to the east of the 55 freeway and that also seems to be now separated. And that's a community that definitely shares the same common interests.

David PenalozaItem 1

I do want to bring back PAW map 118741 with the one that was that council member fan made some changes.

Do you want to view it on the screen now?

David PenalozaItem 1

Yeah, please, if you can.

Okay, sure.

David PenalozaItem 1

Can you zoom in to the...

David PenalozaItem 1

down to the... where's Henninger Park? Because that was another concern that we had, that we wanted to make sure that Henninger Park wasn't broken apart.

David PenalozaItem 1

I guess, can you tell me where Broadway Street is?

This is McFadden here. Hedinger down here, 1st Street here, Flower and Orange.

Bishop is right here.

David PenalozaItem 1

Okay, and Broadway?

Where is Broadway?

It's right between Orange and...

David PenalozaItem 1

It's west of Main Street.

It's in Henninger Park.

David PenalozaItem 1

Broadway runs through Memorial Park.

Right there, right there. Yeah, yeah. Sorry.

David PenalozaItem 1

Okay. And then where's where so it's not so it keeps Henninger Park together, correct?

I want to look at the district or I want to look at the neighborhood association map real quick.

David PenalozaItem 1

Well, I could tell you just if you tell me because I'm trying to squint here. There's a glare on the screen in the council. Yeah, not your fault. But I just want to make Broadway. Can you put your mouse where Broadway and what would be McFadden is that?

Yeah, I would just let me just look.

David PenalozaItem 1

Yeah, McFadden is the boundary there. OK, so it's all together. OK, I just wanted to make sure.

This is McFadden right here. So it is all together based on the map.

David PenalozaItem 1

Yeah. Okay. And can you hover over to the 55 freeway?

David PenalozaItem 1

Those zoom out and then just hover over to the what would be southeast.

Sure. So I'm going back and forth between looking at it here and looking around aptitude.

David PenalozaItem 1

And then I'll zoom in along. I believe that was Dyer. Dyer Road.

David PenalozaItem 1

Okay. I just to the far west, the purple line, that's Main Street, correct?

David PenalozaItem 1

Okay.

The far west, this is Main Street here, and then this is the freeway right here.

David PenalozaItem 1

Perfect. Thank you. So it keeps all of Delhi together. It keeps Henninger Park together. Environmental Justice Corridor is in the same ward, which I really appreciate because it's, again, and Council Member Fann said it best, you know, we have thousands on, I could honestly say, communities of interest combined with neighborhoods and maybe not thousands, but hundreds. different walks of life. I don't appreciate many of the comments I heard that are very

David PenalozaItem 1

divisive. I know there was an earlier iteration of a map that put Washington Square into the northern ward and many of the callers said, you know, they are homeowners, they shouldn't be, they are trying to be with the other homeowners, that's not correct, blah, blah, blah. And And then here it's like now the argument is switched, but it's contradictory to saying well you can't have the apartments on the east end with homes in the south. It's like make up your mind.

David PenalozaItem 1

If you're going to come in and talk the divisive comments that we've been hearing for four months now, make up your mind of what you want to see. Do you want to separate people by socioeconomic class? because that's not right either. That's terrible. So I'm very happy with these changes. Thank you, Council Member Pham, for proposing these changes to that map. I would also like to voice my support in elevating that map with the changes, which was, I guess, 11.8.7.4.1 with the changes that were brought forward by Council Member Pham, Paul,

David PenalozaItem 1

because it does the best to try to accommodate the hundreds of communities of interest that we have in the city. No map is going to be perfect, but this one is one that gets us closest to. So thank you. Thank you for that. That's it, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you for those comments. Just one thing I would point out to, I think when you were referring to Map L2 revised, breaking up Memorial and Wilshire Square. I think that was the old, the original MAPL2 because MAPL2 revised looks like they have them in the same district. So just something I think that was addressed in the revised version. But in any event, thank you for those comments. Let me move on to see if there's anybody else.

So just so I'm keeping track, we had somebody talking about map 118741, in addition to Councilmember Fan and Councilmember Hernandez wanting to look at that map. Any other questions or comments from members of the Council on any other maps? Mayor Pro Tem.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Phil BacerraItem 1

I want to echo some of the sentiments that I heard, especially when we're talking about environmental justice, because unfortunately, much of the city has environmental justice issues. And when it comes to whether somebody who does not live in the environmental justice area can help those that are in the environmental justice area, I would point to myself and say, you know, ask the folks in Logan how many times I've come to try to help them with the issues that they face. And if there's ever a part of this city that has been impacted with environmental justice issues, I've worked with my colleague, Councilmember Hernandez, on this.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Many times we've done walks in the area. We've talked to the residents. We've tried to do things, and we will continue to do things to improve the quality of life over there. I live on the south end of town, but you know what? I love this entire city from Floral Park down to Sandpoint. Okay, and so really at the end of the day, I don't think that where the line falls when it comes to an issue Really should decide that I mean if we're gonna do that we can talk about the street racing ward You know we can talk about how on the south end of town where we've got long streets with

Phil BacerraItem 1

Large distances between lights we can talk about that street racing is a very Impactful thing on the south end of town and then I know the counter would be yeah but we have street racing in other parts of town, and that is correct. But again, I don't know the accuracy of assigning an issue to an area. But with that being said, you know, I started off this process really enamored with MAP-F. I thought it addressed a lot of the issues, well, a lot of the legal issues and a lot of the concerns expressed by myself and my colleagues. And then I saw MAP-K And I said, oh my goodness, talk about simplifying what MAP-F was trying to do.

Phil BacerraItem 1

And I really, really thought that MAP-K was just the way to go. But I got to tell you, not only have I really started to look at, as we talk about compromise and how we're going to all find ourselves in a way where we all can come to an agreement, I look at 118741. And as much as I love the simplicity of Map K, I look at this one, I go, wow, this checks the boxes for all these concerns that people are saying. You know, the areas on the east where you have a lot of industry just across the street

Phil BacerraItem 1

from residential uses, you have this put together. It's, you know, again, I like the simplicity of Map K. I really do. But I look at 118-741, and I think it can, you know, really just checks the boxes. I want to applaud Council Member Fan for some of the changes that she made, because I think those two make sense. It really, at the end of the day, it's something where we've all gone, and remember, we're in our ninth meeting on this issue. We had a meeting on Monday, the length of which we typically cover 30 items, and we did it on one item.

Phil BacerraItem 1

So I know we've all talked this thing to death, but I would just say at this point, I do like F and K, But I really look out 118741 with the changes that Councilmember Pham made, and I could definitely support that. So those are my comments at the moment. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other members of the Council with any comments?

So we've narrowed it down to four. MAPS, is that what it is?

I have M2, L2. L2 revised. Revised.

118257, 118741 modified or revised.

Okay.

And then L.

Great. Well, I guess if nobody else has any comments, I think that, you know, I think we've spoken about a lot of the maps already, and I think we've already discussed this sort of at a high level. And I think, you know, the maps that have been identified, I think, are strong maps for us to look at. You know, one of the things I would say before we maybe start looking at them a little bit closer, if we're going to do that now, and maybe we want to narrow it down tonight because my understanding is that the timing of this, as was mentioned earlier, is pretty sensitive and short.

So we may want to come to some understanding if we can settle on a map on the first meeting in April, I believe, which is at the 5th. And then that would be the first reading for consideration, and then the second reading would be at the following meeting, which would make it right under the wire before the statutory deadline. Correct?

Did you want to speak on that, Laura? Just to... Because I think...

Remind us on the timing, like basically the specific dates and...

Well, I'll defer to Daisy on...

Daisy, go ahead.

Okay, so one of the options that we can bring to the council on April 5th is to, because the deadline is April 17th, and that's on a weekend. I believe it's on a Sunday, if I remember.

Yes.

Yes, Sunday. So the April 19th will not make the deadline for the adoption, but there is a solution where we can adopt the resolution approving the map at that April 5th meeting. So we can submit that, and that will comply with the Fair Maps Act, and also introduce the ordinance at that same meeting. And then the final adoption could be the following meeting, April 19th.

Okay, so that's the path right now.

Yes.

All right, that makes sense, and I think it will hopefully encourage us to, you know, look at this. And, you know, just comments from my end on these maps. I think that, you know, I do like map L2 revised because it made a couple of changes that I think were important. And this other map 118741 as was revised. You know, I would say, you know, if there's a way to adjust, and Paul, maybe you can bring that back up.

Uh-huh.

I'll wait for you to bring it up.

If you go to the magenta colored district and you go to the far east of it, the lower far east, sort of where... Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Right.

So there's an area that it says Lion Street.

Right here? Yeah, there. And maybe not going too far west on that, but maybe bringing a panel down on that. I know that those communities are a lot of multifamily communities that live in that area. area. I know because I used to represent that area as well.

So bringing the magenta down a little bit.

Yeah, but as far east as you can go. So bring it down a little bit. Maybe it's like a leg. Oh, like this? Yeah. And without and seeing without, you know, disrupting too much of the numbers and the deviation and maybe.

Yeah. For a sense of scale that made it 9% just in that district. so it would have had a you'd have a planned deviation right now of 17 okay so see if you

can look at that because i know that that's a community that's been kept in intact in the past so maybe that's one more of you know some homework that you can do to come up with um well you know

while we're here the way to do it would be to maybe lose french court yeah yeah so you put french court into the purple district. And if you put French court in the purple district, now you have the opportunity to put this into the, that's perfectly balanced.

Okay. Well, look, that was one of the adjustments. I think everything else looks decent, I think with some of the other adjustments that were made. Let me just say that for those that are talking about, there's not an EJ corridor, there really isn't a thing called an EJ corridor, But I can tell you that the Delhi, Madison, and Cornerstone mini-neighborhoods have a lot in common. They have the railroad tracks that run through most of their neighborhoods, and they've had this incompatibility issue with their parks, schools, and multifamily homes that are right up against some heavy and light industrial.

So whether you want to call it an EJ district or not, it is one community of interest that shares a common problem. in addition to Logan, which is further north. But nonetheless, Delhi, Logan, some of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. And I represented that ward, which is the old Ward 1 years ago. And there were a lot of, I want to say, sort of common interests and almost economies of scale when we would have readings by AQMD be taken out there when there was a chrome plating plant that was introduced.

used. You have some groundwater contamination issues that meander from Irvine north, and they go into the Delhi neighborhood and up into Madison. So there are a lot of common problems that they share, and the fact that there are a lot of multifamily homes. Cornerstone Mini used to be the old barracks for Marines who were stationed in El Toro years and years ago. So, you know, there's a lot of old history, and I was talking to somebody today about, you know, Delhi being where the old Braceros used to live. Braceros was, you know, it was a program where migrants from Mexico were brought in to do

field labor and construction here, and they were housed in some of those areas, both in Delhi and Logan. So there are some historical reasons why these, you know, neighborhoods should be kept together as well. I think it's not, again, you know, my preference is L2 revised because it has cleaner lines, but I can see maybe some compromise with this new map. I don't know if we want to attach a letter to it. 118741 is an odd way to refer to it, but to the extent we attach something to it, I think there's some promise there, you know, and, you know, in the spirit of trying to get something done,

I don't want to relinquish this to anybody else. It's not really, you know, it's a cost issue, but it's more, you know, the responsibility of things and making sure that we all understand that we have to figure this out. And I was wondering why we're having difficulty this time versus, you know, I know when I went through this exercise in 2010, well, in 2010, we were redrawing boundaries again based upon, you know, population shifts, but we all ran at large. So there were no districts. So really it didn't matter, you know, boundary lines as much as they do now.

So I think this is what's making, you know, our exercise a little bit more complicated. But I would suggest, you know, maybe for members who are going to be around in 2030 to consider maybe delegating this to either a committee of residents or others, just because I think it's very difficult to do this. but look, something to consider for somebody else. It certainly won't be me, but for others. So Paul, I think those are my comments and I think this new map that we're looking at, it does address the issues that I have been mentioning from the beginning, which is keeping, again, Delhi, Madison, Cornerstone, many together

now with this addition of possibly this Lyon neighborhood, but it really does also wrap Willowick, which is something that was important to me. Sullivan and some of the other items that were mentioned by council members. So in any event, those are my comments and I think, you know, that might be a compromise map that we could, that I could support.

Would you like for me to make that map N and then with your changes, we can make that map N2?

Sure, that makes sense.

David PenalozaItem 1

Okay, we can have both of those.

David PenalozaItem 1

point of clarification, Mayor Sarmiento?

Go ahead.

David PenalozaItem 1

If I can. So N, Paul, N would just be the original 118741, and then N2 would be?

N would be the one that Fan, Council Member Fan made the changes to. And then the changes, the additional changes we just made in that French Court and Lyon Street area that the mayor made, that would be N2. Oh, got it. Okay.

David PenalozaItem 1

Yeah. Yeah, that's, I just wanted clarity. We're gonna run out of letters.

The other map will be posted to the website as a public submission under the number. But for the purposes of bringing up as a letter, we'll use Council Member Fan and then the Mayor's modifications.

Awesome, thank you. Great. Any other comments or questions? Just go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Mayor, could you, just so I can make sure I understand. And so N is what 118741 with Councilmember Fanns changes. And then, Mayor, you made some yourself, and it was along over here in Lyon Street?

It was, I think, shifting Lyon Street down and incorporating that into the magenta ward and then putting French court into the purple ward.

This purple here and this magenta here.

I don't know which one's purple. I mean, I'm seeing purple on the, I don't know the difference between purple and magenta, so what?

So, yeah, the population in French court swap for this. Yeah. Yeah.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Okay. No, thank you for the clarification.

Yes.

So I haven't heard, I think I've heard from everybody. Council Member Mendoza, let me just do a check-in with you. Are you good?

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor Sarmiento. I am still taking a look at all the maps and I would like to, I would like a few more minutes. I'm still juggling between a couple of maps. So if my colleagues can have another round and I will go after the last person if that's Okay with my colleagues.

Sure, go ahead and take a little bit more time. And you know, I'm not sure how much more we have, but we'll go ahead and give you a little bit more time. Council member Lopez.

Jessie LopezItem 1

I guess if I could just get a roll call on the maps that have been advanced.

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

Jessie LopezItem 1

Roll call on the maps that were advanced.

I'm so sorry I cannot hear you.

Jessie LopezItem 1

A roll call on the maps that were advanced. Oh, okay.

Yes, thank you. So, Council Member Fan, did you?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

I thought you were just going to list the maps out.

Okay, do you want me to list out the maps before I do a roll call? Okay, sure. It's M2.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

It's M2 revised. Yeah. It's 118257, 118741 revised, which is now N2. And then the ones further revised, which is N2.

And also L, I got that from Council Member, and that's the only difference.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

No. L2 or L2 revised?

L2 revised.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yeah, so he meant L2 revised.

Okay. L2 revised. and did you also, Council Member Hernandez, also state that you wanted L as well?

Yeah.

As well, okay, yeah. And that's all I have?

Jessie LopezItem 1

So then I'll just add 380 to the list.

Jessie LopezItem 1

380, 118, 380.

Councilmember Lopez, can you repeat that? 118?

Jessie LopezItem 1

ID 118380.

Thank you.

Jessie LopezItem 1

Yeah.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to clarify. On the last map, 8741, I did also want to echo my support for the changes that you proposed and that Councilmember Fan proposed. I do also think having that portion of line in the dark purple or magenta color if you will I do support those changes and keeping French Park as part of the purple boundary as well So just wanted to echo my support there. Great. Thank you, Councilmember

Councilman go ahead Councilmember Phan or were you done Councilmember Lopez? Yeah, that concluded my comments. Thanks Councilmember Phan

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yeah, I so So I guess I wanted to ask my colleagues, because we did talk about L2 revised, and if there's no support for consideration of 118257, I can just withdraw that. One of the reasons why I ‑‑ so this map, I elevated it because a couple things. One is it's very similar to L2 revised. I actually spoke to the Santa Ana Redistricting Coalition. In fact, I sent a very urgent email after our Monday night meeting and set up a meeting with them to discuss some of these issues.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

One area is that downtown Santa Ana is also on that Main Street corridor, and so 118257 adds downtown Santa Ana to that Brown district. And, Paul, actually, if you can bring it up, I think that might be really helpful. And then... for the red district also brings down just to population balance brings the red district all the way down to Edinger. There you go. Oh my gosh, that looked like I was doing that with my mic. I thought I was screen sharing for a minute. So, you know, I don't know if there's

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

any appetite to take a look at this map. Again, I think that the downtown area makes a lot of sense to just kind of keep it as much as possible with the Main Street corridor, but if no one else is supportive of it, then I'll withdraw it. Thank you.

I think that's fine. I think if, you know, because we have a map that's really similar to that, so I have two that are almost identical.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yeah, so I think then we can eliminate that map also.

While we're on a roll anybody else want to eliminate any maps?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

No, I wanted to maybe then just ask maybe Councilmember Lopez you had elevated

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

map 118380 I hadn't heard anyone else bring that up, but I'd love to hear your reasoning as to why you support that map

Jessie LopezItem 1

I think I you know 380 it's similar to what you elevated with 257 the only difference is really the center parts of the city that are looking a little different to me so I think that is why I elevated it and I like the I like the lines and I like that the east end of the city stays together though that's reflective of the comments that I've made earlier in other public meetings. And so that is why I elevated 380.

Great. Thanks. So we, okay. Anybody else have any additional comments?

Mayor Sarmiento, may I make a couple of comments?

Absolutely. Go ahead.

next well it definitely has been a very complex and difficult process it's my first time and i tell you it feels like going through the ringer and i certainly don't want the city to incur half a million dollars of expenses in going to the court to decide for something that is that is my responsibility to decide. And I had elevated map K and map F because it seemed that that's what the appropriate equality for all of our boards.

However, in light and in the spirit of compromise and getting the job done and making the hard decisions and doing what the voters elected me to do, I am willing to compromise and elevate map 118741 with the changes that were incorporated by my colleague, Ty Pham, and maybe even possibly looking at the ones that the mayor made to the same map. So that's the map ending and 741, that one would get my support.

AND I BELIEVE THAT WE CAN REACH A CONSENSUS WITH THIS MAP. THANK YOU.

COUNCIL MEMBER FAN.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

YEAH, SO WITH THAT, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION TO ELEVATE THE MAPS, GIVEN THAT WE DID HAVE, YOU KNOW, SOME CHANGES, AND JUST TO NARROW THEM DOWN. WITH THAT, I'D LIKE TO MOVE, AND THIS MOTION IS BASED ON KIND OF THE CONSENSUS I've been hearing and I think that would be really helpful for us if we were to have another meeting about this. And so I would like to elevate, I'd like to make a motion to elevate MAP L2 revised as well as MAP or what will be known as MAP N2.

Great. So we have a motion on the floor to elevate map L2 revised and map N as in Nancy 2.

Phil BacerraItem 1

I'd like to ask the maker of the motion just because I think at this point with the changes, I mean, they're great changes. They make, at least from just looking at it, make sense. Obviously, it'll be determined by Paul as far as whether the numbers match up and make sense. So would you be open to keeping your original, I guess we're calling it N? And just because in the sense that if N2 for some reason didn't work and N worked or vice versa, if N2 worked but N didn't work, but just having those options, because they're pretty much the same map with minor tweaks in little areas, but would you be open to keeping N in there?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

I am, but looking at it on Districtr, the numbers do work out.

Phil BacerraItem 1

Actually, I'm going to rescind it, because at this point, if we do need to make tweaks to N2, we would just make the tweaks. Yes, just to keep one. Yeah, you know, I rescind it. So I'll second your motion.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

I have a comment. Yes, Councilmember Hernandez. So the map 8741, I am supportive of this map. However, there's just one small modification I would request. I'm really happy that it's keeping the Sullivan community together. but my request would be to move from McFadden to Diamond Street to keep that so that we don't separate the Jerome Park community and move that small portion from Willits to McFadden, Sullivan to Jerome Park on this map to move it

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

To move it eastbound so that way it's one line from Willits down to Bristol So what we would be cutting out is Diamond Street to McFadden Sullivan to Monta Vista that small square and we would just extend it outward down to Bristol Street eastbound

That's another can we why don't we ask Paul to see if you can put it on the screen and see if you can make those changes in real time, see what it does to the numbers. He may have to adjust in some other area. Paul, did you hear the council members' direction?

Yeah. I've got the right area. So is it to make this area blue here?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Yeah. So essentially the entire square of Jerome Park we want to keep together. So that way there's one representative and it just, that is much better. So I think if there's a way for us to do that. I am absolutely supportive of this map and I think a way for us to make up for that gap is if we extend eastbound towards Bristol Street, whether it be Pacific or Bristol.

We don't need to do anything to balance that. Oh, perfect. Yeah, it's fine. Okay. Then in that

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

case that makes it much more simple and it keeps the Jerome community together.

Do we wanna make this the revision to end two? You okay with that council member?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

I'm actually concerned, does that affect Sullivan? I'm trying to think of the community submitted maps and let me see where I put it. So Sullivan goes from, I think first to McFadden to McFadden. So I think this does break up Sullivan Street.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Well, it keeps Sullivan together. The only thing that it does separate is the Jerome Park from this boundary or this district, if you will, and places it into its own district because right now it's cut in half between Monta Vista and McFadden.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Right. So, I mean, just based on, I think we probably got 20 public community of interest submissions handwritten at the community events. And specifically, they draw it from Fairview on the west side, north first, south McFadden, and on the right-hand side, it kind of goes, oh, shoot, what street is that? I think right. So, I think if you, that's how Sullivan was drawn to me. And I think we've heard more comments from people. Sullivan. Sullivan. And so I wouldn't be supportive of that only because that has been the community that has been very vocal about that specific area.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

And historically, Sullivan has been split up. And I know that Sullivan and Accion, the mobile home park residents, as well as a lot of the tenants, have specifically advocated for that community to stay together.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

Okay. Well, in that case, I am okay with what's reflected now. if that's what the Sullivan community is asking for I'm okay with that I just was thinking for the sake of Jerome Park a very large park lots of youth programming there I didn't want to see it divided into two but if Sullivan is looking to keep that together then I'm certainly not going

to be opposed to that great thank you for those comments Councilmember Lopez yes Paul do you

Jessie LopezItem 1

mind bringing back up the map since we're doing

Jessie LopezItem 1

but can you zoom in into lion because right now I see that part of it is highlighted and not being so right now the neighborhood is literally split down in the middle?

Yes, in the N2 version, it comes down here and takes in this population on this one side of line. Taking in more would likely create big population problems.

Jessie LopezItem 1

What is the limit for each district?

The total population limit?

Jessie LopezItem 1

Yeah.

It's more that the largest district and the smallest district can't be more than about 520 apart from each other. So this district here right now is over by 1%. If it was to take in, you know, any more very quickly get to be, you know, now it's over by seven, six and a half percent. So it's, there's not a lot of room to adjust population there.

Jessie LopezItem 1

okay can you zoom out of the okay thank you

thank you for those comments any additional comments we have a motion and a second on the floor councilmember van I just want to quickly

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Councilmember Lopez unfortunately I think because lion as far as I can tell in pretty much all of the maps a lion Street has been split because that whole community or neighborhood association it goes all the way over from you know even past the Santa Ana freeway so unfortunately I think it might be kind of Jerome Park where it's just one of the splits we really need to do to make the population balance and balance other communities of interest.

Jessie LopezItem 1

And the current map now, it's not split up.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

The 741?

Jessie LopezItem 1

No, the current maps now.

The existing map. Right, right.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

So my point is for all the, I think for many of the maps that we've elevated or discussed tonight, it has done that. And part of that was just because the population balance. So if we moved it, then of course we'd have to move other areas. That's all.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

All right.

Any other questions or comments?

Phil BacerraItem 1

Real quick, just a question. So with the motion that's before us right now, we're elevating the two maps. So then I guess what's our next step? Are we having another special meeting or are we bringing this to the April, the first meeting in April? The first regular council meeting.

We're going to have another meeting to ensure that we are able to just narrow it down to one map. And what we want to do is the ones that have been revised, especially those tonight, we want to ensure that we have it posted on the website at least seven days before council can actually vote on that.

Phil BacerraItem 1

So right now we're at March 11th, right? Our first meeting in April would be April 5th, correct? Correct. So definitely we have enough time to post these two. Let me ask the maker of the motion, if you'll indulge me for a second. What if we were to modify the motion to direct staff to prepare resolutions and a first read of an ordinance for both maps in anticipation of potentially selecting

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

one of them? I actually was going to withdraw my motion or amend my motion to only elevate map N2 or what would be considered N2. This motion, I hope that it receives five votes to indicate to staff very clearly that we are willing to move forward with a map with an ordinance to be read on April 5th without further special meetings to discuss. So because it's not technically a draft map yet, it's only an exercise again to let staff know the direction that we expect on April 5th. Is that okay, Madam City Attorney? Or Paul?

Phil BacerraItem 1

If that made any sense? Yes. Okay. So we should put a resolution and an ordinance, correct?

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yes. So I want to elevate map 118741 with the edits that I made as well as the mayor made, so map N2 is what we're calling it, and direct staff to prepare a resolution and an ordinance for first reading on April 5th.

Okay, so that's a new motion because you withdrew your previous motion. So we have a new motion.

Phil BacerraItem 1

I'll second her new motion.

Got it. We have a new motion that was made by Council Member Fan, and I think it was clear. It was just to focus in on this revised N2, and we have a second on that. Any other questions or comments on this? And we've got a... Our understanding is that the resolution and ordinance will come to us on April 5th without any further special meetings to have to deliberate because it'll be a singular map that's going to be before us. Correct. Anything else from the council? Just clarification. Yes, councilman. Motion to once more, please. So what's the difference

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

between the first that you look through? I believe that based on the comments I've heard, there is consensus to move forward with a map. And so instead of having another special meeting next week or the week after and go through the rigmarole of again adjusting boundaries and posting the map for seven days before we can vote on an ordinance or resolution i believe that based on the consensus on this council tonight we can direct staff clearly to put map n2 which after seven days it will be considered a draft map and have it be adopted via

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

resolution and first reading of an ordinance on April 5th.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Yes, so my changes made it more population, made it population balanced, and then the mayor's changes moved French Court from the pink ward to the purple ward and then had everything east of Lyon Street to go from the purple ward to the pink ward.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 1

That makes sense. Okay. And so the newly updated map, We would be able to see that.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

I think, Paul, if you can just bring it up now, that would be the final version of what would be displayed in the resolution and the first reading of the ordinance.

Okay.

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

Assuming you can publish it tomorrow or the day after and it will meet the seven-day publishing deadline.

Councilmember Hernandez, if I could just remind you to use the microphone because it, yeah, thank you.

Got it. So I think, you know, I think the question was, you know, will that map be before us when we, you know, as finally drawn. And seeing no other questions or comments, we have the motion in a second by Councilmember Fan. One of the reasons I'll be supportive is because I see that this reconciles with Map L2 revised as I'm looking at it. Some of the changes here wrapping Willowick, creating that at least East Lyon neighborhood together, and again putting together Pacific Park, I'm sorry, Cornerstone Mini, Madison and Delhi

reconcile with what some of the some of the changes that I wanted to see reflected on a map moving forward. So I will be, you know, looking at this very seriously. I think I'm good with the changes that were made. So seeing nothing further, let's go ahead and call the vote. So, colleagues, please vote on this.

Council Member Mendoza, were you able to connect to the software or did you want to announce your vote?

I wasn't able to connect and my vote is yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Motion passes unanimously with council members Hernandez, Lopez, Mendoza, Peñalosa, Fan, Mayor Pro Tem Becerra, Mayor Sarmento voting yes.

Great. Thank you everybody. Look, I just wanted to…

Thai Viet PhanItem 1

And by the way, that was 11 public hearings, not 9.

I bet you there's a lot more people clapping virtually. I don't know. Maybe not. Listen, I want to say thank you to the council. I want to thank staff. Thank you, Paul, for also being able to do this with us in real time. You know, mission almost accomplished, but we're very much closer than we were. I'm glad that we were able to kind of, you know, work through this and get this figured out. It is very taxing on not just us, but to remember on our staffs when we bring them in for special meetings when, you know, we can avoid that and try to, you know, do this

in, you know, in regular time. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and I think adjourn the meeting. So the next meeting, no special meeting scheduled. So we are adjourned until Tuesday, March 15th,

2022. No, please don't. All right, everybody. I know.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you.