Read the April 4 meeting.

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Thank you.

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This is John. Can you hear me?

Jennifer L. Hall

I can hear you.

Great. You sound clear. Can you try a few other mics, please?

Jennifer L. Hall

One moment.

Thank you.

Testing. One, two, three. Testing. Sounds good. And how do I sound? You sound good. Thank you. So let's try a few more mics, please.

Jennifer L. Hall

Yes. Mic number eight.

sounds good

Jennifer L. Hall

mic number six test one sounds good sounds good

Jennifer L. Hall

mayor's mic mayor's mic sounds good

mic test one two sounds good all right i think we're good thank you very much

Jennifer L. Hall

final one since i turned it on i'm going to kill the chamber audio

okay tom i'm going to bring the music back up thank you very much

Say Say Say Let's go.

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Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Madam Clerk, please. start the meeting please. Yes, Mayor. Go ahead, please. I hereby call the special closed session meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance and by teleconference via Zoom. The public may access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. Please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting. Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Council Member Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 1

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Council Member Fan? Here. Council Member Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 1

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 1

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Emescoa? Present. Let the record show we have five members present.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Thank you. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the closed session agenda? There are not. Do any council members need to announce their abstentions on closed session items?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 1

Hearing from no one, Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers for closed session items? No, we do not. Great, thank you. We will now recess this portion of the meeting to consider the items listed on the closed session agenda. Thank you.

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We'll see you next time.

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Let's go.

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Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say

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Transcription by CastingWords

Thank you.

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Say Say Say

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We'll see you next time.

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Transcription by CastingWords

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's go.

Thank you.

Let's go.

Let's get started.

Thank you.

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Let's go.

Let's get started.

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We'll see you next time.

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Let's get started.

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Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say

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We'll be right back.

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Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say Say

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We'll be right back.

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Let's go.

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We'll see you next time. Thank you.

Let's go.

Let's get started.

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We'll be right back.

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Recording in progress.

I love you.

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Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Madam Clerk, please start the meeting.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

Yes, Mayor, please go ahead.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

We will now reconvene.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

The special closed session meeting is now closed. Madam City Attorney, do you have anything to report out of the closed session?

Yes, Mayor, members of the council and members of the public, there is no reportable action.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Thank you so very much. I hereby call the regular open meeting to order. This meeting is taking place with in-person attendance by teleconference via Zoom. The public may access the meeting via the Santa Ana YouTube channel or the city's website. Please bear with us as the technology may disrupt the flow of the meeting. Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

Council Member Becerra.

Phil BacerraItem 13

Here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

Councilmember Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 13

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

Councilmember Penaloza?

Phil BacerraItem 13

Here.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

Councilmember Fan? Here. Councilmember Vasquez?

Present.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Here. Mayor Emescola?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Present.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Madam Clerk, before we proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance, please make an announcement.

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

Yes, to request to speak during public comments on agenda or non-agenda items within the jurisdiction, please dial star 9 from your phone or click the button labeled raise hand from Zoom at this time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

First item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. John, can I have you come up and do the Pledge of Allegiance for us, please? John Ramirez, see you back there. John.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

You want to come to the Pledge of Allegiance with us? No?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Mike Garcia, Pledge of Allegiance!

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

I know!

I know! We're not going to come anymore.

Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Thank you, Mr. Garcia.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

At this time, we'll have words of inspiration to be offered by Pastor Anthony Simon, please. Would you all please stand?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Pastor Simon, nice to see you.

Good to see you, Mayor and Council members. I want to start this time of inspiration by quoting Genesis 39 2 it says and the Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man serving in the household of his Egyptian master verse 3 says when his master saw that the Lord was with him and made him prosper in all that was good. The process can be beautiful depending on your attitude and how you apply it towards you. If I may quote Winston Churchill, he says, I will no

longer listen to what people say, I just watch the behaviors that they do because behaviors never lie. So I just want to inspire you all to know that we are praying for you all, praying for your families and praying for you as you lead us in this city. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, now God, how we love you and how we thank you for this day. God, we thank you for the city council. We thank you for those that are gathered here. Now, God, we pray that as we extend this business, you protect this city and protect our

officials. And God, give them wisdom and knowledge that they can lead us in the path that you will have us to go. Now, God, we pray that you will continue to bless this meeting and all that will be accomplished in your name we say amen thank you very much

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

there was a meeting of the housing authority scheduled for tonight that meeting has been canceled and the scheduled public hearing will be held at a future date. Madam Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to the City Council agenda? Yes, Mayor, there is

Jennifer L. HallItem 13

one. Staff is requesting to remove item number 13, which is a grant of an easement to Southern California Edison to allow underground power to serve a traffic signal, and that item is scheduled to return for your consideration on May 2nd. Did you say May 2nd? Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Perfect. Thank you so very much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

All right. We'll go on with the proclamations, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

If I can have one legacy, come up and join me, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

April is the month from the DMV that we celebrate donating to life, So please come up and join me.

Thank you for being here with us.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

April is DMV slash donate life month. And today more than 100,000 men, women and children in the United States are currently waiting for a life saving organ transplant. During DMV slash Donate Life Month, we give thanks to the families and friends of donors who have supported their loved ones decision to save lives by donating organs or tissue. By clicking yes online when you go to the DMV, when you're applying to renew your driver's license or your ID card, any person can register to be an organ donor. I myself am one.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

And you can be an organ donor, eye and tissue donor, regardless of your age or medical conditions. Organ, eye and tissue donation in the United States is more than just a pink donor dot on your driver's license. There is a well-established and experienced network of federally designated non-profits across the country called Organ Procurement Organizations, OPOs, all working together to save lives. One Legacy is the nation's largest OPO, serving the diverse Southern California region, working with hospitals, physicians, transplant centers, excuse me, and the community.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

One Legacy educates and facilitates donations, as well as builds a community of long-term support for the families who give the generous gift of life. Joining us today is our One Legacy Ambassador, Rachel Rodriguez. She is going to share with us her grandson's story, Malachi.

Did I say that right?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Malachi. Malachi Thomas Paine, a hero donor whose life ended too soon. I will give you this when you're done sharing.

Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here to share my grandson's story. I became a grandmother in 2010, and I was just so excited to finally have a grandchild. And I was embracing being able to go shopping and all of these different events that you're able to enjoy with grandchildren. I didn't know that it was going to be short-lived. In 2011, my family received a phone call that would forever change our lives.

And that phone call said we needed to get my son to the hospital because my grandson had an accident and was now laying in a coma at 16 months old. Three days would pass by.

I'm a woman of faith, and I continued to pray for that life-saving, that the Lord would just breathe breath into my grandson. and unfortunately that miracle didn't come.

Three days later, my grandson would be declared brain dead. And my son Daniel, the baby's dad, in the darkest moment of his grief, decided to donate baby Kai's organs in the hopes of helping other children. What we didn't realize was that the Lord had a plan for Malachi before he was even born. So our baby went on to save the lives of four people. He saved a nine-month-old with his liver. A two-year-old little girl received his little heart. She had been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy at two months old.

This is her at the time of transplant. This is my grandson.

And fast forward 12 years, she just ran a marathon. She ran the Orange County Marathon. Recently, she just did another half marathon with his little heart. This is the face of the beauty, the faces of beauty of organ donation. Malachi went on to save the life of a 21-year-old who is now living a beautiful life, able to travel and make new memories with her family. And he also saved a 65-year-old. We didn't realize at the time that a child could save two adults.

I later learned as a One Legacy ambassador that the kidney actually grows to a recipient size. So that's how our baby Kai at 16 months old was able to save the lives of two adults.

Justice came in 2014.

Malachi was murdered by his mother's then. And it was about four weeks of learning the details of his passing. But as I shared, you know, I'm a woman of faith. And I know that Malachi was brought here to this earth to give miracles to these families. Although I prayed for my own miracle as a grandmother, that miracle came in answered prayer for these four families that were desperately seeking a life-saving transplant. And so for that, our family is grateful. The very last moment that

I had with my grandson, I made him a promise. And that promise was to share his story, even through the tears. And so this today is fulfillment to that promise. I thank you in the city of Santa Ana as this is the city that my son resides in. So it holds a special place for me. So I'm grateful. I became a One Legacy ambassador in honor of my grandson. I've been an ambassador for a decade now. So I embrace that platform to be able to share my grandson's story.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Well, thank you for sharing that with us. Thank you. Yes, a round of applause, please.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

So what I just read to you is on this proclamation, declaring this month a DMV slash Donate Life Month. And thank you again for blessing us with your story. Again, I'm an organ donor. I would encourage all of you when you renew your license or get your ID that you get that little pink dot because as She shared with us. It's more than a pink dot. It saves lives. And so again. Thank you for being here. Thank you

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Okay, next one is Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, please. We can have Tethos for 20 years of outstanding contributions.

Jessie LopezItem 13

Good evening, everyone. We are here to recognize the 20-year anniversary of Jason and the company Tetels. Tetels. Tetels, yes. Okay, so Tethos has been based in the Centaur building in downtown Santa Ana since 2014, and they were founded by Jason in April of 2003 as Calendar Factory, which to date is still their corporate name. And so initially their business was focused on creating calendars, creating content for global organizations, A-list celebrities, nonprofits. and with the rise of the digital era they transition to the name of that those

Jessie LopezItem 13

a full-service creative agency offer offering web development content creation social media content management video production and more and one of the core values of the company is win-win-win right and so that's really how they manage all their products how they treat their clients or customers because they believe that it should be a win for not just their clients but a win for the people the animals and our planet and so the company is 40% owned by women and it is also minority owned and folks live here in the city of Santa Ana and they

Jessie LopezItem 13

are launching a nonprofit for arts education which will launch in the second quarter of this year 2023 and they have designed projects with over 100 design awards and through sponsorships they have also supported the education of children in need and so i'm going to let jason talk about all the important people that you've met but a fun fact that i wanted to share was that jason has been married four times to the same person to the same person

Jessie LopezItem 13

on four different continents in four weeks and so that that's fun um and so you know he is most proud of his relationships with his amazing wife April and their son Adrian and so we want to congratulate you on 20 years of success on 20 years of being in the city of Santa Ana and contributing back to the city of Santa Ana and for being in downtown Santa Ana that's very important to us and we look forward to celebrating 20 more years so please Jason tell us more about your exciting

life traveling around the world well first of all thank you mayor Pro Tem and thank you mayor and council members I really appreciate this and this is a big honor just as an aside my amazing wife is here and yes we did get married four times on four continents in four weeks like crazy people maybe because no one told us no we shouldn't do that but we learned so so much and we're just happy to come back and share it with this incredible community in Santa Ana she's a singer and I'm a designer at heart and it's just such an artistic creative, incredible community. So really, I thank you guys for your leadership as a council.

I thank all these amazing people here. Rachel, for what you're doing, and our fire services here. I just really thank everybody for doing such an amazing job to keep the city and make the city great. So I really appreciate that. So on behalf of Tethos and everyone there, thank you guys again for this honor. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Can we ask what continents you've been married on?

Okay, we have Africa in the Maasai tribe.

Wow.

David PenalozaItem 13

How many guests were at each wedding?

As many as we make it.

David PenalozaItem 13

Jesus, because I'm trying to pay for one in North America. It's looking expensive.

Thai Viet PhanItem 13

Yeah, there's one of us planning a wedding up here.

By the end, we were happy that no one came to the final one. We were done being married. We were like, I'm bad. Getting married. Getting married.

That was 12 years ago. We're still there.

Thanks.

Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Thank you very much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Councilman Hernandez please and Councilman Vasquez.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

We can have Latino health access.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

If we can have Latino health access come to the front.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

All right, if I can have Councilmember Vasquez join us right here on this side. And first and foremost, bienvenidos aquí a la ciudad de Santana, aquí donde hacemos buen trabajo por la comunidad. I just want to thank our neighbors for being here today. we are declaring April 4th with a proclamation making this National Child Abuse Prevention Month. We are presenting this proclamation to Latino Health Access and I have the honor of being joined by my colleague Councilmember Vasquez. And so April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. It was first

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

declared as Child Abuse Prevention Month in 1983 by presidential proclamation. The same year, the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center was formed under the Reagan administration. This month, families and communities work together to acknowledge and prevent child abuse. Providing an environment that is safe, healthy, and secure for our children and families requires the collaboration of all sectors in our community. And finishing up this presentation will be my colleague, Councilmember Vasquez.

Benjamin VazquezItem 13

Thank you. Thank you. I really want to appreciate Latino Health Access. We've always been doing work, and they've been doing work in the community.

Benjamin VazquezItem 13

Latino Health Access has been providing services for Santa Ana community for over 29 years. They have worked with our communities to ensure our children and youth grow up in a place where they feel secure, protected, and free of violence. I'm going to add that this includes affordable housing, that families don't have to rent out a garage, don't have to rent out a room, don't have to rent out the sofa, and they have a secure place for the families. So that's included in their fight, and I appreciate all the fights that you guys took on and the ones we have in the future to provide more affordable housing.

Benjamin VazquezItem 13

They have taken on a comprehensive approach not only to increase an awareness about child abuse prevention through workshops, resource fairs, and programs, but also providing educational opportunities for families to learn to identify and break cycles of violence for future generations. Today the city of Santa Ana recognizes the month of April as National Abuse Prevention Month, and as a community, we all do our very best to protect our children.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

Okay

Muy buenas noches

Pues les damos las gracias Principalmente porque Pues yo tengo esta pequeña muñeca Y este Y les queremos agradecer siempre por Permitirnos Estar aquí y Y este saber que contamos con ustedes gracias

bueno pues muchas gracias y gracias por todo a su apoyo que nos están dando y nosotros siempre estaremos para defender a los niños gracias

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Before we go, I want to ask any of you. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 13

It's very impactful when you also are engaged in the education. A lot of kids who are going to be impacted by the

education. I want to do this. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Bye.

Can we get a countdown? One, two, three.

Platino con access. Y la comunidad.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Okay, final presentation tonight will be made by Councilmember Becerra. Where is Councilmember Becerra?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

Councilmember Becerra, I'd like to recognize Orange County Fire Authority.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

And San Ana Police Department dispatchers.

Phil BacerraItem 13

If I could go ahead and have San Ana's finest police dispatchers and OCFAs.

Phil BacerraItem 13

We have one tonight. It was only because the others had so many awards they couldn't bring them all tonight, but that's a whole other story.

Congratulations.

Phil BacerraItem 13

So back in 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Presidential Proclamation 6667, declaring the second week of April as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. So this year, National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week is April 9-15, so we're celebrating just a little bit early. The week was started back in 1981 by Patricia Anderson of the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department to celebrate and thank the telecommunications staff who dedicate their lives to serving the public. Public safety telecommunicators are the single vital link for our first responders.

Phil BacerraItem 13

They monitor their activities by radio, provide them with essential information, and ensure their safety. They contribute substantially to the apprehension of criminals, the suppression of fires, and to life-saving treatment of patients. Now tonight, not only do we get to honor the men and women whose diligence and professionalism keep the city of Santa Ana and its residents safe, I also get to do a little bit of bragging here. So we have some amazing individuals that serve the City of Santa Ana as OC Fire Authority dispatchers as well as Santa Ana PD dispatchers.

Phil BacerraItem 13

So I have the honor of serving as the Santa Ana representative on the OC Fire Authority Board. And at our March board meeting, we got to recognize three APCO award-winning dispatchers that serve in OCFA's Emergency Command Center. So APCO is the Association of Public Safety Communication Officers. And first, I'd like to recognize Michelle Geiger.

There she is, Michelle.

Phil BacerraItem 13

Michelle, real quickly, Michelle was awarded the APCO Telecommunicator of the Year for consistently performing at a superior level. And so I mentioned earlier that our other two telecommunicators couldn't be here with us. I wanted to still recognize them, both of them being award winners that we recognized at the board meeting. One was Grace Romero. Now, Grace started her career here in Santa Ana at the Santa Ana Fire Department before she transitioned over to OCFA in 2012. Grace was recognized for her outstanding performance by an individual in fire. And then the third dispatcher that we recognized was

Phil BacerraItem 13

Certified Training Officer Kelsey Turnagel, who prior to becoming a dispatcher,

Phil BacerraItem 13

was an EMT here in the city of Santa Ana. She was awarded the certificate of merit for communications training officers. And also with us tonight, as you can see behind me, is Santa Ana Police Department's Communication Division. And we have a few more than I thought we were going to have, but nonetheless, we have Monique Quinones. Now, Monique is a dispatcher who's been with SAPD for eight years. She's a communications training officer. who has trained a total of 342 hours over the past year she also prepares discovery requests for the district attorney's office also we have helen hernandez now helen's been with the department

Phil BacerraItem 13

for 22 years and she's a member of the department's uniform committee she was named dispatcher of the year in 2009 and 2019. she is also a communications training officer and has been the lead dispatcher from 2018 to 2022. She was selected by the city to attend the leadership development cohort for public agencies at Cal State Fullerton back in 2018. She holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Waldorf University.

Phil BacerraItem 13

And then last but certainly not least, we have Jasmine Epperson. She's been a dispatcher with the department for six years. She is also a communications training officer and member of the department's peer support team. She was promoted to the lead dispatcher role in 2022, and she was named Dispatcher of the Year in 2020. So SAPD communications personnel answer all incoming calls from throughout the city. They dispatch and monitor up to 70 police officers in the field at any given time.

Phil BacerraItem 13

In 2022, SAPD communications personnel answered 114,293 911 calls and 446,362 non-emergency calls. Take that in for a second. SAPD dispatchers dispatched 127,905 calls for service, including field observation incidents, called in by officers over the radio. In 2022, SAPD communications service officers received and reviewed almost 5,000 online and

Phil BacerraItem 13

telephone crime reports and wrote approximately 3,000 police reports. so we are very blessed here in this city that we have such hard-working and talented dispatchers serving our city's residents and businesses so on behalf of the san anna city council it's my honor to declare april 9th through 15th national public safety telecommunicators week here in the city of Santa Ana. If you would please give all these ladies a round of applause.

Phil BacerraItem 13

So real quick I'd like to go ahead and hand out some of these certificates. So as I mentioned earlier Michelle. And then Monique Quinones who is not here tonight. Helen Hernandez.

Phil BacerraItem 13

And then Monique.

Phil BacerraItem 13

So I'm going to put you on the spot. Since you're the award winner, would you like to come up and say a few words?

Sure, no problem. I just want to say thank you first and foremost. I try very hard every day to really show my passion for this industry because that's really what it is. It's more than a job for me. And somehow, somewhere or someone it was noticed, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 13

And from PD.

First of all, thank you, Mayor and Council Members, for allowing us and giving us this recognition. It's really appreciated because dispatch is usually, you know, the unseen voices. I wanted to share an inspirational story. So not all calls that we get in dispatch require police response. I once, a lady called one time. This was several years ago before resources were available that we have now. 2-1-1 had transferred her to us because she wanted food so there's no way for me to send an officer to take her food I felt bad I sent an officer out to her I didn't generate a call for service I sent a message to an officer who was on

duty asked him can you please go check on this lady for me and tell me if it's something that she's it's true what she's saying that she has no food she was in a wheelchair she was alone he did happen to go out to her house and he messaged me back and said yes it was confirmed and I told him I'll give you money so she can buy groceries he's like I already took care of it so that is something that I do that I did above and beyond what my job required but those just the job that I have is a very I'm passionate about it so that I just want to share an inspirational story with you.

Phil BacerraItem 13

So we are very fortunate to have these folks working for us here in Santa Ana. So again, let's just give them one more round of applause.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Benjamin VazquezItem 13

For words of inspiration, do you have to be religious person?

Benjamin VazquezItem 13

A LAND RECOGNITION?

Benjamin VazquezItem 13

WELSHOW?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 13

THERE'S ONE STAFF PRESENTATION tonight after that we'll go into public comments madam city manager will you please introduce

the presentation we actually have our executive director of community development going to do the introduction for you thank you mr garcia and thank you for the pledge of allegiance of course

so robin mcnair our chair of the arts and culture commission will be coming up and i want to thank her all our commissioners as well as tram lee from our staff for doing such a great job i've I've been very impressed with the work they're doing.

Good evening, Mayor Mesquah, and city council members, and city staff, and our community members. It's my pleasure to be here as the chair of the Arts and Culture Commission tonight to present to you, which I hope is the first of an annual presentation before the city council, to serve as a role to keep you informed in our capacity as advisors and how we support the work that the arts and culture staff is doing so next slide please just to give you a little bit of history the Arts and Culture Commission

was formally created in 2014 because the city saw a need for formalizing that and creating a system of support because a lot of things were happening organically in the city and so we formally created a commission between 2014 and 2016 that commission began to activate community voices and bring arts and culture leaders, thought leaders together to reach out to the community and develop a 10-year arts and culture master plan. And I am pleased to say that I got to be involved in that process.

And that was formally approved unanimously by the city council in 2016. And then we saw the need to create support for infrastructure to manage all the aspects of that 10-year master plan. So we hired a city arts and culture specialist who is Tram Lee. And that way we can look at all the pieces and keep the master plan alive in the city. So next slide, please.

To just restate, as per our website, the Arts and Culture Commission was created to act as an advisory body to the city manager and the city council and make recommendations regarding policies, guidelines, and promotion of arts and culture activities to encourage economic development and to celebrate the city's unique cultural heritage. Next slide, please. So this is some of the work that the Arts and Culture Commission does and what we help support. One of the ways is funding to the community. These are initiatives that support artists and arts organization to realize their projects,

to activate community spaces and places. One of them started in 2015 was the Investing in the Artists grant, which we have continued to do, and have to date distributed a total of $675,000 to 81 individual artists and arts organizations, ranging from $2,000 to almost $20,000 per grant. And another one that started in 2022 was sponsorships for the arts, where the City Council allowed us to distribute a total of $100,000 to 31 art events.

And funding ranged from $177 to $8,543. 55% of those recipients had never received any funding before from the city. And that includes five neighborhood associations. Other ways that the Commission supports is through offering themes for the grants and helping to select recipients in addition to attending those events that were sponsored and funded in those ways. Next slide, please.

Another way that we support is commissioned public art. So next slide, please. These are art projects that the City Council calls for and we have a public call for art and a process for that those selections to be made. These include the utility box art programs also started in 2015 where since then we have painted and restored 40 utility boxes through four phases. We've located these These are located mainly along Main and Bristol Street, and all are covered in anti-graffiti coating.

And the example that we show up there is by Brennan Roach, a local Santa Ana artist, and that's located at Main and Civic Center. We also worked with the Coyote Sculpture at Willits and Sullivan. This was the first public sculpture that was called for by the City Council. and it was unveiled in January 2022 in a beautiful ceremony and a collaboration between the city, the school district, and the neighborhood associations. You see a picture of the unveiling, led by art created by artist Larry Gonzales, and this was done in honor of David Vasquez, a Santa Ana resident who taught the

Nahuatl language and culture. And finally, we're working on the downtown Santa Ana parking structure mural which is coming up. And part of a way to engage the community is we've sought surveys and feedback to inform the content of the mural. And we've received over 100 responses. And that will be scheduled for later this year. Next slide please.

Another way that we work with Commissioned Public Art is we collaborate with city agencies, including the Public Works Agency, the Planning and Building Agency, the Parks and Recreation, and Community Service Agency, and the Library. And so for example, we've been working on the Historic South Maine project where we had, we've reviewed hundreds of applications for bus shelter art, sidewalk poetry, and crosswalk art. So there's an example of a bus shelter. And we also commissioned eight fitness

courts and featured here as a mural by local artist Jean Jimenez. Next slide please. We are also collaborating with other nonprofit organizations, for example with Travel Santa Ana we're creating online walking tours and this is featuring public artwork sculptures murals the utility boxes artwork on SA USD campuses and other things that will be one of the attractionary pieces to coming to Santa Ana experiencing what we have to offer here next slide please

We have some wonderful upcoming programming as we do community programming and support that. This year we are piloting a graffiti arts program called Bridging the Gap, graffiti arts program. And this is a way of building pipelines and opportunities for our youth. It's a year-long initiative with multidisciplinary public arts program. program. We want to inspire civic leadership and community pride in our youth through the creation of murals and help our youth understand the significance of murals and particularly in Santa Ana. And then nurture mentorship opportunities between professional muralists

and the youth. Another thing that we've been working on is a mural restoration program and coming up with a process to catalog and identify and survey existing murals and identify a process for restoring and and making sure that they're kept maintained next slide please as we look ahead next slide we're very excited to share with you that we're working on an arts and economic prosperity report this This is a report done in collaboration with Americans for the Arts, who is helping us compile this report.

The report, called the AEP6, is only done every five years. So this is the first time Santa Ana has done that. And it is intended, it's a national study of the economic impact of spending by non-profit arts and culture organizations and their audiences. and this is a way for us to get data pertaining directly to the city of Santa Ana. And because our guiding principles and part of our mission is to be inclusive, there is a BIPOC element to the surveys that we're doing. We have to get 800 surveys by May, and many of our grant recipients have been helping us to collect these surveys,

and this is also what many of the arts and culture commissioners are out and doing, collecting the surveys. This data will inform us along with the OTIS report, which is an annual report commissioned by the OTIS College of Art and Design, which helps us get information about California's creative industries who will form an essential part of the overall creative economy. And we live in the U.S. creative economy capital right here. Additionally, the arts and culture commissioners conduct studies and research and subcommittees around the Arts and Culture Master Plan to develop actionable plans for things that we can do

without funding and plan for when funding comes. And we also network with the Arts and Culture throughout Orange County and beyond to learn about what other cities are doing to inform the work that we're doing here. And that concludes our report. We appreciate and thank our elected officials for their continued commitment to and support for the arts, including funding the arts as it has allowed us to continue expanding beyond our first five years of the arts and culture tenure master plan. As we look to the future and understand the economic impact study, I am sure that we will continue to collaborate around sustaining

the arts and culture in Santa Ana and that resources will continue to be allocated to demonstrate our commitment to this viable economic engine that attracts more people to come live, work, and play in our great city. Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you very much.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

If there are no questions, we're good. Councilman Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

I just wanted to thank you for your presentation, Robin. I'm ecstatic to see all of the work being done on this commission. I know that you are a passionate leader, I mean, outside of our community, all throughout the state for arts. So I just want to thank you on behalf of the young people of Ward 5. And thank my colleagues because the graffiti arts program was an idea that was brought to life here at the dais. And so was the mural arts restoration program. So none of that wouldn't have happened without this body here. So I just also want to thank my colleagues for their innovation and bringing these ideas forward and funding them.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 5

and we look forward to getting you a more robust budget.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember Hernandez. We appreciate it.

Phil BacerraItem 5

Councilmember Becerra? Just want to thank the Arts Commission and thank you, Robin, for your leadership. Excellent presentation and thank you, staff, for having them come to us and provide that presentation. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Councilman Panamosa?

David PenalozaItem 5

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say thank you, Robin, for the presentation and your commission as well. With the 800 surveys that are required by May 2023, what gave you that number? Is that just like a standard?

That's what is recommended by the national. Okay. It's the national platform.

David PenalozaItem 5

Are we close to achieving?

We're nearing it. We're pushing really hard. You know, there's always that getting to the summit. Yeah. So we are pushing very hard.

David PenalozaItem 5

I know last summer I did see my commissioner, Commissioner Gallegos, without me even asking. I saw him at a movies in the park. And I was like, what are you doing? He's like, oh, I'm collecting surveys. I'm like, oh, okay, cool. So happy to see that our commissioners are out there. If we could help in any capacity, if you could forward to me that survey, I'd happily like to share it or probably won't go door to door to do it.

Absolutely. We'll get you a clipboard and a QR code.

David PenalozaItem 5

Yeah, I'll share as much as I can. and I haven't seen anything on the city side, maybe I missed it, but if we could also send out some mass emails to help get those surveys in, that'd be a good thing to do.

Thank you. It's to, we're to collect surveys, just to be clear, at each event. We only have to get up to 50 at one particular event, and that gives us enough information about that, but what it does is it captures data around what are people spending to go to those events and how that has an economic impact on our city.

David PenalozaItem 5

Perfect. Easter events coming up. I know that's a popular one, so make sure to have people out there. Thank you.

I'll work with staff to make sure you get that information. Perfect. Thanks. May I approach that?

Jessie LopezItem 5

Thank you, Robin. I really appreciate the presentation. I hope we see more. I know Commissioner Russell is very, very involved with downtown Santa Ana, really a lot of the artists that live here. So I just wanted to give you an invitation and the commissioners to come back soon before our budget processes start so that we hear what recommendations, what projects you would like us to fund in the future. Oh, fabulous. Yeah, of course.

I accept on behalf of the commission.

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

We're happy to come back. Councilman Lassner. Thank you so much. Thank you, Robin, for your service as commissioner to the Santa Unified School District. I really appreciate everything you've done for the whole city as a whole. I love it. I base my, I'm a high school history teacher, but so much is part of it is an art that I appreciate your support and helping me expand that to my classroom and my kids. And I love it.

Benjamin VazquezItem 5

And like Council Member Jesse Lopez says, we hope we can get you the funds to support these art projects throughout the years and not just that one-time revive money, but continue moving forward. because the work you do is amazing. We spread out, and it's just not one org, but it's city-based, so we all get to enjoy the art throughout the city. So thank you.

Yeah, thank you. We do have a robust arts and culture community, and the school district is building sustainable things, and there's been a big surge there. So we're looking forward to the abundance in continuing to build these pipelines. So thank you very much. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Councilmember Fenn?

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

I took APR, but it didn't get very far. So maybe I'm a little bit bitter because I didn't get a grant, but I'm just kidding. I did want to actually bring up something. It might be more for Director Garcia, and this is regarding two items that this council has already budgeted for, which is, and I did watch one of your meetings on the Little Saigon sign as well as historic Chinatown. And this council budgeted for it. I want to make sure that we expend these dollars within the fiscal year and really move forward because I know there's robust discussion, but I know at the Arts and Culture Commission there was no action.

Thai Viet PhanItem 5

So I did want to ask that because this is it, right? You're in the spotlight, and these are going to be big, long-term, not just art pieces, but cultural and historical markers for our community. So I look forward to that, and hopefully we'll be there at the unveiling. Thank you.

Thank you. We look forward to supporting that continuum.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Robin, thank you for the presentation, and I love seeing all those. I'm a huge supporter while I was on the school board, supporter of the arts, and here is the mayor. So thank you. I look forward to working with you some more. Thank you, Mayor Mascua. Thank you, everyone. Have a good evening.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

All right. This is the time of the meeting for the city council to receive comments from the public on agenda, non-agenda items. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the city council may not enter into discussion at this time. We will now hear from members of the public that are physically present in the council chamber first and then hear from those on the conference call or Zoom. But I do want to ask a question, Madam Clerk, how many are on Zoom? Just one? We have one hand raised. Okay. So let's do the Zoom call in since it's just one and then we'll do public comments from those that are present, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Please dial star six from your phone or select the microphone icon to unmute from your device and proceed with your comment.

Hello.

Hello.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes, please go ahead.

Okay, I'm going to start my time. Hi, Victor Mendez, Ward 3. briefly. So first week was impacted by a huge influx of transient homeless individuals and drugs on Saturday, March 21st. And this kind of continued on relatively abated thanks in part to the police department and of course with dispatchers. It kind of reduced the situation significantly. And as of 3 p.m. today, I would say it's largely resolved. But over that 10-day period, My only observation was this, drugs. First Street has a serious drug problem. Now, we also have affordable housing for families.

They live right next to me. We have affordable housing for seniors where I live. And we also have permanent supportive housing for it to help families move forward with their lives. They live right across the street from me. We need help. We need to eradicate drugs from First Street. We need to do this humanely and legally, but it's a very serious problem, and it disturbs me deeply as a senior citizen. It disturbs me deeply to know children are being exposed to that. So I call upon the council to hold the city manager and the chief of police accountable for this drug problem we are facing now on First Street.

Secondly, on the issue of Mr. Delgado and his appointment service commissioner, I just see the council will have to determine the final outcome on this. All I can say in this 24-7, 365 social media environment, that we find ourselves in, you know, one has to always look at one's judgment behind these posts and whether or not that post is legitimate or not remains the same, but I think judgment comes into play here. Furthermore, you know, many people have been reassigned or fired from positions of higher authority for equal or lesser offenses, so just kind of keep that in mind. The decision is yours, the judgment is yours,

and I'll actually just exercise good judgment in that respect. Have a good night and best of luck in this meeting. Bye-bye.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Yes, Mayor, that concludes the Zoom comments. Stating for the record, we did receive and distribute and post four email comments. One resident in support of item 28 and three non-agenda comments related to homelessness, the police department dispatch calls, and the Riverview golf course lease.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you very much. Okay, first person, please, Stephan Hart, please.

Thank you, Mayor Emesqua and council members for granting me an opportunity to address the council tonight regarding the future of Santa Ana's Riverview golf course. My name is Stephen Hart. I have been the leaseholder and operator of Riverview Golf for the past 35 years. After reading an article in The Voice of OC, I believe there are some misconceptions in these chambers about what exactly Riverview Golf means to this community. Riverview has been an asset to our community since 1962 when Novel James converted the city's concrete dump into a small nine-hole golf course.

In 1988, we assumed operation of the facility and converted the nine-hole course into a championship-length 18-hole golf course. The course was an immediate success with the community. We offered a quality golf course with the best greens in all of Orange County at prices that fit even the most meager of family budgets. We offered golf for as low as $19 per person. We built a 25,000 square foot putting course that we made available to the community at no cost. In 1993, five years after we opened the 18-hole golf course, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, working with the County of Orange,

approached Riverview with the news that construction of the Santa Ana River Main Stem Improvement Project would permanently close the course by converting the river to a concrete line trapezoidal channel. Riverview went to work to save the golf course. We engaged the services of a team of hydraulic engineers and directed them to redesign the original core plans so that the golf course could be reconstructed following the channel improvements. Our plan was eventually improved and Riverview was reborn again. That was 28 years ago. Our design provided for a soft bottom river channel allowing for water percolation and

a natural habitat for waterfowl, amphibians, and other animals. Today, Riverview serves as outdoor open space recreation for over 100,000 local residents annually. They come from all walks of life and all age groups from two years of age to 100 years old. We are the home course for eight high school golf teams, including the Sam Welly Academy of Santa Ana. These teams have no other place to play. Our junior golf camps that serve kids from ages 5 through 13 fill to capacity from spring through summer.

We provide a vital source of outdoor recreation to a large population of senior citizens who make up to 20% of our golfers. Our driving range is always busy with people practicing and learning the game. I'm going to move on here. Riverview is already open space enjoyed by many. I implore you to please come to visit Riverview in person. And check out our website, photo gallery, at riverviewgolf.com.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Sir, your time is up.

Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 5

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Richard Garcia.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

After Richard Garcia, it would be Peyton Garcia, please.

Good evening, councils. Mayor, I want to thank you guys for taking the time to listen. I'm here with regards to Riverview also. I was actually born and raised in Mexico. When I came here, I knew no English, had no background on how things worked around here. Riverview gave me an outlet where I could socialize with people, learn the language, learn the sport, and make a lot of life-lasting family friends. It is an impeccable place to be and to be part of. It is a crucial part of this community. My son was born with special needs. He'll speak next.

And as you'll see him, he's 20 years old, weighs about 97 pounds, and he's an incredible golfer. And he learned everything he knows through Riverview Golf Cup. He is a teacher, instructor for all the junior kids. It keeps youth away from gangs, away from any negativity, and teaches them all about life and things that are morally right with society.

Riverview is an impeccable place to be. It's a family-oriented, community-oriented facility. And the family that runs it is an impeccable support to the community. And it just needs to stay. It's been there for as long as I can remember. And my life would not be what it is today without it. And that's a genuine comment. And you guys need to partake in that. And you guys need, seriously, need to reconsider closing that lease to these people. Because it is a viable place for Santa Ana. It would disappear. Where would high schools play? Where would your youth, where would they go?

You know, you're trying to keep them out of gangs. You're trying to keep them out of all this negativity.

Rise up. Keep that place open. Give them life. They deserve it. They work really hard, and the place is impeccable. You guys need to come out and visit, please. We implore you. Thank you for the time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Kayton Garcia.

Thank you, council members. Thank you, Mayor. I'm Payne Garcia. Like my dad said, I literally am 20 years old. I weigh 95 pounds soaking wet. I've learned how to golf at Riverview my whole entire life. I learned how to swing. I learned everything. I coached and mentored with Robert Stevens. You can text him, email him, anything. But what Riverview means to me is Riverview held a tournament for me. I had to go through mountains of surgeries when I was little. They raised over $4,000 for me for my surgeries, and I don't know where I would be without them today. And it's just not fair to close that Riverview golf course

for the golfers and for the community because I think all the little kids over there, they're learning how to golf with Robert. They're learning how to be social. So they're learning how to do everything with their life, and I just think that's not fair. And there's high school students trying to get out there, trying to get more interactive with the sport. It's just not fair. So thank you again.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Stan Fear.

Good evening and thank you for letting me speak here. I'm here to talk about the neighborhood. I live next to Riverview Golf Course and I've lived there for, well, since 1986, so a few years. And Riverview has been a part of the community. And when we found out the plan was to turn it into a park, we talked to the neighborhood and talked to our neighbors. And last week had a neighborhood association meeting and Mayor Proctor Lopez attended that. I appreciate that. And overwhelmingly, our neighbors are opposed to converting the golf course into a park for many reasons.

But losing that positive part of our neighborhood isn't the main reason. We don't want to lose those. I played golf with my kids there when they grew up. When my kids come to visit, we go challenge each other to 18 holes of putting on the 18-hole putting green. I hope to take my grandchildren there to play. And we just appreciate the course for what it is, and we know how well the park next door is taken care of, and we're just afraid. You know, we expand to a 30-acre park that Santa Ana owns. What happens to the other 80 acres that are there? And who takes care of that,

and how is it going to be managed and taken care of? And we know that the golf course will be taken care of, and who takes care of it. And there's people there 24 hours a day watching out for the property, and it's secured in the evenings, and we'd like to keep that safety and that asset to our neighborhood. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Sue Pollock.

Good evening, Mayor.

I'm Sue Pallick from Ward 4, and I have some comments.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Can you bring your mic down a little bit for me, please? Thank you.

I'm Sue Pallick from Ward 4, and I have some comments regarding the PAL program in the last meeting, and I'm fired up. Councilman Vasquez, I want to address you. You obviously did not do your homework before you spoke last council meeting about the PAL program. Your protest of the fire station conversion looked to me like just another lame brain, ultra far left tactic to continue to denigrate our police and the PAL program. You tried so hard, but it didn't work. We only gathered more support for the PAL, including mine, and you fired up the silent majority.

PAL is overwhelmingly successful with kids. There's a waiting list to join, and parents love it. In the future, I'll have a lot more to say about it, but for now, I want to tell you that there are library books and services, library services at the McFadden PAL, so it's a nice try. To me, you don't seem to understand some of the serious needs of our kids today, or perhaps you just don't want the police to have any positive influence in this city. Why would that be? Is it the political-driven anti-police indoctrination of the next generation, starting with the kids, to defund the police?

Is that the goal, neighborhood by neighborhood? To me, that's criminal. Our kids should not be political footballs. Teenagers are participating in TikTok life's endangering challenges after school, getting into big-time criminal trouble all over Orange County. Libraries are not going to save our kids. I recently read about four teens at a dog park who grabbed a woman's dog and threw it into traffic while she watched in absolute horror and this was local. I wonder if they were on the way to the library. In this electronic age kids need human interaction support and direction. I don't know that you get it.

I thank God for our police officers who are trying to do something for our kids and our teens. And to any of you who hold back the success of PAL, you will have to look into the eyes of these kids and explain yourselves as well to the parents. We need some town halls, and I don't think most of you up there would be able to stand the heat in the kitchen on this subject. One more thing. You've spent so much time in libraries, and this really bugs me because I learned this in third great. It's not library, it's library. You know, I want to give a shout out to Ricky from the

McFadden PAL. He was here to talk about how PAL affected him, and it's because of him that I'm here tonight. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you. Charlie Andres?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

After Charlie is Gabriel Montoya. If you can come up and sit in the front, please. Thank you.

Good evening, council members and mayor. My name is Charlie Andres, and I'm a lifelong resident of Santa Ana. and I've also been teaching history for Santa Ana Unified School District for the last 25 years. I am speaking in opposition of turning Riverview Golf Course into a public park. There are several reasons why the golf course should not become a park. First, and most importantly, is that Riverview provides opportunities for the residents, especially the youth. There is a passage in the mission statement that says the city will provide opportunities for the youth, and I think this applies.

Riverview is not Santa Ana Country Club. where membership costs $100,000, but rather a place where boys and girls of Santa Ana can participate in summer camps, practice putting with their parents and grandparents, and represent their high schools by playing high school matches there. I personally know of three young men from Santa Ana who took lessons and practiced at Riverview and used their golf skills to participate in high school golf and guide their direction to college. They would not have had that opportunity if Riverview had not been located in Santa Ana. Also, Riverview provides affordability to residents of Santa Ana.

Golf clubs like Black Gold, Tustin Ranch, and Mile Square charge three or four times the amount than Riverview. A bucket of practice balls at Riverview is less than half the price at other practice facilities. Riverview also provides affordable instruction for people to learn the game of golf. In addition, there are three competitive golf clubs at Riverview that people could join at a reasonable cost. The uniqueness of the course should be considered in a decision to keep Riverview a golf facility. I have played golf around the country and state, and I've never played a course like Riverview.

The layout of the course on the river as well as the putting facility make Riverview one of a kind. The uniqueness should be acknowledged as something special in the city of Santa Ana. The final reason why Riverview should remain a golf course is not a public park is the current state of the parks in Santa Ana. Alona Park, which is adjacent to Riverview, is rarely in use by the residents of the community. In addition, the access of the proposed park to the Santa Ana River would create an invitation to homeless to camp out in very large numbers. Even now, with golfers playing from sunup to sundown, homeless reside under the bridges.

I can't imagine what this property would look like unsupervised and unattended. Please consider these reasons I have provided for keeping Riverview a golf course instead of a public park and making your decisions. I think Riverview is providing more opportunities to the residents of Santa Ana than you can give credit for. Thank you for your time.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Gabriel Montoya, followed by Ruby Vallejo, if you can please wait up here, Ruby. Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor. My name is Gabe Montoya. I've spoken here before. I'm an EMT, I actually served as an EMT in Orange County with Care Ambulance a number of years ago before I worked for Kaiser Permanente. And I'm also a rank and file executive board member for SEIU UHW. I'm talking here tonight because I really want to discuss the urgency in what we're dealing with in healthcare. We have a worker shortage in healthcare that we are going to begin to fill increasingly as we see the baby boomer generation starting to retire, as we see the effects of long COVID that is having on communities around us,

including Santa Ana. In California, it is projected that by 2024, California will have a shortage of over 500,000 healthcare workers across the state. Santa Ana will be no exception. But here's where Santa Ana stands. Santa Ana, for the city of its size, we can consider the seat city of Orange County to be kind of a healthcare hub for this city. I mean, for this entire county. For the size of your city, you have three hospitals and six Dallas's clinics, right? And then we have integrated systems within the city like Kaiser Permanente clinics. And so why does this matter to Santa Ana? Because as we're moving forward,

And as this crisis begins to grow and participate across the state and in this city, it's going to be seen by the citizens that you all serve, the constituents. They're going to fill it. But not only are they going to fill it in ways of getting doctor's appointments and what their service looks like in the hospital, eventually they're going to see what we're seeing in LA County where patients are waiting over five or six hours in an emergency room for their children to be seen, right? which becomes devastating, right, especially if you're someone who's having to go there for the first time for an emergency.

And what do we tell them? How do we explain this? Well, I can tell you as an emergency tech myself in a local ER that a lot of this has to do with short staffing. We cannot underestimate the importance of health care workers on this community. And so why do we talk about raising a health care minimum wage to $25 an hour? because healthcare workers in Santa Ana are serving this community diligently and yet they cannot afford to live in the city that they serve. And I'm not just talking about the nurses and doctors that we hear about on news channels across the U.S. over the past three years. I'm talking about health aides.

I'm talking about CNAs, about transporters. These are folks that some of them are only making $19 an hour, $21 an hour on average. When a $19 an hour employee goes to pay rent, it is 73% of their pre-taxed income in the city of Santa Ana to rent one bedroom apartment here in this city. And so how do we expect these people to continue to serve this community when they're literally being priced out of healthcare and the industry that serves this community in a big way? Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you. Ruby Vallejo.

Good evening, Mr. Valeria. My name is Ruby Vallejo. I'm working in the hospital for 34 years. Okay. I've been working in the hospital for 34 years, and I start with the housekeeper. I went to take my CNA, and I work in labor and deliver for 16 years, and after that, they got my position. So I went to Central Supply. So now I'm working in the Central Supply and making $21 to be working 34 years. So I love to work in the hospital because it's like a small hospital.

And I hope they never close because it's in the middle of this Sarana and it's a small community. So I hope they help us to raise this minimum.

Thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Alicia Bernard.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Followed by Nelly Legaspi.

good evening good evening good evening good evening good evening good evening good evening good evening good evening my name is Alicia Bernal and I'm going to tell you a little bit of my story I'm a kid my son of my son of autism and it's very hard it's very hard to take a child for me it's a child of 30 years old, I keep care of it. It's not easy. And I also have to talk about the workers who work in hospitals, which I have with a child, it's hard to imagine those people who work in hospitals,

that have 10 patients, 13 patients, imagine how hard to do that for them and not have a salary with the people who can live quietly, with the people who can live without having to eat the uines every month to pay rent, to bring food to the table, to their families. I say it because I live and it's hard. I ask that I support them, that they can earn $25 a month, in minimum wage. Y les doy las gracias. Buenas noches. Gracias.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, City Council members. My name is Alicia Bernal, and I want to tell you a little bit of my story. I care for my nephew, who has autism, and it's hard to take care of this child. I call him a child, even though he's 30 years old. He's a 30-year-old child, and it's not easy. and I'm here to support the workers who work at the clinics and hospitals and if I with one child it's very hard to take care of him imagine them having 10 or 13 patients and they do not have a salary that satisfies their needs they need to worry every month they need to worry about bringing

food for their families, and I'm here to ask you to support a minimum wage of $25 per hour for these workers. Thank you, and good evening. Nellie? Good evening, Council Members, Madam Mayor, Pro Tem, Madam Mayor. I'm Nellie Legazpi, Personnel Commissioner and Chairwoman. I'm here tonight to speak in favor of appointing Fernando Delgado as a Commissioner for the Police Oversight Commission. Commission, excuse me. My reason being is the pastor put the words that I was trying to come up with perfectly. Don't judge a person by what they say, which social media is words. That's what

it is. Judge a person by what they do, how they walk their life. Since I met Fernando two years ago, I have watched him be an excellent father, a very active, proactive community member. He's at so many events he came to our events that we put on he was very interactive with all of us very respectful even if he didn't know the culture he was still very respectful we want our commissioners to be reflective of the community that it serves which is what we do as commissioners we serve the community at your will and Fernando is very representative a lot of the community members they vocalize what they think but their actions speak

differently. He holds himself to utmost respect. He carries himself very old school values that we don't see very often amongst people anymore. He reminds me of one of my sons, actually two of my sons because of the same age bracket, opening doors, giving a seat to an elder, offering water to elders, making sure everyone is taken care of in the community. I've watched him at events that were dangerous to be at, and I was there, and he was making sure I was protected and other people were protected and elders were protected. That's what we want in our representatives.

Appointments as commissioners, we hold a responsibility. We are a reflection of you, our council members, and the communities that we serve. We are a direct reflection. Social media is so objective. If somebody, if you're not cognizant of who tags you and who puts your name to something, you have no clue what's being put out there. Me personally, nobody gets to tag me on anything unless I say it's okay. I have to approve it. That's just me being extremely

paranoid because I've had that happen to me in the past where somebody tags me on something and it has nothing to do with my belief system at all. And then I've got to go unfriend them and delete it and apologize to everybody that was offended. That's a lot of micromanaging to do. So don't judge Fernando by some post that someone wants to assume that he put up. Look at his deeds and how he carries himself as a community member and I'm telling you I do not vouch for anybody that I don't feel comfortable that would be representing us well as a commissioner I myself am very cognizant

what's on my social media and how I conduct myself in public even speaking here today I'm only doing it because I really feel that you will be satisfied with how he conducts himself now let's remember something this oversight commission is going to be watched they're going to be watched even more than personnel commission is and we're the ones that hold the hearings ma'am your time is up okay thank

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

you very much good night carl benninger please followed by sam lazardi followed by alex um monthe peg i'm sorry if i say that wrong good evening council and mayor carl benninger from

ward four i just realized the other day i'm a 44 year member of sanahana i can't believe it's been that long but I want to talk a couple issues first I want to thank the city for putting together a zoom meeting that talked about how to have an event in the city they between Monique and and Frank and Brittany I believe was he like the house later they took this area of confusion and really simplified it and made it understandable so anyone might hear my voice you can now plan your events in the city it's well documented how to do it and they'll help you through it so I want to thank the

city for that on it. I also want to talk to, and I'm glad the lady in front of me mentioned it, because when I was in management, we always looked at people's actions to see if they really matched the words that they said. And I was very hurt last week. I lost three people in Vietnam. One of them was a gentleman by the name of Bernard Pavlach. And Bernard and I was only a year difference, but I grew up in a rough area of Detroit. And Bernard let it be known that you messed with me, you messed with him. So he was my protector on it. And so see that staged

photograph, I looked into that, that photograph was staged by East German. Shows really insensitivity because it was issued on March by him on March 8th, which is my birthday. It's just not even a month ago. And then I'm not very good at looking at social media or looking at the line, but I easily could find statements attributed to them where if all police funds were to good social programs we have no no no crime boy i don't know what that's smoking but we need some of that stuff because that just isn't true and so and he's also a marxist he's supporting the

government which wants to take away everybody's rights and so it is illogic we don't need this on a police commission we need understanding logical people with the issues they're going to have and this commission is really going to be the most important one i really applaud you for formula police commission i have always supported it i think that this we have a great opportunity to get great transparency and please don't below it by putting someone on there who reminds me of steve rocco thank you

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Councilmembers. I'm here to speak on behalf of my friend, my brother, Fernando Delgado, being placed into a position, a seat on the Police Oversight Commission. I can only speak to my experience of Fernando since first coming to meet him. I'm a transplant newbie to Santa Ana, and Fernando, since first meeting him, I've learned so much of Santa Ana, about Santa Ana, through Fernando.

Through the organization that I work with and the youth that I serve, he's really planted himself in, brought himself in, and he brings his young boy, he's an example to the other young fathers who are there with us. And anytime he speaks to our kids, we usually have like circles to close off our group sessions where we meet with our kids. And anytime that he speaks to our kids, he speaks of justice, of being fair, of really having everyone at the table,

and really appointing a gentleman like Fernando, someone who is speaking this way, someone who has this vision for our city. We would be placing someone at a seat who, again, would bring some of that equity to this table. And so, again, I just stand here really honored, and I'm hopeful for my brother Fernando to be able to place in this seat. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Alex Montepec. I apologize if I said that wrong.

Good evening everyone. My name is Alex Montepec. I work in the South Coast Global Medical Center de esta ciudad. También vivo en esta ciudad. Estoy acá por el motivo que quisiéramos que el minimum wage fuera un poco más arriba, porque soy una de las personas afectadas del alto costo de vida que está en esta ciudad.

Actualmente, soy SPD-TECH, Estabilization Instruments. También soy GI-TECH. I work different jobs, I work from 2008 in the hospital and they are paying $21 a hour. We are in front of any disease, we are exposed to many things and we are not valued. Because with the pandemic we work, people don't want to work, we have no DNA, we have no No, trabajar en un hospital, no, porque están expuestos a muchas cosas.

Pero la verdad que sí, estamos pidiendo, mucha gente quisiera estar acá, pero muchos tienen dos trabajos para poder sobrevivir. No para vivir una vida de lujo, pero para poder sobrevivir necesitan dos trabajos. Estamos pidiendo, no es mucho, es solo que pudieran poner a 25 dólares la hora and to work a little more tranquility, to feel valued and to continue doing what we can do, try to save lives. And we receive all the people, no matter who you are. I forget how much I am when I'm helping someone, but when I come back, I say, I'm going to give you the help, but I don't live with help.

We need help, we need help. We need help, we need help. We need help from a lot of thanks. We also need to value people, as workers. I'm 15 years working for $21 a hour now. Many people think that because we work in a hospital, we're well-being. And it's not so. But if they're closed, it would be a collapse in this city. Thank you for your time. We hope that, please, we take into account. Gracias.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 5

Thank you very much. That ends public comments at this time. Oh, I apologize.

Good evening. My name is Alex Montepec, and I work at South Coast Medical Center, and I also live in this city, and I'm here because I want to ask you to raise, help us raise that minimum wage, and I am affected by the high cost of living in the city. I'm a spirit tech and a GI tech. I have different jobs. I've been working in the hospital since 2008, and I only make $21 an hour now. And we are exposed to illnesses and things like that, and we don't feel valued, and we are working hard there. We don't have any help from CNAs or any nurses, and people don't want to work in hospitals.

They're saying, I don't want to work in a hospital because I may get sick or be exposed to too many things. So some other people wanted to be here, but they can't because they're working two jobs. Not because of a luxury, but because they have to. They have a need. And it's not a lot that we're asking for. It's only we're asking for $25 an hour to make our lives a little bit easier. We to feel valued and to continue being able to save lives. So we we receive a lot of people. We help a lot of people. and when I'm helping people I forget how much I make

but then after work I realize that we don't live from the things. We live from money. And I've been working there for 15 years and I only make $21 an hour and people think that because we work in hospitals that we make a lot of money but that's not true. It's a small place. So thank you for listening to us.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

All right, thank you very much. Consent calendars, we're going to go into the consent calendar now at this time. Consent calendar items number 6 through 26 are before us at this time. Council members, please announce any items that you'll be abstaining from due to conflict and if there are any requests to pull an item from the consent calendar for further discussion. and I'll call on you right now to pull or abstain. Let me start with this one. Councilman Vasquez? Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Councilmember Phan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

I'd like to, excuse me, announce my recusal for number 18 with Sudaru as they are a client of someone at my firm, my employer, Rattan Tucker. Thank you. Councilman Becerra? Nope.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Councilman Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Yes, I would like to pull item 12 for comment. I just wanted to comment on this item very briefly and urge my colleagues here to approve this project. It will help us create new restrooms across all of Santa Ana, specifically in Ward 5 at Angels Park. park. That is a park that desperately is in need of new restrooms, so I am very supportive of this item. Item number 14, I am supportive of this item as well. This gives...

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Can you just tell me which ones you want to pull and not comment?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

So 12, 14, I have comment, and then I would like to pull item 21.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Item 21? Yes. Thank you. Councilman Penielsa?

Phil BacerraItem 6

No items, Mayor. Great. Madam Mayor, I'll go ahead and move the balance.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I'm sorry?

Phil BacerraItem 6

I'll go ahead and move the balance. I'll second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Perfect. Councilman Penelosa, second. Prepare to vote, please. We're going to approve the remainder of the calendar, consent calendar. You want to do a roll call, please?

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Yes, Mayor. A motion by Councilmember Becerra, seconded by Councilmember Penelosa, to approve the consent calendar, with the exception of item 12, 14, and 21, 1, pulled for discussion and comment, and item 13, which was removed by staff. Councilmember Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Emescuwa?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

The vote is 7 ayes, no nays. Motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you. Madam Clerk, at this time we'd like to administer the oath to Councilmember Becerra's Youth Commissioner, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Yes, if Nipollers-Ortiz is present, if you could please come to the well.

I, Nicholas Ortiz, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion,

that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you. Give us one second. We need to clear up something here.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

All right, great. Congratulations to our new youth commissioner. Okay, item 12, Councilman Hernandez, please.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Thank you. I just wanted to take this opportunity to inform the public that this item 12 will be bringing a brand new park restrooms to Angels Park, which is in Ward 5. So for the Downtown Neighborhood Association and residents who live in that area, I'm very excited to see this new amenity coming to our district. Item 14. I just wanted to also take this opportunity to educate the public. there is a park that will be coming to the willard neighborhood and this property acquisition will allow us to have a more spacious park for residents of the willard neighborhood i thank my colleagues

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

here on the council for making this making this possible and i know that our residents are desperately looking forward to having open space in willard that concludes my comments ms mayor

David PenalozaItem 6

thank you thank you is there any other comments yeah i have a comment on number 12. yes thank you Mayor. This is just a comment for staff. I want to make sure that when we move forward with Angels Park's restroom that we make it closer to the street so that it's visible from people driving by. Let's be real, the people that use the restroom are not using it to use the restroom as I've gotten hundreds of reports of over the last four years of the activity that goes on in those restrooms. So I would hope that we do our best to keep those restrooms safe and

David PenalozaItem 6

and have more visibility towards them and that's it thank you that's it mayor and i'll make a

Jessie LopezItem 6

motion to move the the items i'm happy to second i have a comment so go ahead okay thank you i just wanted to thank staff for the work that you've been doing i know you've been hearing from us um time and time again about when some of our restrooms are going to get uh you know these makeovers that we've desperately needed and to see riverview included in that I know that the residents are going to be very happy and I just hope that we continue to see these projects and hope that they Move along fast enough to start a new set of restrooms. So thank you again for all the work that you're doing

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Public works y'all are rolling deep. I'm so excited There's like six of you here, but I just want to say Windsor Park the restrooms there Lonnie, Maria, Chris, all of you have literally been spamming my inbox for two years now. This one's for you and you know Heritage. The West Side is very grateful for the attention and work that I think in my 30 plus years of living in Santa Ana we never got. So thank you.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

I'll make a motion to move the item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

The motion it was already made. We have a motion and we have a second over here. So all right let's prepare to vote.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

A motion by Council Member Penaloza, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, to approve Item 12, the Construction Contract with MMC, Inc. Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Fan? Yes. Council Member Vasquez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Amescu?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Yes. Yes, and I'm just confirming that I didn't hear you correctly, Bea. It's for item 12 and 14.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

For item 12 and 14.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

That was the motion.

Okay.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Everyone's okay with that? Then yes, the vote is 7 ayes, no nays. Motion carries to approve items 12 and 14.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you. I apologize. There's an echo. Okay, item 21.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Okay. Okay, and so item 21, I pulled this item because I had some concerns with this grant that was being presented. If we could have our chief of police make his way to the front, please. Thank you, Chief Valentin. I had some questions about this grant. I had a couple of different community members who had concerns about this grant. I'll go ahead and read the discussion portion of this grant. The United States Department of Homeland Security, DHS, developed the Urban Area Security Initiative, OASI, federal grant program.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

OASI provides funds to local emergency first responders to enhance security and overall preparedness to prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism. Chief Valentin, could you give me a very brief overview as to what this grant will entail as far as programming and what does that look like for our department?

Sure. Madam Mayor, City Council, thank you for the question. This grant, federal grant, began really post 9-11 and the attack on our country. And so this platform has to do with preparedness, mitigation, prevention, and then response, recovery of acts of terrorism. And so the investment is not when we discover that something may occur. It's long-term. And so we are one of two agencies in Orange County that serve as the financial oversight of the grant. It's the city of Anaheim and Santa Ana.

We alternate years. We have the odd years, so we are currently serving in that capacity, and then we pass it off to Anaheim next year, and so on and so forth. So some of the examples of what comes from the grant is equipment training, threat assessments. It also supports the Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center that we all seek services from. So when there's a piece of information, for example, involving one of our schools, right, and there's a threat, a possible threat there, that's one of the resources that we would go to.

We also have terrorism liaison officers throughout Orange County, Santa Ana PD, Probation Department, every city, the Orange County Sheriff's Department. They're especially trained in recognition of pieces of information and link analysis in determining what, if there is a credible threat, and then what steps to take, right? So really training, equipment, preparedness, threat assessment, tabletop exercises. Last year we did one with Santa Ana Unified, along with the Fire Authority and various other partners. So it's about getting everybody on the same page.

We also facilitate training in the area of tactical emergency casualty care that's funded by this grant. The other night we had an award ceremony that some of you attended, and you got to hear firsthand officers from Santa Ana PD applying these skill sets in saving the lives of people based on the training that they've been provided through this program. And so this is not centric to just Santa Ana. It's the entire county.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Okay, and so part of where my concern comes from is, you know, when we're talking about having comprehensive, good police training, I have to revert back to data. Our partner agency that you listed, Anaheim, is rated one of the deadliest police departments in California. American Civil Liberties Union filed a report in 2017, which was public, and it detailed in that report that Anaheim was the ninth deadliest police force in California. We have a very troubled history with Anaheim. I'm very limited as to what I can share,

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

but the last time Anaheim was here was September 28th, and they committed terror in our community. The impacts of that terror are tenfold. There are families that have been impacted, and there are community members that have been impacted. Part of where I am worried about this partnership is their training. And they're an agency that is constantly in the news for challenges that I just don't want our city to have to be dealing with.

Mayor, I'm so sorry to interrupt. I did just want to remind the Mayor and the Council that this item is to approve an agreement with sensemakers for grant project and physical coordinator services. Just to clarify.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Thank you, Laura.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you, City Attorney. I appreciate it.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

But given Anaheim's involvement, I do have some concerns with them working in our city. Can you give me some clarification, Chief? is this agency going to be working and training within our department and within our streets? I'm trying to understand the collaborative here.

So the regional training would be at our training facility at Centennial. It wouldn't be out on our city streets. That's where we would do the regional training for other agencies.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Okay. At this moment, I don't have any additional questions. I think I have everything that I need today, Chief. I thank you for your input and for the information, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Councilman Penaloza.

David PenalozaItem 6

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to make a motion to approve the recommended action.

Phil BacerraItem 6

I'll go ahead and second.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you. Prepare to vote, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

A motion by Councilmember Penaloza, seconded by Councilmember Becerra to approve item 21, the agreement with sense makers. Councilmember Becerra?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Hernandez?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Penaloza?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez?

Jessie LopezItem 6

Yes. I have a question. Do I need to have this on if we're not going to do the loading by the machine? Okay, I'm going to turn it off.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

The reason I'm doing road calls is buying doesn't work at all. I'm just going to turn mine off. Thank you.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Mayor Omescua?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

The vote is six ayes, one nay. Nay by Council Member Hernandez. Motion carries.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

All right. That's the end of the consent calendar. We're going to go to the business calendar at this time. Item number 27 is to appoint representatives to various regional boards. City Manager, may we please have a brief staff report?

Certainly. I will defer to the City Clerk on this since it's an appointment of representatives.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Hi, Mayor and Council. This item before you is to appoint various representatives and alternates to the Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency, the Southern California Association of Governments, or SCAG, and the Orange County Council of Governments, OCOG. So at your meeting of December 20th of 2022, you did make various appointments to regional boards and commissions. At that time, the Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency was not presented to you for appointment, and their executive director brought that to the attention of the city, so we are bringing it to you now for consideration.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

As well as at that meeting, you did appoint Council Member Vasquez to serve as the representative to SCAG and OCOG, Unfortunately, he has had to resign from those positions, so the positions are back in front of you to make new appointments to those entities.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Okay, so let me start off by we have the Santa Ana River Flood Protection and Skag, and then an alternate for Skag. So is there any council member up here who would like to be on the Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

Having left Skag, and I'll take the responsibility of the SARFPA.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Can you let me know when you want to talk so I know?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

Yeah, I'll take on SARFPA. They meet at 4 o'clock, so it would be good.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So you would like to, we'll nominate you to the Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency?

David PenalozaItem 6

Yes, please. And I'll second that nomination.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Perfect. Okay.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I'm going to do both of them together, and then we can...

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Sure. So for the SARFPA, you can also appoint an alternate. That can be a member of the legislative body or a member of staff.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Oh, we can have a city staff? Yes. Madam City Manager, do you have an alternate for us?

Cesar. I would recommend our Executive Director of Public Works.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

That is Nabil? Yes. Thank you so very much. We appreciate you, sir. Okay. Now let's go to SCAG. Is there anybody want to make a nomination or volunteer?

Phil BacerraItem 6

If you're open, I'd like to nominate you to serve as our appointee to SCAC.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I'd like to nominate Mayor Pro Tam Lopez if she's open.

Jessie LopezItem 6

By when do we have to make a decision to appoint someone?

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

The position is currently vacant. So in order to have city representation at their meetings. The sooner the better, obviously. They do meet on the first Thursday of each month.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

So there would be that, as well as they do also have a monthly, their annual meeting coming up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And I see they have a conference also coming up.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

The conference, yes, I believe it's in the beginning of May.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

You know, that's fine. I'll take it. Thank you for the nomination, Councilman Becerra. I like it. That's good to know. So you're going to second the motion? I sure do.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

How about Mayor Pro Tem, you want to be an alternate? Sure, that's fine. All right.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

And just to clarify, Mayor, the alternate, for OCOG, has to be the same representative as SCAG. SCAG does not have an alternate except for the purpose of the conference. OCOG does have an alternate. So in this instance, Mayor Pro Tem Lopez, if approved, would serve as the alternate to OCOG, but there's not a standing alternate at SCAG. It's very confusing. I got it, though.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I think I got it. I think SCAG is a six-hour meeting in one day or something like that. Thank you, Councilman Becerra, so very much. We'll talk later. All right. Let's prepare to vote. I believe there was a motion and a second. Let's prepare to vote, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

So we have, do you want to take them together or the two items separately?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I'm sorry? We can do them together. Together?

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Okay. So we do have the nomination by Council Member Vasquez and seconded by Council Member Penaloza for Council Member Vasquez to serve at the SARFPA and then for Public Works Director Nabil Saba to serve as the alternate. And then for the SCAG and OCOG, Council Member Becerra nominated Mayor Emescuwa and seconded by Council Member Fan. And also if I could ask that this direct me to update and post the required forms online.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Penaloza?

David PenalozaItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Councilmember Fan? Yes. Councilmember Vasquez?

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Emescuwa? Yes. Yes. The vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries. Nominations are approved.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

All right. We're going to now close these nominations and move to item 28. So let me give a little background first on this. Not background, really, just some guidance that I met with the city attorney and also with the city manager. So thank you both for your leadership in this area. So what we're going to do is we're going to, Mr. Delgado is still present. Thank you, sir. We're going to have Mr. Delgado come up and speak, and I'm going to give him four minutes to speak.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

After that time, each council member will be given a short time to speak, three minutes. I checked with the city attorney. There's some decorum, some rules, and then we can go back around if we need to. but that's why we're not so that way we do not spend an extensive amount of time on this item so and please if you want to speak once i go through once well i'm going to go one time and then i'm going to come back a second time and then we'll vote okay so this is the first time that we've had to do this um or that we've done this and so again city attorney thank you for your guidance i I appreciate it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

At any time that you feel a need to step in, please do so. Pull that red card out so that we know the red card is out, okay? All right. Let's get started on this.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Mr. Delgado, if you can please come up.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you very much. Let us know when you're ready to speak, and we'll start the clock.

All right. Give me one sec.

It's loading. Here we go.

Sorry, you know how laptops can be. Give me one second.

Okay. Good evening, council. Good evening, mayor. first off I come in peace I know that there's some tension around this item so I just want to let everyone know we're gonna be okay all right I first want to thank councilmember fan for taking time to speak with me about this Commission appointment earlier this weekend and I especially appreciate you opening up about a subject that's very personal and share your perspective so thank you on that I also want to thank councilmember Hernandez Lopez and Vasquez for your words and your support at the last council meeting they didn't go unnoticed Thank you very much for that.

And finally, I want to thank Councilmember Fan Peñalosa and Mayor Miscua, because even though you had your hesitations and your concerns about my appointment, you at least voted to give me the chance to come here and speak for myself, so I appreciate that. That's a short, true character on your part. Thank you.

Before I discuss the commission appointment, I want to take a moment just to share about who I am, because I feel like at the last meeting there was a boogeyman caricature on who I am. So I want to just state for the record who I am as a person. First and foremost, I'm a father to a beautiful eight-year-old boy. His name's James. You've probably seen him sitting on my shoulders at one event or another. I bring him everywhere I go. And I work every day to teach him the importance of loving your neighbor, the value of perseverance, so that he can stand up against whatever challenges he might face. I'm an educator.

Before my current position working at Accord, I was a teacher at a middle school for five years. I taught English, world history. I taught a media and journalism class. And it was a really rewarding experience for me. I do miss my classroom every now and then, but I like to believe that the work that I do now, continue to be an educator in a different route and I'm also a community organizer Councilmember Lopez you mentioned at the last meeting that I'm very involved in my neighborhood I currently serve as vice president of the HOA in my neighborhood we have a very tight-knit community just this past

weekend we had a early Easter celebration for all the families and the kids loved it if any of you want to come by and meet my neighbors sometime I'd be happy to give you all a tour and last but not least I'm a proud resident of the city of Santana. I've lived in this city for over eight years now. This city is my home. I rep it everywhere I go. I bring this hat even places where maybe it's not welcome. The history, the culture, the passion, the people power that I've seen in this city inspires me every day. And I love knowing that Santana is on the vanguard for so many issues in Orange County,

including with this Police Oversight Commission. Now, I say all this again to make it clear to anyone listening, to people in the audience, to the people in the council, that I'm not some villainous boogeyman. I'm someone who's dedicated and I want to serve my community. Now the question of why I want to serve on this commission, throughout my time here in Santa Ana I've learned a lot from community leaders, elected officials, activists, journalists, anyone who's really involved in the community about what are the struggles and everyday experiences of the people in

the city. And I've worked alongside various individuals, organizations to bring these struggles to light and to help improve the quality of life for residents in the city. And anyone who knows me well they can tell you that the The work that I do has always been based in a deeply rooted desire to serve those members in our community who have historically been ignored, dismissed, who aren't offered a seat at the table, those working class residents of the city who have been kept out of the political process through one way or another. That's the role that I will continue to serve as a commissioner.

I will work to represent those marginalized and forgotten pockets of our city, and I will ensure that their stories and their perspectives are taken into account. The opening lines of the oversight ordinance reads, the purpose of the commission shall be to improve transparency, increase the accountability of, and public confidence in the Santa Ana Police Department. I take this responsibility very seriously and I know how important it is for our residents to have full transparency and accountability from their local government, especially when it comes to the conduct of law enforcement in

our neighborhoods. The ordinance also states that the commission should represent the diversity of the Santa Ana community. Now I know that there are certain opinions that I may hold that you may not all agree with, but the fact is we have a very diverse community and they all deserve a voice. I want this commission to succeed and I promise to serve as commissioner with the utmost integrity to remain impartial when evaluating any issues related to police in our city but most importantly I promise to always represent the best interests of our community. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you Mr. Delgado as I instructed I'll go down and then you can answer the questions. Let me start this with Councilman Vasquez and again we're on a time we're to follow the guidelines that the city attorney gave me so uh you have any questions question uh yeah

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

what qualifies you to be in this position uh that we're appointing you to i think if you look at

my record if you look at some of the work that i've done in the community what i really strive to do as i mentioned in my comments i'm really working to just bring to light some of the struggles that people in our city who they feel that they don't have a voice here or they don't know how to get involved or they don't know how to learn about how their city works or how they can impact change or advocate for their own neighborhoods. That's the kind of work that I've been doing and I work to educate people on this is how your city government works.

This is if you want to go give public comment here's where you go. If you're not sure who to reach out to to address issues in your neighborhood here's who you can talk to. And I feel similarly with this commission. I'm very passionate on the issue of not even just public safety, but just I like to know that our city is doing the best it can to ensure that kids can grow up in a safe neighborhood and flourish. So I study very closely just what are some of the best ways to improve public safety beyond just incarceration, criminalization. I study these things. I study

the history. I look into what are the policies that actually serve this end, and what are some of the policies that are counterproductive to that end. So again, I'm an educator. I study history. I study English. I study journalism. I feel that my experience in these fields has made me very competent when it comes to digging into these kinds of issues.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

You have a minute and 24 seconds. Samaritan Vasquez, anything else? Great, thank you. Mayor Pro Tem?

Jessie LopezItem 6

Yeah, so, well, first, apologies to our staff because I know you've been working all day and the circus that this council put you through during our last council session, I think, is unacceptable. And for you to sit through this interrogation, I think, is a waste of your time. So I apologize to you. And I also just want to apologize to Mr. Delgado because from the comments, because I went back and I listened to them, I wanted to understand what the real issue was. And to me, it seems like it's a personal vendetta against you based on the comments that we heard from people from this dais.

Jessie LopezItem 6

And that's why we're all here today, having this conversation. And so, you know, my personal opinion is that this is just retaliation, you know, to you because you express a different political view, you supported a different political candidate. You know, those are all the things that were said here explicitly. And so, you know, I think it's an issue with me because as I've said in the past, and I think that the bigger issue here is really, you know, people pretending to be these pious human beings, these purists, when we know that they're not, right, and holding people

Jessie LopezItem 6

to a completely different standard that they don't even hold themselves when people are not looking or people are not listening to what they're saying. And so that's the thing that we don't like about politics, right? People pretending or people wielding their power to make themselves feel bigger or more powerful. And, you know, that's why I don't need to humiliate anyone to make myself feel any of those things. I'm very secure with who I am as a human being, the work that I do in my community. And I know firsthand the work that you do in your community. I've seen it. So many people here have seen it.

Jessie LopezItem 6

And so specifically on this topic with this commission, I think this issue the council created. Because if you all remember, when we were talking about establishing this commission, I had advocated for having rail guards in place as to who should serve. You should have some sort of background in employment law, in POBAR, right? It shouldn't just be whoever. But those recommendations were not supported. if I remember correctly. And so when we treated this commission as any other commission that just, you know, I can pick a friend or I can pick whoever who supported my campaign to be a part of this commission,

Jessie LopezItem 6

it creates this unfairness now that we're trying to, we're trying to establish, right, with you specifically. And so, you know, I, all that I can say is that it's okay for people to have a difference of opinion. It's okay for people to not agree on everything. And especially with this commission is so important. You know, we said, yes, people from law enforcement should be able to sit on it, right? And if you were to ask me as a family member to, you know, PD,

Jessie LopezItem 6

I am comfortable saying that, yes, I am biased.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

May I put time? Our time's up, please.

Jessie LopezItem 6

Thank you. I'm going to wrap up quickly that I would be biased. And what I said last time is that everybody has their biases. So again, I'm so sorry to you and to everyone, to our staff.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So thank you. Thank you. Mayor, I'm sorry. No.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Thank you, Mr. Delgado. And thank you for taking the time. So I'll just get straight to the point. you know, we are all held to what we put out into the world. And when we adopted this commission or fought for this commission, it's about giving a fair shake, or at least to me, it was about giving a fair shake to anybody who shows up in front of you as well as anyone who files a complaint, right? It's building that relationship with the public. And so my question to you is how can an officer who, you know, had a complaint filed against them, who comes before the commission to be investigated,

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

who then sees your social media or statements, and that's fair. We all have beliefs and opinions.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Can you be fair and impartial if the statements that you put into the world is about abolishing the police? Or am I mischaracterizing that?

Are you characterizing the statements that I put out?

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Yes, or the organizations or links related, you know, like that, or that I think there was a video someone shared about, you know, police don't care about us or something like that. And so if an officer comes before you for a complaint and an investigation, can you be unbiased, fair, and impartial?

I do believe that I can be fair, impartial, and remain unbiased. I actually just had a conversation. I won't name names, but there was someone here who was staunchly critical of the kind of posts that I would make on social media. And we would get into heated back-and-forth debates in the comment section. I've learned to since abandon the comment section. Nothing gets done over there. But we had a face-to-face conversation here in this room. and we talked about what is my position when it comes to the issue of incarceration, when it comes to the issue of police.

And this person who, I'm telling you, a year ago, they would have said I'm a complete villain. We shook hands and they said, I see where you're coming from. So I would just say in response to that, I do have to recognize that I have to take accountability for some of the things that I've shared on social media and understand how it can be easily misinterpreted, especially when it's screenshotted out of context and just asserted as this is how this person feels. I do think though that when if you have a sit down conversation with me, and again I've had conversations with several people here on the desk, you know where I stand.

You know that certain things that are shared on social media are not representative of my true nature, of my true character. But again, I am learning. I gotta say this is a learning experience like someone mentioned last time where I have to be more cognizant of including nuance when I deliver my messages because it can be misconstrued.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Councilman Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

I actually was a no vote on even bringing this item back, but since we have the opportunity here, I would just like to ask you, did anybody force you to post those pictures that I showed to the community at the last council meeting? Did anybody force you to do that?

Can you elaborate which poster you're referring to?

Phil BacerraItem 6

The two that I showed where you were sitting in the back of the room and you saw me hold up. Did anybody force you to post those two photos? Yes or no? Just simple yes or no.

There's context there.

Phil BacerraItem 6

So somebody forced you?

Can I elaborate? Sure. I think this is what Council Member Lopez was talking about when it comes to the posturing and the just blatant content that you have. One of the posts was shared on a page that I am associated with. I don't think you have any evidence that I was directly the one who shared that post deal

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

we're not going to go back and forth you're not going to question just answer the question and then if he has no other ones and we'll move on to council I respect that Mayor Miscot but he is trying to put me in a corner with this we've never done this and so as a city attorney he's made it very clear to me as a chairperson I can let it happen or I can stop it so I'm just trying to get I understand I understand if you could please just answer the question yeah well my

My response to that would be one post regarding Vietnam. That was a story post that I shared, but I would just say that, again, I had a conversation with several people about that post, and I recognize that it may have been insensitive. And again, I recognize now that it probably should require more context, but frankly, it has very little to do, in my opinion, with this police oversight commission. The second post, as I stated, I don't think you have any direct evidence that I posted it myself. Do you, Mr. Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

It's not back and forth.

Okay. Then I'll leave it at that.

Phil BacerraItem 6

So I'll just say for my colleagues, as I mentioned before, I did not support bringing this item back. I've seen, I only showed two of the numerous posts that show Mr. Delgado's bias towards police. In fact, his opinions that lean very heavily, if not right on, dismantling police departments. So I do not feel, in fact, I strongly believe that you would not support what this commission is about, which is to improve, not dismantle, improve law enforcement operations. So Madam Mayor, when the item is called for a vote, I will be a no. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you. Councilman Hernandez.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Thank you, Mayor Mesquo. I have two questions for you, Mr. Delgado. So question number one is can you be objective and neutral with matters that may come before you as a commissioner?

Yes.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Okay. Question number two is what is your background when it comes to civil rights and civil liberties? Can you tell me about your experience in that area very briefly?

My experience in the area of civil rights, I can't say I have any direct professional experience, but I do have a lot of experience, especially in the last few years. I'd say during the 2020 uprisings, when people started having a reckoning discussing what are the issues around police and how can we improve how our communities and police interact. In fact, during that time I did a deep dive. I was on the ground talking to protesters. I was talking to people on both sides. I had conversations with law enforcement. I had people who were shouting Blue Lives Matter, waving flags in our face, and I had

conversations with like, tell me your perspective. So I would say my experience is that I'm someone who goes in and tries to absorb as much perspective as I can from as many different views as I can. And I try to formulate those perspectives into a coherent...

how would you say? Into a coherent approach to how can we improve our communities and how can we address some of the core issues that we face. And the work that I do right now. Oh, sorry, go ahead.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

No, thank you, Mr. Delgado. For the sake of time, I wanted to just apologize. This is something that we have never seen before. This is a practice that I have never seen in my 30 years of living in Santa Ana. and I do want to touch on the images that are being mentioned. It's incredibly dangerous that there was one image that was shared out of context and it was presented as truth. Are you telling me that one of the two images that was presented was, one of my colleagues was misleading the public in presenting that as truth?

I would say that it is a very dangerous road that we're going down if a council member can suggest that a post that is shared on social media just by association is enough to disqualify a resident of a city to participate in a commission like this.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Thank you. And my concern ultimately lies upon that. This commission is not discussing Vietnam. This commission is not discussing affiliate organizations. This commission is discussing police oversight, a tumultuous issue with people on different sides of the spectrum. There are going to be people on this commission that are law enforcement officers, and they're going to be very disgruntled members of the public that share that, and that is their First Amendment right. I fear that we are starting to enter the area of political censorship.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

I do feel that you are being discriminated and that is a concern that I share with my constituents.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. There's no other comments. I'm going to speak and then we'll take a vote. Do you have any other comments before I speak?

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Oh, yeah, because I had questions. That's why I was asking.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Another three minutes and then. And if there's nobody else, then I'm going to speak and take a vote.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

Okay, thank you. I really appreciate our conversation. we had spoken, I think, for about 45 minutes. I do want to say that there's been a lot of conversation about how the Vietnam Post has nothing to do with this commission. And while I do understand that it is not something that, you know, you're not voting on what it says in history, but what it does mean is that you are also representing the people of this city. And Santa Ana was the home, the first home of Vietnamese refugees who came here. And while I understand everybody, everybody has a First Amendment right.

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

You know, it's attributed to Voltaire by Ms. Bell that, you know, I might not agree with what you have to say, but I'll die for your right to say that. When I became a citizen of this country at 16, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution as an attorney, as a council member, and I support that. That's what being an American is, right? We came to this country to have the right and the freedom to say what we want to say. but I also want you to know that it's not that it may be hurtful it is hurtful and we've heard today from people who have lost friends families colleagues and you can have a political philosophy

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

that is different but the reality is millions of Vietnamese people and Vietnamese refugees are here today and have lost their lives because of that and to share something out of context without out discussion on it is at the very least reductive and careless and then at the very worst well we can stay there. But my concern is the bias. When I talk about having someone come to the police oversight commission to have a fair

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

shake. My biggest concern is an officer who did do something wrong. Hopefully that's never the case, but there's an officer who does something wrong. And because of whether it's bias, perceived bias, statements, comments, that because of that, they are able to appeal and overturn the decision of this police chief or the city manager, and eventually after we hopefully changed a charter of the commission. That's my biggest concern, the bias, the legal bias that would

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

really undermine what we're trying to do here in the city. Because I believe you when you tell me that you're willing to learn and learn about the history and why it's so hurtful and what that means to me as the first Vietnamese elected official in the city and to the community. So I believe you. But I'm really concerned about what it means for the commission and for the officers and for the residents who have to trust that the commission is going to be able to uphold its recommendations and ultimately its discipline. So with that, I will take a vote. Thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you. If there are no other comments, we prepare to take a vote.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

I do have another round of comments. Mayor Muscle.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Can you start the clock, please?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Thank you, Mayor Musquat. I just wanted to close out on the topic of bias. This is a topic that is recirculating here at this dais, and I do believe that, you know, I'm concerned about practices moving forward. Any appointment that comes from my district is a reflection of the values of Ward 5. In Ward 5, on Santa Ana Boulevard, within less than a mile of each other, There are two markers that display the pain of the public when it comes to police relations.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Off of Santa Ana Boulevard in Baker, you will find a cross right across the street from a church that represents the death of Ernesto Canepa. Walking distance from there, on Bristol and Santa Ana Boulevard, there is a mural for Brandon Lopez. There are symbols of pain all around our community. in my district. My concern is that these opinions are not being welcomed on this commission. And this is a dangerous practice that we cannot condone here at the Santa Ana City Council. My concerns with bias are that one of my colleagues is signaling you out due to how you have used your

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

First Amendment right. Your First Amendment right is something that we can't take away from you. But we can disagree with how you've used it. Bias is subjective. And that ultimately is something that each of us here have to understand. I have my political beliefs. I did not lead with a political party when I ran for office. Because my job is to represent Republicans, Independents, Democrats, and everything in between. So when I ran for office, I didn't lead with a political party. I led with values.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

And so when I look at what is happening here before us, I am very concerned and I want to urge my colleagues on this council, you do not want to set a precedent moving forward on this topic of police oversight by silencing our democracy. Our residents have a right to have different opinions. When we talk about Vietnam, this is something that impacted Americans and Vietnamese residents across this country. The Chicano community has a stance on Vietnam. We protested. Hundreds of thousands of residents across California fought in opposition to what was happening in Vietnam.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

This topic that is being discussed today is one that impacts many of us. But the focus of what we're talking about is bias. And we're talking about police oversight. It doesn't mean that we have to have a Blue Lives Matter sticker on our car if you sit on this commission. It means that you can sit on this commission if you disagree with police as well. And so I want to remind my colleagues, as a member of this council that was here and championed this oversight commission, this is a commission that is made for people with different opinions.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

And that is my closing comment, and I would like to make a motion to move forward with Mr. Delgado's appointment.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So we're not going to have a motion yet because we have another person that wants to speak, and then I'm going to speak, and then you can go ahead.

Phil BacerraItem 6

Thank you, Mayor Mesquo. Since we're reminding each other of certain things, let me remind my colleagues that the agenda says a nomination. It doesn't say appointment. It is all of our responsibilities to scrutinize nominations. Last meeting, someone brought up Tim Rush. He said, you know what, we should be looking at Tim Rush. Now, if Tim Rush was going around tearing down historic buildings, I'd be the first to tell Councilmember Peñalosa, remove Tim Rush. But anybody that knows Tim Rush knows that that would be the furthest thing that he would do.

Phil BacerraItem 6

In fact, he leads monthly tours of downtown and other neighborhoods to celebrate our history, and he's on our Historic Resources Commission. So if he was going around tearing down buildings, if we had someone on the Parks and Rec Commission that wanted to pave them all over, I can go on and on. So the point is, it is not unprecedented, or at least it shouldn't be, for us to scrutinize nominations. Now, we've talked about folks having different opinions on this Police Oversight Commission. Council Member Vasquez nominated and we voted to appoint somebody that I personally disagree with on some of his opinions.

Phil BacerraItem 6

But again, that diversity of opinion is something we need on this commission. But unless I miss something, I don't know that Councilmember Vasquez's nominee, now appointment, is going around advocating for something to the tune of dismantling our police department. So if we're going to remind each other of something, just remind each other.

I said neither am I.

Phil BacerraItem 6

Please don't interrupt.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Mr. Doug, I'll do that in turn, please. This is a very formal process, please.

Phil BacerraItem 6

So I'll just conclude with this isn't unprecedented. Don't make this something that it's not. We should be scrutinizing each other's nominations, and we are doing that tonight. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Okay, so I just have two questions. One, thank you, Mr. Delgado, for coming up here and answering the questions and presenting yourself. I really appreciate it. some of the council members have not they've been here longer than I have but in 2008 I was actually nominated for a commission and at that time the council members that were sitting here voted no and I respected it said thank you have a nice night and I walked away and now I'm sitting here as the mayor so one day you may be sitting up here and it's a learning process for all of us okay so and I say that all in all seriousness

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

you know things happen um but i do want to ask you um

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

have you ever been on a police ride along at any time i have not i would be very intrigued to

participate and i would say because i think what the core of your question is do you know what it's

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

like on the other side no that's not what i said okay sorry to assume yeah we don't want to speak for me. So my question was just really simple. Have you been on a police ride along? No, but I've been more than happy to. Okay, thank you. And you and I did meet when you were representing a court at that time. And so then you did reach out to me via email, and I was actually out of the country, so therefore I did not respond to you. But again, I do appreciate you coming up here and answering the questions. And so I understand that, you know, some council members may feel that it's

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

not about Vietnam, but I think council member Phan explained it very well, because it is, to me, it was personal, but that's just me. City attorney, may I ask you a question, please? I don't have any more questions for you. If you want to just sit down, you're more than welcome to. Thank you. You can go ahead and sit in the front row if you like.

wherever you like actually. Actually could I could I just show one more comment? No thank you.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you so much for everything and thank you for coming up again. City Attorney so I have a question that I know you can answer this I hope. I believe you can. So does this expose the city to any possible liability or any violations of violations of the rights of officers and I don't know the answer and that is why I'm asking it in this way so I don't want any council member up here to think I'm doing anything hinky. I'm not. I just want to know because as we know police officers have POVAR rights so they would come before this police oversight committee

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

commission and if this is brought up you know during a case but it's for me it's a liability for the city would this create any liability for the city in your opinion and if you don't have a yes no or you're not sure I just want some sort of guidance if you can possibly do give me that or give us that

give me just a minute sure no problem go ahead

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And I do want to thank all the council members for respecting the process and taking your time to do this as well. I'm on the agenda.

City Attorney? Yes, thank you, Mayor and members of the City Council. My understanding is that the Oversight Commission will not make any final determinations on matters of discipline. They make recommendations and they review. Now that being said, the purpose of the commission is to improve transparency, increase the

accountability of and public confidence in the Santa Ana Police Department and to provide for an independent oversight director there are provisions you know as to what the council should look for in making appointments to Commission including the kinds of qualifications that people should have and you know whether they are fair and impartial.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Thank you. I appreciate it. I was not here when this commission was created and so I watched them from home but I don't recall all of the requirements around there. So thank you for answering my question. I just want to be sure about the liability for our city. That is our job to ensure that you know we don't end up predicament that we don't want to be in. And so all right. Thank you. At this time, I believe Councilman Hernandez, you made a motion. Is there a second? A second. Councilman Vasquez, there's a second. Let's prepare to vote. Can you roll call, please?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Madam Mayor? Yes. Can we be reminded what is the motion again?

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

To approve the nomination.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

You want to read this? Yes. Say, please.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Yes. A motion by Councilmember Hernandez, seconded by Councilmember Vasquez, to appoint Fernando Delgado to the Police Oversight Commission as the Ward 5 representative.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Becerra?

Phil BacerraItem 6

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Hernandez?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Penaloza?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Fan?

Thai Viet PhanItem 6

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Council Member Vasquez?

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

Yes.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

Mayor Pro Tem Lopez? Yes. Mayor Mescua?

No.

Jennifer L. HallItem 6

The vote is 3 ayes, 4 nays. Ayes by Council Members Hernandez, Vasquez, and Mayor Pro Tem Lopez. Motion fails.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Great. All right. Thank you. Let's go on to item 29.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So this is, I'm going to just start if you don't. This is to discuss and direct the city manager to direct staff to implement a temporary promotion freeze for police management it says police management on here it should say and i'm going to amend it because that's what i have here in my records police sergeant slash management promotions until at least 90 of the current vacant police officer positions are filled let me give a little bit of background here the council members have the information up here there's some attachments

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

This is not an attack on police officers, because as all of you know, I'm very supportive of law enforcement and our first responders always. This is about public safety. This is about quality of life. This is about keeping our patrol officers that are out on the streets safe. This is about response time. From 2016 to present, criminal activity has increased in our city.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And then you'll get different answers. You'll say, hasn't it increased? You'll hear them say there's no increase. You'll hear people say there has been an increase. There has been. Exponentially? No. But is there a increase of crime in our city, criminal activity? Yes. Do we have a problem with addressing the homeless issue? Yes. Do officers, are they working overtime? Yes, they are. And so many hours of overtime. And so the reason I brought this up is that there are promotions in the police department, and if they qualify, great, promote them.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I have no problem with that. What I do have an issue with is that, and I'm going to pull up this picture here that I have because I need to look at the exact amount.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And we have 44 sergeants that work, 23 are on patrol, and you have the attachments. Everybody should have the attachment up here. You have a MET Sergeant, a sex crime sergeant, a CCU sergeant, a YLC sergeant, a Chief of Staff sergeant, that's the Chief of Police's Chief of Staff. You have a PIO sergeant, you have the Quality of Life sergeant, the POA sergeant, I did not see this on there previously until I pulled it again and then you have it again on here. I'm just giving you a few. Commanders, there's 14 commanders,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

four patrol watch commanders, training commander, special investigation commander, metropolitan division commander, IA commander, CID commander, community engagement commander, north and south commander, traffic commander, so it's 14. So we currently have 31 vacant police officer patrol officer positions and one sergeant position. Back in 2019, I recall hearing the chief at that time say that we were going to hire 50 police officers right away. That was in 2019.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

We currently have nine officers in the academy, and that'll take about a year, a little over a year and a half, maybe a year and a half to get them on the street by themselves. And I believe we have four in background.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So, let's talk about this for a minute. Commander's base pay is about $230,000. That's not including everything that they get. Commander bilingual pay is about $232,700 and change.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Sergeants are around $192,000. It's not including overtime, and if you want the exact numbers, I can give them. I've done a lot of research on this. Just, and again, this is about having enough officers in our streets to respond to calls.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And we may have questions, and please, I ask you to call up Chief Valentin VCR. This is not an attack on anybody. This is about the fact that Santa Ana PD has taken too long to hire police officers. Across the country, there is a shortage of police officers. Across the country. Everybody is offering a $10,000 incentive here, a $5,000 incentive here, refer a friend here, you know, and I really appreciate it when we hear from Santa NPD that we are not lowering our standards, and that is not what I'm asking.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

But what concerns me as not only the mayor, but as a community member, is that we do have wonderful patrol officers, all of our officers, but I would not like to hear on the news, I don't want to hear on the news that we didn't have enough officers to respond to a call. We are short 31 patrol officers. Commanders do not go out on the streets. Sergeants do. The four watch commanders do not. And you can disagree with me, and, you know, some people can shake their head, But the reality is that San Anapid, we have, again, 44 sergeants, 14 commanders.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And the commanders do not go out. And if I'm wrong, I'd love Chief Valentin to come up and share with me. They have their own take-home car. We pay for the car. We pay for the gas. If you look at the org chart, you have the chief, an executive assistant, chief of staff, a legal advisor, an executive officer that handles internal affairs. We have a PIO officer. And I'd like to know if we have, under that POI officer, we have another officer that handles all social media. Is that officer out on patrol or is that officer just doing social media?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Because we can hire a civilian to do social media. You do not need an officer to go through the police academy to handle social media. And so there are some concerns that I have because we should be making every effort, every effort to hire 31 additional police officers. I believe it was last year, this council, before I joined here, approved hiring eight additional officers. That has not occurred. How many officers are going to retire this year? So you're going to hire 14, 15 will retire. You hire 10, 20 will retire.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

There's a lot of things that are pending, whether who's going to retire or why. And so this is not about an attack on our police department because you all know and people watching at home that I have never attacked the police department and I will not. What this is about is the quality of life and the safety of our community. Because when they call to address homeless issues, our officers are busy responding to calls, our patrol officers. Therefore, sometimes they can come, sometimes they cannot.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Again, the watch commanders are not going to jump in a car and go answer a call. And most of the commanders that are sitting in their offices, they're not going to jump in a patrol car and answer a call. If we have an officer working for our PIO, yeah, that person, he or she should jump in a patrol car and go answer a call instead of working on social media issues. That is a lot of money to work on social media issues. Because if you are just a regular entering police officer, a patrol officer,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

police officer academy graduate, bilingual and non-bilingual, you start about $94,000 and you could top out about $115,400 and change. A police lieutenant, the max is $194,592 in change, and that's, is that including the 15% for a college degree, 5% for receiving a good evaluation, 100 hours of management time, 2,000 hours of sick time, 4% of pay plus additives, $75 cell phone bill.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I could go on and on. The issue and the problem that I see is that we really need to focus on hiring police officers, patrol officers. Madam City Manager, Santa Ana College is a great partner with us, and I know that they have been looking to have a relationship with us to help recruit officers. and that is hopefully something that we can look into. So my ask is that at this time,

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

because we are short 31 patrol officers and one sergeant, so right now we are funded for, I believe, Chief, can you come up? Madam City Manager, maybe you can answer my question.

Actually, I'm very glad that you suggested the Chief does come up because as you know, I only got to do a limited review of what it is that you submitted with this. The policy for you to submit a report isn't in place, but you chose to do one. And as you know, I got it the day that it was to be published. So I didn't get to do that thorough of a review. I did make several corrections to it, including one of your attachments. So I'm very pleased that you are going to let the chief engage in the conversation on this item.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And just to be transparent, you and I had a long conversation about it. So yes, I did submit it. You and I talked about it in my office. So I appreciate your comments. But there was conversation. So it wasn't just thrown out there. It was you, myself, and Mr. Soto were in my office, and we did have a conversation.

No, Mayor, what I was referring to is the policy that you have yet to approve would require the item to be submitted a week in advance. Correct. So I did receive it the day it was due to the clerk to actually be published. I had less than two hours to look at it.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Okay. Well, I appreciate the comment. So again, this is not an attack on police. And so we are down 31 police officers and one sergeant. And so I just want to be clear. Whenever we start talking about police, people's danders kind of go up. And so this is not an attack. This is about getting, you know, downtown has police officers that have been there. You have one officer that's been there for six years. Downtown love him. That's great. but I'm talking about patrol officers. And so tell me, are we down 31 officers? Chief Valentin?

Madam Mayor, City Council, thank you for the opportunity and the question. As a following, city manager, form of government. I also had very limited time to review this staff report.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Okay, hold on one second. So it was posted, because I know you got it the same time it was posted. So it was posted on what day was it posted?

Huge day. Whatever the day is that's required.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Last week?

Yes.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Okay. So you've had a whole week. So I just want to be clear because I don't want you to say like, you know, you didn't have a lot of time because I know that you read it, you saw it. You actually sent an email out to your troops saying FYI. So you did see it. So I want to be honest up here, please, because you know I do support police.

Absolutely.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And I support our department. And I just want to make sure that we're here because I am concerned about the shortage of officers in our city. Yes, ma'am. We are top heavy and we don't have enough patrol officers. So let's have that discussion.

Okay. And my comment was in reference to when I was aware of the post-it. It was just a couple hours prior. But in any event. So, again, thank you for the opportunity. and really in a very quick manner put some research together, and I want to speak to those points and facts, right, because those are important here. So when you look at the sergeants, you have a matrix of the sergeants and the commanders. We have 44 sergeants. 29 of them are in patrol or supporting directly frontline policing. That's 66% of all sergeants in the organization today are in field operations.

Commanders, we have 14. Nine of the 14 are in field operations, directly leading, managing, guiding, supporting line-level officers and sergeants. That's 64%. Let me take you back, and I don't know how far and broad I can go here. I have a lot of data. It's at least six years serving as chief. when I took over we had some watches with six police officers citywide citywide so you go to a cover watch two to two six officer citywide today you go to the same watches and they are

full they are full so we staff I staff a police department centered on patrol operations core of core services when you call or any resident calls they want to know what we can do they don't want to know what we can't do right and so how quickly can we get there over the past four years consecutively you've seen a downward trajectory trend line in response calls for service priority one 9-1-1 calls over 20 percent that doesn't happen because there's officers and detectives

assigned to assignments outside of patrol. That happens because we prioritize with intention that patrol be staffed first and foremost. And so four years doesn't happen in a vacuum. When I took over, we had upwards of 18 percent vacancy rate at 67 police officers. And this is, These are facts. This is math. No one can dispute this. So we had 18% vacancy rate. Put together a strategic plan. Some of the people that worked on that plan are here in the room tonight because they're vested. When we see something like this, we have concerns and we want to clarify the record here, right?

So after a strategic plan was put in place, we did in fact hire in one year 50 police officers. That hasn't happened in this city in over 20 years. City HR couldn't provide me any additional data. It only went back 20 years. 50 police officers, one year. And Madam Mayor, I'm so glad you mentioned not lowering the standard. We did that about 25, 30 years ago. And we found ourselves in a big mess with officers engaged in a whole host of misconduct, including criminal misconduct, lowering the standards, right? The other point that you made was regarding this is a number one issue, and it is.

I belong to various organizations across that are representative across the country. International Chiefs of Police Association, California Police Chiefs, Orange County currently serving as the president. the research will tell you perf the police executive research forum will tell you that this is the number one issue this isn't just santa ana inability to recruit and retain that's not what we're talking about here post the george floyd murder because that's exactly what it was there has been a disinterest in public service not just in public safety but in public service

across the board my colleagues are struggling to hire people you know to do the variety of different public services that we provide. Those are the real facts. I just came back from a chief's conference. Number one issue, crime much lower, right? They go hand in hand, of course, if you don't have staff to respond. But that's the number one issue, and the research will tell you that. Let me speak to this notion of being top heavy, top heavy at Santa Ana PD. So, you know, I'm short of 33 years, so I have a little bit of historical context here. We have shrunk the management ranks over the decades.

Again, factual here. So you fast forward today, and again, after seeing this item on the agenda and an opportunity to dive in a little further, we looked at 12 agencies here in Orange County. San and of course Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, 12 different agencies including the Sheriff's Department and Long Beach PD.

The sworn management ranks to officer is 1 to 20, 1 to 20.

We're the highest of those 12, 13 agencies including Long Beach, including Long Beach. the Orange County Sheriff shows a little higher, but they didn't give us their non-sworn management ranks. So that doesn't provide full context. So we're 1 to 20. You've got some agencies that have, there's an agency, and I don't want to call out specific, but a coastal agency here in Orange County that has a chief and four captains and they have you know about 230 240 officers

that's not the structure we have we operate extremely lean at the top now with regards to promotions to sergeant and commander sergeant as as you may know is first line supervision when we look at critical incidents that have occurred across the globe but certainly our country and i'll take you back to rampart well what was the issue with rampart in lapd that was a lack of engaged supervision and a lack of presence and then those that did show up didn't do their job so we need supervisors at every possible opportunity not to micromanage but to

provide the necessary guidance to our very young workforce you go to a patrol roll call today the average time on is about two to three years two to three years on the job many of these young men and women are not even 25 years old and so if you do the the research they're still developing right and but that's just our reality so so we need good engaged supportive guidance by supervisors managers or commanders again I've already spoke to the ratio we're extremely thin at the top and

And so to not have an appropriate number of managers to provide guidance to those supervisors just further exposes us to liability. So if you look at any major critical contemporary policing issue, it's a lack of engaged supervision and management. That's it. Any police executive across the country will tell you that. And, you know, if someone could dispute that, that's their personal opinion. In the senior management ranks here at Santa Ana PD today, there's over 600 years of experience. 600 years. That's got to count for something, right?

And I think we know what the focus needs to be because we heard from the community. Our strategic plan, our five-year 2019 to 2024 strategic plan, talks about focusing on core police services. That's how Santa Ana PD has been built, at least for the last six years. That I can tell you, I can assure you based on raw data, right? Let me just make sure I cover a couple other points.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

While you're looking, let me just ask you. Sure. So you mentioned, you know, top heavy. So your commanders, do your commanders go out on the field?

They can. They don't go regularly, but they can, certainly.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So they don't go regularly, but they can.

Sure.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

But not regularly.

Correct. Okay. They're managing an entire watch, or in the case of a division, they're leading an entire division.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Which they also have sergeants that they oversee who are, like you talked about, watching patrol officers, supervising patrol officers.

Traditional paramilitary structure.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Yes, young officers, they're training them, correct? They're part of supervision. Okay. So I just want to be sure, I want to be clear on that. Your commanders do not go out on the field. So, and again, because if they did, we wouldn't have 31, we wouldn't be short 31 officers. That's just my whole point. Do you know how much overtime, Chief, that you have used for probably a couple things, but most of it or a large portion of it to cover shifts? Do you know how much overtime you've used?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

So in 21-22, it says budgeted $4,560,350 and change. Actual, you went over $5 million, almost $6 million. And 22, 23, over time, the budget was $3 million and change. You hit almost $5 million and change over time.

Yes, ma'am.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And again, I know this is a good agency. And I don't know what questions my peers will have or what their position will be. I'm not questioning that, Chief, at all. And I know that across the country you talked about George Floyd and, you know, why people don't want to be police officers anymore. I get it. I follow your social media. I think it's great. A civilian can do a social media job for you, not a police officer making almost $200,000 a year to do Facebook or Instagram or make videos.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I think that's kind of my point is that we have really good officers and we are a good agency my point is that we need to do a better and I know you don't agree with me and I could see I could I know so I understand the point I have is that if you look at our overtime budget and people in the community and even some people up here which I'm not speaking for them we'll talk about that the please take up a large portion of our budget. And yes, you do. And yes, I support it. But then when I start to look at shortages

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

and how many are we hiring, where are you going to hire them? Why are we not working with Santa Ana College? I think you're on the foundation. Yes, ma'am. I mean, why are we not working with them closer so that we can maybe create an academy program there? We have it at Golden West College so we can attract local young people from Santa Ana who meet the background requirements can become police officers. And I know we have several officers that are from Santa Ana that work for you. So I do appreciate that. And I know you sit on lots of different groups and you chair and this and that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

My concern is that we need to hire more police officers. So all I'm asking my peers, whether they vote for it or they don't, it's really up to them, because public safety is the number one issue here. But if you look at the overtime money, it's crazy. It's a lot of money. And if I get down right to the dollar, we may find that it is for covering shifts. They're 12-hour shifts, correct?

Yes. Yes. Go ahead.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

If a sergeant works a 12-hour overtime shift, that's about, what, $1,200, $1,300 for the 12 hours. So if we had more officers, we wouldn't be dipping into so much overtime. So all I'm asking is a temporary, and again, my peers may have questions for you, a temporary freeze on promotions. Not forever. A temporary freeze until we can hire more officers. You have nine in the academy and four in background. So that's great. That's great. But 31 is a lot of, that's a large number.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

And again, when I hear from my community and they say, I call them, they don't come. My response is always, and I know it's not always factual. It may not be to you. It's, it could just be like, you know, they're, they're not being honest, but that's what they tell me. So I'm going to go with that.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

I want to hire the 31 officers. I'd even like to hire 50 officers, but I'm not sure we have the budget for that, especially with the current overtime budget. So I'm going to stop there and I'll let the council, my peers appear if they have any questions. But again, it is not to stop them permanently. It is until we get more boots on the ground. Because our city deserves that when we call to say, hey, there's these homeless guys. Because I've called 911. Right before I got elected, I called twice in one day. And I called a councilman sitting up here and I was like, oh my gosh.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Not only did I get yelled at by dispatch, but it was extremely awful and nobody came, because it wasn't a priority call, and I understand that. But the community wants officers to respond. So that's why I brought this item forward, and you had since last Tuesday, and I do appreciate you doing some research on it and talking about all the great officers that we have. Again, we do have great officers. And I will remind you again that, in my opinion, we shouldn't be paying an officer to do social media. That's just my opinion. I'm not the chief. So you are. But I will stop there, and if any of my peers have any comments.

Can I respond to a couple of the areas?

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

Can you wait until they ask questions? They may answer. They may have the same questions. I don't know. Anybody have to say? Yes.

David PenalozaItem 6

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to, for the record, that nobody's taking a vote tonight. I know it was mentioned that people will vote tonight. No one's voting on anything tonight. It's simply a discussion.

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

My apologies, yes.

David PenalozaItem 6

Yeah. But I guess, Madam City Manager, my comment would be is, I guess I'd be, I understand the intent of the item. and I also do want to see our funded vacancies filled in our police department. But what I'd be supportive of seeing at this time is maybe come back at a later meeting with information that I could see of how many vacancies, how many sergeants per shift, how many officers that are not sergeants report to, you know, the ratio of officers to sergeants

David PenalozaItem 6

and whatnot before I can fully support this. The question, and I don't know if Madam City Manager, if you want to defer to the Chief or not, but with the social media posts, I don't, is it sworn officers that are in charge of the social media? From what I understand, it was your executive assistant, correct? So I have a social media coordinator

that this previous council approved who does this full-time and then there's recently added a police officer so you are correct madam mayor added a police officer why did we do that when you look at again contemporary recruitment there are agencies a third our size with a half dozen staff sworn in on doing nothing but social media mining and so I have one officer assigned there not not permanently not forever but you you've seen kind of the synergy since that officer's been assigned there i've heard the feedback you can agree with it or not but and i'm not a social media expert i recognize the value of it right

but the primary person is a civilian and we look to civilianize at any corner any one of the four corners of the police department where it's where it's appropriate uh to to front to support the front line example when we looked at we talked this right sizing phrase here

when I looked at the organization and where all the assets were we had detectives assigned off-site and I looked at the math how much money were they bringing in from these task forces it was entirely upside down we were there because we were part of the originating team members right and so I brought back seven detectives from there and that didn't happen overnight that was a that was a a big to do right we are one of the originated agencies in a task force and we pull them out from the from the county uh but but why did i do that because we got to take care of our own backyard first

David PenalozaItem 6

that's just one example um so i did i answer your question yeah you did thank you chief um i guess that's all the comments i have um madam city manager and thank you chief uh is basically just being supportive of seeing an informational report come back to us of what the staffing

David PenalozaItem 6

what what the staffing issues are at the police department if there are any that would be it

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

thank you mayor and mr councilman vasquez thank you mayor uh i am worried about trying to fill up the positions too fast and i know there's a lack of people applying for the jobs but we do want quality people in those jobs. We've been hoping to get the right people in, and I know you're taking your time with that. You mentioned your vacancy rate when you came in. What was the vacancy rate?

18% when I took over. It had gotten to as low as 20-plus percent.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

And where is it now?

8% with the vacancies that we have, 8%.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

That's 33 police officers. That's a lot.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

But I like doing comparables because I want to make sure we get it right. So comparable to other cities our size, what's a normal vacancy rate for cities like us?

Well, again, looking at the 12 agencies, which does include Anaheim, Newport, Huntington, they're a bit smaller, but Long Beach is included here. They're 840 officers. When you average those 12 agencies plus the city of Long Beach, the vacancy rate today is 7.4. if they were being honest with us, right? If they gave us all their full and true data, okay? But we had to do this very quickly. 7.4% vacancy rate in the sworn ranks. We're at 8%, 8.6%. We're set to hire five in the month of April. That brings us to 7.3% vacancy rate today.

This month.

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

And for recruitment, what are we doing for recruitment? Thank you.

Because we need another 28 after that five. Thank you for the question. Santa Ana College that is in our backyard. No excuse why not to be there. That's one of the things that we put in place is when was the last time we had recruiters walking the hallways, attending those events? COVID did slow things down tremendously. I get it. But we have an imprint there. Just had a conversation with the president about what else can we do, right? In-person conversation. So that pipeline is already there. And it's not just for police officers.

We have dispatch positions, we have corrections, we have a whole host of service needs throughout the organization. So we look there. We do a lot of the traditional stuff as well. There is value in bringing in military veterans. They bring a certain perspective and experience base. But we like to also recruit locally, local talent. When you look at the backgrounds, some of these officers, when they're introduced at the academy, me and then when I swear them in their oath of office, go Dean as graduate, Saddleback graduate, Santa Ana High School graduate. That sounds pretty local

to me and so that's a focus. That is a that is a an intentional focus that we've had and we'll continue to have it. Talking about standards, I don't believe is a good practice to lower standards. Some agencies here, even in Orange County, they allow beards. No offense sir, you have a nice beard, but a beard in uniform you know we run a traditional organization in terms of appearance and and so I just and some made some agencies have done that and they've allowed other appearance alterations we don't allow that and in addition to that everybody goes through a chiefs oral that was not in place six years ago so I

get first interaction just before a conditional job offer and for those watching some of the questions are what do you know about my city what do you know about my city and it's also required that they go on a police ride along ironically either cover watch or graveyard if you're getting to a point where you're going to be potentially offered a job offer you have got to have been in a car with a sent out a police officer not in place six years ago what are the questions there what were your observations of my city what were your observations of the officer

that was in the car with you how did that shift go what were your observations of demographics etc

Benjamin VazquezItem 6

i appreciate the the answer for the eight percent but there's 33 missing officers and i wouldn't like to be the norm but i don't want to tie your hands either i want to make sure we have the people that you believe should be in the places they should be but i'm just hoping that we can hire as fast as possible of quality servicemen but uh appreciate your response thank you mayor proton

Jessie LopezItem 6

Thank you, Mayor. Christine, my first question, City Manager, my first question is going to be for you. Can you give me your professional opinion on this, please?

On a temporary hiring freeze? Yes. I would recommend against it because included in there are sergeants, and as the Chief had mentioned, those are your frontline supervisors. And when you do have a very young demographic in the police department, and when you're hiring bringing in a lot of new people it's critical to have that that supervision and those sergeants are also their members of POA so this would impact promotions in both POA and in PMA okay thank you excuse me chief well

Jessie LopezItem 6

well first before I go into my questions for you I just want to say that I I don't support a phrase of promoting SAPD officers. I think that is for anyone looking to apply to the department and I hear of a hiring phrase that would set off alarms in my mind about the stability of the department and potential future opportunities for me to you know grow up the ranks especially now in this economy where we're seeing a lot of layoffs with with tech employees and so So coming from corporate HR, a hiring freeze normally tells people or employees that something

Jessie LopezItem 6

else, not good, is coming along to their way. So I don't support it. And I just think it's another way to demoralize our officers. If you have been in the department and are clearly qualified, why wouldn't the department promote you? so I think that's a con for me it doesn't work and and so I you know this council approved a hiring bonus this council approved hiring more officers and so there are factors completely out of our control and your control chief you know we can't force anyone to apply there you know to the industry there are

Jessie LopezItem 6

certain jobs that I know I don't want to do ever in my life like customer service again you know I used to work in downtown Disney but you know there are things that we've done that this council has done to make sure that people apply and you know at the end of the day you can't force folks to apply but I hear that you're doing a lot of things in our local community to make sure that you're hiring Santa Ana residents to really embody that community first I think spirit that you have and that you've brought to the department and one of the things that I really like and respect about you Chief Valentin is that you are

Jessie LopezItem 6

born and raised in the city of Santana there is no one better in my in my view to to be leading this department somebody that understands the dynamics of our community somebody that was born and raised in the city and understands are the different needs for our neighborhoods and so I want to ask you about one thing that you briefly touched about but also I read in this submission it states from 2016 to present criminal activity within the city has increased can you please verify if that is factual again statistics depending on what month

and year you're looking at overall the last UCR was down 3% overall crime there's various crimes types that are reported there there was a change in the reporting system and not everybody's you know providing their their information we do that's the last it runs several months in the rear there was a question as to why isn't it published every month that's the reason for that we did have a spike in gang related homicides last year and you know we tracked that for the past 20 years and so the question is what are we doing about it traditional policing response is the best way to address that factor.

In addition to that, with the resources we have, again, centered on patrol, we've been able to focus on various areas of the city that maybe begin as quality of life, but there is a crime overlay. Example, East First, okay? South Bristol, the far west side. And again, I think everybody here is on the same page with regards to we can't have an officer at every corner 24-7. It's about prioritizing calls for service, 9-1-1, life, death, and then whatever resources we have left, we're going to prioritize citywide. And that's the way the organization is built today. Patrol has to come first.

It's why we exist. You call, the dispatcher collects the information, sends the appropriate resources, right? And any one of my command staff, beginning with the commanders, know, don't ask for additional bodies and specialty assignments. Because my first question is, what's the patrol number? What is the bottom line patrol number? And so I'm very concerned when, you know, information is haphazard or it's not accurate. And so we've been doing this for a little bit here in the city here, in the PD. So, again, I appreciate the opportunity to provide context and facts.

And people can disagree, but the numbers are what they are.

Jessie LopezItem 6

That's the other thing that I really like about you and working with you is that you care about facts. Not alternative facts, not made-up statistics, but actual numbers that your department can support because it is you guys that do this work day in and day out. And so I think please get that information to the council tomorrow morning because I understand that numbers fluctuate. But when I read something like that, that doesn't have a source or doesn't have anything attached to it to support it, to the everyday resident, that would be very scary to read. And I've heard from you in the past.

Jessie LopezItem 6

I've seen some of the social media posts talking about all of the work that the department has done to decrease crime in the city of Santa Ana. that. And so again, I understand that it fluctuates, but please share that information with this council so that we're all on the same page. And again, you know, I'm not supportive of the item. I don't need to see an informational report. I think that if somebody does a great job in the department, then they should be rewarded. They should not be told that, you know, our priority is going to be to just hire, because I don't see why you can't do

Jessie LopezItem 6

both and if you can't do both please let us know because that's information that I need to know so that I can have a different opinion so that's going to be it for me thank you

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

that's been Hernandez thank you mayor and thank you chief valentine for answering your the questions that you're being asked here today you touched on information are you alluding to some of the information being presented today isn't accurate

Valerie AmezcuaItem 6

That's a great question.

Thank you. I could probably answer that one and bring it to the Chief. Thank you, Madam City Manager. When I first received the submission, which the Mayor didn't need to do a report because it's since that policy isn't in place, yes, there was a lot of inaccurate information in it and including one of the attachments. So my recommendation was to just put a, do the statement without the report, but the Mayor did want to have a report so sat down and crossed out the things that were inaccurate and so it's it's kind of was made on the fly it was i was walking out on tuesday with my briefcase

and code on um when we had the conversation okay uh thank you for that clarification madam city

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

manager and what is your recommendation at this time i know this is a policymaker discussion but based off of the information that is in front of us um please give me your response

So it's a discussion item for you. It's kind of unusual that we are engaging with staff because normally we don't engage with staff when it's a discussion item for the elected officials. But as I mentioned earlier, if you ask me my recommendation, I would not recommend a promotion freeze.

Johnathan Ryan HernandezItem 6

Okay, thank you. And then Chief Valentin, you mentioned earlier I'm looking at the organizational chart. So you mentioned that the sergeants that we have in this organizational chart are boots on the ground and they do have the ability to be in the field. you mentioned 66% are in the field. Is that correct? Yes, 29 of the 44. Okay. That answers my question, sir. Thank you.

Phil BacerraItem 6

Councilman, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mayor Mesquat. So it really does trouble me that we keep hearing that there are 31 funded vacancies. And Chief, as you know, we pushed and pushed to get eight additional officer positions funded in the budget last year. And when you were before us, you kind of said similar comments. You know, we've hired 50 in one year. We can do it. And, yes, I understand that there's a very, very troubling trend in many other agencies about hiring. With all due respect, not my concern. My only concern is the 27 square miles that's Santa Ana.

Phil BacerraItem 6

So that's where my concern is. And you're right. We shouldn't be comparing ourselves to those other agencies, especially in that arena. Now, to your credit, you did come back to us in the fall of last year, and we're talking about a $10,000 hiring bonus for new hires. And so I appreciate that. You know, didn't know if that was going to work or not, but I appreciate it because you came to the council, you heard us, and you were, you know, throwing darts at the wall. You were trying to figure out a way to attract more officers to our city. I guess the one thing that I'm, I want to thank the mayor for bringing this item forward.

Phil BacerraItem 6

I think we have some amazing command staff, and obviously those command staff, many of them, came up through the ranks. So obviously some great promotions that have been made. But I do see why the mayor put this forward, because it's a concern to me when I hear we're doing well in Priority One calls, but what I'm getting the most concerns about expressed to me from my constituents, from my residents, it's what the police department may not consider a priority one call. So imagine living on Alton and your backyard wall faces the railroad tracks. Imagine the profane things that you hear at all hours.

Phil BacerraItem 6

But those calls, according to PD's protocol, would not be a priority one call. And I understand that because maybe someone's life isn't in danger. but for our residents to have to live with them and and there's not enough officers to get out there because we've got officers racing around I call it whack-a-mole they're running around from priority one call to priority one call to priority one call and you know I would love I would love for my communities or my neighborhoods in my ward to be able to say an officer's name they know officer Martinez they know officer Johnson that's the person that

Phil BacerraItem 6

serves them. But I understand when you have 31 funded vacancies, it's hard to implement something like that. You know, one thing that I'm going to be advocating for as we move forward is an actual detail, not one officer, but a detail in downtown and on South Bristol. We have a lot of visitors to downtown and it's important for downtown to be safe. South Bristol, and I'm sure people get sick of saying it and I'll still keep saying it, second highest sales tax generator in the city, second only to the automobile. And we have seen improvement on South Bristol, absolutely.

Phil BacerraItem 6

But sadly, as I walk every day along South Bristol, there are more and more people that I don't recognize. And they're not people shopping at the stores. They're the people shooting up at the bus bench. They're the people that have decided to make the front door of Jack in the Box their place to to go use more drugs. And when folks call me, they say that they've called PD, but it took them a long time to get there. But again, because it's not a priority one call. So, you know, I am open, Chief, to you coming to us, you know, as a priority to say, hey, we are going to do X, what is that? To get the best and most officers in here.

Phil BacerraItem 6

I personally, as we talked about in the last budget, I would like us to fund eight more officers this budget cycle. I want us to get up to that 400 authorization count where we have actually 400 funded officers. That was the goal, and that was stated in public. I want that to happen. Chief, you're making it hard for me. It's hard for me to advocate for that to my colleagues who were skeptical, because some were, about whether we could hire these officers. Our residents want the officers. Again, thank you and your officers for what you're able to do on the priority one calls.

Phil BacerraItem 6

But, you know, it's the other calls that are impacting quality of life. It's, you know, the folks that are panhandling. And I'll leave it on this. You know, last council meeting I brought this up, the fact that over at Main and Dyer, which is in my ward, 213 calls for service and only eight citations and six arrests. I can't imagine that's all that really would have come out of that if we had enough officers that could actually stop and take the time, run the warrant checks, and really address those issues. But again, I understand that our comps are running from priority one call to priority one call,

Phil BacerraItem 6

but I see why the mayor brought this item up. I appreciate the mayor bringing this up because, again, you know, I think for us as council members, we're trying to address the concerns of our community, and the concerns that I'm hearing a lot expressed to me is that they're not seeing the responses that they would like on these non-priority one calls. And in talking with you and others, I mean, obviously it's manpower. We need more officers. So, again, I'm reluctant to support what is not a hiring freeze, but a promotion freeze, because I kept hearing the word hiring freeze. Mayor, you did not propose a hiring freeze, correct?

Phil BacerraItem 6

Just so we're all clear. So a promotion freeze. I'm reluctant to support something like that, but like what you did with the $10,000 hiring bonus, I'm willing to try anything so that we get it done or we can get these vacancies filled. So those are my comments right now.

Can I respond to that?